Category: Film review
-
Nautilus TV show review
Captain Nemo sails onto the small screen once again in this all-new, hugely entertaining and handsome Disney-produced Victorian-era adventure series, based on Jules Verne’s classic novel, 20,000 Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. In the grand Disney tradition, Nautilus is a handsome production aimed at a family audience with great characters, hissable villains and plenty of…
-
Your fast guide to Captain Nemo
The work of Jules Verne continues to entertain movie and TV fans even if his books are less popular than they once were. So if you don’t know anything about Captain Nemo other than vague pop cultural references or having only seen the Disney adaptation of 20,000 Leagues Under the sea, I’ve put together a…
-
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny: Review
Harrison Ford picks up the famous fedora for the fifth time as Indiana Jones in this respectful and sufficiently entertaining yarn which seeks to put a cap on Ford’s appearances in the franchise. It’s another globe-trotting, Nazi-punching, treasure seeking adventure which goes through the motions at an impressive lick but never re-captures the magic. This…
-
Children of Men: Book to film
The Children of Men (1992) by P D James, adapted for cinema in 2006 by Alfonso Cuarón Re-reading this near-future thriller written in 1992 but set in 2021 is a fascinating experience in 2023, not only to gauge how accurate the view of the future is, but also to compare it to the 2006 film…
-
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
This barkingly brilliant reboot of the classic 1980’s action franchise brings the Road Warrior thundering back in a cacophonous cloud of craziness which cranks up the frontier stylings of the previous instalment, and puts full-throttle four-wheeled action to the fore. It’s dystopian action eco-thriller, a pulse-quickening extended motorised chase across a hostile apocalyptic desert with the future…
-
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
Mel Gibson returned in 1985 for his third and final appearance as the eponymous road warrior in this lesser sequel which saw the Australian post-apocalypse action franchise drive in a new direction. Four years earlier Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior had amped up the thunderous four-wheeled mayhem of the high octane 1979 original while leaning…
-
The Last Man (1826) by Mary Shelley
Frankenstein was not Shelley’s only sci-fi novel, but those who feel a vision of 21st century England ravaged by plague and aristocratic power struggles may be a little too close to home, may wish to avoid this apocalyptic dystopian disaster story. Written in the wake of Frankenstein this also features a hero tormented by isolation,…
-
20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (1916)
Breathtaking in its pioneering use of underwater photography, this silent two-hour feature is a globetrotting epic of action adventure, romance and comedy, and though contains some problematic elements, it’s an early high water mark in Hollywood spectacle, an impressive early entry into the canon of Jules Verne adaptations, and by far the biggest box office…
-
Mysterious Island (1961)
A showcase for the sublime talent of stop-motion maestro Ray Harryhausen, this sci-fi fantasy family adventure sensibly swaps the plodding civilisation building of Jules Verne’s source novel for monster action and romance. Faithful to Verne’s novel, the story begins during the US Civil War where we see a handful of men escape the war in…
-
When JUDY met JOKER: Mental health in Hollywood
I was invited to discuss the portrayal of mental health in movies by the lovely people of the No Really, I’m Fine Podcast, and thought I’d share my notes with you. It begins with recent films Joker and Judy, and ends with One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, taking in Changeling and Airplane! along the way.…
Chris Hunneysett author 