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Cinema Film Review Film Reviews

Spotlight (2016)

Starring  Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, Stanley Tucci.

Spotlight is the powerful true story of the Spotlight investigative team of journalists at the Boston Globe who investigate the story of local Catholic priest who is accused of molesting a child and discover the problem of abusive Catholic Priests to is much wider than they  thought.

The film tells the story from the journalists points of view and shows the difficulties they and the victims had to face when trying to bring the story to the public’s attention.

10/10

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Amazon Video Review TV Review

Parks and Recreation

Staring – Any Poehler, Rashida Jones, Paul Schneider, Aziz Ansari, Nick Offerman, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Pratt, Jim O’Heir, Reta

This a very funny comedy with a mockumentary feel similar to The Office. It focuses of Lesie Knope the Deputy Director of the Parks and Recreation Department at the local government offices of Pawnee Indiana.  Leslie is extremely enthusiastic about parks issues and always tries her best. 

Season 1 consists of 6 episodes and we are the introduced to the others who work with and are friends with Leslie.
Ann Perkins is a nurse who asks Leslie for help with making a new park in a disused pit near her house and becomes her best friend.
Mark Brendanawicz is the city planner who once had a one night stand with Leslie.
Tom Haverford is Leslie’s direct subordinate and is very self obsessed.
Swanson is botanical director of parks department Andrea Gillies delegates to work to others particularly Leslie which she doesn’t mind at all.
April Ludgate is a young apathetic in terms of the parts department and often gets annoyed when asked to complete tasks.
Andy Dwyer is Ann’s boyfriend and lead singer of the band called Mouse Rat. Before the series start he fell into the pit which is why Ann wants it to be filled in and turned into the park.  He acts quite immature is pampered a lot by Ann.
Gerry Gergich is the butt of most of the jokes made by his parks department coworkers.
Donna meagle is the office manager.

10/10

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DVD Review Film Reviews

Horrible Bosses 2

Director – Sean Anders

Staring – Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston, Jamie Foxx, Chris Pine, Kevin Spacey, Christoph Waltz

Sequel to Horrible Bosses. Kurt and Dale jobs Banbury Horrible Bosses and decided to set up in business together with an invention cold shower body. Find an investor called Berkhamsted but he pulls out after they spend a lot of money and facing bankruptcy they decide out of desperation to kidnap and ransom Hanson’s bullying son Rex to try and get even got to do some serious situations which they eventually have to work out a way of getting out of.

6/10

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DVD Review Film Reviews

Mrs Brown’s Boys D’ Movie

Director – Ben Kellett

Staring – Brendan O’Carroll, Jennifer Gibney, Rory Cowan, Danny O’Carroll, Amanda Woods, Fiona O’Carroll, Paddy Houlihan, Elish O’Carroll, Dermot O’Neil, Martin Delany, Pat “Pepsi” Shields, Gary Hollywood, Robert Bathurst, Dermot Crowley, Simon Delaney

A developers plans threatens Mrs Brown’s market stall in Moore Street Dublin. M’s Brown and her family and friends, along with a troop of trainee blind ninjas, a barrister with tourettes try to fight for the stall as secrets from Mrs Brown’s past are revealed and her daughter Caril has to make a big decision.

This is based in the TV series but misses some of the features it has on the TV such as the live audience and then bloopers left in.

DVD features – documentaries and blooper reels

6/10

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DVD Review Film Reviews

Captain America – The First Avenger

Director – Joe Jonston

Staring – Chris Evans, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan, Dominic Cooper, Stanley Tucci

In the beginning we see scientists find a frozen shield of Captain America in the cockpit of a derelict aircraft.

In 1942 we see Nazis lead by Johann Schmidt entering German occupied Norway to steel a mysterious relic with mystery powers.  New York City Steve Rogers is rejected for military recruitment because of health and physical problems. He then visits an exhibition of future technologies with his friend Sgt James “Bucky” Barnes, where Howard Stark is exhibiting levitating car.  Rogers tries to enlist again this time Dr Abraham Erskine allowed him to list is recruited into the strategic scientific reserve as part of a super soldier experiment led by colonel Chester Phillips and a British agent called Peggy Carter. He all the tests that are set and undergoes the expert which leads him to be much taller and stronger than before.
One of the people witnessing the experiment is working for Schmidt and murders Erskine but avoids capture by Killing himself senator Brandt rebranded Rogers into Captain America to help promote war bonds to prevent scientist from studying him and discovering the formula used to make him stronger.

