Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

Michael Keaton as Beetlejuice

Having paused for 38 years to catch its breath, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice reminds us what we loved about the original 1988 movieā€¦Ā and what we found slightly less than satisfying. 1988 was when some of today’s biggest actors were born ā€“ Emma Stone and Glenn Powell for instance. It was the year of Seoul Olympics. And it was around then that Tim Berners-Lee started messing about with a concept that would become the World Wide Web. So, yes, a while ago. Clicking right through back to the present, there’s no sign of Alec Baldwin or Geena Davis in this sequel but a lot of the cast and crew are back ā€“ most crucially Michael Keaton … Read more

Mafia Mamma

Toni Collette as Kristin

Two thirds good, one third bad, as George Orwell almost said, Mafia Mamma is a comedy about a timid, emotionally giving American mother who becomes a mafia don, a donna in fact, after her grandfather in the old country dies in gang-related circumstances and she takes over the firm. Not that Kristin (Toni Collette) understands any of that. As far as sheā€™s concerned the old guy was a winemaker and at the point where she is heading off to Italy to attend his funeral, itā€™s as much to get some ā€œEat. Pray. Fuck.ā€ as to pay her respects. The fact that sheā€™s just caught her husband banging her sonā€™s counsellor in the kitchen … Read more

Memory

A perp is roughed up by Lewis

Memory stars Liam Neeson as a guy with a very particular set of skillsā€¦ oh, youā€™ve gone. No, come back. Heā€™s a hitman and itā€™s a one last job affair andā€¦ It doesnā€™t sound very promising, does it? After all by this point (2022) Neeson has been in how many of these ā€“ since Taken reinvigorated his career in 2008 the list contains (at least) Taken 2 and Non-Stop and Taken 3 and Run All Night and The Commuter and Cold Pursuit, all pretty similar. A seemingly average guy at a very particular stage of life turns out to be the sort of man you don’t want to cross. Where Neeson went, an … Read more