Judi Dench

News, Reviews & Features

Victoria And Abdul

Movie Review | Becky Suter | 21st September 2017

Shared universes are all the rage now. Marvel, DC, the Potterverse and now get this – there’s even a Royalverse, where Judi Dench is the same Queen Victoria in her new movie as she was in Mrs Brown. There’s even a Netflix spin-off series about her great-granddaughter. It’s crazy – where do they get these ideas? Regardless, in Victoria And Abdul, director Stephen Frears wants us to believe that a crotchety old queen, Empress of a country she never visited, is the most tolerant person in a time when society was decidedly un-woke. And it’s all because she wants some hot young D.

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Should actors be forced to watch their own movies?

Movie Feature | Matt | 29th October 2012

Hey Mr Actor-person, sir. If you're willing to take a huge vat of money in exchange for two hours' work, at least put the effort in to watch the results afterwards. What's that? No, you can't charge overtime for it.

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Skyfall gets extra-classy IMAX poster

Movie News | Ali | 20th October 2012

Think they've overdone it on the product placement this time. (IMP).

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Skyfall

Movie Review | Ali | 13th October 2012

After the racing start that was Casino Royale, Quantum Of Solace felt like an unscheduled pitstop; Craig stuck in the driving seat, sitting frustrated and static while the Bond engineers frantically retooled his vehicle against the clock. I'm happy to report that Skyfall sees Bond well and truly back on track: a turbo-boosted return to form with all cylinders firing. It's not without its problems, but Skyfall walks that fine line between homage and evolution so confidently, it frequently breaks into a strut.

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OH GOD M SHOT JAMES BOND HE'S GOING TO DIE HE'S GOING TO DIE

Movie Trailer | Ali | 30th July 2012

Headline to be read in the style of Alan Partridge. Full Skyfall trailer to come tomorrow, rendering this post even more pointless. Cuh.

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The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Movie Review | Ed Williamson | 23rd February 2012

It's very hard to go into a film with no preconceptions. Unless you give Ali's 'no advance knowledge of Man of Steel' project a go yourself, there are too many posters, trailers and blogs around not to have some prejudice when you walk in. I certainly did. I thought I'd hate The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel; that it'd be full of lovely old middle-class people being lovely, old and middle-class, who then go through life-changing crises I wouldn't care about because they're lovely, old and … you get the picture. It is, of course, full of exactly this. But it's also crammed with some of the best British actors you could want to see on screen, and that's just about enough to carry it. Which is annoying really, because I had to scrap most of the put-downs I'd written on the way there.

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J. Edgar

Movie Review | Ali | 17th January 2012

One of the cardinal sins of film journalism is that you must never call a film 'boring' – professionalism dictates that there must be a more accurate way of singling out the movie's flaws; a more apt way of summing up why it disappoints. A dull script, perhaps, or flat performances. But no. There is no better way to summarise the ways in which Clint Eastwood's Hoover biopic fails: J. Edgar is just fucking boring. It just is. It looks boring, it sounds boring, it feels boring, it IS boring.

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Quantum Of Solace

Movie Review | Ali | 17th October 2008

Where does a character go once he's been reinvented? Stripped down to the bare essentials, the James Bond of Casino Royale - the 007 that Ian Fleming would have approved of - proved extremely popular with audiences and critics alike, enough for them wipe the slate clean and agree to start afresh. Bond now rebooted, battered phys...

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Casino Royale

Movie Review | Mark | 20th November 2006

No stupid lasers, invisible cars, flying landboats, or improbable gadgets that defy the laws of physics. No Madonna pretending she can act. No idiotic, one-dimensional clich�d bad guys with impossible plans to rule the world. No smartass wisecracks from an invincible ubermensch. Just plain old espionage. At last, with Casino ...

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