Low Winter Sun opens with Frank and fellow cop Joe Geddes (Lennie James) murdering Brennan McCann, an on-the-take police officer, by drowning him in a bar’s kitchen before disposing the body in the river. It is a malaise of storytelling and all I kept thinking was “what is going on?” Fortunately, it eventually finds its footing and rights the ship. It is when the new day dawns that Frank and Joe realize that Internal Affairs (aka “The Rat Squad”) are in the department and trying to find McCann…amongst other things....

There’s plenty banking on Man Of Steel then (not least the future of the Justice League movie project), a film with a similar job to do to The Amazing Spider-Man last year. After all, this is a page one reboot, one that retells the origin story of the lead character, and is a firm entry point for those who have never seen a Superman movie before. And, as with Sony and The Amazing Spider-Man, Warner Bros has clearly reacted to the criticisms of the last film....

4.4 Let Me Stand Next To Your Fire This week’s lead story somehow combines the ongoing Ghost Rider saga with the Inhumans arc. You see, the militant scumbags known as the Watchdogs are using S.H.I.E.L.D. files to hunt down the Inhumans. Daisy needs to hack into S.H.I.E.L.D.’s system to find out which Inhuman the Watchdogs are targeting next, so she turns to Simmons to get the info. It is really good to see Simmons and Daisy back together....

5.7 Together Or Not At All Along with their character development, the episode reunites most of the cast and sends a chunk of them to Earth. The episode opens right where Fun And Games ends, with Daisy, Fitz, and Simmons on the run from the octagon. Daisy pokes fun at Fitz, telling him that he could have joined in the fight; he replies with the most adorably tough guy line of the night, “No, it wouldn’t be fair....

But before I get overly enthusiastic, it should be pointed out that any reference to the Lady of the Lake inferred by the title and imagery of the trailer is oblique at best. This game of appearing to drive towards a known piece of Arthurian lore only to swerve at the last moment is becoming rather infantile, but it’s what they enjoy doing on Merlin it seems. Morgana has a dream of Arthur being drowned by a flaxen haired young woman, and a day later Sophia and her father Aulfric turn up at the castle....

You can re-watch the stream right here: Currently, the known returning characters are Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Raiden, Kano, Goro (pre-order bonus), and Quan Chi. The new cast includes D’Vorah (bug lady), Ferra/Torr (Master Blaster knockoff), Cassie Cage (daughter of Johnny and Sonya), and Kotal Kahn (Aztec-looking replacement for Shao Kahn as ruler of Outworld). They used a build from an earlier convention and there’s yet to be any actual footage of Goro....

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one drawn in by the gimmick, because the showing I went to Saturday night was almost completely sold out. The show after mine was completely sold out. When you get the chance, go see this movie in theaters with as big of a crowd as you can muster. Go on Friday night, or Saturday night, in prime time. You won’t be sorry. Ten years later, time moves on....

Refn is well known for his personal brand of uncompromising filmmaking, with his most recent films – Bronson, Valhalla Rising, Drive – establishing him as a director with his own sense of rhythm and minimalistic tastes. Only God Forgives continues that tradition, with its long takes, geometric cinematography and unsettling use of sound. But anyone expecting the movie to be a thematic continuation of Drive – and Ryan Gosling again given top billing may hint at that – will probably be surprised and perhaps even horrified by Refn’s latest opus....

Part toy, part hoax, part occult tool, the Ouija has a unique place in popular culture. Popularized in the Western world by American spiritualist Pearl Cullan circa WWI as a tool to contact the dead, the witchboard or talking board became a cultural phenomenon. As early as 1944, Ouija-style boards were part of horror lore, and they’ve been popping up ever since, whenever you need to have a group of people confronted and killed off by some sort of creeping, ghostly horror....

