BURTON REVIEWS (and news)

Having never read the book and not really being interested by the trailers or, let’s be honest, it’s lacklustre title I went into this television show expecting to be bored through its first episode as I’m subjected to a slow period piece with a speck of magic lightly brushed in to then leave it and never have it cross my mind again. But oh boy was I wrong. The story of Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrell takes us to a 19 th century England that is devoid of the magic it once had, now only housing two magicians. And so it is up to these two magicians to bring magic back to the lands of England and make it a respectable practice once again, in some cases no matter what the cost. Now as that synopsis of the show carefully dodges any spoilers you may be thinking that the show doesn’t sound all that interesting. But not only through further and interesting plot developments that enrich the mythology of an England that was filled and is now once again capable of magic, and interesting...

The man without fear is back, and now well accommodated within the sacred walls of Marvel Entertainment he’s ditched the leather fetish and been brought back down to the real, harsh world with an almighty and spectacular bang.   The story of this 13 episode revival of the “devil of hell’s kitchen” shows the early days of Mr Murdock’s foray into the world of attorney law and kicking ass with vigilante justice as he aims to cleanse his city of the rampant organised crime that is plaguing the streets of Hells Kitchen thanks to a new terrifying and mysterious king of crime that has forced his way onto the scene. There could be a fear that this singular story is not enough to confidently fill the wide breadth of 13 episodes but through clever scripting that infuses genuinely intriguing mysteries, chess game like manoeuvring from characters, a more moral ambiguous conflict than seen in other Marvel Cinematic Universe products, and twists that while aren’t always completely unexpecte...

After a grievous delay and less than enthusiastic receptions to the previews of The Order 1886 I went into this game worrying that this would be yet another disappointing entry into the awkward early years of the next generation. However the first party studio behind it, Santa Monica , the twisted and blood thirsty minds behind the God of War series, gave me hope in the quality of this generations next triple A game. While this game hasn’t quite lived up to the reputation of excellence that the PlayStation’s first party games have in the past it is definitely still a product worth experiencing. The story of The Order 1886 takes us back to Victorian London and follows Galahad and his squad, knights of the Order, as they have to stamp out a rebellion that is erupting within the city. All while maintaining their sacred oath of protecting mankind from the Werewolf, or Lycan, infestation. While the story’s grounded tone and cool concept of a company of Van Helsing-esque badass’ protect...

With a very impressive heritage that makes my Sci-Fi loving heart flitter with the unique and interesting District 9 and the down right awesome Elysium and now the upcoming promise of an actually good new entry into the Alien series, Neil Blomkamp had me instantly on board for his new movie. While I did go in with more tempered expectations than I did, or will do, for the afore mentioned movies I still had a very large amount of faith in the already proved brilliant talent involved. That may have been a mistake. The story of Chappie takes place in the near future where the police forces are now filled with robots, each with a basic AI system that allows them to not need a human controller to operate them when in the battlefields. But now their creator, Deon Wilson (Dev Patel), wants to push this amazing scientific achievement even further and creates the first authentic artificial intelligence, Chappie (a Blomkamp regular: Sharlto Copley), with a consciousness all of its own. And ...

Ever since the very first trailer; where the director, Matthew Vaughn’s portfolio of past movies, including such great blockbusters as Kick Ass and X Men: first class, got me intrigued to click on the trailer for the fresh stylish aesthetic coupled with the fast paced jaw breaking action to then get me hooked and made me want to stay, I have been very interested and excited for this movie. Now after a considerable delay to theatres, where the films existence sadly fell out of many people’s minds, Kingsman is finally out, exploding onto the scene with nothing but a conspicuous umbrella and expertly tailored suit, reminding you of just how fun a globe trotting espionage flick can be. Kingsman: The Secret Service follows Eggsy (Taron Egerton), a good hearted man trapped in a life of petty crime in London , as he is recruited by an old friend of his fathers, Galahad (Colin Firth), to be a part of the secret spy organisation, the Kingsman. While trying to survive training he must also h...

After the overwhelming fountain of excitement that commenced from February 2013 at the reveal of PlayStation the 4 th to the highly anticipated launch of the new pristine face of gaming, I was more than excited to, for the first time in my existence on this earth, be one of the first adopters of the next leap in gaming technology. I was over the moon when I opened that fateful Christmas present, I was delighted when I heard the calming but powerful starting tones of the system that have followed me around ever since, I was uncontrollably enthralled when I got to mess around and explore everything that this new piece of hardware had to offer, and I was in awe when I loaded the first gorgeous 1080p game that my eyes had the pleasure of experiencing. But now, 1 year on, am I still as in love with the system as when I first laid eyes on it? Am I still awaiting greatness or have I indeed found it within this new machine? Well one aspect that obviously won’t change, of which I am very ...

The summer holidays are over and it’s back to the humdrum routine of work, sleep, work, sleep, work, sleep, and so on. Thankfully though there is always something out there to help ease the pain and lighten up your week. And in this case I received a real shot in the arm of up lifting and generally happy thoughts from the laughter filled night I had watching the legendary Lee Evans live at Capital FM Arena. I have always been a big fan of this comedic genius that in the past has left me curled up in a ball in agony from laughter at the side shattering stand up routines of his I have seen on TV. So I was more than excited to see this performer of pure hilarity live on a stage before me and he definitely did not disappoint. Every single section of the comedians set was almost surgically on point with a precise rhythm of comedy where every joke received at minimum an arena shaking laugh from the entire audience and at maximum tears of joy from the hysterically laughing and clappi...