9

News, Reviews & Features

Review: Fast & Furious 9 is a bloodless blockbuster Scalextric

Movie Review | Ali Gray | 27th June 2021

Is there any point in bothering to review a film like Fast & Furious 9? Its very existence is a middle finger to anyone who genuinely considers themselves to be a 'film critic' - even its title feels like the sort of cute background gag you'd see in Back To The Future II, a sly crack at Hollywood's over-reliance on familiar formula. Let me rephrase my original question: is there any point in me bothering to review a film like Fast & Furious 9? The answer is yes, thank you very much, because I haven't reviewed a film since 2019 and I couldn't imagine booking an easier comeback gig. It's a big stupid target for someone like me to take cheap potshots at and at the same time feel good about myself for ultimately giving it a positive review, as per the will of the people. Everybody wins! Except the criminals.

Read full article »
Review: Wonder Woman 1984 is here to remind you about idiot nonsense cinema

Movie Review | Matt Looker | 30th December 2020

Coming right in the final throes of a horribly unheroic year, the long-awaited sequel of the best reviewed film of the DCEU - and the only true superhero movie to be released in 2020 - should be a slam dunk. Tenet aside, the year has been utterly devoid of blockbuster spectacle and we haven’t been able to measure our cinematic expectations in major franchise instalments like we normally would, resorting instead to counting Netflix hits and misses. So, whether it’s being watched at an IMAX or on an iPad, Wonder Woman 1984 really couldn’t have hoped for a more receptive audience. Sadly, any assumptions that this would guarantee a great movie experience is purely wishful thinking.

Read full article »
Review: Fahrenheit 11/9 is a lukewarm takedown of Trump

Movie Review | Ali Gray | 31st October 2018

There are ambitious movies, there are overly-ambitious movies, and then there are 'Let's tell the story of Donald Trump' movies. By now it should be pretty clear that the tall tales of the Trump presidency cannot be adequately covered in a single documentary - we're surely in 'multi-season HBO mini-series' territory - but Michael Moore has attempted to document Chapter 1 of The Donald Trump Story, the story of the American dream turned into a waking nightmare, handily prefaced here with a perfectly succinct and necessary question: "How the fuck did this happen?"

Read full article »
LFF 2017: Brawl In Cell Block 99

Movie Review | Becky Suter | 17th October 2017

Did you know you can kick a man’s head off? Like, clean off his shoulders? Or witness what a face looks like after it’s been stomped by a pair of size 10s? Have you ever seen a jaw literally, literally drop to the floor? How about enjoying funny guy Vince Vaughn in a prison movie with brains, but those brains are frequently splattered across the concrete ground? Before I saw Brawl In Cell Block 99, I wasn’t aware of any of these things. God, I was a different person back then. It is, as a colleague described it, the Citizen Kane of facial trauma movies. It’s Grade A Grindhouse. It’s V For Vaughndetta. It’s not like anything you’ve ever seen before.

Read full article »
The Shiznit's Not Unlistenable Podcast: Blade Runner 2049

Movie Feature | Matt Looker | 9th October 2017

That annoying pop-up you received this morning on your phone was the new notification of our latest sporadic podcast episode, begging you for attention like an artificial life form desperate to have its own existence validated.

Read full article »
Advertise with us!
Blade Runner 2049

Movie Review | Ali Gray | 4th October 2017

With all memories of the Ghost In The Shell remake already lost like tears in rain, it's time to leave behind the replicants and look forward to a replican. Blade Runner 2049 is that rarest of sequels: a belated, big-budget blockbuster follow-up that feels like the real deal, not a synthetic knock-off. Not only has Denis Villeneuve managed to capture the essence of what made Ridley Scott's 1982 sci-fi classic so captivating, he's expanded the Blade Runner universe, growing the original not just visually and geographically but thematically too. Where the first film felt impossibly claustrophobic and hemmed in, possibly due to it being a good few decades ahead of the curve in terms of budget and effects, here the enormity of Scott's aspirations are unleashed in spectacular fashion.

Read full article »
Found under the couch #2: California Dreams

TV Feature | Kirsty Harrison | 16th August 2011

We've just got finished watching another of the videos found under the couch, and this one's doozy. Out of interest, where were you at half ten on a Saturday morning between 1992 and 1996. Were you on your couch wistfully watching the sun-bleached antics of California Dreams? I know I was.

Read full article »
Neill Blomkamp debuts mysterious new sci-fi short

Movie News | Ali | 23rd November 2010

South African wunderkid Neill Blomkamp has revealed a grisly new creature feature short film, which could be a teaser for his follow-up to District 9. Or it could not. How fussed are you? A little? Then read on.

Read full article »
9

Movie Review | Matt | 2nd November 2009

We are told that 9 is brought to us by the visionary directors Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov, which immediately conjures up images of gothic fairytale whimsy and flashy action. Although containing elements of both, this film is actually more like an epic adventure - and it's just a little too ambitious.

Read full article »
Sharlto Copley to play Howlin' Mad Murdock?

Movie News | Matt | 10th September 2009

The offers come flooding in when you're riding high at the box office - if you believe the rumour (and frankly, we're not sold), Sharlto Copley is being lined up to star as Howlin' Mad Murdock in the new A-Team flick.

Read full article »

Support Us

We are now using Patreon to cover some of our hosting fees. So if you like our brand of "content" and would like to see us do more, please consider chucking a few digital pennies our way by clicking on the link below. Thanks!