April 2021

Review – The Predator (2018)

22nd June 2021

Review – The Predator (2018) Directed by: Shane Black Written by: Shane Black & Fred Dekker Produced by: John Davis & Bill Bannerman Starring: Boyd Holbrook, Sterling K. Brown & Olivia Munn Release Date: September 12th 2018 (UK) Introduction Recently, I decided to go back to go back re-watch Shane Black’s The Predator for review. This is a film that you can look at in a couple of different ways. You can either look at it and take none of it seriously; in which case this is a fairly fun, if extremely dumb action sci-fi romp. Or you can take a bit more seriously, – which I think the moviemakers want you to; – in which case it is an all-over-the-place mess that is unbearably cringey at times. Direction The main problem here is that I am not sure how the director wants us to take this film because the tone is all over the place. Some of the film’s characters play it totally straight and other are clearly just having a laugh with the ridiculously cheesy material they have been given to work with. Cast The cast are generally okay, but it is as if they are all working on totally different movies. Boyd Holbrook, Alfie Allen and Olivia Munn are taking the whole thing pretty seriously and playing it straight, Meanwhile, everyone else around them plays it comically and the clash of tones never really sits well throughout the movie. On paper, I should have loved this film. I am a long time Predator fan, I love the original and I think that Predators is a solid sequel too, (let’s not mention Predator 2.) I am also a fan of Shane Black and you are telling me that the guy responsible for the Lethal Weapon movies, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and The Nice Guys is making a Predator movie? That sounds awesome! Unfortunately though, it really isn’t. VFX Additionally, the VFX in the film is also pretty inconsistent. At times some of the effects look okay, but at others the CGI is painfully obvious. Strangely, it is particularly poor on The Predator himself. The CGI makes him feel really weightless and oddly light and floaty, which is kind of the opposite of how the Predator is supposed to look as he moves around onscreen. The whole ‘hunter becomes the hunted,’ trope used in the movie actually serves as an appropriate metaphor for what this series has become. The once king of action sci fi is now on the back foot and being outdone by bigger, stronger competitors. Thus, try as he might, by comparison the OG hunter can’t stand up to it’s superior successor. Conclusion In summary, this not the best Predator movie by a long shot, but it’s definitely not the worst either. There are some laughs to be had and some cool kills sprinkled through the film. However, there are definitely better action/sci fi movies that have dropped in the last few years that are far more worthy of your time. [yasr_multiset setid=2] [yasr_visitor_multiset setid=2] If you enjoyed Dan’s review of The Predator, you can check out what he thought of Fantastic Beasts here. Buy tickets for BGCP Comic Con in and around Glasgow Scotland – BUY TICKETS Check out all of our Comic, Movie, Television and Videogame Reviews HERE and our Podcasts/Interviews HERE If you want to be part of the BGCP community, Join us on Discord, Twitter, Instagram etc then click HERE www.bigglasgowcomicpage.com

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Review – Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them

