Reviews by Kyle Ellis

Along with Edward Scissorhands and Goodfellas, Dances with Wolves is one of my favourites of 1990. It is a wonderful film, and a marvel from beginning to end. I am not a Kevin Costner basher, he has done some work I don't care for, but this and a few others(Field of Dreams for instance) actually does show he has talent. He does do a heartfelt job directing, and his acting isn't too shabby either, in fact he gives a certain decency to Dunbar which I had difficulty not empathising with. He is very well supported by Graheme Greene and Mary McDonell who is especially brilliant. The cinematography and scenery are just magnificent, while John Barry's score is nothing short of amazing. The moving climax gives further emotional weight to an already poignant story, while the script is wholly credible and the characters feel real. In conclusion, a fine film and I had no problem with its Best Picture win. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Stephen King's work has been growing on me, I wasn't crazy about it before but after seeing and reading more of his books and the film/TV series adapted from them I do respect his style, he has a unique and I think unparallelled way of describing fear, and find his ideas intriguing. In all honesty, The Mist is not one of the best film adaptations. The book was very good, if not great, but the film was just decent. It looks great with great photography and effects, the story is intriguing and starts off very well, the acting especially from Marcia Gay Holden is good as is the direction, there is a strong atmosphere and the soundtrack and sound further adds to it. I was almost though willing to forgive the sometimes pedestrian pacing and clunky dialogue, until the ending let the film down completely. The ending is a slap in the face not only for fans of the book or King but also for those like me saw a film with so much promise, and its tone feels like a completely different movie. In conclusion, was pretty good, if only it weren't for that ending. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Decided to re-watch both 'The Conjuring' films, with memories of really liking both, after watching, and not liking all that much, 'The Nun' (which was watched as part of my watching as many films of 2018 as possible quest) very recently. Just to see whether they held up, as good as remembered and whether they succeeded where 'The Nun' didn't and didn't make that film's mistakes.

On re-watch, 'The Conjuring' does hold up very well and actually just as good as remembered. It succeeds splendidly in where 'The Nun' failed and has none of its mistakes. 'The Conjuring' is not a perfect film, but it is very atmospheric, well made and genuinely scary, or at least to me it was. It is a very familiar premise, done to death actually, but the atmosphere stops it from being too predictable and there is enough freshness.

'The Conjuring' is overlong but its biggest, and only big, problem is the final act.

It did become repetitive and lost momentum at this point and the very end felt rushed.

Other than those, 'The Conjuring' is very good. It looks great, especially for horror films released in recent years (too many of which have looked like they were made on the schlocky cheap). It looks slick and stylish while having a spooky setting and suitably nightmarish lighting. The music is haunting and not over-bearing, recorded in a way that is not overly loud or obvious that it spoils the atmosphere (which was great because many horror films seen recently failed in this regard).

Script is not too awkward and is structured coherently, with nothing cheapening it like sluggish exposition or cheesy misplaced humour. The direction is meticulous in detail and clearly shows an engagement and ease with the material. The story takes time to unfold but doesn't get dull. As said too, 'The Conjuring' is genuinely scary, with actual tension, suspense and dread, in a palm-sweating and heart-pounding sense at its best, while not relying too much on jump scares (they are there but have build up and were surprising).

Found myself liking the characters more than expected. The leads were ones worth caring for, didn't get frustrated with them, wish for more personality or annoyed by them. The antagonist was frightening, was neither over-used or under-utilised and didn't look cheap. The acting also comes off well, especially Vera Farmiga while also impressed with how Lili Tyler coped with a role that on paper seemed limited.

Summarising, very good. 8/10 Bethany Cox

I am an old school Spider-man fan, reading the comics from the 70's, 80's and 90's. It is these comics that my knowledge comes from Spider-man and what I compare to when watching a movie or playing a game. This is why the game got a nine out of ten, rather than a 10/10. The game is good and while I understand the story is most definitely an independent one, there were still aspects that I found did not fit certain characters and then there was too much time on some characters and not enough on others. There were also aspects of the game play that could have been improved upon too, so my complaints of the game are not totally directed out of changes to characters and certain story arcs. That being said, I still enjoyed swinging through New York and collecting things and trying to fight crime in the city!

The story, Spider-man starts out taking down the Kingpin and this seems to set a whole lot of stuff in motion. A new criminal organization has emerged and its goal seems to be to cause as much damage to New York as possible to make Mayor Norman Osborne look bad. Meanwhile. Spider-man is helping out as a lab tech with his friend and mentor Doctor Otto Octavious. Otto seems to share the hatred that the new enemy targeting New York has and soon the doctor loses his mind and forms a team of villains to try and bring the city and Norman to his knees. Only Spider-man stands in their way along with some help from Mary Jane and Miles Morales!

