James Badge Dale

News, Reviews & Features
  • The top 13 beards in 13 Hours

    Movie Feature | Ed Williamson | 4th February 2016

    13 Hours, as well as being a sensitive and measured critique of America's role as an interventionist force in the Middle East, draws keenly on the theme of beardedness. What does it mean to be a bearded man shooting stuff in a bloody great war, just as the Western male is becoming culturally feminised on a scale not seen since the noblesse of 17th-century France? This thing has so many layers.

  • 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

    Movie Review | Matt Looker | 29th January 2016

    A sunset bears down on an open field. Cloth rags blow in the wind. Two children run in slow motion through the long grass. A snag of material on a twig blows in the wind again. Oh, we're back to the sunset again, ok. Now some sheep are milling around for some reason. And now those children are running again. Aaand we're back to the sunset. Jesus Christ, Michael Bay, I get that you're using these establishing shots to build tension but it’s no wonder this film is 144 minutes long. This film should be 6-7 Hours: The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi. 8 Hours: The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi max.

  • Parkland

    Movie Review | Rob Young | 18th November 2013

    The assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22nd 1963 is still a source of huge debate. As the 50th anniversary approaches, investigative journalist-turned director Peter Landesman cares not for conspiracy theories, second gunmen, magic bullets, grassy knolls or book depositories. Instead, he's just happy to brag about how much more he knows about JFK than we do.

  • World War Z

    Movie Review | Ed Williamson | 19th June 2013

    Bloody globalisation. It's not enough to have a film about a bunch of jocks and hot co-eds being chased by a few zombies any more. Now they've got to be taking over the whole world. Or so you'd think: new summer tentpole Pitt-flick World War Z might want to be the blockbuster its marketing suggests, but it has a schizophrenic tendency to flit between bombast and quiet contemplation. Which would be fine, except that all of its best ideas have already been done better elsewhere.

  • #LFF: Shame

    Movie Review | Ali | 20th October 2011

    My uptake of films from the London Film Festival has been pretty slow so far – curse you, day job! – but with Shame marking another notch on my metaphorical bedpost, I'm three for three for excellent movies so far. If I were a Radio 1 DJ, I might describe it as "a non-stop hit parade of massive club bangers", but I'm not, so I'll just say I've seen three cracking films in a row, and hooray for that.