Rebel Without a Pause Button

Thank you all for 6000 views, very grateful for all the positive feedback recently!  Off all the well known brands waiting to be turned into a film franchise, Hasbro's board game Battleship was certainly an odd choice. The game, which revolves around a mixture of luck and tactics, was adapted into 2012's blustering blockbuster to much head-scratching and mirth. So was Battleship doomed to sink from the start or is it a behemoth with a surprising amount of bravado?  It wasn't much of a surprise to learn that the plot is scant at best, with a n opening that revolves around central character Alex Hopper's (Taylor Kitsch) quest for a chicken burrito providing the instant indication of the choppy waters that Battleship is heading towards right from the off. It is clear that t he writers put in as little effort as Kitsch does in the central role, with both being bland and clearly drawing inspiration from Michael Bay's Transformers and Shia LaBeouf's laugha...

For two of the greatest comedy minds in film history, there has been sadly very little at all about Laurel and Hardy in past years. It seemed that the pair had been tossed into obscurity, instead of being universally celebrated like figures such as Charlie Chaplin still are today.  Step forward the Laurel & Hardy Roadshow , who have been leading the "Laurel & Hardy Revival of 2015/16" which has involved re-releasing a number of their films in beautiful HD for the first time. Seeing two of their films The Music Box and Block-Heads  on the big screen in beautiful quality felt like the perfect treatment for a duo who were pretty much at the pinnacle of the entertainment industry for several years during the 1920s and whose combination of smart, snappy writing and pure, inventive slapstick was completely unmatched.  What really struck me was how well their material still stands up today. Every joke felt fresh and new while the chemistry betw...

Wes Craven's 1984 classic holds a very similar place in the horror hall of fame to my last reviewed film, Halloween. Craven's creation is equally as terrifying and nightmarish, with the killer Freddy Krueger being a highly disturbing figure whose inescapable reach increasingly takes ahold of the viewer in a way few characters do. The central idea is that Krueger manifests himself in the dreams of teens Tina, Nancy, Rod and Glen (which happens to be young Johnny Depp's first role). They soon become aware of the connection between their dreams and fear falling asleep, as Krueger draws further and further out of their dreams and into the real world itself. The idea allows for unsettling moments where it is not certain whether scenes are taking place in their dreams or not. The blurred line between real and imaginary is well explored by Craven, with the dubious parents and police grounding their suspicions firmly in reality while the teenagers fear the supernatural ...