30th April 2021

Review – Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them Directed by: David Yates Written by: JK Rowling Produced by: JK Rowling Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Colin Farrell & Johnny Depp Release Date: November 18th 2016 It is that time again. That time that I decide I hate myself enough to revisit one of the worst movies I have ever seen for review. This time I decided to go back and review Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, (AKA: JK Rowling and the Never Ending Quest for More Money.) Full disclosure going in; I have never been a fan of the Harry Potter franchise. I’ve read a few of the books and seen a few of the movies and it just hasn’t ever been my thing. Honestly, I’m not even a fan of fantasy in general. I think that Lord Of The Rings is garbage and the worst parts of Game Of Thrones were the fantasy elements, (well that and the ending!) The last Harry Potter movie I saw was the fourth one I think? However, I was willing to go into this movie with a clean slate and hopefully have it win me over and unfortunately it didn’t. Also this review will contain spoilers if you care about that sort of thing. This film is a prequel to the other Harry Potter movies, this time set in America rather than Britain and telling the story of the events that led to the great wizarding war between Dumbledore and Grindlewald. These films did have potential in that sense; to see what would have essentially been WWII fought with magic could be really cool. Unfortunately all we get here is setup and when we get to the sequel it was an even bigger let-down. Fantastic Beasts opens with Eddie Redmayne’s character, Newt Scamander going to New York from London to set free one of the beasts that he keeps inside his Tardis-like brief case. Then he ends up in a bank and meets a ‘Nomaj,’ which is this film’s lazy version of a ‘muggle,’ who we learn is a simple lonely guy that just wants to open his own bakery and that’s another character cliché ticked off the list. We now have the double act of the nerdy, snivelling protagonist and the overweight, sympathetic sidekick. Also, for the rest of this review I will be referring to the baker character as fat bloke. This isn’t to be derogatory, but is purely because the script relies on the, ‘fat, jolly, sympathetic, pathetic loner’ stereotype and passes it off as a character arc. If the script isn’t treating the character with any respect, then why should I? So fat bloke it is then. Of course, the two of them have the exact same briefcase and after some cartoony looking CGI animals escape from Redmayne’s case in the bank the suitcases predictably get mixed up. Then the fat bloke gets his bakery loan declined and returns home with Redmayne’s suitcase. This is followed by more bad CGI animals open the case and attack the fat bloke. Redmayne’s character then gets arrested by some wizarding inspector for letting the, ‘Nomaj,’ (urgh) get away after seeing the animals in the case and is taken to the New York Wizards base, I guess? Then it’s revealed that the wizarding inspector that arrested Redmayne is a pretty subpar inspector and she is trying to redeem herself in the eyes of her superiors. So in front of this high wizard council she confiscates the case from Redmayne and opens it only to reveal a bunch of cakes inside. Yes, really… Who writes this garbage? What Rowling is doing to Harry Potter is worse than what Lucas did to Star Wars during the prequels at this point. So Redmayne gets set free and he goes to fat bloke’s house to find him lying on the floor, then some more bad CGI later the inspector turns up and they take him back to her house to meet her sister? Friend? Does it matter? She ends up becoming the love interest for fat bloke. Then, for no apparent reason Redmayne and fat bloke enter the case and he shows fat bloke all this crazy stuff that apparently humans aren’t supposed to see. Then Redmayne does some more snivelling and decides they have to sneak out of the girls’ apartment and recapture the animals that escaped in the bank and from fat bloke’s apartment. They get a couple of the beasts back then they go to central park to find Redmayne’s horny rhino and they dress fat bloke up in a leather rhino costume and use him as bait then they ice skate for a bit and capture the rhino. Again, really… I am not making this stuff up for satirical reasons. After this, we see real life bad guy Ezra Miller playing some sort of weird emo child who is beat by his mother and is working with Colin Farrell to find a big bad dark spirit that is killing people around New York. Colin Farrell is definitely the best thing about the film at this point. After this a bunch of other stupid crap happens, such as Ron Perlman and John Voight coming into the movie, showing a ray of potential and then being totally wasted. The movie drags in the middle, but eventually after some more fat jokes, bad CGI and snivelling, all of the creatures are captured and Ezra Miller turns into a black death cloud or some such nonsense. Then he boosts around New York, ruining everyone’s day as he goes and so Redmayne and Farrell follow him down to the subway to stop him. Redmayne seems to be talking him down and then Farrell shows up and essentially tells him to join the dark side. Then there is a CGI wand battle and the council from earlier show up out of nowhere and kill the black cloud of death. Then Colin Farrell gets annoyed and in the

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Review – Overlord (2018)

