Because Everybody Else Has One

"Legendary", he may well be, but there's nothing "legendary" about this flat, uninspired biopic of the Brazillian football great.  This review is also up at Channel 24 What it's about The true story of legendary football player, Edson Arantes do Nascimento – or Pele as he is better known - that his early life from childhood poverty in the slums of Brazil to redefining Brazilian football forever with his appearance as the youngest ever player in the 1958 World Cup. What we thought There's clearly a good film to made about the life and career of Pele but, sadly, Pele: The Birth of a Legend is very much not it. As someone who is not now and will almost definitely never be a soccer fan, Pele does have to work twice as hard to win me over but there's something telling that the only times the film came even close to holding my attention was during its nicely cinematic football matches. Not only are these scenes surprisingly exci...

Liam Neeson is an actin thriller? Surely not! This review is also up at Channel 24 What it's about Jim Conlon is a washed up mob enforcer plagued by demons of his past, but when he kills the son of his boss and best friend while defending the life of his own estranged son, those demons come to the fore as he has to choose between his flesh and blood and the man to whom he has been loyal his whole life. What we thought Teaming up once again with director Jaume Collet-Serra, with whom he already made two of his more solid action thrillers, Unknown and Non-Stop, Liam Neeson once again reminds us just how good he is at playing the grizzled action hero and just how capable he is of playing so much more than just the grizzled action hero. Run All Night definitely falls somewhere towards the top of Liam's late period ouvre, which was in itself quite a pleasant surprise, but it's hard to shake the feeling that it would perhaps have been far more effective –...