Ant-Man and the Wasp. Does it need to exist? This is the MCU, that’s the wrong question to ask. Is it entertaining? Yes! The Ruddtastic adventure delivers again on comedy, but more surprisingly, this little film hides some big emotion.
[Ed: great, prerequisite size joke out of the way. proceed.]
Mission: Impossible – Fallout is the confusingly punctuated sixth – yes, sixth – instalment in the long-running and well-regarded Mission: Impossible series and the second to be directed by Christopher McQuarrie. This movie is the first to present itself in the franchise as a straight sequel, which makes it a less-than-ideal jumping-on point. This is unfortunate for me because – cards on the table – I hadn’t seen a Mission: Impossible movie before this one. Just a slightly embarrassing pop-culture blind spot there. Take this review as the point of view of a newcomer.
[This article contains spoilers for Incredibles 2 that anyone above the age of seven would probably guess anyway.]
It’s BIGGER!
It’s BADDER!
Ladies and gentlemen, it’s TOO MUCH for my willing suspension of disbelief!
Oh, Incredibles 2. I didn’t think I’d be writing a critical article on your villain. But as Syndrome would say, you can’t always count on your heroes.
Nowadays, the film market is oversaturated with inevitable superhero sequels. When I say inevitable, I mean that you can tell from the first movie that there are going to be two more of these whether there ought to be or not. See: the upcoming Ant-Man and the Wasp. In this context, Incredibles 2 is a little different in that it doesn’t need to exist and you wouldn’t have expected it to get made.
Dublin Oldschool is a state-of-the-nation movie by Dave Tynan and Emmet Kirwan. Apart from a handful of shorts, Kirwan is mainly known for writing and starring in the original theatre version of this story. It picked up some prestige and was chosen by the Irish Film Board.
So, here’s a horror movie – and it’s difficult to be more specific than that. In retrospect, the trailer for this thing avoided giving away the premise and even led the audience to believe that it was a different story. Here’s a movie so intent on concealing its twist that its marketing campaign halfway lied to you.
Let’s start by saying what nice things there are to be said. Sometime in 2014 or 2015, a blueprint was drawn up for a great Jurassic Park sequel.
See, there are good things about the three other Park sequels but they all commit the same sin: they’re the first movie again. Each of them try to be bigger or to add a gimmick like motorcycles. But, they always feel like a re-run because that’s what they are. Why not try to take the story somewhere else? That’s essentially what Fallen Kingdom is. It finally, blessedly, takes the Jurassic out of the park.
So, here’s an all-female spin-off of the modern Ocean’s trilogy of heist movies, itself based on Ocean’s 11 from 1960. You’d expect this to be the target of a lot of internet ire from the usual suspects. No doubt that somebody somewhere is throwing a strop. But, a quick flick through social media will reveal almost exclusively enthusiastic responses from the public.
Here is a very basic sociology fact: as education increases, birthrates decrease. The more educated Jane Doe is, the less kids she’ll probably have. As a result, many countries such as Italy and Japan are in fact below the necessary 2.4 children per parental couple required to maintain a population, meaning their populations are now falling, not rising.
Did you get all that? Did you understand this basic phenomenon I learned off for my first year exams? Congratulations. You are officially more intelligent than the antagonist of Marvel Studios’ record-shattering blockbuster, Infinity War.
The Irish animation studio Cartoon Saloon has become beloved to the country. This is deserved; they’ve done excellent work, most notably Song of the Sea and The Secret of Kells. This reviewer’s little sister loves Puffin Rock, a cartoon set on Skellig Michael (no Star Wars jokes, please). Based on the book series by Deborah Ellis, the Saloon’s new motion picture is a story about a young girl named Parvana and her family, who live under Taliban rule in 2001 Afghanistan.