What is named the bones unit is missing in Action and goes to look for them with Howard Stark and agent Carter he finds them in the fortress of snakes Hydra organisation and frees them.  What is confront Schmidt even use his face mask to reveal a red skull Facebook means he’s called the Red Skull.  Escapes and Rogers returns to the army base with all the freed soldiers

What is recruit Barnes and some of the other recipes soldiers into a new unit to try and destroy other hydro bases stop provider Rogers with the equipment and suit including a circular shield made of Indestructible metal they attack a train and capture the Reds Skull’s assistant but Barnes falls from the train and is presumed dead raja’s Leeds attack to try and stop Schmidt from using massive bombs on American cities and manages to climb on board the aircraft as it’s taking off during the flight one of the weapons lights up and dissolved Schmidt and Rogers has to Crash Land the plane into the Arctic to prevent it from crashing into New York City and then presumed dead.

However he wakes up in what appears to be a 40s style hospital room realises something is wrong when he hears a radio announcement that was from a few years before he went to war he Rushes outside and find himself in present-day Time Square shield director Nick Fury tell him that he has been asleep for nearly 70 years in a post-credits sequence Fury asks Rogers to join him on a mission with worldwide ramifications and there is a message to say that they will return in the Avengers Assemble film.

DVD extras includes behind the scenes features

6/10

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DVD Review Film Reviews

Kingsman The Secret Service (2015)

Director – Matthew Vaughn

Staring – Colin Firth, Samuel L Jackson, Mark Strong, Train Edgerton, Michael Caine

Kingsman follows secret agents in training who are going to join the Kingsman agency who are fighting the megalomanic Richmond Valentine who wants to take over the world using implants in peoples heads that they get through using his free sim cards.

DVD extras include – behind the scenes

5/10

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DVD Review TV Review

Doctor Who – The Husbands of River Song 2015 Christmas Special

Director – Douglas MacKinnon

Staring – Peter Capaldi, Alex Kingston, Greg Davies, Matt Lucas

It is Christmas 5343 on the planet Mendorax Dellora. The Doctor is hiding from carollers when a man called Nardole mknocks asking for a surgeon.  The Doctor follows him to a spaceship. Inside the spaceship he sees that it is owned by River Song and her husband King Hydroflax. River want to see the doctor to remove a diamond which will kill him. River does not recognise the Doctors face he has trouble working out how to explain who he is you’ve been discovered that it’s soon going to be the end of river as she reaches the end of her diary.

This helps to fill in heart of the Doctor and Rivers timeline being an event that happened just before we first meet River in the library.

The DVD has 2 featuretes.

6/10

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Walk Review

Walk London Winter Wanders 2016 Review – Piccadilly Line featuring a cricket bat and Sherlock Holmes

This was a well organised shorter walk which went from Green Park to Covent Garden. Following lots of reports of some tour groups in 3 figures yesterday it was good to see that there would be Able separate groups following the same route and they were hoping to limit each group to 50 using stickers.  I was in the first group to leave and our guide wads Ian who shared lots of London and tube trivial in this walk which is a new one this year.

Facts included
•Jubilee line is the only tube line that crosses all the others
•Bank is the only tube station with one syllable
•on the tube map where lines cross each other if one line crosses on top of the other it means it is less deep than the other
•There are no formal flower beds in Green Park because Catherine of Braganza King Charles II’s wife ordered them to be removed after she caught him picking flowers for this mistress in the park.
•At six dials junction in Convent Garden there is a little met police hook which was putntherebfor whenr a police officer needed to direct the traffic and needed to remove their coat
•Jermyn street has a shop Floris thought to be the oldest shop which has remained in the small location and in the same family for the longest time and in the same trade.
•Burlington Arcade has bollards at both ends following a Robbery where they drove the car down the arcade, robbed a shop then escaped by reversing back down there Arcade.
•Wisden cricket almanac had offices near Leicester Square tube and still has cricket bats engraves on the wall.

9/10

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Walk Review

Walk London Winter Wanders 2016 Review – City Hall to Canary Wharf

The weather was very good at the start with blue sky. It was a very large group so often not everyone could hear the tour guide.
From City Hall we went across Tower Bridge, St Katherine’s Dock, Hermitage Memorial Gardens, Wapping, Shadwell, Limehouse, Limekiln Wharf and then Canary Wharf.  The guide was very informative about the history of the various wharfs and docks and many viewed of the River Thames from the Thames Path.

8/10

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DVD Review Film Reviews

What we did on our holiday

Director – Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin

Staring – David Tennant, Rosamund Pike, Billy Connolly

Doug (Tennant) and Abi (Pike) take their three children to the Scottish Highlands to visit Doug’s dad for his birthday party, but don’t wand the dad to know that they have separated so ask the children to keep it secret. The children then have to take control when the are out with their grandad dies and the other adults are too busy arguing with each other.

As with Hamilton and Jenkins’s Outnumbered this is part improvised to give believable lines to the children.

DVD extras include interviews and directors commentary.

7/10