Christopher Symonds

Octavia Spencer has been a staple in movies for years. She’s a talented, larger than life actor that almost always stands out in an ensemble, or kills it in a cameo. Quite rightly, she has been campai...
When Stephen King ’s doorstop novel was adapted for TV in the 90’s, it accomplished what shouldn’t have been possible. King ’s novel is a behemoth tome, with dozens of characters, and was one of his t...
Making any film is a tricky endeavor, let alone a film in a franchise that shows no duds. Added to which, this latest incarnation has been balanced carefully between...
Creative writing courses talk about where that spark of an idea can come from, and how to nurture that possibility into something bigger. One of the catalysts most often encouraged is to pose a questi...
John Wick is one of those franchises that seemingly came out of nowhere. Keanu Reeves (deservedly) has maintained a level of currency through his lengthy and stellar career, but if we’re to be honest,...
Eleven years ago, I snorted derisively at the audacity of the newly minted Marvel Studios plans. Without a single hit to their name, a grand plan had been hatched: they would release a litany of films...
As a huge fan of Guillermo Del Toro ’s 2004 original adaptation of Mike Mignola ’s Hellboy , I was disappointed that he didn’t get to round out his trilogy in this universe. But, as with most things t...
The DCEU , if it is even called that anymore, has been making significant strides with its output in the last couple of years—and amazingly WITHOUT its two heavy hitters. Wonder Woman and Aquaman have...
2017’s IT adaptation has heralded somewhat of a renaissance of Stephen King based films. The deftly adapted retelling of King’s doorstop novel from the Eighties raked in over 700 million worldwide, so...
This film has been a revelation for this reviewer. I am always banging on about product coming out of Hollywood being just remakes and sequels these days. I pine and whine about the fact that they jus...
So here we are, staring down the tail end of the MCU’s Phase 3, with only Avengers: End Game remaining. Marvel had already triumphantly pumped us for the inevitable finale, but in an interesting move,...
M. Night Shyamalan is responsible for one of the most brilliant supernatural thrillers, and one of the most impressive cinematic twists in film history: The Sixth Sense . That film established him as...
There are few people in the world who don’t know the name Freddie Mercury , whether you’re a fan of Queen , born after he died, or have lived in a cave forever. As someone born the same year as one of...
The passage of time can be a quiet fox, running unencumbered so deftly that one is caught unawares as it bluntly and unmercifully makes its presence known. When I sat down to review this Blu-ray, the...
By the 1980s, cinema was in well and truly in the post Star Wars world. Its monster success and permeation into the cultural zeitgeist still looms large over movies today. Like any profitable venture,...