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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.
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Predict the finale and play along with Bodyguard Bingo!
TV Feature | Ali Gray | 19th September 2018
The BBC's new thriller Bodyguard has been one of the most popular new British television series in over a decade, thanks to the slick writing of creator Jed Mercurio and the slinky appeal of Keeley Hawes' foxy Home Sexretary (Secretary). Between episodes, fans have been ravenous for new information, sharing plot spoilers and conspiracy theories online in an attempt fill the gaping hole left in their lives. Friends, fans and Richard Madden stans: let me fill your holes.
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So we've all just accepted that his actual name is 'Jed Mercurio', have we?
TV Feature | Ali Gray | 31st August 2018
I'm sure that you, like me, have been enjoying new BBC drama Bodyguard, starring a shooty-shooty man and a woman and some terrorists. Congratulations on your correct decision, because it is totally brilliant. I can't help but notice, however, that we are all apparently totally on-board with the creator's name: Jed Mercurio. That's right, is it? Jed Mercurio. First name Jed, last name Mercurio. Right. We're all fine with that. Just checking.
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An ode to Secret Cinema presents William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet
Movie Feature | Matt Looker | 13th August 2018
It's probably no coincidence that my love affair with Secret Cinema peaks with their latest summer production, which presents a fully immersive experience with the world of Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet. Despite that, here is my fully objective and dispassionate critique of the opening night... presented in the form of a few adoring sonnets.
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Here are some notes on Assassin's Creed from a plane, the only acceptable place to watch it
Movie Feature | Ali Gray | 13th July 2017
Hello there. I am on a plane as you read this. At the time of writing, I am somewhere over Winnipeg. I'm talking to you via the wonder of £25.99 WiFi. I've been very lucky to be invited to cover the Disney D23 Expo in California over the weekend, and although I wouldn't dream of humblebragging my way through this post, it does promise to be very exciting, and I think you'll all agree that, yeah Ali, relax, you deserve this guy, great job. Anyway, before that, I have an 11-hour flight to sit through. Eleven! That's like… four movies! I'm not going to watch four movies. But I did just sit through Assassin's Creed.
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Fast And Furious cast still unable to tell women from cars
Movie Feature | Matt Looker | 29th June 2017
Fresh concerns have arisen regarding the ability of the Fast And Furious cast to tell the difference between women and cars after franchise regular Michelle Rodriguez called out the need for "female characters with better parts".
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Baywatch
Movie Review | Ed Williamson | 24th May 2017
One of the many wonderful things about living on the same planet as Zac Efron is that he knows when and how to take his shirt off. It is a rare talent to look like he does with his abs out, accept that directors are going to want him to get his top off at least twice a film, and then to do so with enough of a sense of self-mockery that you don't think he's an absolute bell-end. Self-awareness is what got him and his co-star The Rock where they are today, and so a riff on Baywatch, sending up how daft it was, feels like just the ticket. So why isn't it sillier?
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Fast & Furious 8
Movie Review | Ali Gray | 11th April 2017
The Fast & Furious franchise is not big on learning. It doesn't really care for consequences. It is of the moment. Always in the now. If it were a person, it would be the kind of person who sincerely believes in the motto 'If you can't handle me at my worst, you don't deserve me at my best'. Fast & Furious movies are wrongheaded and backwards but they don't care, because people vote with their wallets. They are Brexit. They are dumb. They make dumb look dumb. They are awful. They are brilliant. They are confusing and simple and ridiculous and serious all at the same time, somehow. Fast & Furious 8, a title and a number which give me great pleasure to say together, is all of these things and more.
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Patriots Day
Movie Review | Matt Looker | 2nd March 2017
How soon is too soon? Is it when the real-life victims of a tragedy are still raw from the experience? Is it when artistic licence just isn't appropriate for events that are still fresh in everyone’s minds? Is it when unseemly facts about those involved might detract from their otherwise brave and heroic actions? Or is it when - as is the case here - overcompensating for all of the above results in muddled, mawkish melodrama?
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Allied
Movie Review | Ed Williamson | 21st November 2016
Brad Pitt, I have decided, is too handsome. My reaction to more or less anything he does on screen these days is instinctively: "Yeah, but this character wouldn't look like that. No one does." In Allied, which is fine and all that but a bit daft, he marries Marion Cotillard while looking amazing then grows suspicious she is a spy while looking amazing, and I can't shake the feeling that all of this looking amazing is part of a comfort zone out of which he's unprepared to step.
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