The problem with creating a breakthrough, award-winning hit TV show like Westworld, is that it’s next to impossible to do it again. It’s the difficult second album. By definition, you can’t be the ‘hot new thing’ twice and once everyone’s familiar with your story and has seen all your tricks, …
Read More »Westworld season 2 episode 9 review: “Has some seat-gripping moments”
After last week’s highly acclaimed and utterly remarkable episode, Westworld season 2 (opens in new tab) has its work cut out for it with this penultimate hour. While episode 9 – titled Vanishing Point – in no way lives up to Kiksuya (opens in new tab) (how could it?), it’s …
Read More »Metal Gear Survive review in progress: “basically a more grown up version of Don’t Starve”
Everyone wants to hate Metal Gear Survive. After that messy divorce Kojima is Cinderella cast out into the cold (Sony’s carte blanche million dollar publishing deal) and Konami’s the evil step-mother staring down from the castle as a crowd of torch-waving internet comments beat at the gate. Whatever the game …
Read More »The Post review
A president with designs on muzzling press criticism. A brave woman speaking out in a man’s world. Journalists battling to uphold the First Amendment… Centred on The Washington Post’s struggle to publish the leaked ‘Pentagon Papers’ amid threats from the Nixon White House, The Post’s key themes are as vital …
Read More »Darkest Hour review
Following recent turns by Brian Cox (Churchill (opens in new tab)), John Lithgow (The Crown), Michael Gambon (Churchill’s Secret) and Robert Hardy (Churchill: 100 Days That Saved Britain), the latest in a line of eminent thesps to tackle the sonorous role of Sir Winston is Gary Oldman. And a masterful …
Read More »The Greatest Showman review
Original movie musicals are a risky proposition. Without the backing of a Broadway run, fresh-out-of-the-box song-and-dance films have often flopped. Think Francis Coppola’s One from the Heart (opens in new tab) (1982) or James L. Brooks’ mangled I’ll Do Anything (1994). So credit former commercials director Michael Gracey and star …
Read More »Star Wars: The Last Jedi review
Warning: This review includes minor spoilers so if you don’t want to know anything about the plot before you see it, go away now or watch the review video below instead which is spoiler-free! What the hell has happened to Luke Skywalker? That was the question that haunted all two-hours-and-16-minutes …
Read More »Battle of the Sexes review
In September 1973, 90 million TV viewers watched an extraordinary mixed-sex tennis match, as 55-year-old former US champ Bobby Riggs took on the young Billie Jean King, the US No. 1 woman player. Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris’ slickly enjoyable, big-hearted dramedy makes their journey there as compelling as the …
Read More »Middle-Earth: Shadow of War review
Somewhere around the 12-15 hour mark, depending on how many side quests you take on, you’ll reach a very satisfying conclusion in Shadow of War. There are huge spectacles, fantastic battles, memorable characters and Talion, the immortal Ranger, grows into a formidably powerful and fun character to play. There is …
Read More »NBA 2K18 review
For the best part of a decade, NBA 2K has been streets ahead of other sports franchises. This year, it does so literally, expanding MyCareer (opens in new tab) mode into an open-world street setting in which barbershops, team training facilities, multiplayer courts, and dozens of human players all occupy …
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