STAR WARS: EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE

1999 DIRECTOR: George Lucas May Contain Spoilers! Dreams shattered. Never has a film or a film maker been subjected to such castigation as The Phantom Menace or George Lucas for adding to their own body of work like this. Alarm bells rang out once the title was announced. The Phantom Menace... What do that even…

ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THEIVES

1991 (Theatrical Version) 1991/2002 (Extended Version) Extended Version Theatrical Version DIRECTOR: Kevin Reynolds May Contain Spoilers! Back in 1992, when I first saw this on Video, Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves seemed to be one of the freshest takes on a medieval story that I had ever seen. I was 13 at the time and couldn't stand…

STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY

1991 DIRECTOR: Nicholas Meyer May Contain Spoilers! There have been at least three versions of this film, with the Theatrical Cut which I believe is available on Blu-ray at the moment, the UNCUT version which was available on Video and DVD and a slightly different version of the UNCUT version which was release on the…

TOP 5 BEST SOUNDTRACKS TO UNDERWHELMING FILMS

FILMS SAVED BY THEIR SCORES Some people believe that a film can be saved by its soundtrack, whilst others can take te music or leave it. whilst I would agree that a rubbish film cannot be salvaged by a great score, it can at least make it watchable, so below is a my list of the my…

NOW PLAYING STRIKES AGAIN!

Earlier this month, I commented on Now Playing.com's Batman Retrospective, but now it's the turn of Star Trek. Back in 2009, the team at Now Playing recorded a retrospective series on the Star Trek movies, from the 1979's The Motion Picture, right up to J.J. Abrams 2009 reboot. Well, I've listened to 11 podcasts, covering…

THE X FILES: FIGHT THE FUTURE (aka THE X FILES: THE MOVIE)

1998 DIRECTOR: Rob Bowman May Contain Spoilers! Season Five of the phenomena which was The X Files concluded with and episode entitled "The End". Season Six would open with "The Beginning" but somewhere in the middle and for some reason, money presumably, it was considered to be a good idea to make a franchise movie during…

GOLDENEYE

1995 DIRECTOR: Martin Campbell May Contain Spoilers! Licence To Kill spelt the end of Timothy Dalton's short-lived stint as James Bond, and left the franchise is limbo. It was Martin Campbell who revived Bond in 1995, as he would do again in 2006 with Casino Royale, but Goldeneye was the first of one of the best…

BATMAN RETURNS

1992 DIRECTOR: Tim Burton May Contain Spoilers! It's 1992. Tim Burton is now a major player in Hollywood, having re-imagined Batman as the Dark Knight and followed it up with the iconic Edward Scossorhands. But it wasn't just going to be a straight up sequel for Batman, this was going to be a furtherance of the…

DEEP IMPACT

1998 DIRECTOR: Mimi Leder May Contain Spoilers! Up until 1998, the most notable asteroid movie to make an impact was the 1979 Sean Connery disaster flick, Meteor, which got off to a dubious start by being misnamed Meteor rather than Asteroid, as a meteor is just a  small piece of debris, rather than the E.L.E (Extinction Level…

TOY STORY

1995 DIRECTOR: John Lassiter May Contain Spoilers! Pixar had never done anything like this. Tron back in 1982 had experimented but effectively failed in trying to create a CGI feature. But after a few shorts, Toy Story was ready to revolutionise the Animation industry and change the cinematic experience forever, ushering in the art form…