Michael Shannon

News, Reviews & Features

Review: Knives Out is a modern-age murder mystery that absolutely kills it

Movie Review | Matt Looker | 4th December 2019

Traditional murder mysteries must be the hardest stories to write, because audiences are always second-guessing everything, desperate to work out the twist before the genius detective. Writers have to seed important details among their pool of suspects without giving the game away, whilst also offering red herrings that have to feel like they could still be relevant. Meanwhile their audience is constantly reading too much into everything, determined not to be outsmarted. So a film like this one is already at make-or-break point for each viewer. If they don’t guess the killer and the motive, and the reveal still makes sense, then they can be satisfied with the thrill of being outplayed. But if they solve the mystery before the end, it’s "Nah, that’s rubbish, mate. I saw it coming a mile off". And audiences are actively rooting for the latter. They’re the ones with the knives out.

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Pottersville

Movie Review | Luke Whiston | 28th December 2017

You think a Christmas movie where Michael Shannon is mistaken for Bigfoot sounds weird? You don’t know the half of it. And trust me, you don’t want to know the rest. Unless you do, in which case that’s cool, we’re all friends here. I’m being purposefully vague because, well you’ll see... Let’s just say the internet has a lot to answer for.

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Too soon: the end of Empire

TV Feature | Ed Williamson | 13th January 2014

This year's fifth season of Boardwalk Empire will be its last. Most good shows these days have the knack of stopping just at the right time, but for me, this one could have run and run.

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Michael Shannon: pretty much just mucking about these days

TV Feature | Ed Williamson | 29th September 2013

Whenever I watch Michael Shannon on Boardwalk Empire these days I get the distinct impression he's just goofing off.

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Man Of Steel

Movie Review | Ali | 14th June 2013

Wow. That was my first reaction upon exiting Man Of Steel. Not necessarily 'Wow' in the sense that I had been overly impressed, but 'Wow' like I had been totally exhausted by the experience and felt so light-headed my brain couldn't quite process words with more than one syllable. Now I've had time for my synapses to cool, I can downgrade 'Wow' to 'Huh': though Man Of Steel is epic in the truest sense of the word, it pummels you so hard with its epicness that you don't have the time or the spatial awareness to notice its flaws. Maybe it's the fact I saw it cold, purposefully not having watched any trailers or promotional material beforehand, but flying blind made for an interesting experience – and dare I say, I perhaps enjoyed it more than others might due to that same lack of preconceptions.

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Before Robocop there was... FUTURE COP!

Movie Feature | Luke | 8th June 2013

I stumbled upon this amazingly awkward intro for 1970s sci-fi show Future Cop, after discovering the main guy - an actor named Michael Shannon - had played 'President's Aide' in Superman II and was trying to turn that into a feature. But this is much better. By which I mean much worse.

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Mud

Movie Review | Ed Williamson | 6th May 2013

For a pigeonholed Hollywood star, performing a dramatic volte-face and stubbornly refusing to take on the types of project for which you're famous can't be easy. Our relationship with stars is tied up too fully in the idea of recognisable archetypes to make it so. Planning on casting Ray Liotta as a romantic leading man any time soon? Nope, but we've got an opening for a crooked cop if he's interested. So what Matthew McConaughey has achieved in the last couple of years is truly remarkable: to graduate from lightweight romcom go-to-guy to one of the most magnetic screen actors around.

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My favourite bit of Michael Shannon this week

TV Video | Ed Williamson | 27th October 2012

Can't get enough of the guy.

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Today I learned: Michael Shannon is Groundhog Day's 'Wrestlemania!' guy

Movie Feature | Ali | 30th September 2012

Expect Man Of Steel's General Zod to be a fan of the suplex.

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Machine Gun Preacher

Movie Review | Rob | 2nd November 2011

Machine Gun Preacher: with a title like that, you'd expect a Grindhouse-esque, ultra-violent B-movie about a muscle-bound preacher with ripped sleeves, standing atop a pile of bodies, brandishing a huge gun, maybe with a cigar hanging out of his mouth, topped off with a killer catchphrase. "Pray for mercy," he'd say. Or something like that.

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