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Articles by John Strange
Photos: James Arthur delivers soulful and emotional performance at the BIC
John Strange NO REVIEW of a James Arthur gig would be complete without saying how far this singer songwriter has come since winning X Factor in 2012. From finally parting ways with Simon Cowell's Syco in 2016, he has gradually risen to the star he is today, selling out arenas in UK, Europe and USA. James brought his Pisces UK Arena tour to a sold-out Bournemouth International Centre on a rainy Wednesday evening.
ABC, BIC, Bournemouth
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The Australian Pink Floyd Show at the BIC
Microsoft Cares About Your Privacy Microsoft and our third-party vendors use cookies to store and access information such as unique IDs to deliver, maintain and improve our services and ads. If you agree, MSN and Microsoft Bing will personalise the content and ads that you see. You can select ‘I Accept’ to consent to these uses or click on ‘Manage preferences’ to review your options and exercise your right to object to Legitimate Interest where used.
THE ORDER - A Review by John Strange
THE ORDER – A Review by John Strange The Order is based on the non-fiction book The Silent Brotherhood by Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt. A group of men are staging armed robberies in the Pacific Northwest, baffling the local police. An FBI agent, Terry Husk (Jude Law) begins to suspect that the men are part of a domestic terrorist group. This is a story that plays out slowly as the FBI and law enforcement try to get a handle on the perpetrators before they can get to their endgame.
GLADIATOR II - A Review by John Strange
GLADIATOR II – A Review by John Strange I am always apprehensive when studios come out with sequels years after the first film. Most times I am disappointed with scripts that are simply poorly written. And then there are sequels where I sit in the theater and bask in the glow of a well-written, well-directed, beautifully acted film.
RED ONE - A Review by John Strange
RED ONE – A Review by John Strange It’s time again to watch Christmas movies! Red One takes a whole new look at the Saint Nicholas/Santa Claus legend. Unlike Tim Allen’s 1994 The Santa Clause, Red One’s Santa Claus is a buff older man, who regularly works out to keep up his stamina. There are lots of other differences as well. This is a film with some dark scenes.
TREASURE TRACKERS - A Review by John Strange
TREASURE TRACKERS – A Review by John Strange This film is aimed at young teens. The story is centered on the heroine, Leah (Charity Rose) who is pulled out of school in California (sixth grade) by her dad and dropped off at her aunt’s house in a town whose legends include the Raven Witch and Silas Carter’s cursed gold. As happens so often in these movies, Leah is soon allied with two underdogs at school.
ESCAPE FROM EXTINCTION REWILDING - A Review by John Strange
ESCAPE FROM EXTINCTION REWILDING – A Review by John Strange I love documentaries. I love learning more about things I know very little about. Escape from Extinction Rewilding fits this perfectly. The film tells the story of the world’s need to save as many endangered animal species as possible. Narrated by the incomparable Meryl Streep, the film delves into the people working to save endangered species and shows us the strategies and methods related to this endeavor.
THE WILD ROBOT - A Review by John Strange
THE WILD ROBOT – A Review by John Strange Some animated films are aimed at kids. Some are written for adults (but marketed to kids anyway). And then there are those films that find the sweet spot where it entertains both kids and adults. The Wild Robot is one of the later genre. The story is a bit chaotic at first, but the robot’s desire to follow its programming to help someone is stronger than its desire to return to the factory.
DRAGONKEEPER - A Review by John Strange
DRAGONKEEPER – A Review by John Strange Dragonkeeper is a joint Spanish and Chinese animated film based on the book by Carole Wilkinson (who has a screenwriting credit along with Pablo I. Castrillo, Ignacio Ferreras, Rosanna Cecchini, and Xianping Wang). The version presented to me via a screening link is dubbed in English for US audiences with a different cast of voice actors. The premise of the film is that in ancient China after a clash with the humans, dragons are banished from the kingdom.
WHEN HOUSTON HAD THE BLUES - A Review by John Strange
WHEN HOUSTON HAD THE BLUES – A Review by John Strange I grew up in Dallas, Texas in the late 50s and the 60s listening to the sounds of the times be it rock and roll or country. But I heard about the Deep Ellum sounds of blues and R&B at the same age. I listened to the music with my soul. As I got older, I broadened my musical listening horizons with the blues artists that I thought came from Dallas. Some of them did.
