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"I hate tennis." - Andre Agassi  The sports autobiography. It is a tough nut to crack. They often find themselves falling somewhere between 'mildly disappointing' and 'woeful'. For further reading on the matter, there is a fantastically hilarious piece written by the great David Foster Wallace on why this appears to be the case (the appropriately titled 'How Tracy Austin Broke My Heart'). The abbreviated conclusion is along the lines that what makes these people outstandin

Before we review this film, the elephant in the room needs to be addressed: This plot is absolutely preposterous. I mean, absolutely "let's all drop acid and think of the maddest thing imaginable and let John Milius direct it" level bonkers.  Now that is out of the way, we can begin.  World War 3. Will it ever happen? Has it already happened? Who's to say? Famed Hollywood lunatic John Milius certainly had an opinion on how it might happen and this film was his testament to

At the time of it's release, what is now known as 'the heist movie' was just starting to find it's cinematic feet. After relative successes like 'Ocean's Eleven' and 'The Italian Job' in the 60s, Sam Peckinpah's 'The Getaway' (1972) became something of a box office hit, thus opening the door for more of the like. Because as we all know, when Hollywood finds something that works, they'll rinse the living arse out of it until it don't work no more. 

As music biopics go, there are very few that truly live up to the hype. 2005's 'Walk The Line' is probably the best and most compelling of the bunch. The reason, you could argue, is because of the nature of Johnny Cash's life and the depth of his music. Although, in most cases, this doesn't really help because many of these efforts are documenting people with equally interesting upbringings and falling far short. Is it because a fictional re-telling never lives up to real lif

Sam Fender, also known as the Geordie Springsteen, has been blazing a trail since his 2019 debut 'Hypersonic Missiles'. Despite looks that could land him on Love Island, Fender is a unique beast. His music is what should be a very unfashionable brand of whole-hearted Americana, but instead of talking about the lost wheat fields of Kansas, the subject matter very much focuses on working class life in the UK, particularly his own upbringing living largely below the poverty line

M. Night Shyamalan's career has been an interesting one. The impact of his first few films was so incredibly strong that the mere mention of his name generates enough interest to get bums on seats. This is despite the fact that there have been some serious ups and downs in his canon over the years. For every 'The Sixth Sense' (1999) there is a 'The Last Airbender' (2010). Yet still, even here in 2025, we tune in. Why? Well, for better or worse, M. Night is an auteur who is ve

"So I was sitting in my cubicle today and I realized, ever since I started working, every single day of my life has been worse than the day before it. So that means that every single day that you see me, that's on the worst day of my life." Before Ricky Gervais & Stephen Merchant's 'The Office' there was 'Office Space', one of the first films to satirize the mundane realities of life in an average workplace. At the time of it's creation, Mike Judge was riding high off the ba

It seems that someone like Kevin Costner has, by this point, became a name so ubiquitous with movie stardom that you really don't ever feel the need to trace his career journey. He's one of those people you get the impression came out of the womb fully formed as Kevin Costner and someone happened to start filming him at some point in his mesmerisingly handsome life. However, like everyone else on planet earth, Kev also had to toil his way up the proverbial ladder until reachi