Science fiction has become science fact. In the clock of history, man has gone from relative ignorance of the movements of the planets (viz. Ptolemy) to Galilean/Einsteinian enlightenment. Many people think the acme of this psychic evolution occurred in July 1969 when Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon but a more fascinating – if less…

‘Blockbuster’ is the word that springs to mind as one surveys the raft of films being rolled out in the  so-called ‘silly’ season to pique the interest of younger viewers enjoying a break from school. We recently saw films like Wonder Woman and Transformers: The Last Knight making their pitch for this lucrative target audience.…

Colin Farrell takes the role Clint Eastwood essayed in Don Siegel’s 1971 version of this civil war story based on Thomas Cullinan’s acclaimed novel A Painted Devil. This time Sofia Coppola directs, replacing Siegel’s misogynistic psychodrama with sensitivity and sultry elegance. Farrell is John McBurney, an injured Yankee soldier who’s deserted his post. He’s taken…

School can be boring when you’d prefer to save the world than read books, right? So Peter Parker (Tom Holland) aka Spider-man, tends to be somewhat distracted in class, knowing just what he could do if the occasion called for it. Billionaire playboy Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) – his mentor – tries to persuade…

Andy (Shane Murray-Corcoran) and Maggie (Iseult Casey) are a young couple from Tipperary who begin a romance when they become students together at TCD. The relationship runs into problems, however,  when Andy’s father Brendan (Ardal O’Hanlon), who’s been suffering from depression since his wife left him, attempts suicide. Andy drops out of college to be…

Chruchill (PG) I interviewed Gay Byrne once and asked him what he thought was the main reason for his success in broadcasting. He replied tartly, “Events, dear boy, events!” What he meant was that he’d simply been in the right place at the right time. Perhaps the same could be said of Winston Churchill. Churchill…

The Shack (12A) In Paradise Lost John Milton tried to “justify the ways of God to man”. Stephen Fry did the opposite in more recent times on The Meaning of Life with Gay Byrne, castigating him for what he saw as his cruelty to, among others, children. The latter is a theme that’s apposite to…

Baywatch (15A) “I don’t mind being called a dumb blonde,” Dolly Parton likes to say, “because I’m not dumb – and I’m not a blonde.” Pamela Anderson has parlayed a similar trajectory in her career, playing into the sexist stereotypes that proliferate around her.  One joke goes: “The longest anything stayed in Pam’s head was…

Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge (12A) Johnny Depp has just come through a messy divorce. In addition he’s suing his management team for fraud so he could probably do with the ridiculous amounts of money they tend to offer him for twaddle like this. He’s also embroiled in a so-called ‘scandal’ about allegedly having…

King Arthur: Revenge of the Sword (12A) That Arfur bloke wasn’t a bad old geezer, wuz he? No, mate. Okay, so it done his head in trying to get the hang of – whaddya call it, Excalleybur? – but the job was Oxo in the end, innit? There’s a joke told about John Wayne when…