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Jan 22, 2025 | 
thecourieronline.co.uk | Alex Paine
Sign up to our mailing list so you never miss any future updates Image source: IMDbNetflix have become notorious for their original movies that always swap around cast members and dull action plotlines. In 2021 it was Red Notice, in 2023 it was Heart of Stone, and now in 2025 we get Back In Action.
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Jan 18, 2025 | 
thecourieronline.co.uk | Alex Paine
Image source: IMDbAdapted from the 2024 graphic novel of the same name by Richard McGuire, Here positions the camera in the same spot to show us how a single spot of land evolves over time, from the time of the dinosaurs to the present day. The screen either focuses on just one time period, or shows separate panes so we can see multiple time periods simultaneously. It’s a nice idea but one that works nowhere near as well in execution.
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Jan 15, 2025 | 
thegeekshow.co.uk | Graham Williamson |Alex Paine
Back in the William Hartnell days, Doctor Who managed to get around the world on the wings of audience expectations: people in the early 1960s didn’t mind if a television serial used a soundstage with a painted backdrop to represent an Aztec temple. Even by 1967, though, audiences were starting to demand more realism, so in The Abominable Snowmen director Gerald Blake headed to the mountains to shoot the exterior scenes.
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Jan 13, 2025 | 
thecourieronline.co.uk | Alex Paine
Image source: PexelsJanuary is also seen as a month where all the bad films drop. Films that have already been deemed as flops by the studios are given a release at the start of the year so that they’ll quickly be forgotten by the year’s end. So why is it that January sees no major releases, and is January really a dumping ground for all of Hollywood’s waste?
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Dec 22, 2024 | 
thegeekshow.co.uk | Alex Paine
In 2022, I did a roundup of my favourite films of the year, even though I’d only managed to see a small handful of new films that came out. Last year I did the same, and I was fairly proud that I’d managed to see nearly 20 films at the cinema that year as well as some streaming exclusives. I considered it a job well done. This year, I’ve seen 76 films. If we’re factoring in streaming exclusives and catching up on films later, 92. So as you can see, I’ve got a bit more to work with.
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Dec 18, 2024 | 
thegeekshow.co.uk | Alex Paine
Don Bluth is one of those filmmakers who fascinates me, despite the fact that I had never seen one of his films until now. People talk about his animated efforts with even more reverence than we normally reserve for the best Disney and Pixar films. If you’re like me and endlessly watch videos of Letterboxd asking actors and directors their four favorite films, you’ll often find a Bluth film among their choices. I’ve frequently heard how All Dogs Go to Heaven makes even the strongest of us cry.
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Dec 9, 2024 | 
thegeekshow.co.uk | Alex Paine |Graham Williamson
Despite my young age and relative lack of experience with some of the classics, of course I’ve heard of The Great Escape. How could I not? I’m from Britain and I watch TV over the Christmas period, where The Great Escape is normally on at least one of the channels every day for the entire holiday. I completely understand why it’s constantly played at Christmas.
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Dec 6, 2024 | 
thecourieronline.co.uk | Alex Paine
Sign up to our mailing list so you never miss any future updates Image credit: Flickr, @vagueonthehowSince the age of about 13, I have always said that my favourite song of all time is this. Released in 2004, it recently occurred to me that not only has the Killers’ superb life-affirming rock anthem turned 20 years old, but I’m about to at the end of December. That’s a lot of memories already made, with many more to come.
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Nov 29, 2024 | 
thecourieronline.co.uk | Alex Paine
This ended up being a very fitting banner to put all these films under as the seven shorts I saw explored love, sex, romantic affection and dating in a variety of dark and off-kilter ways. Chairs by James Hughes and Hello by Mac Montero were both very comedic, showing strange romantic affections in exaggerated ways that amused the entire audience, but they really just felt like warm-ups for some more hard-hitting shorts.
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Nov 26, 2024 | 
thecourieronline.co.uk | Alex Paine
Sign up to our mailing list so you never miss any future updates Image- IMDbApart from the Jodie Whittaker era which instead did New Year’s Day episodes, every year has seen a festive offering that has brought the nation together and scored huge numbers - 2007’s Christmas special Voyage Of The Damned still holds the record for the biggest viewership of the modern era. What the Christmas specials are can vary wildly.