THE KILLER'S GAME - A Review by John Strange
THE KILLER’S GAME – A Review by John Strange Dave Bautista has certainly embraced the acting profession. His portrayal of Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) grabbed everyone’s attention, but his start was via the WWE. We have had an influx of former wrestlers enter the movie game over the years but were they acting in their roles as wrestlers or was it all real? In the long run, who cares? In The Killer’s Game, Dave plays Joe Flood, THE master assassin.
TOKYO COWBOY - A Review by John Strange
TOKYO COWBOY – A Review by John Strange Selig Film News attends film festivals around the country where we interview filmmakers who are presenting their films. We have run into (and interviewed multiple times) the powerhouse who is the polite and witty Marc Marriott, the director of Tokyo Cowboy at several of these festivals, most recently at the Asin Film Festival of Dallas.
YOU GOTTA BELIEVE - A Review by John Strange
YOU GOTTA BELIEVE – A Review by John Strange Director Ty Roberts has given us several Texas-centric films in the last several years. He brought us The Iron Orchard in 2018 and 12 Mighty Orphans in 2021. Lane Garrison, another Texan, co-wrote 12 Mighty Orphans and had sole writing credit for You Gotta Believe, Ty’s new film. This film is the story of a Fort Worth Little League baseball team.
BETWEEN THE TEMPLES - A Review by John Strange
BETWEEN THE TEMPLES – A Review by John Strange I have reviewed many Jewish films over the years. When I received the request for Between the Temples, I immediately decided that I wanted to see this one. Why? Because this one is not a “happy, great to be Jewish”-type of film. It has a LOT of realistic touches blended in. Between the Temples tells the tale of Ben Gottlieb (Jason Schwartzman), a Jewish Cantor who can no longer sing.
THE SECRET ART OF HUMAN FLIGHT - A Review by John Strange
THE SECRET ART OF HUMAN FLIGHT – A Review by John Strange The Secret Art of Human Flight is about a grieving widower. At that point in the description of this film, the story takes a sharp turn into a realm that Rod Serling would have recognized in an instant. For, in his grief, Ben Grady (Grant Rosenmeyer) stumbles across a video of a man who can fly. And if you can find his website, you can find out how (for a price). With a name like “Mealworm”, how could you NOT trust the guy, right?
FAUNA - A Review by John Strange
FAUNA – A Review by John Strange This is an excerpt from PBS’ POV website: “Set in a rural area in the outskirts of Barcelona, Pau Faus’s keen-eyed, witty and compassionate second documentary Fauna… juxtaposes the life of a local goatherd and life in a nearby research laboratory to explore the tangled contemporary relationship between man, nature and science.” With a description like that, I had to see it.
TWISTERS - A Review by John Strange
TWISTERS – A Review by John Strange Have you seen the 1996 hit Twister which starred Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton as storm chasers? Well, Universal is releasing a sequel to the film. I say sequel but it is truly a standalone film with the same basis in facts and fanciful fiction. Twisters is a whole new film that posits, “Can we shut tornados down?” while giving us a wild ride film very similar in look to its predecessor.
COTTONTAIL - A Review by John Strange
COTTONTAIL – A Review by John Strange I love independent films. Good or bad, they each give the viewer a look at the thoughts of the filmmaker. Some are bright and sharp while others can be, well, a bit blurry. Cottontail is a good example of one of the former. This is the story of a Japanese couple who fall in love. But love is strained when one half can’t remember the first. And, when pain is involved, it hurts everyone.
SPACE CADET - A Review by John Strange
SPACE CADET – A Review by John Strange Rex Simpson (Emma Roberts) was a brilliant young girl from Cocoa Beach, Florida, who watched the launches at Canaveral from across the bay with her mom and the rest of the locals. And as they watched, they talked of her someday becoming an astronaut. But life stepped up and slapped her. Hard. Ten years later she is tending bar and wrestling gators for the tourists instead of heading out of Earth’s atmosphere.
