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©Hulu & Disney+ Despite all the controversy surrounding him in recent times, few would dare dispute the influence Woody Allen has exerted and continues to exert on other comedians, writers and directors. Filmmakers like Rob Reiner and Martin Scorsese have in movies like ' When Harry Met Sally ' and ' Bringing Out The Dead ' paid homage to the New Yorker's comedic style and his visual flair. Noah Baumbach has also taken on the mantle of Allen's natural heir with movies that share  his quirky, self-deprecating wit and his penchant for an intense family relationship drama . Steve Martin is another long time admirer, identifying the New Yorker as a key influence  in a 1999 interview with Carrie Fisher  in the LA Times. ©Hulu & Disney+ Allen's influence is plain to see in some of Martin's best work. ' LA Story ' takes elements of ' Manhattan " - particularly the central character's relationships with women - and transplants them i

@Open Road Films & Amazon Prime Liam Neeson.. another action thriller.. beating up men half his age.. blah blah blah.. That's how I feel every time I review most movies these days starring the Northern Ireland actor. I've grown weary of bemoaning the way he trots out easy to assemble, dull action thrillers . I also suspect most of you are bored of reading or listening to critics who regularly lament his determination to be the 21st Century answer to Charles Bronson . @Open Road Films & Amazon Prime I am in no doubt too you are fed up reading how an actor of his talent  could do a whole lot more with the right project . So here we are again - watching another Neeson movie where he gets to beat up a load of younger bad guys and blow up some old ones too. Every time, though, that Neeson puts another twist on the action formula, it ends up being one dimensional and dull. His new picture is 'Memory' and, well, the clue's in the title of this Martin Campbell direc

©Universal Pictures Over the years, we've become accustomed to filmmakers paying their dues to great directors who have inspired them. Brian de Palma has made a career out of paying his dues to Alfred Hitchcock and Sergei Eisenstein. Martin Scorsese has referenced loads of films from Edwin S Porter's 'The Great Train Robbery' in 'GoodFellas' and Luchino Visconti's 'The Leopard' in 'The Age of Innocence,' to Woody Allen's 'Manhattan' in 'Bringing Out The Dead' and Harold Lloyd's 'Safety Last' in 'Hugo'. Steven Spielberg hasn't been averse to tipping his hat to other auteurs either. ©Universal Pictures There have been references to Alfred Hitchcock's 'The Birds' in 'Jaws,' John Ford's 'The Quiet Man' in 'ET,' the work of Busby Berkeley in 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom' to several Stanley Kubrick nods in 'AI: Artificial Intelligence' inclu

©BBC  It's easy to grasp why there might be two schools of thought on the BBC"s four part series 'Marriage'. To some it is a refreshing slice of life drama about a typical middle aged English couple. Others are simply of the view that the show is mundane. Whether you like Stefan Golazewski's series or not probably depends on your expectations of TV drama. ©BBC Nicola Walker and Sean Bean star as Emma and Ian - a couple wrestling with demons from the present and the past. At the start of the show, they are returning from holiday and are in an airport getting fast food. He's a nervous flier.  They chatter about the airport outlet charging Emma for ketchup and then bicker about why she did not get a jacket potato for him and just chips. Golazewski's drama is very much from the "show, don't tell" school of writing, so the audience is left to decipher what is really going on with Emma and Ian as they go about their business. ©BBC Emma works in a la