film reviews, interviews, features | BRWC

Author: Rosalynn Try-Hane

  • The BRWC Review: Logan Lucky

    The BRWC Review: Logan Lucky

    Logan Lucky ticks all the requirements for a heist/caper movie on paper but just didn’t work on screen.

    Unlucky for Steven Soderbergh he just couldn’t recreate the magic of Ocean’s 11 which may be down to poor casting in part. Whatever avant garde thing he was trying to do just didn’t work. Daniel Craig was pretty decent though.

    Logan Lucky centres on Jimmy Logan (Channing Tatum), a former high school quarterback who failed to make it big working dead beat jobs in Boone County. Along with his brother Clyde Logan (Adam Driver) they decide to steal the takings from the biggest NASCAR race weekend in North Carolina but in order to do it they need Joe Bang (Daniel Craig) only problem is he’s in jail. So now the brothers have set themselves the impossible task of breaking him out of jail and pulling of this heist. Will they succeed and also break the Logan curse?

    This is a solid heist movie but it isn’t as funny as it thinks it is. This is mostly down to Channing Tatum being the weakest link. Adam Driver is memorable as is the child actress who plays Channing’s daughter in the film and Daniel Craig is quite simply at his comic best. It also seems full of caricatures and feels so Southern it hurts y’all. There was a little nod to Little Miss Sunshine and Farrah Mackenzie (Sadie Logan) who sings John Denver’s country roads take me home is a touching moment in a frankly average film. I don’t quite understand why Soderbergh would attempt to recreate the Ocean’s films. Clearly, Mr Soderbergh has never heard the old adage “never look back, never go back”!

    Wait for this on DVD or if you have one of those monthly cinema cards then why not although it will feel like a long two hours. This is just not as great as it could have been and it is so deeply frustrating given what a trailblazer Steven Soderbergh has been over the past 20 years.

    Logan Lucky opens in cinemas across the UK tomorrow, 25 August.

  • Virgin TV Keeps The Kids Very ‘Appy’

    Virgin TV Keeps The Kids Very ‘Appy’

    It’s been a long summer right? The kids aren’t back at school yet and you’ve probably run out of ideas by now. Never fear – Virgin TV to the rescue!

    Today, Virgin Media launches Virgin TV Kids – the most comprehensive entertainment app, created exclusively for some of its youngest customers. The Virgin TV Kids app is fun and easy-to-use, whilst creating a safe environment for children to be engaged and entertained.

    The app has been designed specifically for the TV-IPs (Tiny Very Important People) in the home – for pre and early primary school children (3-7 years old) – and brings together more than 2000 episodes of on demand kids TV, along with reading books and interactive games. The app has been developed to be a safe space, free from advertising and other commercial influences such as no in-app purchases.

    Virgin TV
    Virgin TV in bed!

    At launch the key features include:

    · Many of the best kids TV shows, including Bob The Builder, Mike The Knight, In The Night Garden, Thomas & Friends, Peppa Pig, PAW Patrol, Masha and Bear, Scooby Doo, Tom and Jerry, Monkey See, Monkey Doo, Angelina Ballerina and more. With new TV shows and boxsets available each month.

    · Some of the most-loved books, which adults and older siblings can read with little ones or early readers can read for themselves – including Monsters Love Underpants, Princess Evie’s Ponies, Dogs Don’t Do Ballet and Barry The Fish With Fingers and No-Bot, the Robot with No Bottom.

    · Lots of exciting new games to test children’s skills in logic, memory and problem solving – including Playful Kitty, Bubble Gems, Kids Tangram and Doctor Teeth.

    · A bright, fun and easy-to-use interface, which can be personalised for each child with individual profiles of tailored characters, nicknames and backgrounds.

    · TV shows can be downloaded to allow kids to watch them offline, such as on a plane or car journey.

    · Kids love to watch the same programmes on repeat so to make this easy the app has a button which, when pressed, will play the same show five times over.

    · Parental settings, which allow grown-ups to restrict streaming to a WiFi connection only, to keep kids in the app and prevent straying into the internet, notifies upon mobile data usage, manages downloads and devices and see usage history of games, books and TV shows.

