MovieMuse
Born under a wanderin’ star and into the age of crappy direct-to-video sci-fi movies, Graeme ‘JDandDiet’ Mason has enjoyed a frankly bewildering respect for terrible movies ever since his Dad ensured he had a memorable first trip to cinema with the Star Wars/Magnificent Seven mash-up Battle Beyond The Stars. Since then he has come to appreciate some of the finer cinematic pleasures on offer, but still routinely slums it with low-budget genre fare from the Eighties and Nineties.
Away from movies, Graeme is a freelance writer, mainly for the award-winning Retro Gamer magazine, as well as sister publication GamesTM and popular website Eurogamer.
Graeme lives in Chelmsford, Essex, with a vast DVD and VHS collection that is kept well hidden from potential visitors.
Graeme’s Favourite Things…
| Films | Games | TV | Music |
|---|---|---|---|
| Die Hard | Dead Space (Xbox 360) | Red Dwarf | Wild Wood – Paul Weller |
| Black Hawk Down | Resident Evil 4 (GameCube) | ER | Earthling – David Bowie |
| Goodfellas | Resident Evil REMake (GameCube) | The Walking Dead | Screamadelica – Primal Scream |
| The Thing (1982) | Laser Squad (Spectrum) | Match of the Day | Violator – Depeche Mode |
| Airplane | Chaos (Spectrum) | Blackadder | Achtung Baby – U2 |
| Blade Runner | Tenchu (PlayStation) | ||
| Grosse Pointe Blank | Streets Of Rage 2 (Megadrive) | ||
| Raiders of the Lost Ark | Fallout: New Vegas (Xbox 360) | ||
| Pulp Fiction | Command & Conquer: Red Alert (PC) | ||
| Casablanca | Half-Life 2 (PC) |
Graeme’s Reviews
| Poster | Movie | Year | Comments | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Suicide Squad | 2016 | Click to see our detailed review. | 6 |
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Deadpool | 2016 | Click to see our detailed review. | 7 |
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La La Land | 2016 | A charming and attractive homage to the classic Hollywood musicals and dramas of old. | 7 |
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Contagion | 2011 | A realistic and compelling infection thriller that begs for a concentrated dose instead of its multi-character strands and pointlessly starry cast. | 6 |
 |
Terminator Salvation | 2009 | An amiable, if somewhat soulless, bridge between the previous Terminator movies, ruined slightly by a bland performance from Sam Worthington. | 6 |
 |
Labyrinth | 1986 | A charming fantasy tale that, while questionable in certain acting areas (yes, I'm looking at you Ms.Connelly), is still good fun and contains bags of ideas. | 8 |
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Barb Wire | 1996 | A somewhat vacuous retread of Casablanca that struggles to overcome the inherent inability of Pamela Anderson to actually act, despite a solid supporting cast. | 4 |
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Star Trek Into Darkness | 2013 | No Review Supplied | 6 |
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Guardians of the Galaxy | 2014 | Not much was expected from the Guardians, a relatively little-known rag-tag superhero team from the Marvel universe. That the film is a total delight from start to finish is down to the charisma of its leads and the verbal interplay between them. | 8 |
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Iron Man 3 | 2013 | The Iron Man series must rank as the most disappointing since the excellent first film. This third film ranks marginally better than the second, but is still a loud and largely incomprehensible mess that generally wastes the talents of Robert Downey Jr. | 4 |
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Ant-Man | 2015 | Like Guardians, Ant-Man arrived with little expectation, and is probably one of my favourite MCU films so far. A largely comical performance from Paul Rudd is brilliantly supported by Michael Douglas, and the movie is huge fun from start to finish. | 10 |
 |
Captain America: The Winter Soldier | 2014 | Winter Soldier takes its cue from the Manchurian Candidate as Steve Rogers’ friend is resurrected as a conflicted villain. There’s plenty of action, but the film feels like a stepping stone, although wins kudos for introducing the swirling hero Falcon | 6 |
 |
Avengers: Age Of Ultron | 2015 | There’s plenty of explosions and action, yet it’s in the film's quieter moments when it shines, especially a scene in which the heroes try to lift Thor’s hammer. His half-worried glance when Cap budges Mjolnir a micro-millimetre is worth the movie a | 6 |
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Star Wars: The Force Awakens | 2015 | As another chapter in the saga, The Force Awakens can only truly be judged when the remaining two movies of its particular trilogy are revealed. Until then, as a standalone movie, it’s a rollicking and entertaining two hours, just as Star Wars was. | 8 |