Emma Thompson

News, Reviews & Features
  • Review: Last Christmas has everything she wants if you watch without prejudice

    Movie Review | Ed Williamson | 12th November 2019

    What's it going to be for George Michael, then? The Bohemian Rhapsody-style rock biopic? The Rocketman stylised musical? The Yesterday excuse to bump the songs up the list on Spotify a bit? Well, none of the above, really. Last Christmas is something a bit different: a festive romcom where his songs are there but largely non-diegetic, even though he himself is present in the form of posters on walls and in characters' conversation, so more of a tribute that informs a story. It's an affectionate and funny one too, and the kind that you recognise a fair bit is wrong with, but gosh-darn it, everyone's singing and having a lovely time, and it's Christmas, so just pour yourself a nice tall glass of mulled shut-the-hell up juice and go with it.

  • The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)

    Movie Review | Ed Williamson | 16th October 2017

    Time was, you could get a bit of a reaction by saying Adam Sandler was a good actor. You'd be the toast of the cognoscenti, lauded for your brave and rare insight, or at the very least one of those professional contrarians who make film Twitter such a rich and challenging environment. These days the evidence is there and the idea's not controversial: everyone knows he can do it when he can be bothered changing out of his tracksuit. Maybe it's time to think of him a bit differently.

  • Bridget Jones's Baby

    Movie Review | Ed Williamson | 22nd September 2016

    "Men are like buses," says the Bridget Jones's Baby advert on the side of the ones currently making their way through school run-gridlock, possibly because we're awful and stained with last night's food and can't be relied on to turn up. Bridget's choices were often bad over the first two films, but the scripts usually ignored the fact that her men were worse. Three films in, the franchise seems to have caught up and started rewarding her.

  • Potentially good Adam Sandler film alert

    Movie Trailer | Ed Williamson | 20th August 2014



    (*sighs*) Fine, another trailer for an Adam Sandler film, nothing to see here WAIT SHIT HE'S GOT A BEARD IT MUST BE A SERIOUS ONE MAN YOUR STATIONS EVERYBODY

  • Saving Mr Banks

    Movie Review | Ed Williamson | 26th November 2013

    As obvious an awards tilt as Disney knows Saving Mr Banks to be, it seems more of a mid-budget passion project. How better to venerate its beloved founder than have cuddly ol' Tom Hanks play him? But transparent self-promotion aside - this is Disney, after all - what's really interesting is how it plays out as white-washing advocacy for the process of Hollywoodizing a popular product, using emotion rather than reason to sweep you along and make you root for the studio. And the fact that the film is itself a Hollywoodization of true events.

  • Brave

    Movie Review | Ali | 19th June 2012

    I'd love to be able to say with complete authority that Brave is a colossal return to form for Pixar, but I can't, because... well, frankly, I didn't much feel like seeing Cars 2. Though I can't comment on the specifics, Pixar's last movie felt so cynically made, so driven by the wrong factors, so unlike them. What I am qualified to comment on, however, is Brave and how it's seemingly the complete antithesis of Cars 2: lovingly crafted for all the right reasons and built from the ground up around story and character, not market share or brand recognition. Brave strives above all else to make an emotional connection, and boy does it connect: a hugely atmospheric fairytale of old, it's Pixar's most mature movie to date.

  • Men In Black 3D

    Movie Review | Ali | 16th May 2012

    It's been ten years since the last underwhelming Men In Black movie and 15 long years since the brilliant original - and no one particularly asked to have it back. So... how does Men In Black 3D fare?

  • An Education

    Movie Review | Anna | 28th October 2009

    When we meet Jenny (Carey Mulligan), she lives a regimented existence of Latin homework and lectures from her father (Alfred Molina) about the importance of getting the grades to make it to Oxford University. This is 1960s Britain and the education Jenny and her peers receive shows them how to bake cakes and walk in a straight line with a book balanced on their heads.

  • Brideshead Revisited

    Movie Review | Anna | 6th October 2008

    And so, Brideshead has once again been revisited. The tale of crumbling aristocracy, Catholic fanaticism and a magnificently dysfunctional family in the days before everyone was trotting off to therapy. Charles Ryder (Goode), "a painter from Paddington", is mesmerised by charismatic Sebastian Flyte (Whishaw) when th...

  • I Am Legend

    Movie Review | Andy | 31st December 2007

    There are two Will Smiths in this world. One is an actor of surprising depth and ability; he makes films like Six Degrees Of Separation, Ali and The Pursuit of Happyness. The other is The Fresh Prince of Bel Air; he makes films like Bad Boys, Independence Day, Men in Black and any other number of wise-cracking action hero eyewip...