Review of "The Gods Must Be Crazy"

From the mock cheesy travelogue voice over at the beginning to it all turning out alright in the end this is a gem of a comedy. It also manages to be a satirical commentary on many aspects of our western world and a glimpse of bushman life and Southern Africa scenery (but you might want to fact check the gem about rhinos and fire before repeating it as gospel!) Although made in 1980, Botswana and S.Africa then was probably equivalent to the UK in the mid 60s in terms of social attitudes - so don't be put off by what today looks very unsophisticated and unPC comedy - accept it for what it is and laugh out loud with it.

Review of "Blade Runner 2049"

Maybe its because I'm 35 years older (or 45 years since I was into Philip K Dick stories) but this is a trivial gratuitous fresh take on the classic. Perhaps if I was 35 years younger it would seem as cool as the original Blade Runner did - but I doubt it as it was still pretty cool when I last saw it about 5 years ago. This one replaces the depth of the original's mise-en-scene with a surface gloss that conveys nothing except its own cleverness. It replaces the characterisations with cardboard cyphers. It replaces the ambiguity with a teenage boy's fantasies of sex and power. If you want to see how modern techniques could be used to good effect in this type of future-present story then check out the New Seoul sequences in Cloud Atlas. If you happen to be a repressed teenage boy you might find this ok, otherwise avoid it.

Review of "The Young Offenders"

Gloriously funny and dramatic