During the time I read the comics Dr. Octopus was Spidy's main villain. Venom had his moments, but Dr. Octopus was always there with some nefarious plan. He never knew Pete before the change, and I am not sure why this game and the movie had him and Pete share a mentor relationship. Sam Rami always professed a love for earlier Spider-man comics, but always took strange leaps like organic web shooters and such. He and this game make poor Otto seem sympathetic, but in the comics once he lost his mind, he never had regrets. They would later make Norman emerge again as the Goblin, but to me Doctor Octopus will always be Spider-man's most unique villain. To me, the Green Goblin is just The Joker with powers and a glider. The Sinister Six was also originally Doctor Octopus, Electro, Vulture, Sandman, Mysterio and Kraven the hunter who always gets ignored these days! Here, they have three of the original members, Doc Ock, Vulture and Electro and add the new villain, Mr. Negative and oldies but goodies Rhino and Scorpion. I was very disappointed when I could not fight each of these villains one on one, for some reason they really skimped on Electro, Vulture, Rhino and Scorpion.

The game play is fun, what one would expect for a Spider-man game made since the game based on the second movie came out. A lot of swinging around New York and stopping crime. You also have side missions, collectibles and tokens to earn! The game keeps you busy that is for! What it needed though were some more villains of the super powered variety. It would have been cool had Shocker been running around the city when the criminals were running rampant and you could fight him occasionally and maybe a few others of the lesser known super villains. At times it can get repetitive fighting dudes in orange jumpsuits! There are also times when you take control of MJ or Miles and you have to get through areas without getting caught and they change up the pace.

So, the game is good, I loved seeing Doctor Octopus as the main villain in the end, I was so fearful that Mr. Negative would end up being the leader of the Sinister Six. The fighting is fun, the story is rather good, but both aspects have flaws. Any story flaws I found, won't really affect any of the newer generation of comic book readers, I just came from a different time. The game play flaws, well at times you kind of wish there was more to do and those challenge tokens are a bit too scarce and hard to get! Overall, a really fun game and I look forward to playing the Miles Morales Spider-man one day.

GTA 5 is without a shadow of a doubt Rockstar's best GTA titled. Everything Rockstar touches turns to gold and this game is no exception. I loved it. I'll mainly be focusing on the Storymode side of the game. As I haven't played enough (nor do I plan to) of the online missions. But regardless the story and characters of GTA 5 are so great Trevor and Michael are great characters. Franklins okay I guess. The story is so cool I mean some of the missions it legit felt like you were playing a movie. You can easily loose track of time while playing this. I myself have over 400 hours on the game and I never really got bored. Overall I would definitely recommend this game even if you don't usually touch video games. You will like this.

GTA 5 is without a shadow of a doubt Rockstar's best GTA titled. Everything Rockstar touches turns to gold and this game is no exception. I loved it. I'll mainly be focusing on the Storymode side of the game. As I haven't played enough (nor do I plan to) of the online missions. But regardless the story and characters of GTA 5 are so great Trevor and Michael are great characters. Franklins okay I guess. The story is so cool I mean some of the missions it legit felt like you were playing a movie. You can easily loose track of time while playing this. I myself have over 400 hours on the game and I never really got bored. Overall I would definitely recommend this game even if you don't usually touch video games. You will like this.

GTA 5 is without a shadow of a doubt Rockstar's best GTA titled. Everything Rockstar touches turns to gold and this game is no exception. I loved it. I'll mainly be focusing on the Storymode side of the game. As I haven't played enough (nor do I plan to) of the online missions. But regardless the story and characters of GTA 5 are so great Trevor and Michael are great characters. Franklins okay I guess. The story is so cool I mean some of the missions it legit felt like you were playing a movie. You can easily loose track of time while playing this. I myself have over 400 hours on the game and I never really got bored. Overall I would definitely recommend this game even if you don't usually touch video games. You will like this.

GTA 5 is without a shadow of a doubt Rockstar's best GTA titled. Everything Rockstar touches turns to gold and this game is no exception. I loved it. I'll mainly be focusing on the Storymode side of the game. As I haven't played enough (nor do I plan to) of the online missions. But regardless the story and characters of GTA 5 are so great Trevor and Michael are great characters. Franklins okay I guess. The story is so cool I mean some of the missions it legit felt like you were playing a movie. You can easily loose track of time while playing this. I myself have over 400 hours on the game and I never really got bored. Overall I would definitely recommend this game even if you don't usually touch video games. You will like this.