DESPICABLE ME 4 - A Review by John Strange
DESPICABLE ME 4 – A Review by John Strange Gru (Steve Carell) and his family are back. The family, Lucy Wilde (Kristen Wiig) and the girls Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier), and Agnes (Madison Skyy Polan), is bigger with the addition of Gru Jr. Lucy Wilde is Gru’s partner at the AVL, the Anti-Villian League. The girls are happy in school. Then Gru is sent to his alma mater, Lycée Pas Bon, to arrest his old school nemesis, Maxime Le Mal (Will Ferrell).
QUEEN OF KNIVES - A Review by John Strange
QUEEN OF KNIVES – A Review by John Strange Frank Benetto (Gene Pope) is a Brooklyn native who moves back to the old neighborhood in the midst of a divorce. His ex, Kathy (Mel Harris), is allowing her new girlfriend, his ex-accountant, to move in with her. His daughters are worried about him as he is not working and is dating much younger women. Sadly, each has their own issues to deal with.
MY LADY JANE - A Review by John Strange
MY LADY JANE – A Review by John Strange Amazon Prime’s original offerings ran to gamut from family-friendly to more mature fare. My Lady Jane is very much a mature audience offering. The word I keep coming back to is… bawdy. We are presented with things you don’t want your kids watching. Unless it’s time for “the talk” and maybe not even then.
FINDING TONY - A Review by John Strange
FINDING TONY – A Review by John Strange Finding Tony is a redemption story. There have been scores of this drama genre made over the decades. This film pits former basketball all-star, Tony Greene (Stephen Bishop), against a young lady, Destiny (Raquel Justice), who is supremely talented on the basketball court but has some real emotional issues that she is struggling with. Each has emotional issues that are making a mess of their lives.
BAD BOYS: RIDE OR DIE - A Review by John Strange
BAD BOYS: RIDE OR DIE – A Review by John Strange Detective Lieutenant Michael Eugene “Mike” Lowrey (Will Smith) and his partner Detective Lieutenant Marcus Miles Burnett (Martin Lawrence) are still on the job in Miami after almost 30 years (Bad Boys hit the screens in 1995). The film opens on Mike’s wedding day with the boys racing to get to the ceremony, with Marcus giving Mike a good reason why they need to stop for a ginger ale. And we find action. And humor. The wedding is wonderful.
THE DEAD DON'T HURT - A Review by John Strange
THE DEAD DON’T HURT – A Review by John Strange Westerns are special to me. The Dead Don’t Hurt is a western written, directed, and starring Viggo Mortensen. When I heard about this film, it intrigued me. In recent years, I have seen several indie film westerns. Like their studio counterparts, the plots and overall storylines have ranged from comedies to action films. Some of them are “shoot-em-ups” while others are run more to cerebral plots. The best films combine some or all of these aspects.
THE BLUE ANGELS - A Review by John Strange
THE BLUE ANGELS – A Review by John Strange The famed Blue Angels aerobatic demonstration team of the U.S. Navy is renowned for its aerial expertise and jaw-dropping stunts. They fly over 40 shows a year all over the country. The Blue Angels film follows a recent team through their year from winter training sessions designed to integrate the new pilots coming onto the team with the old hands. Most of us know about the group but this documentary shows us how they prepare the team for the shows.
HARD MILES - A Review by John Strange
HARD MILES – A Review by John Strange Ridgeview Academy houses youths who otherwise would be in prison. The staff works hard at rehabilitating the young men so they can return to the outside world as free men. Greg Townsend (Matthew Modine) teaches welding at the school and rides his bike in his spare time. Greg is preparing for a 762-mile ride to the Grand Canyon when two things happen.
MONKEY MAN - A Review by John Strange
MONKEY MAN – A Review by John Strange Monkey Man opens with us being shown an Indian woman and her son as she teaches the young man about Hanuman, the Hindu monkey god. Then the bad guys sweep in and burn their village and kill the mother, thus starting the young man down the road to a Bronson-like revenge. As an adult, he makes a little money wearing a monkey mask and getting beat to a pulp every night. He figures out a way to get into the heart of the bad guys’ enterprise.
