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News, Reviews & Features
  • Top 10 films of our lifetime #7: Inception

    Movie Feature | Matt Looker | 18th September 2014

    I've always considered the post-film discussion as much a part of the movie-going experience as the actual movie: the initial splurge of reactions, the best bits, the rubbish bits, the standout moments. Inception, with its pre-credits wobbly ambiguity, practically invites a discourse on its finer points, and those discussions are still ongoing today. I consider this to be the best blockbuster of the decade so far and one of the most rewarding works of science-fiction in modern memory. More movies need to be like Inception - Ali.

  • Sin City: A Dame To Kill For

    Movie Review | Ali Gray | 20th August 2014

    Nine years after the pages turned on Robert Rodriguez's first Sin City movie, and with at least three major parts recast, you can't help but think this Dame To Kill For is sashaying into town long after everyone has lost interest. Showing no signs of added maturity - if anything it's even more juvenile - this slick-yet-soulless sequel features the required quota of girls, guns and garrotting, but it's unlikely to win over those who were unimpressed by the same stiff sideshow almost a decade ago.

  • Xena Agents of SHIELD cameo even better than Warhammer, say geeks

    TV News | Ed Williamson | 22nd July 2014

    "This is unprecedented," a geek told us on hearing the news that Lucy Lawless is to guest-star on Agents of SHIELD season two. "Like all my Christmases come at once. Oh God you've put up a picture of her with Seven Of Nine off Voyager oh God OH GOD." He died later that day.

  • Thoughts on Boyhood and fatherhood

    Movie Feature | Ali Gray | 11th July 2014

    Boyhood is a film that will say a lot of different things to a lot of different people. I became a father in 2012 and though I don't think you have to have children to appreciate it at all – it's a masterpiece – the fact I have a young son of my own meant the film connected with me in ways I wasn't expecting. Here's my take on what Boyhood meant to me.

  • Opinion piece: Everything's awful when you're a snob

    Movie Feature | Ali Gray | 2nd July 2014

    In a frankly unbelievable turn of events this week, two properties which have been successful in the past continued to be successful. For reasons yet to be determined, various parties are disgusted by the fact that Transformers: Age Of Extinction and Mrs Brown's Boys D'Movie made so much money at the box-office, satisfying their respective audiences of young people and old people. The school of thought seems to be that audiences shouldn't spend money on movies they want to see – they should spend money on movies we want them to see.

  • Line of Duty: season two, episode five

    TV Review | Ed Williamson | 18th March 2014

    Yes, that six-minute long shot at the end of True Detective's fourth episode was amazing. But in episode five of Line of Duty, there was something just as groundbreaking.

  • Line of Duty US remake scuppered by immaturity

    TV News | Ed Williamson | 14th March 2014

    "Tee-hee!" confirmed a source close to the network executives considering the remake. "Tee-hee, 'Line of Doody'! Ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha, 'doody'!"

  • The Wolf Of Wall Street

    Movie Review | Ali Gray | 17th January 2014

    When was the last time you saw a three-hour movie that didn't once make you check your watch? When was the last time you saw a three-hour movie that didn't sag with its own self-importance? When was the last time you saw a three-hour movie that featured Jonah Hill masturbating at a pool party? Unless you have recently watched Martin Scorsese's The Wolf Of Wall Street, the answer is probably, hopefully, 'never'. In a time where the phrase 'awards season' has come to mean a deluge of desperately worthy, transparent, over-long Oscar-grabs, Scorsese is only interested in the best of excess – for a cautionary tale of a corrosive lifestyle, The Wolf Of Wall Street is surprisingly, shamelessly and consistently entertaining from beginning to end.

  • Stop the online film blogging community, I want to get off!

    Movie Feature | Ali | 17th September 2013

    The image of online film critics has taken a real hit this week. First a prominent writer for WhatCulture! (their exclamation mark, not mine – I'd replace it with a question mark) was revealed as a serial plagiarist and then a writer for JoBlo posted a feature comparing the breasts of two underage actresses. Join me as I despairingly ask: isn't anyone taking this seriously? Where are all the grown ups?

  • Can critics really kill a movie? Don't make me laugh

    Movie Feature | Ali | 6th August 2013

    Like dogs responding to a high-pitched whistle, film critics around the world pricked up their ears today when the stars of The Lone Ranger effectively blamed scathing reviews for its dismal failure at the box-office. As I'm technically a critic because I have a website and spare time and delusions of grandeur, I felt obligated to throw my hat into the ring. Then pick it up, dust it off and remove it from the ring, because the ring is stupid and even just having my hat in it for a second makes me a bit stupid too.