My relationship with Laurel & Hardy is a tentative one. I do enjoy their short films, full of ingenuity and genuinely funny moments. But, they'd be down the list a bit for me on the greatest black and white comedy stars - Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd, then the Marx Brothers maybe, then the slapstick duo next, … Continue reading Stan & Ollie
A new feature on The Wasteland - Each Monday I will induct a new person into the Hall of Fame and give a concise explanation of why they deserve their place in the pantheon of cultural media legends. It is not restricted to actors or movies, it could be a musician, an artist an author, … Continue reading Hall of Fame Inductee #1 Jack Nicholson
Yes, Sunday 24th January 2021 marks the 100th post on this iteration of The Wasteland! This is it - this is the 100th post - ironic and post modern or what!?It has taken just over a year to do so, which makes it a 2 post average a week, and that includes periods during lockdown … Continue reading 100th Post
As the owner of an Amazon Fire stick for a few years now, I would say it is my main & best source of watching films and TV. I have always found there is a mine of quality in the back catalogue of Amazon Prime that doesn't exist on Netflix, or others, for a very … Continue reading 12 of the Best… Vintage BFI Movies
Anyone who watched and enjoyed the entirely silly, but mostly genius, original film version of this, written and directed by the same partnership of Jermaine Clement and Taika Waititi, should not miss this show! Although Clement and Waititi step down from acting duties (aside from cameo appearences), they are replaced by the ideal, if not … Continue reading What We Do in the Shadows
As I have already stated in my review of season one of The Boys, it is a show that I have found compelling to watch without actually liking or thinking it is necessarily very good. The premise was intriguing, and threw up some pretty interesting dramatic conflicts in the first season. But it was obvious … Continue reading The Boys: Season 2
If you check back in the archives of The Wasteland you will see that from time to time I do find myself down the dark, fascinating yet morbid rabbit hole of true crime documentary. I do find the majority of them a little ghoulish, but when done particularly well they can become incredible insights into … Continue reading Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil & Vile
It is difficult to talk about Casey Affleck in a positive light as a movie-maker without mentioning the heightened media storm that surrounded him in 2017, at the time of #metoo and his own moment of personal glory in winning the Best Actor Oscar for his excellent performance in Manchester By the Sea. The Oscar … Continue reading Light of My Life
Robert Rodriguez is not a good director. He isn't an especially good writer or producer either. This is the guy responsible for four Spy Kids films, that start below average and downgrade exponentially into excruciatingly awful. What he is pretty good at is ideas, and seeing the potential of something visually arresting and exciting. That … Continue reading Alita: Battle Angel
Welcome to the second in a series of collected reviews for films I either expected more of and felt disappointed by, or films I watched against my better judgement, suspecting they would be no good all along. For clarification and in full disclosure I did not actually watch all 3 as a triple bill - … Continue reading Bad Movie Triple Bill #2
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