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Monsieur Spade (AMC) TV Show Review
by Cas Harlow
Logan's Award-winning screenwriter Scott Frank continue's his strong TV run after Queen's Gambit with this 80-years-in-the-making return to Dashiell Hammett's immortal Maltese Falcon PI, Sam Spade, brought to life by a perfectly cast Clive Owen.
Launching as a Gravity-esque space survival flick, this new Apple TV+ Noomi Rapace sci-fi vehicle soon flashes its mystery box teeth with heady notions of quantum physics and a lot more going on under the hood than you might expect - UPDATED WITH A FULL SEASON REVIEW
Improbably turning what sounded like a low budget straight-to-video 'lite' version of Bat 21 meets Lone Survivor - replete with a questionable cast - into a minor gem of a military survival thriller, Land of Bad is a genuine surprise winner.
Game of Thrones' David Benioff and D. B. Weiss reward Netflix's $200 million 2019 exclusivity gamble with a long overdue - and second out of the gate - adaptation of the acclaimed Chinese sci-fi novel... and it's a heady slice of likely divisive hard sci-fi.
Looking for a mains distribution system that combines hefty power delivery capability with some useful smart features? Powergrip thinks they have exactly what you need.
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Movies & TV Shows
A Blade in the Dark 4K Blu-ray Review
by Mark Costello
Lamberto Bava’s too-gory-for-TV riff on all things Argento and De Palma is an average entry into the late Giallo cycle, which earns its keep thanks to some well executed kills. And 88 Films deliver all that blood in a really strong technical 4K package to boot…
The Ghosts have returned and they need a-bustin’ in Gil Kenan’s follow up to the super-charming and exceedingly lovable Afterlife…which sadly makes all the mistakes Jason Reitman’s film deftly managed to avoid…
Twisted Metal (Paramount +) Premiere TV Show Review
by Mark Costello
The PlayStation videogame franchise series NO-ONE wanted comes to UK shores nine months after a tepid US bow, but it’s probably slightly more fun than you expected it to be…
Doug "Edge of Tomorrow" Liman may be frustrated by this going straight-to-streaming, but Jake Gyllenhaal is absolutely on board for this utterly unabashed 80s remake which totally knows its place, bringing us delicious throwback video rental beat-em-up carnage.
With an all-in fan-service-only self-assuredness, ’97 takes a decision to appeal whole-heartedly to the Millennial nostalgia which holds the original show in such high regard, recreating the feel of a thirty-year-old show as closely as possible... but is this enough?
Halo 2 the game was known for its truncated and confusing narrative, the controversial introduction of an alien playable character and more of the same of its legendary gameplay. What does Halo 2 the series have to offer? Well, after less than hour we already know it’s got a truncated episode count and features more of the same as season one…for better and for worse…UPDATED for full Season review.
Having already provided two different takes on the Borea BR03, Triangle is back again with a spec that feels tailor made for 2024. Does it deliver on the promise?
The second of Lucio Fulci’s classic Gates of Hell splatter trilogy to get a UK 4K release, Arrow deliver their usual strong technical presentation with an almost overwhelmingly excellent array of extras…
Staggeringly heartfelt, Andrew Haigh's All of Us Strangers is a sublime reflection on grief, repression and identity - past and present - a supremely resonant masterwork of quietly profound poignance.
And so it is that we turn our attention to another super high end home cinema leviathan. But rather than a processor, this time it’s the new installation-friendly AVR from Storm Audio. What does SA get right that the luxury competition doesn’t?
This week we ask if home theatre/home cinema is still a popular addition to homes or are people consuming music, movies, sports and TV in different ways in their living spaces. Is Home Cinema or Home Theater as we used to know it, now dead?
Brosnan and Baccarin afford this cheap low-rent 'thriller' from Dead Calm's Phillip Noyce a distinctly YMMV justification for sitting through its amateurish hijinks.
Never have the words ‘Based on a True Story’ had such a profound effect on a generation…and never have they been such a lie, with the controversy around Stuart Rosenberg’s seminal haunted house classic proving to be almost as interesting as the story of the Lutz Family themselves. And with 88 films releasing the 1979 classic on a brand new 4K UHD, we can decide for ourselves what actually happened and what didn’t…
Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (Taylor's Version) (Disney+) Movie Review
by Cas Harlow
The concert epic that shook the blockbuster landscape to the tune of a quarter of a billion, Eras is a thoroughly grand and impressively choreographed celebration of the sheer star power of Taylor Swift.
This annual update offers up some welcome refinements over 2K23, but with a few pre-existing flaws still pinning it against the ropes can the franchise once again be named king of the ring?
Shooting for Bottoms meets Pulp Fiction, this cheap, tonally awry, distinctly un-funny, try-hard, sack-full-of-dildos romp utterly misfires, clearly coming from the wrong solo Coen Brother, and both awkwardly and shamelessly wasting the talents of a couple of good actresses.
Samsung’s flagship soundbars have for generations now delivered the most immersive audio performances in the soundbar world with their huge amounts of power, four components (including real rear speakers) and massive channel counts. So, can Samsung’s new HW-Q990D - which sticks again at 16 channels - keep the improvements coming?
Lyngdorf MXA-8400 Eight Channel Power Amplifier Review
by Martin Dew
Lyngdorf Audio finally offers an 8-channel power amplifier to complement its MP- surround processors. That puts them right in line with its super high-end home cinema competitors. The MXA-8400 certainly looks the part, but does it sound like it as well?
Another month, another superb release schedule for little known gems from the boutique labels that continue to do the Lord’s work. This month, some hugely fun Asian actioners (and one sadly not so…), some brutal British kitchen sink dramas and Alain Delon being cool in knitwear. What more do you want? UPDATED WITH 6 COMPETITIONS!
After a long and uncertain three year wait, Denis Villeneuve's Magnum Opus continues with this epic second chapter in his staggering realisation of Frank Herbert's Dune - UPDATED WITH IMAX REVIEW.
Continuing her run of Netflix starring vehicles, Stranger Things' Millie Bobby Brown takes on a competently designed CG dragon in a flabby, frivolous piece of perfectly tolerable night-in entertainment.
The mainstream horror rut continues as Blumhouse follows up its last dull, dreary, multiplex horror with… another dull, dreary, multiplex horror. Who’d have imagined that?
Nuts and bolts Statham doing what he does best; it's trashy, it's hilariously OTT, but it's also a frequently viscerally satisfying piece of revenge action carnage. UPDATE - NOW ON SKY/NOW TV
Starman (Columbia Classics Vol. 4) 4K Blu-ray Review
by Mark Costello
John Carpenter’s most emotional film still radiates charm and warmth despite its underlying tone of sadness and loss. And it's all the more beautiful on this stunning new 4K restoration from Sony as part of their ongoing Columbia Classics boxsets…
Sharply witty and sublimely satirical, and providing a much-deserved, tour-de-force lead for the excellent Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction is definitely worth catching whilst it's still on the Big Screen. UPDATE - Now on Amazon Prime UK.
Somewhat insanely, Guy Ritchie's created/written/directed TV spin-off to his 2019 movie of the same name is great fun, chock full of colourful characters, bursting with witty dialogue, and utterly bingeworthy.
Astell & Kern has taken the company's considerable knowledge of digital and separated it from its portable players. Is the HC4 the best way to enjoy the A&K sound?
This long-awaited sequel to the 2020 remake of the original classic RPG adds a fresh twist, both in terms of its storyline and gameplay, but can it live up to the weight of expectation?