Reviews

Category: Reviews

‘Doctor Who’: ‘Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS’ spoiler-free review

Imagine Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. Imagining it? Good. Brilliant, isn’t it? Now, imagine that said chocolate factory is about to explode – BOOM, wibbly-wobbly chocolatey-wocolateyness everywhere – and that a bewildered Charlie is trapped, wandering through rooms of marvellous impossible treats, while Willy Wonka is planning to rescue him. Now, replace ‘chocolate’ with ‘time’, switch a few names, and you’ve got ‘Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS’.

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April 2013 horror movie DVD round-up

It seems every single classic (or not so classic) horror movie from the ‘70s and ‘80s is getting its own remake lately.

It’s a little surprising, then, that it’s taken so long for the profit-hungry executives to get round to milking the Evil Dead franchise for all its worth. By all accounts a lot more serious than Sam Raimi’s slapstick-gore original, it’s fitting that Evil Dead 2, the series’ high-point, gets a re-release on DVD and Blu-ray to coincide with the new movie’s arrival in UK cinemas.

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‘The Audience’ play review

On paper, it’s red-hot. Capitalise on the Jubilee / Will & Kate / Royal Baby mania with a show starring Helen Mirren as Elizabeth Regina (again) backed by the writer and director of The Queen and a neat concept: a series of era-hopping sequences giving us a backstage pass to the Queen’s weekly audience with the Prime Minister.

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‘Game of Thrones’: ‘Walk of Punishment’ review

It may be something of a surprise to learn that the two men behind Game of Thrones have never actually stepped behind the camera to direct an episode themselves. That all changes with ‘Walk of Punishment’, as David Benioff takes control and directs an instalment brimming with confidence.

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phantoms

‘Doctor Who’: ‘Hide’ spoiler-free review

After the cacophony of criticisms brought upon ‘Rings of Akhaten’, Neil Cross’ name may ring a Cloister Bell in the head of many a Whovian. But you can’t judge one writer by one episode, and we’re certainly not going to compare efforts here. All we’ll say is that ‘Hide’ is as far away from ‘Rings’ as the Akhaten system is from 1970s England.

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cold war

‘Doctor Who’: ‘Cold War’ review

After a run of Doctor Who episodes which have made a play of character riddles and tricksy story twists, ‘Cold War’ represents something of a thaw in proceedings.

There are no paradoxes here to send you hurrying to the internet to speculate about what you have seen and why. There’s probably less subtext than in last week’s, altogether more awkward, instalment.

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‘Doctor Who’: ‘The Rescue’ audiobook review

On television ‘The Rescue’ was a rather modest affair. A two-parter set after the drama of ‘The Dalek Invasion of Earth’, its primary role was to provide an introduction Vicki (Maureen O’Brien) who was cast in the wake of Susan’s departure.

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‘Rebellion’ movie review

From the director of the truly remarkable 1995 film La Haine comes a real life war movie, of sorts, which pits politics and terrorism side by side where soldiers and citizens are expendable as the policies they spew.

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