So begins the first episode of Outcasts, the new, high-concept science fiction series commissioned by the BBC. Liam Cunningham stars as President Richard Tate, the conflicted, exhausted looking leader of the planet’s community of survivors, while Hermione Norris plays doctor Stella Isen, forced to leave her husband and daughter behind on Earth. As the show opens, the mood among the colonists is grim. A craft carrying a fresh wave of survivors is closing in on the planet, but its shields are low and the chances of it surviving the descent into Carpathia’s atmosphere aren’t high....

An admirable ensemble gathers to re-enact the chaos that took place in the wake of those fateful gunshots in Dallas, Texas, and Parkland’s unusual in that it deals with the lesser-known people connected to the event rather than those at the top of the chain of command. Evoking the feel of a docudrama, with Paul Greengrass-style handheld camera work and contemporary news footage spliced in at key moments, Landesman provides a brisk and detailed account of who did what and when....

A year has passed since Tommy Shelby and the Peaky Blinders were last on our screens, and it has been a long wait for the return of Steven Knight’s superlative drama. We join the gang two years after the events of the first series finale with an explosive opening – literally. The Shelbys find themselves with more cash and power than ever before, with their business thriving and the family making money hand over fist....

1.6 Human Is I say unexpected, a Metamorph from the planet Rexor IV is exactly the sort of thing you’d expect to find in sci-fi. It’s as archetypal as the question posed by this episode, one that, thanks to writers like Philip K. Dick, now feels indivisible from the genre: what does it mean to be human? If an alien that takes the natural form of a novelty Plasma Lamp shows sacrifice, kindness and love, is it more human than a man who doesn’t?...

It starts promisingly enough. We meet Pat, now voiced by Stephen Mangan, as he goes about his work in Greendale, courtesy of a really good, extended opening shot. All the regulars are there, with the gentle, at first glance quite limited animation adding to their charm. A plot? Well Pat, we learn, wants to take his beloved Sara on a belated honeymoon to Italy with his forthcoming bonus from the Post Office....

This should be amazing. This has every conceivable element to be one of the most memorable Power Rangers episodes of all time. And we aren’t even done with this season! This could kick off an amazing arc that concludes the series with some real stakes and set up the need for the past Rangers to return!What do we get? More of the same squandered Super Megaforce potential. A large chunk of the episode is spent with Noah fighting Argus…for some reason....

It’s quite fascinating, really, that Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg were the ones who were finally able to breathe life into the property for television audiences. Sure, I was skeptical at first, even though I’m a fan of their movie work overall. Rogen and Goldberg have a knack for marrying vulgarity and violence with humour in a way that can be oddly endearing, if occasionally nauseating. This Is the End, the apocalyptic dark comedy flick written and directed by the longtime duo, is not all that different from Preacher—and this is a good thing for fans of the comic....

5.14 Through A Glass, Darkly But then there’s the prospect of an end date that’s now been set two and a half seasons from Through A Glass, Darkly, and that clarity permeates even the silliest moments of this winter premiere. We will, at some point soon, find out who A is, and we’ll also presumably uncover what the heck is going on in Alison’s head. Having an end date on a show like this, as Lost proved, not only quells the fears of an ever-frustrated audience, but it also gives the writers much more freedom to go forwards with plot and character development – two things that were noticeably stagnating....

Has it really only been six weeks since this new series of Primeval started? Frankly, it seems like only yesterday I was packing away the Christmas tree and doing double duty on writing up the first two episodes. I do not know whether we are so used to the slow build of American television, but to me, having only seven episodes really did feel like things were rushed and finished too quickly, and the longer, interesting lingering plots were wrapped up and dealt with as an afterthought, ruining any momentum the show built up....

Prince Avalanche tells the story of two men hired to repaint the lines on a country highway in Texas one summer shortly after it is ravaged by wildfire. Alvin (Rudd) is a contemplative, yet simple man who takes himself too seriously as he spends his summer trying to prove his manhood to himself and his girlfriend. As the film progressed, I realized it was just not their friendship that could be categorized as semi-strange....