5th May 2021

Review – Overlord (2018) Directed by: Julius Avery Written by: Billy Ray Produced by: JJ Abrams Starring: Jovan Adepo, Wyatt Russell & Pilou Asbaek Release Date: October 7th 2018 I got to revisit Overlord for review last night and I really enjoyed seeing the movie for a second time. I remember being really hyped when the trailers for this movie first dropped as I am a huge fan of the Wolfenstein series, which the trailers for this really reminded me of. The movie opens with a fantastically shot plane crash sequence that manages to convey a sense of extreme intensity as Private Boyce jumps out the exploding plane that was carrying his squad and plummets to the ground below. This sequence also does a brilliant job of setting the kind of tone of the movie that the audience can expect going forward. Surprisingly, the Nazi zombie stuff doesn’t actually make an appearance until about a third of the way through the movie and the first act is spent telling a more traditional and realistic war story and setting up the relationships between the characters that we are following. Even when we do start to see some of the weirder stuff taking place, it is fairly reserved in comparison to what you might be expecting. This isn’t Dead Snow or Wolfenstein. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s underwhelming, as the few amount of monstrosities that we actually get to see are impactful and feel genuinely threatening. The cast are serviceable in their roles, even if they are fairly stereotypical. The stand out is Pilou Asbaek, who may know as the evil Euron Greyjoy from Game Of Thrones. Here, he plays the dastardly, villainous Nazi with a venomous snarl that really tells you everything that you need to know about his character and his intent. The one negative I had with the movie were the few telegraphed jump-scares that the filmmakers threw in to remind us that this is supposed to be a horror movie, but thankfully there aren’t too many of these present throughout the film. Overall, this is a fun action/horror movie set against the backdrop of the Second World War that is a blast to sit through. There is plenty of cringe-inducing violence and gore created by mostly practical means that will scratch the horror itch that some audience members may be looking for. Although this might not quite be the movie that you was expecting going in based on the trailers, I can’t say that you will come away disappointed. [yasr_multiset setid=2] [yasr_visitor_multiset setid=2] If you are a horror fan and you enjoyed Dan’s review of Overlord, check out what he thought of Gerald’s Game here. Buy tickets for BGCP Comic Con in and around Glasgow Scotland – BUY TICKETS Check out all of our Comic, Movie, Television and Videogame Reviews HERE and our Podcasts/Interviews HERE If you want to be part of the BGCP community, Join us on Discord, Twitter, Instagram etc then click HERE www.bigglasgowcomicpage.com

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The Haunting of Hill House

Is The Haunting of Hill House Overrated? An Honest Review

16th February 2026

The Haunting of Hill House Review: Masterpiece or Lazy Horror? Review – The Haunting of Hill House Directed by: Mike Flanagan Written by: Mike Flanagan & Jeff Howard Produced by: Mike Flanagan & Jeff Howard Starring: Carla Gugino, Henry Thomas & Oliver Jackson-Cohen Release Date: October 12th 2018 Being a fan of Mike Flanagan’s other work and having missed this series when it first released, I decided that it was time to go back and review The Haunting of Hill House. I went back to watch the series in preparation for the release of The Haunting of Bly Manor and was extremely let down by this series. Flanagan is capable of producing great horror, we know this from 2017’s fantastically creepy adaption of Stephen King’s Gerald’s Game and 2019’s fantastic Doctor Sleep. Hill House features some of the same cast members as Gerald’s Game in Carla Gugino and Henry Thomas, whom I both really like. Before diving into Hill House for the first time, I thought that this show was going to be tailor made for me, with a brilliant cast and the same subtle but terrifying horror that Flanagan used in Gerald’s Game. However, after watching the first couple of episodes, I was struggling to get into it. Due to the massive amount of hype and praise that this show received I decided to stick with it. By the time I got to episode 6, I was done, but then my girlfriend guilted me into watching that rest of the series because she wanted to see it and she was, “too scared to watch it alone.” What a huge waste of time that turned out to be. Is Alien: Earth Good? The 2026 Spoiler-Free Verdict If you have read any of my other reviews of horror-based media, you will know that I have a love/hate relationship with the genre. There are very few horror movies or shows that I feel indifferent about. I hate lazy, formulaic bad horror and that is exactly what Hill House is. Every single episode consists of a jump-scare at the start of the episode, then a hard cut either forwards or backwards in the timeline. Then about 15-20 minutes of very poor acting and boring dialogue. This is followed by another cheap jump-scare, usually a woman screaming at an obnoxiously loud volume at the camera. Then we get another hard cut back to the other timeline. The main issue with this structure, (other than being extremely lazy and repetitive,) is that when the hard cut is made to the other timeline, the audience knows that it is done by an editor and that we are now being asked to focus on a part of the story within the other timeline. However, for the characters within the show it makes absolutely zero sense. For example, two people are having a conversation when something creepy happens. They go to investigate and a screaming woman comes launching towards them or is standing at the edge of a bed or doing basically any other ghost story cliché you can think of. Then the show cuts away to show the characters as children being haunted by a different ghost, but then when we cut back to the present, we never find out how the last jump-scare was resolved. What was the aftermath of that screaming lady at the end of the bed you ask? How was that resolved? How are the character’s mentalities after this happened to them? Who cares?! Say the writers, let’s just move on to the next cheap jump-scare. The script is extraordinarily lazy and the child actors are horribly bad. This is an issue that I feel that there isn’t really any excuse for anymore after the brilliant child performances in shows like Stranger Things and Season 2 of the Sinner. If you judge the quality of something based on what it sets out to do versus what it actually does, then The Haunting Of Hill House is the worst show that I have had the displeasure of ever sitting through. The scares are pathetic, the acting is atrocious in places, the script is diabolically cheesy at times, there is hardly any originality present for an, ‘original series,’ and the show is overflowing with clichés. Not once did a jump-scare actually scare me, because they were all either laughably predicable or they would be totally out of place just for the sake of shock value and would merit a heavy sigh rather than an legit scare. The most egregious, offensively bad example of this was when two characters were having a conversation in a car in episode 6 and a ghost randomly screams from the backseat. Please do not waste your time with this series. The last few years has had a plethora of brilliance to offer on the small screen and despite what you might have heard from big publications, this show should not be included in that list.

