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News, Reviews & Features

Ghostbusters (2016)

Movie Review | Becky Suter | 11th July 2016

Things that ruin your childhood: discovering that your parents are the tooth fairy/Father Christmas. Learning that grandparents and pets can die no matter how much you love them. Jimmy Savile. These are actual things that leave a lasting mark. A remake of a film that you probably originally saw on TV three years after its release because you weren’t old enough to see it at the cinema when it actually came out will not “ruin” your childhood memories (I also had an extended metaphor about how I have continually enjoyed cheese toasties despite once eating an amazing one a few years ago but that doesn’t diminish the good one I had, but I think you get my point). The new rebooted Ghostbusters isn’t going to piss on the fact that you can remember things from a movie that’s over 30 years old. But before I have to hand in my "I was a child of the 80s" badge, I’m going to go out on a limb and say Ghostbusters 2016 is actually funnier and scarier than the original.

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The Boss

Movie Review | Ed Williamson | 9th June 2016

You probably learn more about how comedy works through watching a bad one than a good one. Not that that's much consolation when you've shelled out thirteen quid. The Boss isn't terrible, as anything with Melissa McCarthy in it would struggle to be, but it falls far enough short to be instructive.

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London Has Fallen

Movie Review | Becky Suter | 2nd March 2016

There are a few questions that spring to mind when watching London Has Fallen, the first one being WHEN ARE THEY GOING TO BLOW UP BIG BEN? The second; is Gerard Butler the luckiest man in show business? And if I’m going to round this out with a third, does Morgan Freeman just have a stock set of scenes of him against a green screen that he flogs to studios? I swear I haven’t seen him interact with another live being for nearly two years now.

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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.

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Spotlight

Movie Review | Ed Williamson | 19th January 2016

Spotlight appears to tick all the boxes as far as the true-life awards-season investigation drama goes. All-star, mainly male, ensemble cast to demonstrate serious dramatic heft; weighty subject matter in dealing with the cover-up of institutional child abuse. It makes a few choices you aren't expecting, though, and I can't figure out whether or not this elevates it.

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11 films in 2015 I didn't bother reviewing when I should have

Movie Feature | Matt Looker | 22nd December 2015

As we approach the end of the year, it’s time to do some housekeeping.

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The Walking Dead: season 6, episode 1 recap: "First Time Again"

TV Feature | Ed Williamson | 12th October 2015

The Deaders are back, and Rick's playing Lemmings on the Mayhem level. "Let's go!"

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8 incredibly depressing responses to Melissa McCarthy's Ghostbusters pic

Movie Feature | Matt Looker | 27th August 2015

Because bustin' gender-prejudiced idiots who use Twitter as a platform for their own mindless misogyny makes me feel good.

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Sherlock sits like this because Sherlock is clever

TV Feature | Ed Williamson | 9th July 2015

This method of sitting and style of leather armchair is in the public domain and thus no iteration of Sherlock Holmes can claim it as its sole intellectual property. They only didn't use it in Mr Holmes because Ian McKellen is like ninety and he couldn't manage it without his knees cracking.

(NB no, Google Images doesn't have any pictures of Robert Downey Jr's Holmes sitting like this. My point still stands.)

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Spy

Movie Review | Ali Gray | 10th June 2015

I'm not sure I understand how people continually lump Melissa McCarthy into the same category of comedians as the likes of Kevin James (actually, I do understand, I just choose to ignore it), because she's so much more talented than him it's barely a contest. Comic timing? Check. Pathos? Check. A habit of making her co-stars appear funnier by proxy? Check. These are not qualities you typically associate with Paul Blart: Mall Cop. McCarthy, on the other hand, is the complete package, and she furthers her winning relationship with director Paul Feig in Spy, albeit to not quite so winning effect as previous team-ups The Heat and Bridesmaids. The most important stat for the non-believers? There is only one [1] pratfall in Spy; Paul Blart: Mall Cop had 25.

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