Matthew Buck

I'm a guy from northern England in his mid-30's with no particular sporting ability. I've never been to an NBA game and I've been bored by the few English professional basketball games I have seen. But I've also been gripped by the recent Netflix/ESPN series "The Last Dance" and I now realise that somehow, in a very small way, I'm actually part of Michael Jordan's incredible legacy.

"The Trial of the Chicago 7" is written and directed by Aaron Sorkin and anyone who knows me will tell you that I am a huge fan of his. I've watched almost every single TV programme and movie he's ever created, although for some reason I've never been drawn to "Charlie Wilsons War" and I only discovered "Malice" (Sorkin's second movie script from 1993) when researching for this review.

Oh my word! This is the most excited I've been for a film release since the midnight showing of "Avengers: Endgame" last year in my local IMAX. I'm a massive fan of the stage musical, to the point where I've seen it twice in London's West End and once on Broadway - after waiting over 8 hours outside the Richard Rodgers Theatre in the cancellation queue. The favourite cast I've seen to date is the first run from London, but I've always wished I could have seen the original from Broadway with writer and creator Lin-Manuel Miranda starring as the lead; and now I can.

After it's early release in the US, "Frozen 2" has just arrived for home streaming via Disney + worldwide, so I thought now was a good time to take a look at the movie that had the unenviable task of following the highest grossing animation film of all time.

I was really looking forward to this and to a certain degree, I think I needed it. My family and I have been really fortunate in a lot of ways over the last few months, but after Brexit, another general election, COVID-19, lockdown and the (essential) aftermath of the recent murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, my soul really needed a fresh, silly, Will Ferrell comedy as a break for ninety minutes.

We all knew that when they rebooted "Jurassic Park" with "Jurassic World" in 2015, it was never going to be for a one-off. It was always going to be a new franchise with at least a trilogy of films, they just needed that first one to be a relative success. Well, it proved to be a monster hit with a worldwide gross of over $1.6bn; that's Marvel Avenger's money!