Dan Says its Alright

Is This Thing On ? is inspired by the story of English comedian John Bishop, who attended a comedy open mic night while going through a divorce and went on to become a successful comedian and regular fixture on British television. The focus here, however, is not on an emerging comedy career but on the way finding a creative outlet gives the central character an injection of life and a new perspective on, and possibly a chance to save, his broken marriage. The premise is well executed but there isn't enough insight to prop up the threadbare story. Based on a UK comedian they may be, but events here are transported to New York. The film opens with Alex Novak (Will Arnett) looking lost at his kid's assembly before we witness him and wife Tess (Laura Dern) calmly decide to call time on their marriage. Feeling lonely (and broke) Alex signs up for an open mic spot in order to avoid paying the entrance and ends up diving headlong into the world of stand-up comedy, which ends up servin...

28 Years Later : The Bone Temple is a direct sequel to, you guessed it, 28 Years Later. So direct in fact, that they were actually filmed back to back. Nia DaCosta replaces Danny Boyle in the director's chair and accomplishes something pretty remarkable by largely keeping pace with the stellar last instalment while giving Bone Temple a flavour all of its own.  We open with Spike (Alfie Williams) being forced to fight for his life in an empty swimming pool at the command of "Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal" (Jack O'Connell). Despite the young teen being clearly out of his depth, and traumatised, Spike scores a lucky (and gruesome) win over his opponent, earning himself a spot as one of Sir Jimmy's "Fingers". This means the lucky lad now gets to roam the land sporting a tracksuit and blonde wig and torture people to death in the name of Satan, who Sir Jimmy claims is his father. Not the journey of self-discovery Spike was looking for when he left his village at th...

 Another year in the rear view mirror means another ranking of every new release film I caught in the cinema this year. Despite 75 films making the list there are some fairly big omissions so if your favourite isn't on here, just imagine it up near the top. Also, we are talking UK releases.  75. The Stranger Chapter 2 This lame duck franchise props up the rankings for the second year in a row. A little more happens this time round but there is no jeopardy since we know the protagonist needs to make it to part 3. Also undermines its main premise (people might just decide to murder you for no reason) by giving the masked killers backstory. At least a section with a wild boar trying to gut somebody means the audience aren't the only ones nearly bored to death. 74. Hurry Up Tomorrow When a musician decides to write and star in their own movie the results are often pompus nonsense, so the problem with this effort from Abel "The Weeknd" Tesfaye isn't that its ridiculous...