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The Sofa and Popcorn Degree

As a limitless member at the Odeon cinema and a film grad, I watch pretty much all the movies that come out; The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. This is the home to the ones I review.

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Nov. 17

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THE DEATH OF STALIN

starring Steve Buscemi, Jeffrey Tambor and Jason Isaacs

directed by Armando Iannucci

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THE HITMAN'S BODYGUARD review

THE HITMAN'S BODYGUARD starring Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson directed by Patrick Hughes A review by Helen J. Reynolds The Hitman's Bodyguard is a calculating comedy involving fascist governments, killer romance and cars that smell like arse. Ryan Reynolds plays Michael, a self-named Triple A protector for the rich cats whose successful career takes a nosedive after a client ends up with his brains splattered over a plane window. That one didn't go quite to plan... Plan B sees him roped into protecting a witness for the trial against dictator Vladislav Dukhovich (the very excellent Gary Oldman). But the witness isn't just any witness, he's Samuel L. Jackson, here playing Darius Kincaid, a renowned assassin doing hard time. There's nothing revolutionary in the plotting of this comedy, but there are some great jokes. The romance between Jackson and Salma Hayek (playing his wife) is easily the best part of the movie. It gives Jackson the h...

FREE FIRE review

FREE FIRE starring Sharlto Copley, Brie Larson and Armie Hammer directed by Ben Wheatley A review by Helen J. Reynolds Free Fire tries to be a lot of things – from a 70s western, to a mafia stitch up – but namely it tries to be fun. An all-out shoot ‘em up movie that instead of a standard ten or even thirty-minute scene of bullets flying like crazy and everyone dubbed a ‘cocksucker’, it lasts for the entire feature length. Try to imagine if Quentin Tarantino did a theatre play, and in fact this does have elements of Tarantino’s last feature The Hateful Eight , which is set around a dismal bar during a snow blizzard and has a stage-like quality to it. In Free Fire , the setting is similarly grounded, though in an abandoned umbrella factory that leads to some nice irony at the end. However, adding flashbacks and dialogue with meaning (rather than just for the odd laugh) would have helped give interest to the rather long-winded action. All ...

Christmas Movies

You know you’re getting old when Christmas movies are purely a DVD dive instead of a cinema visit. They just don’t make ’em like they used to ... Here are my top five: The Muppets Christmas Carol (1992) A classic within a classic. Best to view on Christmas Eve for that moment when Kermit's coming home from work and stops for a skate and a song with the penguins, and you realise it really is ‘just one more sleep til Chrissstmasss’. Also enjoyable is the Santa Cam when we fly across the rooftops in Scroorge’s past. Can there be anything more Christmassy than Victorian chimneys in the snow? Love Actually (2003) Actually my partner’s favourite – it’s filled with enough humour that men need not run to the hills rather than watching this ‘chick flick’. Yes, that warm fuzzy feeling is all around and could be stomach churning for those with a high gag reflex. However, the relationships are centred in truth, often without the ro...