The Movie Mull

Joining the mulls for this special episode, Lauren from Local Girl Productions invited the team to discuss great lead performances from female actors in midlife or older. 
A survey of 2,000 movies recently revealed that female actors were increasingly marginalised as they entered their 40s and beyond, given much less dialogue and screentime while male stars in middle age continue to be given more to say. This episode of the podcast gave us the opportunity to draw out examples of phenomenal female actors who bucked that trend by continuing to lead films with jaw-dropping performances - while also proving that those movies have a significant audience. 
 
Local Girl Productions are a theatre production company based in South Essex focused on making theatre for, by, and about 'ordinary' humans. Their next production is Oestrogen Assemble, taking place on the 13th September at My Place in Harold Hill. The trailer, featured in this episode of the podcast, includes music from the show with lyrics and music by Jules Tipton. 
 

This week, the mulls are back with three new reviews for you.  
Richard brings us his thoughts on James Gunn's launch movie for the new DC cinematic universe - Superman, starring David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan and Nicholas Hoult. Then, Neil tells us all about the return of everyone's favourite homicidal robotic doll in M3GAN 2.0. Finally, Darren wraps things up with a review of director Steven Soderbergh and writer David Koepp's second collaboration of the year - stylish spy thriller Black Bag. 
Have you seen any of these movies? Do get in touch and let us know your thoughts.
 

This week, inspired by teachers on screen from Alan Rickman's Severus Snape to Robin Williams' John Keating, our host Richard invite us to talk about movies that are centred around the teacher's story.
From inspiring teachers portrayed by the likes of Michelle Pfeiffer or Richard Dreyfuss, to more troubled portrayals like Matthew Broderick's or Cameron Diaz, via pretend teachers like Jack Black and Arnold Schwarzenegger, the mulls explore education both good and bad.  
Listen in and then get in touch to let us know the teachers you love to watch on screen.

On this week's episode, we have four more reviews for you.  
To kick things off, Richard talks about Luca Guadagnino's second film of 2024, the Daniel Craig starring, William Burroughs adaptation, Queer.  Then, Neil tells us all about the (mostly) live-action remake of Dreamworks' animated movie How To Train Your Dragon which sees original director Dean DeBlois return to oversee the franchise's return. Justin returns to school days via the Peter Weir classic Dead Poets Society 36 years after it's original release, after which Darren wraps things up with a very different return - to the John Wick universe - with his review of Ballerina starring Ana de Armas, Anjelica Huston, Gabriel Byrne and, as the marketing keeps reminding us, Keanu Reeves.
We'll be back with more next week, but in the meantime, drop us a message and let us know what you've been watching recently - and what you thought of it. 
Don't forget, you can also tune in to our weekly radio show, every Monday from 20:00-22:00 on City Sound. 

This week, our host Neil invites us to look back across the 31-year history of Dreamworks Animation... from Antz and The Prince of Egypt in 1998 to this year's reimagining of How To Train Your Dragon, via Shrek, Madagascar and so much more - there's plenty to discuss!
We talk about their highs and lows, as well as our personal favourites.
Get in touch and let us know your own...
 
 

Once again this week, the mulls are bringing you a 'fresh out of the box' review!  They have headed to their local cinema to watch the latest summer blockbuster: a return to the 'Jurassic' Franchise that started back in 1993 with Jurassic Park.
This seventh film in the series suggests something of a fresh start with director Gareth Edwards bringing in a new ensemble: Scarlet Johansson, Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey and Rupert Friend.... plus plenty of new dinosaurs. 
Listen in as they hover outside Vue Lakeside briefly sharing their initial expectations, and then press record on a full review as soon as they step outside of the screening. 
Have you had a chance to get out to see this one yet?  If so, we'd love to hear your thoughts and where you think it sits within the Jurassic series of movies.  

For this week's What We've Been Watching episode, the mulls are back with four more reviews for you - helping you make those big life decisions: what am I going to watch tonight?
First up, Richard is thrilled to have a chance to catch up with the third film in Denzel Washington's franchise collaboration with Antione Fuqua: The Equalizer 3 in which Robert McCall takes a Mediterranean holiday! Darren reviews the Oscar-winning independent animated feature, Flow - the adventures of a cat, dog, capybara, lemur and secretary bird in a lifeboat.  Justin discusses the good and the bad of Jim Carrey's step into the psychological mystery genre in 2007's The Number 23, before Neil wraps things up by talking about the action comedy Deep Cover which sees Bryce Dallas Howard, Orlando Bloom and Nick Mohammed as impro-comedians taking down drug lord, Paddy Considine.
Have you seen any of these?  Let us know your thoughts - we'd love to hear from you.

Following our episode on memorable debut performances a few weeks ago, Justin has invited his fellow mulls to reflect on some truly great final performances.  Each mull was asked to discuss three actors who had noteworthy and special final roles to close out an exceptional career.  
Among others, we discuss the careers of actors like Christopher Plummer, Audrey Hepburn, Alan Rickman, Burt Lancaster and John Wayne... 
We could talk about everyone, so jump onto the comments or find us on social media and tell us about someone that we missed.

Trying to decide what to watch this week?  Well, the mulls are back with four film reviews to help you decide what to seek out... or what to avoid.
Darren is inspired by the release of action movie Last Bullet on Netflix this month to go back and watch the whole trilogy - imagine Internal Affairs meets Fast and Furious but in France.  Then, Justin goes back to 2005's biographical drama Capote featuring the legendary Philip Seymour Hoffman.  Richard gets around to seeing Charlize Theron actioner The Old Guard ahead of the next month's release of the sequel, and Neil rounds things up with a review of Guy Ritchie's Indiana Jones-esque actioner: Fountain of Youth - available now on Apple TV+.

In this special episode, recorded in front of a live audience at Grays Town Park Cafe last week, the mulls reflect on summer blockbusters of the past, before looking ahead to the films coming out in UK cinemas this summer... 
What are they looking forward to? What's going to get audiences into the cinemas in June, July and August? What do they expect from a great summer blockbuster?  
Let us know what you're looking forward to - and whether there's anything coming out that you'd like us to do an immediate full review of.  We've already put out our review of early blockbuster contender, MI: Final Reckoning... and are hoping to do the same for Jurassic World Rebirth.  Let us know if there's anything else we should add to the slate of upcoming episodes...