Author Phil W. Bayles

The opening of Danny Collins claims that it's "kind of based on a true story a little bit". It's kind of a good movie a little bit too. The slew of classic Lennon songs is a nice touch, but as late-in-life...

Don’t be put off by the title inspired by a Disneyland ride – The Haunted Mansion this certainly isn't. Like the glittering, space-age utopia it takes its name from, Brad Bird’s sci-fi adventure is a...

The Finnish countryside provides an original and undeniably beautiful setting for this latest addition to the "Die Hard in a " genre of action movies. Immortal badass Samuel L. Jackson does a great job of...

With the rise of on-demand services like Netflix and the ever-growing culture of "binge-watching", the relationship between television and film is becoming increasingly blurred. Shows like House of Cards,...

In Samba, as in their last crowd-pleaser Les Intouchables, Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano know how to see the bright side of a bad situation. The jokes consistently hit their mark, while never detracting...

Welcome to By The Book, in which we take a look at cinematic adaptations of literary works. This feature is less a review of the merits and shortcomings of the films themselves, rather a study of the films as...

"Then they came for me," bemoans the end of Martin Niemöller's poem, "and there was no one left to speak for me." In Child 44 Daniel Espinosa has crafted an interesting drama about the bureaucracy of...

The idea that the English language has a monopoly in cinema should surprise absolutely nobody. The power of Hollywood meant American culture dominated screens for more than a century, and for as long as there...

It's fitting that the seemingly ageless Keanu Reeves should play John Wick. Like its leading man, the film feels unstuck in time; a forgotten '80s classic that would have starred the likes of Stallone or...

Fast & Furious 7 feels like it was written by a 13 year-old on a sugar bender, which is entirely a good thing. James Wan directs glorious action sequences with the manic energy of a Saturday morning...

There's nothing about Run All Night that you haven't seen before in a dozen other Liam Neeson movies, though this one's assured execution makes it an entertaining watch at least. While Neeson could (and...

The spirit of Barry Hines and Ken Loach is clear to see in this electrifying thriller about honour killings. Like the classic '80s drama Threads, a social-realist view of life on the Yorkshire moors...

Explaining what happens in Cloud Atlas is surprisingly simple. Explaining why it deserves to be loved and admired is a little harder. The story (based on a novel by David Mitchell) is in fact six separate...

Project X meets The Butterfly Effect in this story of time-travelling teens, sponsored by Microsoft and Maserati. It wouldn't be a Michael Bay production without obscene product placement and lots of staring...

If Robert Zemeckis' Who Framed Roger Rabbit were made today, the sequel would be greenlit and in pre-production before the end of opening weekend. Originally released in 1988, its groundbreaking mix of...