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Review – Resident Alien Vol 1

15th June 2021

Review – Resident Alien Vol 1 Writer: Peter Hogan Artist: Steve Parkhouse Publisher: Dark Horse Comics Release date: May 2012 Resident Alien Volume 1, Welcome to Earth, is the first in a successful series of comics that has been a huge hit. So much so, Syfy have picked it up and turned it into a TV show. The second season is confirmed and due out in 2022 on Sky for U.K. viewers. The comics were the brain child of Artist, Steve Parkhouse and Writer, Peter Hogan. Parkhouse wanted to create an Alien comic. Having collaborated with Hogan on the likes of The Dreaming, wanted his involvement. Hogan went away and thought up the twist to the “traditional” Alien narrative. As a result, the Alien in this comic is not the usual bad guy, nor is he a predator. He is the hero of the story, with yet another twist; he also likes to dabble in a little murder mystery. The Resident Alien Meet Dr Harry Vanderspeigle, resident of Patience, a small town in Colorado where nothing bad ever happens… Or does it? Our Doc is dragged out of “retirement” to replace the local doctor. The original doctor’s murder is being investigated! Of course he isn’t really a doctor, he is an Alien who crash landed and is awaiting rescue. Three years he has been keeping himself to himself, in an attempt to keep his true identity hidden. He of course has some super duper, alien abilities to mask his true form. Ingeniously, he is drawn as an alien throughout the comic. I am going to dig into my Classics A-Levels here. In Greek tragedy, this method is used to allow the audience to see something which the characters living the scene, do not, it’s called dramatic irony. This is oddly, so much fun, seeing an alien sitting in ordinary human settings. For instance, one of the opening pages to the book, there is cafe setting. A waitress is taking the order from a couple of scruffy locals, all perfectly ordinary, except for the alien sat at their table. Resident Alien is a brilliant concept, clever, fairly intelligent and funny in parts. *Spoiler alert* The naked murderer is very different! Annoyingly, the naked part needed explaining. I will forgive the story for that because it just added a bit of humour into what is an already wacky scenario. The murder mystery is secondary to work the main story of Harry, that’s the facinating story and makes me want to read more in the series. It also makes me wish I had Sky TV so I can watch the show. Art and Final Thoughts The Art is interesting, quite different. For instance, it has a small town Americana feel, perhaps it looks a little dated, but it’s meant to be. The re use of similar pastel colours in the background, I really liked, Parkhouse’s ability to draw expression is exemplary. My favourite scenes were the alien landscapes and the vivid, almost nuclear green colourings, which I have added in the gallery below for your viewing pleasure. Overall the comic works, it has a solid storyline, as a result, it makes readers want more. A plus it is a cool concept. Sadly, for me, the murder mystery part was definitely secondary to the Harry story. Will he or won’t he, get caught out? I am fascinate by it enough to want to read on in the series. Buy tickets for BGCP Comic Con in and around Glasgow Scotland – BUY TICKETS Check out all of our Comic, Movie, Television and Videogame Reviews HERE and our Podcasts/Interviews HERE If you want to be part of the BGCP community, Join us on Discord, Twitter, Instagram etc then click HERE www.bigglasgowcomicpage.com