    David Bouchier, Chief Entertainment Officer at Virgin Media, said: “Our Virgin TV Kids app is a safe and fun space designed exclusively for pre-schoolers, Virgin TV’s youngest customers. What could be a better parental antidote for the holidays!”

    The Virgin TV Kids app is available from today : for all Virgin TV customers on the Fun and Full House bundles to download for free from the Apple App Store, and Google Play.

  • Top Ten 90 Minute Films On Amazon Prime

    Top Ten 90 Minute Films On Amazon Prime

    If you’re not a football fan what do you do and you’re better half, housemates, family are all about their team what do you do during those 90 minutes.  You could do something mundane like the ironing but what if you want to watch something whilst everyone is cheering on their team?

    Our friends over at Amazon Prime have you covered. Here are the 10 of the best 90 minute films on Amazon Prime Video, available to stream and/or download, to keep minority of the nation busy whilst the main TV is occupied.

    Like Crazy

    90 minutes

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xvU4uHwQEg

    A university student (Felicity Jones) falls for an American student, only to be separated from him when she’s banned from the U.S. after overstaying her visa.

    Napoleon Dynamite

    89 minutes

    Napoleon Dynamite, with a red ‘fro, his moon boots and illegal government ninja moves, is a new kind of hero. His family consists of fragile brother Kip, who’s seeking his soul mate in online chat rooms; Uncle Rico, who is stuck in his “glory” days of high school football; and Grandma, who enjoys going out to the dunes on her quad-runner.

    Miss Potter

    89 minutes

    Having turned down many offers of marriage, Beatrix Potter finds herself 30, single and living with her parents. Her friends are the childhood animals she lovingly draws and writes about.

    Catfish

    83 minutes

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xp4M0IjzcQ

    Nev, a 24-year-old New York-based photographer, has no idea what he’s in for when Abby, an eight-year-old girl from rural Michigan, contacts him on Facebook, seeking permission to paint one of his photographs. When he receives her remarkable painting, Nev begins a friendship and correspondence with Abby’s family.

    Zoolander

    89 minutes

    When Derek Zoolander (Ben Stiller), former winner of the coveted Male Model of the Year award, goes to work for up-and-coming fashion designer Mugatu (Will Ferrell), he has no idea that he is walking into a complex web of political intrigue and murder.

    From Paris with Love

    88 minutes

    James is an aide to the US ambassador in Paris gets in tow with Charlie, an unorthodox spy who takes James on a rollercoaster ride of murder and mayhem. As the bodies pile up does James have what it takes?

    Last Night

    89 minutes

    Joanna and Michael are a married couple in Manhattan who face temptation when they spend a night apart. Michael is away on a business trip with colleague Laura where each moment together brims with sexual tension. And Joanna bumps into her past love Alex, who is still madly in love with her.

    The Campaign

    85 minutes

    When long-term congressman Cam Brady commits a major public gaffe before an upcoming election, a pair of ultra-wealthy CEOs plot to put up a rival candidate and gain influence over their North Carolina district.

    Airplane!

    87 minutes

    Former fighter pilot Ted Striker (Robert Hays) hasn’t flown since the war, when an error of judgement on his part led to the decimation of his squadron.

    The Bling Ring

    90 minutes

    In the fame-obsessed world of Los Angeles, a group of teenagers take us on a thrilling and disturbing crime-spree in the Hollywood Hills. Based on true events, the group tracked their celebrity targets online and stole more than $3 million in luxury goods from their homes.

  • First Look: Midnight, Texas

    First Look: Midnight, Texas

    Do you remember True Blood – Sookie, Lafayette, Bill, Eric? Well, you need to forget them. Welcome to Midnight where everyone is stranger still.

