FILM REVIEW: Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation
The latest entry in the long running film series is a taut, tantalising cocktail of numerous identities, kinetic thrills and visual theatrics At their best, the Mission: Impossible movies have slickly...
View ArticleFILM REVIEW: Inside Out
Pixar's latest seems like a routine animated romp, but it may well be the most important film of the summer At its core, Inside Out is really nothing new: the Typical Pixar tale of a mismatched pair...
View ArticleFILM REVIEW: Song Of The Sea
The price of putting the needs of the many ahead of the needs of the few is exquisitely illustrated in Tomm Moore's spectacular animated filmAn intimately affecting Close Encounter beneath and above...
View ArticleTHEATRE REVIEWS: Walking To The Ark & Reservoir Dogs
A pair of recent Derry-Londonderry productions set their sights on real history and reel history respectivelyIf you told me that the theatrical landscape in the still very recent City Of Culture felt a...
View ArticleTHEATRE REVIEW: EXiT
A one-man rock music play achieves pointed resonance through passionate performanceA winsome one-man spin on a popular formula, Eaman Craig's EXiT, directed by Colm S. Herron, hits the spot by opening...
View ArticleFILM REVIEW: Shooting For Socrates
This "football film" tries to be topical and timely but sells its cast terribly shortIn analysing James Erskine's Shooting For Socrates, one has to look beyond what the film tries to do and ask why...
View ArticleMamma Mia! Highlights The Cynicism And Necessity Of The Jukebox Musical
The success of Mamma Mia! has proved that the jukebox musical is alive and well. But is that a good thing?To get to the point, the latest production of Mamma Mia!, premiered at Belfast's Odyssey Arena...
View ArticleMUSIC REVIEW: City Of Derry Jazz And Big Band Festival 2015
Reviews of two events at this year's jazz extravaganza in the former City Of CultureDANA MASTERS, MILLENNIUM FORUM, MAY 3 2015When South Carolina-born, Lisburn-based songstress Dana Masters first...
View ArticleCAPSULE REVIEW: Far From The Madding Crowd
When watching Thomas Vinterberg's Far From The Madding Crowd, adapted by David "Starter For 10" Nicholls from Thomas Hardy's novel, I recalled Sunday Times critic Camilla Long's term "The...
View ArticleTHEATRE REVIEW: One Sandwich Short Of A Genius
NI's Big Telly Theatre Company bring another collection of oddballs and eccentricities to the stage, to sublime effectOne cannot consider the work of Northern Ireland's Big Telly Theatre Company...
View ArticleTHEATRE REVIEW: The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas
The Londonderry Musical Society push boundaries and thrill audiences in their latest productionIt's the LMS, Jim, but not as we know them. For more than half a century, the Londonderry Musical Society...
View ArticleTHEATRE REVIEW: Jack And The Beanstalk
For their 14th annual Christmas panto, Derry/Londonderry's Millennium Forum has concocted something of a comic and musical cabaret.Writer and producer David McLaughlin has tied the classic Jack and the...
View ArticleFESTIVAL IN RETROSPECT: Stendhal 2014
Si's Sights And Sounds wraps up 2014 with a look at this year's extravaganza at Ballymully Cottage FarmIt is written that Stendhal Syndrome is an illness, a psychosomatic state that causes rapid...
View ArticleMUSIC REVIEW: Jingle Ball 2014
With the Jingle Bells comes the Jingle Ball, and, if you're ready to swing with the mood, jingle all the way. Following the obligatory warm up of disco and Chrimbo tunes, Cool FM's third annual "hip...
View ArticleTHEATRE REVIEWS: NI Panto 2014
Read reviews of three Northern Ireland pantomimes - a colourful, charming adventure, a "most amoosing" feast of fun, and a novel, playfully entertaining journeyALADDIN (Grand Opera House, Belfast)A...
View ArticleFILM REVIEW: Night Will Fall/Electricity
Movies about capturing and being captured stand out at Derry-Londonderry's Foyle Film FestivalA Holocaust documentary about a Holocaust documentary, André Singer's Night Will Fall centres on the...
View ArticleTHEATRE REVIEW: Makaronik
Tristan & Isolde meets Isaac Asimov in Dave Duggan's dystopian play"It's only chaos out there."So speaks a confused looking girl in bleak surroundings that match the stiltedness of her speech....
View ArticleFILM REVIEW: Testament Of Youth
The Foyle Film Festival in Derry-Londonderry opens with a torrential tapestry of turbulent events in a World War I settingThe "based on a true story" narrative in films has been tinkered with, tempered...
View ArticleDANCE REVIEW: Ludo Lusi Lusum
Derry-Londonderry's Echo Echo Dance troupe present an educational and interactive feast of fun for adults and childrenIn the very centre of Derry-Londonderry on a cold, wet and windy November night,...
View ArticleFESTIVAL REVIEW: Belfast Festival At Queen's
Two events from this year's Belfast Festival are reviewed - a magical concoction of dance, music and poetry, and a bubbly merging of musical backgroundsNEITHER EITHER, THE MAC THEATRENeither. Either....
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