MÚSICA - A Review by John Strange
MÚSICA – A Review by John Strange Música is based on a true story. Rudy is a Brazilian man in the Bronx who hears the sounds around him as a musical note. This means that he is constantly getting distracted which is rough on his dating life, and, well, life in general. His mother (whom he lives with) is determined to “help” him find a Brazilian woman to marry and grow old with (after having grandkids for her). The film was co-written, directed, and stars Rudy Mancuso.
STEVE! (MARTIN) A DOCUMENTARY IN 2 PIECES - A Review by John Strange
STEVE! (MARTIN) A DOCUMENTARY IN 2 PIECES – A Review by John Strange Steve Martin is known for his wildly different style of humor. The story of his early career, from his teenage years, is covered in episode one entitled “Then”. We see how his humor and career were shaped by his family life and the people around him. His humor was grown or perhaps developed in conjunction with his desire to be a magician. Humor was a part of his act that eventually overshadowed the prestidigitation.
GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE - A Review by John Strange
GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE – A Review by John Strange In June 1984, I sat in a theater and watched Ghostbusters for the first time. It knocked my socks off. The sequels have been good but not up to the level of the first. The one that came the closest was probably Ghostbusters: Afterlife because its story was strong with good effects. This sequel starts out strong with a very good evil spirit setup.
ROAD HOUSE - A Review by John Strange
ROAD HOUSE – A Review by John Strange Taken from the original Road House (1989), the plot of this reimagining is updated but the feel of the film remains the same. The location has moved down to the Florida Keys. The lead character, Elwood P. Dalton (Jake Gyllenhaal), is a disgraced UFC fighter looking to survive after killing someone in the ring.
UPROAR - A Review by John Strange
UPROAR – A Review by John Strange 1981 New Zealand. Rugby is king. Everyone feels that there is no tension between the races. And then the South African Rugby team tours the country. Protests sprout like weeds. Racial tensions are roused. Josh Waaka (Julian Dennison) is a 17-year-old Māori student in an academy that has primarily white students. He is constantly picked on by other students. His older brother, Jamie (James Rolleston), was a rugby star at the school.
ARTHUR THE KING - A Review by John Strange
ARTHUR THE KING – A Review by John Strange This film is built around a man, Michael Light (Mark Wahlberg), who is determined to not just race in the Adventure Racing World Championship, but to win it. He is given one last chance by his wife to race in the Dominican Republic. It is a dream, one that will require a sponsor and then as much more as he can manage. Despite the challenges thrown in their path, the team gets to the DR with little time to train using the terrain.
RICKY STANICKY - A Review by John Strange
RICKY STANICKY – A Review by John Strange Ricky Stanicky is a “Bro Film”. Like most films in this genre, we have a group of men who may have good lives but deep down they are still children. Naughty children. Dean (Zac Efron), JT (Andrew Santino), and Wes (Jermaine Fowler) are boys who get away with an ill-thought-out Halloween “trick” as young boys. It is from their method of evading arrest that Ricky Stanicky is “born”.
KUNG FU PANDA 4 - A Review by John Strange
KUNG FU PANDA 4 – A Review by John Strange Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) wants Master Po (Jack Black) to move on in his progress towards enlightenment. To do this requires that he find a candidate to inherit the mantle of Dragon Warrior. Po is not quite ready for this. The path to his enlightenment is studded with humor and action. The evil character DuJour for this sequel is The Chameleon (Viola Davis). She is as evil as they come.
DUNE: PART TWO - A Review by John Strange
DUNE: PART TWO – A Review by John Strange When Dune: Part One came out in 2021, I was impressed with the adaptation of Frank Herbert’s novel. The story deviated from the books, but not in ways that ruined my appreciation of the movie. I was impressed with the flair and panache as well as the cast I saw. Dune: Part Two continues the story of the planet Arrakis (aka Dune) as Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and the Fremen take the fight to the enemy led by Beast Rabban (Dave Bautista).
BOB MARLEY: ONE LOVE - A Review by John Strange
BOB MARLEY: ONE LOVE – A Review by John Strange Bob Marley is a legend in the music world. With his band, the Wailers, Bob made reggae music something the world listened to.