    Midnight, Texas is the latest television series to be adapted from the books by Charlaine Harris writer of the True Blood. Ah yes, dearly departed True Blood. There’s no Sookie and it’s not all about vampires, sugar! No ma’am, all the supernatural beings are here; werewolf, vampire, witch, angel and they will get a look in if the pilot is anything to go by. Right from the opening scene, we are thrown right into the mix when the central character, Manfred Bernardo, does a reading for Rachel in his hotel room and her dead husband Harold makes an appearance none too happy hearing that she’s now dating his business partner, albeit they are taking it slowly. No sooner, does Manfred tell Harold he’s not welcome and cannot cross over that he has to high tail it out of there because he is being hunted down by the mysterious Hightower. It later transpires that his dearly departed Grandma, Zelda may have been running scams.  She appears to him and tells him to go to Midnight, he’ll be safe there. Well Midnight is the archetypal one horse town and everyone is suspicious of a stranger just turning up. Midnight is very different in daylight so tells the resident vampire, Lemuel, who sucks energy as well as blood. To get things moving a dead person – Aubrey is found in the river. Who could have done such a thing and at the annual picnic no less. It appears that Midnight is a haven for the supernatural, just what has Manfred got himself into.

    Manfred is a psychic and in order to get the full experience: yours truly was lucky enough to be given a reading by celebrity psychic medium, Ryan Gooding. Ryan like the main character in Midnight Texas is not only psychic but he also a medium meaning he hears and sees people from the other side. Much like Manfred, he confirmed that whilst a psychic medium can turn down the volume you can never truly tune out from hearing messages from the other side. His gifts run in the family, his mother is a psychic and his father is a medium. So with a healthy dose of skepticism I had a reading and let me tell you it was scarily accurate.

    Midnight, Texas suffers from a few things and one is not having Alan Ball writing it. I hate comparison but it has to be done this time.

    With True Blood it set the tone right from the pilot – sexy, sardonic and strange all perfectly mixed up. True Blood’s opening title sequence is still one of my all time favourites of any television show. I want to be fair to Midnight, Texas it was light on laughs in the pilot although I am slightly intrigued by it, loved the talking cat, more of him please, and the special effects are decent enough.  The main issue is that everything was revealed in the pilot, all the supernatural creatures when in actual fact a slow reveal would have been better – less is more. Having said all that, this is definitely a television series that is perfect for a binge – save up those episodes and then give yourself over to midnight. Well that is what I intend to do!

    Midnight, Texas is shown every Thursday at 9pm on Syfy UK.

  • Audible Launched The Austen Taxi

    Audible Launched The Austen Taxi

    COMMUTERS TRAVELLED LIKE IT WAS 1817 IN AUDIBLE’S AUSTEN TAXIS

    Audible Debuts All-Star Audio Dramatisation Of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey To Mark The 200th Anniversary Of Her Death

    Last Tuesday 18 July,  lucky commuters and Battle Royale With Cheese managed to avoid the tiresome tube this morning and instead travelled back in time, making their way to work in true 19th Century style. Audible’s Austen Taxis picked Londoners up across the city and treated them to an exclusive first listen of a new dramatization of Austen’s gothic pastiche, Northanger Abbey.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7GtgYd5VlQ

    Travelling through the hectic streets of London on several different routes which passed landmarks such as the St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel, St Paul’s Cathedral, Smithfields market and the brutalist Barbican gallery, passengers immersed themselves in Austen’s story to mark 200 years since the author’s death. This compelling new audio-drama – featuring performances from Emma Thompson, Lily Cole, Douglas Booth and Eleanor Purnell amongst others – let commuters escape from the daily grind, as they travelled back in time in Landau styled carriages to experience a taste of life as it might have been lived in Northanger Abbey’s 1817 setting.

    Audible Launched The Austen Taxi
    Audible Launched The Austen Taxi

    Northanger Abbey tells the coming-of-age story of the young and naïve 17-year-old Catherine Morland, whilst taking a decidedly comical look at themes of class, family, love and literature. The story follows Catherine out of Bath to the lofty manor of the neighbouring Tilneys where her overactive imagination gets to work, constructing an absurd and melodramatic explanation for the death of Mrs Tilney which threatens to jeopardise her newly forged friendships. This new production breathes life into one of Austen’s much loved stories and will be loved by Austen fans old and new.

    Northanger Abbey is available to download now at www.audible.co.uk/northangerabbey