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Review – Mindhunter

20th May 2021

Review – Mindhunter Directed by: David Fincher & Tobias Lindholm Written by: Liz Hannah & Tobias Lindholm Produced by: Liz Hannah & David Fincher Starring: Jonathan Groff, Holt McCallany & Anna Torv Release Date: October 13th 2017 Mindhunter is a Netflix series set in the late 70’s. It follows two FBI detectives as they embark to learn more about serial killers and why they do the things that they do. One of the detectives, Bill Tench, actually coins the phrase, ‘serial killer,’ at one point and the team do seem to be making progressive steps into understanding a disturbed psyche, even if some of the methods they use along the way are fairly questionable. The series is produced by David Fincher, who also directs 4 episodes of the first season and 3 in the second season. If you are a fan of Fincher’s other work, then this will be right up your street. It shares a lot of similarities with Se7en, The Social Network, Gone Girl, Panic Room and definitely Zodiac. The two main series stars, Jonathan Groff and Holt McCallany are brilliant in their roles. You may recognise McCallany from Fight Club and Groff from Glee, but this show couldn’t be a further departure from Glee if it tried, which makes Groff’s already electric performance even better. McCallany plays Bill Tench, an older FBI agent who has a good few years of experience under his belt. Groff plays Holden Ford, a young maverick, who barges his way towards progress, regardless of who gets caught up in the collateral damage. The two work fantastically together and the chemistry between the two actors is one of the best things about this show. The supporting cast are also solid, with Hannah Gross standing out as Holden’s girlfriend, as well as Anna Torv, who plays a doctor of psychology helping the two detectives analyse the data that they collect from interviews held with various serial killers. The serial killers featured throughout the show are also memorable, especially Jerry Brudos and Ed Kemper. Cameron Britton, who plays Kemper, gives a subtly terrifying performance and is exponentially engaging for every minute that he is onscreen. The performances are helped with a brilliant script. The dialogue is snappy and effective, causing as many existential questions as it does unorthodox observations. Fincher’s direction, is of course, fantastic and the other directors who work on this show also do a good job. The soundtrack to the show is sometimes antithetic to what is going on in the storyline, but it is always effective and never distracting. The shot composition and cinematography was also on point in each episode, with some really effective imagery being implemented throughout. Overall, this is a brilliantly made, psychological thriller. The writing is of a very high standard and the performances are excellent all around. If you are a fan of serial killer stories or anything David Fincher has worked on before, this will be for you. The characters are all interesting and deep and although they may do some questionable things, I can’t wait to see where this endeavour takes them next. I really hope that Netflix can come to some sort of a deal with Fincher to make more seasons of Mindhunter. I genuinely think that this is one of the best TV shows from the past five years and it would be a real shame if we never got any more from this story. [yasr_multiset setid=2] [yasr_visitor_multiset setid=2] If you enjoyed Dan’s review for Mindhunter, check out his review of Love, Death & Robots S1 here, which David Fincher also produced. Buy tickets for BGCP Comic Con in and around Glasgow Scotland – BUY TICKETS Check out all of our Comic, Movie, Television and Videogame Reviews HERE and our Podcasts/Interviews HERE If you want to be part of the BGCP community, Join us on Discord, Twitter, Instagram etc then click HERE www.bigglasgowcomicpage.com

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