Rafe Spall

News, Reviews & Features

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Movie Review | Ali Gray | 10th June 2018

I am a Jurassic Park sequel apologist. I am a Jurassic sequapologist. There’s no shame in loving the original movie, obviously, and I maintain that Jurassic World was an unapologetic, fan-pleasing blockbuster that wanted to reach even farther than Michael Crichton’s visionary thinking. But the sequels? I am at war with myself. The Lost World sort of has some good bits? The birdcage bit in Jurassic Park III was cool, I guess? Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, sadly, is a different beast entirely: it is the first Jurassic movie I haven’t enjoyed unreservedly from the get-go. With the other duffers I’d eventually pick up on the flaws after multiple rewatches - this is the only Jurassic Park movie I’ll have to learn to love.

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The BFG

Movie Review | Ed Williamson | 26th July 2016

As a child of the eighties you notice as you get older that a lot of contemporary mainstream entertainment seems designed to take you back there. Now there's a distinctive crossover demographic: those of us in our thirties who went nuts for Spielberg and Star Wars at the time, and now have our own children whom we want to show the originals and take to see reboots. For my generation the prospect of Spielberg doing The BFG is an intersection in a Venn diagram where we hold each circle very dear, and there's only so bad it could possibly turn out. But it should've been better.

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What If

Movie Review | Becky Suter | 21st August 2014

The world of rom-coms is a fickle one; for every When Harry Met Sally there's The Other Half (starring Danny Dyer, it's on Netflix) or something-or-other starring Isla Fisher tripping over a lot. Whilst it's not going to break new romantic ground, the likeable leads and overwhelming sweetness of What If won me over. God I hate myself sometimes.

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I Give It A Year

Movie Review | Ali | 5th February 2013

I gave it half an hour. 30 minutes is more than enough time to establish whether or not you're going to like a film and its protagonists: if you're not on board after the first act, chances are the second and third acts aren't going to be to your tastes either. To its credit, I Give It A Year starts where most romcoms end: the happily-ever-after wedding between its two leads – writer Josh (Rafe Spall) and prissy ad agency miss Nat (Rose Byrne) – mercifully sparing us the agonisingly tedious meetcute routine and fast-forwarding straight to the good bits i.e. the bickering, the adultery and the break-up. In other words, the bits romcoms are otherwise scared to show.

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Life Of Pi

Movie Review | Matt | 7th December 2012

Yann Martel's novel The Life Of Pi is one of those books that many people - myself included - will swear is one of their all-time favourite reads. A gripping tale that is, above all else, a life-affirming study of survival and faith. And now, after almost 10 years of trying to get a movie adaptation off the ground, the supposedly 'unfilmable' story is brought to life in such magnificent, spectacular fashion that, well you might as well no longer bother with the book. Seriously, this is pretty much the gist of it. And reading takes ages anyway.

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Prometheus

Movie Review | Ali | 31st May 2012

For all the talk of Prometheus "sharing the same DNA" as Alien, Ridley Scott's prequel doesn't bear much family resemblance to its granddaddy. The economy of horror that served his 1979 effort so well is replaced by a big-budget, star-gazing sci-fi that wants you to know it has size on its side. Hugely ambitious and staggering in its grand designs, Prometheus is almost hamstrung by the fact it is an Alien movie at all – the mishmash of grotesque body-horror and chin-stroking existentialism does not always make for the most coherent movie, but it is at least an entertaining one and certainly no black mark on the franchise.

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Win Anonymous on Blu-ray and dance on Shakespeare's grave

Movie Competition | Ali | 5th March 2012

Enter and win a copy of Anonymous, Roland Emmerich's bonkers assault on Shakespeare. It's practically the equivalent of farting into your copy of Romeo+Juliet. (The Leonardo DiCaprio one).

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#LFF: Anonymous

Movie Review | Ali | 25th October 2011

Did you know Shakespeare didn't even write his own plays? Yeah mate, totally true. It was some Welsh bloke with a beard. Oh yeah, and the moon landing was fake too – they done it in a Margate car park. JFK? Martian hit squad. And Derren Brown predicted 9/11, but promised Osama Bin Laden he'd never tell anyone. No word of a lie mate, I swear. The bloke who directed Godzilla told me.

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The Shadow Line

TV Review | Ed Williamson | 9th May 2011

Hey! It's a new BBC drama! It's dark! It's moody! Anyone have a flipping clue what was going on half the time? No, me neither.

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