In the third and final part of our year in review, Fletcher Walton and Joe Espiner look in greater depth at five of the features that got us to the pictures in 2021. And in the week of the 50th anniversary of its UK release, fresh from a cinema viewing back in September, we reconsider a single fascinating scene from A Clockwork Orange. Last Night in Soho(Edgar Wright) Across five films this century, Edgar Wright has proven himself the best action director English language cinema has produced in 30 years. But his ever-developing technical elan has always been complimented by strong work as a wr ..read more

  In the second installment of our year-end review, Joe Espiner and Fletcher Walton guide us through a (half-) year at the local multiplex. Copshop(dir. Joe Carnahan) The surprise of 2021. A gaggle of hitmen and their target descend on an isolated police station to wreak havoc over the course of a single night. I expected another of the by-the-numbers B-action romps that Gerard Butler churns out on a bi-monthly basis (Law Abiding Citizen Has Fallen in a Den of Thieves). But this is a smart, fun, single-location siege film in the mould of Peckinpah, Hill or Carpenter. While not in the sam ..read more

In our first of three year-end articles, child of the ’80s Luke Littleboy tries to sense-make in a Post-Thatcher, Post-9/11, Post-Bailout, Post-Brexit, Post-Trump, very much not Post-Covid 21st century through the context of his boyhood cinematic heroes. James Bonding Makes Me Feel Good The jig is up, isn’t it. Modern box office cinema just ain’t that interesting. From a paint-by-numbers Star Wars reboot cycle, through Marvel’s exhaustive, exhausting and only sporadically entertaining brand expansion, to a global top ten that often can’t offer even two original Hollywood pictures, we’re all ve ..read more

In Issue 30 of The Evening Glass, Fletcher Walton is joined by comedy’s Aidan McCaffery to discuss Fletcher’s recent extensive analysis of the streaming landscape – which you’ll find here – and Hollywood’s rejigged release slate for 2020 – our original preview of which you’ll find here. Plus, as ever, there’s digressions galore – into the cult of Red Dwarf, the Arnold Schwarzenegger School of Acting, and, surprisingly, Thom Yorke swearing in a fishbowl courtesy of Meeting People is Easy. Let us know what you think on Facebook, Twitter, leave us a review on iTunes, follow us ..read more

As Covid-19 lockdown (sort of) eases in (parts of) the UK, Fletcher Walton and Luke Littleboy review how they’ve been feeling and what they’ve been watching in lieu of going to the flicks. “Time Enough At Last” by Fletcher WaltonThe last film I saw at the cinema is one that doesn’t exist. In any other year, that might seem strange. Back in February, I was delighted to catch an invitation to a test screening. Studios run test screenings for new films several months ahead of scheduled release in order to guide reshoots, fine tune a final cut, or identify an audience around which to develop mark ..read more

OSS20-0519/0612FW103 – From the Files of O.S.S. – No Short Cuts: The O.S.S. Guide to Streaming Films in the UK Supplementary to our forthcoming discussion on The Evening Glass, in which comedy’s Aidan McCaffery insists streaming films is the bee’s knees and physical media proponent and laserdisc collector Fletcher Walton ain’t so sure, One Sensational Shot presents its findings on the state of streaming in the UK in 2020 and considers what streaming means for people who like watching films. Don’t junk your DVDs just yet! Does The Gravy Train exist? Also known as The Dion Brothers, Th ..read more

In Issue 29 of the The Evening Glass, Luke and Fletcher return to Luke’s DVD A to Z for the first time in a year (a year!) to rewatch effervescent cult comedy BASEketball. Produced, directed and ostensibly written by spoof supremo David Zucker, it’s equally a vehicle for its stars ascendant Trey Parker and Matt Stone in, amazingly, their third and, amazingly, last live action outing. Twenty-two years old next month, here in the UK its theatrical release was canceled – I remember reading Empire magazine’s preemptive review that summer before the trail went dead for more than a year until i ..read more

OSS20-0519/0612FW103 – A Beginner’s Guide to Streaming Films in the UK Supplementary to our forthcoming discussion on The Evening Glass, in which comedy’s Aidan McCaffery insists streaming films is the bee’s knees and Fletcher Walton ain’t so sure, One Sensational Shot presents its findings on the state of streaming in the UK in 2020 and considers what streaming means for people who like watching films. Does The Gravy Train exist? Also known as The Dion Brothers, The Gravy Train is a now legendary 1974 knockabout crime comedy by Jack Starrett, co-written by Terry Malick, starring Stacy Ke ..read more

The Evening Glass has long functioned as a clearinghouse of relative topicality for whatever Luke and I happened to like at the flicks or on TV that month. But it’s always been our intention to expand into other areas of interest, as soon as we could come up with some witty names. There’ll be One Sensational Sound, a repository for discussions of our musical tastes. The literary wing of the burgeoning criticism empire will, naturally, be labelled One Sensational Sentence. And we were all set to launch One Sensational Sprite this spring, but then I beat Luke best-three-out-of-five at ..read more

A reluctantly single yuppie inadvertently befriends the lonely oddball who installed his cable. An over-the-hill male model is brainwashed into a political assassination. A band of pampered actors marooned in jungle begin to live their roles for real. Through these diverse premises, director Ben Stiller has sculpted accessibly silly Hollywood comedies that at the same time function as densely detailed, slyly subversive satires of a self-involved American culture at media overload. In the second edition of our 90s Comedian series, Luke and Fletcher step into The Electronic Labyrinth to reflect ..read more