Film review: ‘THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER’ by Nick Gardener from ‘Built For Speed’

Taika Waititi’s previous instalment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor: Ragnarök was, at least for a while, a strikingly odd experience and refreshingly different flavour in what had become the bland cinematic equivalent of a fast-food franchise.  Suddenly, droll, pisstaking Kiwi humour had entered the overblown Wagnerian Marvel superhero fantasy universe. At first, it felt quite subversive but the film

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Film review: GHOSTBUSTERS, from ‘Built For Speed’

With massive script changes and ridiculous internet fan boy hatred over the switch to an all-female cast, the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot had a troubled birth. On paper, though, the film had potential for a raunchier comic take on the much-loved 1984 original as it reunited the Bridesmaids team of Kristin Wiig, Melissa McCarthy and director Paul Feig. Unfortunately, little of

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Film review: IN THE HEART OF THE SEA, from ‘Built For Speed’

Herman Melville’s 1851 novel Moby Dick is alternately one the greatest and one of the most tedious books of all time. Melville’s epic summations of human history and culture are wonderfully evocative but his frequent and long-winded descriptions of whaling contraptions are a major chore. Ron Howard’s latest film, In The Heart of The Sea, which is based on the

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Film review: THE AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON, from ‘Built For Speed’

Avengers: Age of Ultron is the 11th Marvel comics cinema adaptation and the series is feeling a little tired.  The first Iron Man and Avengers films cleverly balanced dynamic action with cheeky humour and an inventive vision of futuristic technology but the many Marvel superhero films that have followed, including Age of Ultron, have, unfortunately, become tiresome and infuriatingly cluttered

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