Author Christopher Preston

Which is worse: a bad film or a disappointing one? Transcendence manages to be both at the same time. Wally Pfister’s directorial debut is a fractured crazy pavement, cementing together thick slabs of...

A darkness hangs over Calvary; as bleak and angry as a pregnant thundercloud. Those hoping for a thematic sequel to The Guard will quickly discover that they won’t find it here. Calvary isn’t perfect; the...

Calling Marc Webb’s perfunctory remixing of Spider-Man’s origins "Amazing" was an audacious claim back in 2012. Now, less than two years later, comes the web-slinger’s greatest battle: to remain...

The Double sees Jesse Eisenberg thumping his two favourite masks - milksop and  scumbag - together as if they were a pair of cymbals. This doppelgänger nightmare is something we should want to digest...

Muppets Most Wanted isn’t the Muppets resting upon their laurels. It’s them lounging on a throne crafted from pure nostalgic complacency. Ricky Gervais picks up where Jason Segel and Amy Adams left off....

Starred Up serves its porridge with bits of broken glass. It grins as it spits teeth, just as likely to erupt into another volcanic episode of violence as it is to cough up a pearl of prison wisdom. Jack...

300 was brawny entertainment back in 2006, pumped full of radioactive testosterone. But this feeble sort-of sequel exhibits a warrior well past its prime. Weak and saggy, the once-chiseled abs have melted into...

In recent years, Liam Neeson has punched one half of a Middle-Eastern crime family, identity thieves, a pack of wolves, and the other half of said Middle-Eastern crime family. Now he has to punch an endangered...

A song scabs over the penultimate scene of Need For Speed (or Braking Bad) before it hits you that it’s actually a truly dreadful cover of Dylan’s 'All Along The Watchtower'. This mangled arrangement...

If Volume I was a euphoric one night stand, Volume II proves to be the sour regret of the morning after. Both of Nymphomaniac’s instalments run for 123 minutes, but this film feels as if it is taking...

Sex! Naked bits! Shia LaBeouf! Now Lars von Trier has got your attention, allow him to present you with a bold, stylish, often hilarious and entirely gripping story of one woman and her sexual...

The LEGO Movie is a chocolate box of joy. Some jokes may not taste as good as others, but you are never too far away from something you’re going to adore. Lord and Miller have done it again, this time...

Lay down your pitchforks. Extinguish your torches. José Padilha’s RoboCop reboot is most definitely not the disaster we expected (and perhaps even hoped for). A philosophical twist on the original story...

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit is an old song being covered by a new band. Spies, baddies, countries at stake. There is even a rivalry between America and Russia. Fancy that! Chris Pine is a likeable lead, but...

The iTunes store is a dense jungle of content. It has become overgrown with mp3s and mp4s, singles, albums, compilations, movies and TV shows, books and even collections for University study. But machete your...