World Bloggers Awards Nominee 2023
It’s been a year filled with bleak survival thrillers, hasn’t it? From Ridley Scott’s The Dog Stars to David Ayer’s Heart of the Beast, the genre has really found a new lease of life in 2026.
The latest to join the club is Whalefall. Based on the novel of the same name by Daniel Kraus, this is a tense, claustrophobic and surprisingly emotional survival story that puts family dynamics at the heart of its premise. But is it actually any good?
Continue readingUpdated October 2026
Every so often, a film comes along that reminds you just how magical cinema can be. Ang Lee’s Life of Pi is one of those films. Based on Yann Martel’s 2001 novel of the same name, it’s a visually breathtaking, emotionally charged adventure that combines extraordinary filmmaking with a deeply moving story. But does Lee’s adaptation live up to the reputation of its source material? Absolutely.
From its stunning visuals and remarkable performances to its heart-warming central relationship, Life of Pi is a film that captivates from beginning to end. It’s an extraordinary cinematic experience, although it takes a little patience to fully appreciate just how special it is.
Continue readingWe’ve had good boys saving the world, good boys surviving the end of the world, and now we’ve got good boys traversing the American wilderness with their best friends.
As a dog lover, it’s been a year peppered with man’s best friend, and I’m absolutely here for it. The latest good boy to grace our screens is Odin, starring alongside Brad Pitt in Heart of the Beast, a simple, back-to-basics survival thriller directed by David Ayer (Fury, Suicide Squad and Bright – we’ll ignore those last two).
Continue readingUpdated October 2026
Is there ever a better match-up than Liam Neeson and a good, solid action flick? This reviewer thinks not, and that’s exactly what we have here. However, Joe Carnahan’s The Grey is far more than your typical paint-by-numbers action movie. Beneath the snarling wolves and fight for survival lies a surprisingly thoughtful, emotionally charged thriller.
The Grey follows a group of men working away from home in the Alaskan oil fields. On their journey back to safety, disaster strikes when the plane carrying them crashes in spectacular fashion. The opening sequence is absolutely stunning and ranks among the best plane crashes I’ve seen on the silver screen. It even makes the infamous crash in the original Final Destination look tame.
Continue readingHaving made its world premiere at 79th Edinburgh International Film Festival, The MAD World of Harvey Kurtzman, is a feature documentary directed by Bart Simpson and executive produced by Terry Gilliam (founding member of Monty Python).
The film tells the story of cartoon artist Harvey Kurtzman (1924-1993), the creator of MAD Magazine, which inspired the likes of Matt Groening (creator of The Simpsons), Terry Gilliam, Robert Crumb and Art Spiegelman (creator of Maus),and had a instrumental impact on the world of comics, satire and popular culture of the time.
Continue readingI can’t remember a film as poorly marketed as The Dog Stars, Ridley Scott’s latest lone-survivor-esque film. And that appears to have culminated in, at the time of writing, a Rotten Tomatoes score of just 38%.
Compare that with 2015’s The Martian, which is sitting at a very different 91%, and it tells you something has gone very wrong indeed.
The marketing of The Dog Stars has been a bizarre affair. Its trailers painted it as an action-heavy survival film, while its presence outside of cinemas has been limited to a couple of spots on Netflix and terrestrial TV in the week running up to its general release.
Continue reading“The best dinosaur film since 1993” is how The End of Oak Street is being touted by some in the film-critic community. And while I think that’s coming off a bit strong (though it does make for a great headline), there’s no denying that this bite-sized dino thriller packs more bite for its buck than the last two entries in the Jurassic saga.
Continue readingIt’s been a tough couple of years for the MCU, hasn’t it? Eeek.
After Infinity War and Endgame brought the Infinity Saga to a close, the world’s most successful cinematic universe has lurched forward like a spluttering steam train trying to find its track again.
From a film perspective, it’s been an incredibly mixed bag. Phase Five gave us three of the worst Marvel movies ever made – Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, The Marvels and Captain America: Brave New World. While Phase Six got off to a better start with Fantastic Four: First Steps, it still underperformed at the box office.
The MCU film machine then took a year-long breather, meaning Spider-Man: Brand New Day arrives carrying an enormous weight of expectation. Marvel is counting on it to reignite the public’s love affair with superheroes. But can it succeed?
Continue readingSome films are so entrenched in our culture that they remain talking points long after their initial release. Think Schindler’s List, The Shawshank Redemption, The Godfather, The Dark Knight – the list goes on.
Christopher Nolan is no stranger to creating films like that. His filmography makes incredible reading and, to allow this reviewer to be bold for one moment, he’s probably the most talented and consistent director working today.
His latest epic, The Odyssey, is potentially his most hyped film to date. Based on the book of the same name by Homer (no, not that one…), it’s been marketed incredibly well. So, the hype is certainly real, but is the finished product one of Nolan’s best, or one to skip?
Continue readingIt’s October 2006, and a little-known film called The Devil Wears Prada stuns audiences to become the ultimate sleeper hit, grossing more than 10 times its budget. In doing so, it propels rising stars like Anne Hathaway and Emily Blunt into the spotlight – a place they’ve comfortably occupied ever since.
Meanwhile, Meryl Streep cements her acting prowess with Miranda Priestly, a character that has remained firmly embedded in pop culture. The film also gifted us quote after quote and meme after meme – moments that have since found a second life in the age of TikTok.
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