MADAME WEB - A Review by John Strange
MADAME WEB – A Review by John Strange The character Madame Web first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #210, published in November 1980. This film tells of her origin that begins on the day of her birth in the jungles of Peru where her mother is searching for an elusive spider that might be part of the cure for many illnesses. What happens changes the unborn baby and her mother.
THE UNDERDOGGS - A Review by John Strange
THE UNDERDOGGS – A Review by John Strange This is a film filled to the brim with f-bombs plus its share of weed smoking. Just saying this upfront because that is the big sticking point that parents must consider before they allow their kids to see The Underdoggs.
THE BEEKEEPER - A Review by John Strange
THE BEEKEEPER – A Review by John Strange In The Beekeeper, Jason Statham leads the cast as a quiet man (Adam Clay) who tends bees and tends to the land owned by Eloise Parker (Phylicia Rashad), a retired teacher. When Eloise is scammed out of all her personal funds and all the money belonging to the charity she headed, she reacts to the disaster by shooting herself.
THE IRON CLAW - A Review by John Strange
THE IRON CLAW – A Review by John Strange Those of us who grew up in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas in the early 80s knew about the Von Erich family and Fritz Von Erich’s “Iron Claw”. The family wrestled at the Dallas Sportatorium in Dallas, TX.
WONKA - A Review by John Strange
WONKA – A Review by John Strange Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) introduced us to the world of wonder that was personified by Willy Wonka, masterfully portrayed by the late Gene Wilder. The film opened our eyes to the wonder of Willy’s magical world. In 2005, Tim Burton reimagined the story in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, with Johnny Depp in the role of Willy which didn’t hit the mark.
THE BOY AND THE HERON - A Review by John Strange
THE BOY AND THE HERON – A Review by John Strange I have to preface my review with this proviso: I am not a fan of Japanese Manga. I don’t dislike it, I have just never gotten into it. The Boy and The Heron is set in Japan during World War II. The story is well drawn in the manga style and is interesting to watch. The characters are interesting though I did not understand a few of the relationships.
THE OATH - A Review by John Strange
THE OATH – A Review by John Strange This film, set in the 4th century A.D., purports to be about two sons of Joseph of Egypt and their followers who crossed the ocean to a promised land (the Americas?). Like Cain and Able, their feud over birthright split the group into the Nephites and the Lamanites. After a long war, only one Nephite remains. Moroni (Darin Scott) is living his life in a cave and following the teachings of his forefathers.
WE LIVE HERE: THE MIDWEST (DOCUMENTARY) - A Review by John Strange
WE LIVE HERE: THE MIDWEST (DOCUMENTARY) – A Review by John Strange One of the things I truly love about streaming services like Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Prime is that they bring us excellent documentaries in the feature and episodic formats. We Live Here: The Midwest coming to Hulu this week is a short feature. The film gives us several couples, each living in Midwest states, who live LGBTQ+ lives. It’s a part of the country not generally known for accepting their life choices.
CANDY CANE LANE - A Review by John Strange
CANDY CANE LANE – A Review by John Strange Eddie Murphy headlines Candy Cane Lane, a Christmas holiday film now playing on Netflix. Chris Carver (Murphy) is a good father and husband, with a strong competitive streak that comes out in spades each Christmas as the houses on Candy Cane Lane compete for the home with the best seasonal decorations.
NEXT GOAL WINS - A Review by John Strange
NEXT GOAL WINS – A Review by John Strange Next Goal Wins is based on the disastrous qualifying game for the 2002 FIFA World Cup that saw the American Samoa soccer team destroyed by the Australian team 31-0. Iain Morris and Taika Waititi wrote the screenplay for the film from the documentary about the game. The film opens with Taika explaining the story.
THE HOLDOVERS - A Review by John Strange
THE HOLDOVERS – A Review by John Strange Boarding schools have a long history of taking kids from all walks of life and giving them good educations. And occasionally helping them work through other issues, like the feeling of abandonment that some of these kids feel when they are sent away to get the young individuals out of their parent’s lives.
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