You won't realise how much of a technical masterpiece Star Wars is until you've seen the Despecialized Edition, which takes away every single effect that was added in for the fun of it.

If someone you know or your child has not seen any of the original Star Wars movies before and could end up thinking CG looked like that back in 1977, don't show them the special edition even if it gets released on the big screen or hesitate to download this edition. Blow their minds like they're supposed to be blown.

This may be just a run-of-the-mill CG flick - a sequel, silly story, talking animals, celebrity casting, a few jokes about pop culture or toilets with a legit toot.

However, it's one of the most bonkers films I've seen this year and I do not apologise for enjoying it so much.

The last two films proved to be better than your average post-Potter fare, with fantastic characterisation, strong subject matter and writing that could only get better when they picked up Michael Arndt as a one-timer. Problem is, some trilogies just have to stay trilogies. Shorten the final story down to just one film and this would be one hell of an exciting trilogy.

Then again, are trilogies besides the obvious even possible in this dark age of Hollywood? Here's looking at you, John Lasseter...

There are far better animated shows out there than My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic currently running. There's Steven Universe, Gravity Falls, Rick and Morty, Bob's Burgers, the second half of Bojack Horseman, I could go on.

But really, the show and its two movie spin-offs should be appreciated for what they succeed in doing - entertaining children and parents while teaching them lessons on how to be a responsible person rather than simply selling toys.

Take Rainbow Rocks for example, in which the villain from the previous film has changed sides completely and struggles to get the past out of her and other people's memories. Fortunately, there are people who do forgive her and help her to blow the doubters away. While it starts off with a dull tone and the rest is nothing amazing, it is what it is - cute, wholesome family entertainment with good morals, well-developed characters and hardly any blockbuster trash.

Of course, a substantial amount of the "basement dwellers" who watch this show for its jokes and action are sure to ignore this message and continue dissing ethnicities and haters, and dreaming of marrying these characters in their horse forms. Man, am I glad to only kinda like this show in its current status.

*checks his watch*


It's been a while since this piece of fantastic premiered in Scotland, Weinsteins. People are going to find apps that can change the region of Netflix and watch it on their computers. Besides, people love it. Please tell us as soon as possible when you are going to release it in cinemas or it'll be a box office bomb when it finally opens.

This film has still not made it to any other screen in the UK since its premiere at the London Film Festival that I had no idea about, but recently a good friend told me that with my special little Chrome app I can go to Netflix, switch it to the Canadian region and watch it straight from there. This friend of mine loved Jodorowsky's Dune, as did another, but another friend of mine pretty much despised it and so did the guy whose Letterboxd review got the most likes out of any.

Jodorowsky's Dune is a similar experience to Persistence of Vision - the films involved in both these documentaries had the most ambition of any films of their kinds and yet Hollywood spoiled their dreams. And it's no wonder - Alejandro Jodorowsky's vision of Frank Herbert's novel was all craziness for 12 hours - it could have been even more confusing than what David Lynch shat out eventually.

But having seen The Holy Mountain, the whole vision for the story expressed in this film pulled me in as much as it did the people involved; it may have ended up style-over-substance, but I'd take a 12 hour mess-terpiece over the loudness of the final, 137-minute product any day. Oh, with all this overblown ambition he was a nutcase. A highly intelligent nutcase. But that's what makes him and this undeniably lovable.