Serious Corner

News, Reviews & Features
  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Backing bad movies to get good ones

    Movie Feature | Ali | 23rd June 2013

    World War Z has enjoyed a mega opening worldwide, surprising analysts (and probably the filmmakers themselves) and opening the possibility - or inevitability - of sequels. I didn't like World War Z. But I approve this message.

  • Serious corner: Why nostalgia is stunting Hollywood's growth

    Movie Feature | Ali | 11th June 2013

    Yeah, this is a long one. If you want a TL;DR, then I guess I can sum up this article by saying 'Wah wah waah'. Also spoilers for Star Trek Into Darkness and Iron Man 3.

  • Shock: Movie posters used to be much nicer to look at

    Movie Feature | Ali | 31st March 2013

    I spend approximately eight hours per day staring at film posters, and the other sixteen thinking about the various ways I hate them. It's always nice, then, when I'm given an excuse to figuratively go back in time and look at the film posters of yesteryear, specifically the one-sheet for Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, which is 50 years old this week.

  • Proof that Seth MacFarlane's sexism is anything but harmless

    Movie Feature | Ali | 27th February 2013

    Nobody told me it was National Sexism Week. I would have bought a badge or something. First came Seth MacFarlane's boob-centric stint as Oscars host, then everyone piled in to insult a 21-year-old American actress walking down the street for not being as attractive as a comic-book character. I don't know about the rest of you fellas, but I'm feeling pretty ashamed about my own penis right now. Moreso than usual.

  • Forget the Oscars, we need to rethink the Razzies

    Movie Feature | Ali | 24th February 2013

    Though we all bitch and moan and blog about how unnecessary and awful and predictable the Oscars are, the very fact we do all these things proves there's still an interest in the Academy Awards, and their arbitrary method of rewarding the 'best' films of the year. But on the flip side? We have the increasingly tedious Golden Raspberries, or the 'Razzies', which 'award' the 'worst' movies of the year. If we're going to bitch and moan about movies, is this really the best we can do?

  • Die Hard Week: I want to hear John McClane say "motherfucker"

    Movie News | Ali | 12th February 2013

    Today the BBFC confirmed what we'd all feared: that A Good Day To Die Hard would be rated 12A in the UK. Which sucks, obviously, because no one likes to see once proud iconoclasts of badass cinema reduced to suckering kids out of their pocket money with a two-bit Punch and Judy show. I'm a paying adult and I want to hear John McClane say the word "motherfucker". I guess I'm just old-fashioned like that.