Mary Poppins Returns

The magical nanny returns to assist the Banks family in Rob Marshall’s long delayed sequel Mary Poppins Returns. Before beginning the review properly I feel it’s worth pointing out that I have no real memory for the original Mary Poppins. It’s a film I saw when I was really young and haven’t seen since so I wasn’t…

10 Best Movies of 2017

I’ve given you my worst of the year list so I’ll end the year on a positive note with the best. 2017 was another year of change for Kneel Before Blog. The biggest change was that we switched to a star rating system for film around halfway through the year. TV will continue to be…

Paddington 2

The lovably accident prone bear with good manners and a heart of gold returns for another cinematic outing in Paul King’s Paddington 2. Paddington’s first cinematic outing was such a joy to watch that I’ll admit I was eagerly anticipating a second instalment. Everything about the first film fit together neatly and the end result…

The Danish Girl

Tom Hooper’s The Danish Girl delivers a fictionalised story based on the real life Danish artists Lili Elbe (Eddie Redmayne) and Gerda Wegener (Alicia Vikander) surrounding Lili’s quest to change gender. This particular story will rise or fall on the strength of the lead performances and this is a point where this film excels. Eddie…

In the Heart of the Sea

Ron Howard’s In the Heart of the Sea takes its inspiration from the shipwreck story that reportedly inspired the Herman Melville novel Moby Dick. The fate of the Essex was turned into a non fiction book in the year 2000. I imagine that this book is largely the source material for this film as the…

Spectre

Daniel Craig returns as James Bond in Spectre; the 24th official entry in the Bond Canon and Craig’s fourth outing as the famous MI6 agent. In this adventure, Bond goes rogue to uncover the truth about a mysterious organisation connected to everything that he has been involved in. It’s been a big year for spy films with…

The Lobster

Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Lobster depicts a dystopian society where being single is so heavily frowned upon that remaining that way nets you a unique punishment. The focus for the audience in this bizarre world is Colin Farrell’s David, a man who is recently divorced and basically sentenced to stay in a hotel in order to…

Suffragette

Sarah Gavron’s Suffragette brings to life the story of the struggle of women to win the right to vote in the early part of the 20th century. It’s a good story worth telling and it should never be forgotten how oppressed women were here in the UK -and across the world- not so long ago….

On the Silver Screen – Paddington

Michael Bond’s creation Paddington gets the big screen live action treatment in this well put together family film chronicling Paddington Bear’s first days in the City of London. Paddington is something of an adaptation of the first stories starring the titular bear but it’s been so long since I read them that I really can’t…