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Captain America: Civil War

Movie Review | Ali Gray | 5th May 2016

"So what is Vision?" I'm at the pub, still digesting Captain America: Civil War, and I've been caught off guard. "Well, he's... um...he's a, er... so Thor had this sort of bath, then Ultron, erm... You know the Mind Gem, th-..." Christ, I'm racking my brains and his first movie only came out a year ago. Marvel movies move pretty fast; if you don't re-watch regularly, or God forbid miss a movie, your pub trivia game will suffer. (My best guess: Vision is a space ghost fruit roll-up robot butler dressed by George at Asda). Civil War is the 13th movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and if you haven't been paying attention over the last eight years, you're going to find it really, really hard to keep up. The MCU doesn't slow down, doesn't pull its punches and doesn't really do 'Previously, on the Marvel Cinematic Universe..." It has unapologetically and unreservedly been constructed from the ground up for fans - and those fans are going to go bend-over-backwards apeshit crazy for Civil War, arguably the movie that the previous 12 have all been working towards.

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PLACEHOLDER: 5-star Civil War review [pending Marvel payment] ***DO NOT PUBLISH***

Movie Feature | Ali Gray | 18th April 2016

Hi guys, just to let you know, the marketing arm of Marvel have been in contact with me as they have with all of the UK press to offer The Shiznit payment for giving Captain America: Civil War a positive review. I'm sure you remember that they already paid us the first £5,000 for giving Batman V Superman a negative review, but they've confirmed that the rest of the bribe will be delivered upon publication of our Civil War review, which I'm seeing tomorrow. Not that it matters.

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Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice

Movie Review | Matt Looker | 24th March 2016

The greatest gladiator match in the history of the world: God versus man.
By which, of course, I mean Zack Snyder, the all-powerful harbinger of wanton destruction, versus us, the humble cinema-goer, merely looking for some entertainment. Some cool stuff, for sure. Maybe even a joke of two. It's Student from the School of Michael Bay versus, say, Andy from Dagenham. Who will win?

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Deadpool

Movie Review | Ali Gray | 11th February 2016

You like to talk about tough superhero gigs. Thor was a tough gig. Mixing magic and mythology with grit and realism. Not easy. Guardians Of The Galaxy was a tough gig. Introducing an entirely new bunch of rogues unrelated to any existing properties. Tricky. Deadpool, however, is quite literally a tough gig: stepping up on stage to make with the laughs after being designated the 'funny' superhero movie. Like it's the one movie that has special dispensation to say what we all really think about superhero movies. That's a tough gig. What we ask of Deadpool is the movie equivalent of people who ask comedians to tell them a joke: a request to be funny on demand, on on our terms.

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Breakdown: Things you missed in the Wonder Woman first-look footage

Movie Feature | Matt Looker | 20th January 2016

The first glimpse of Wonder Woman in all her inequality-correcting, leather-bodice-wearing glory has been released and it is fascinating. Like the true geeks and film buffs with one-of-a-kind expert knowledge that we are, here’s a deep-dive into the footage with wild speculation about some things that may happen at some point in the film or indeed ever.

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Fantastic Four (2015)

Movie Review | Matt Looker | 6th August 2015

The old Fantastic Four films from 10 years ago are an embarrassment, aren’t they? All kid-friendly colours and CGI slapstick; they might as well be cartoons. It’s great then, that this – say it with me – gritty reboot finally aims to give comics’ First Family the big-screen outing they deserve. A film that treats Stretchy Man, Rock Guy, Fire Boy and Invisi-Girl with due reverence and respect. A film that takes a realistic approach to dimension-hopping science and explores the seriousness of.. oh god, no, I can’t do it. Come back, Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans and, yes even you, Michael Chiklis’ foam fatsuit. All is forgiven.

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Photo breakdown: Dissecting the new Batman v Superman pics

Movie Feature | Matt Looker | 29th July 2015

Yay for still images of characters we have already seen but in a different room and taken from a slightly different angle! [divider] It is a sad fact that we now live in an age where the release of three photos of established characters from a forthcoming blockbuster movie constitutes as Internet-breaking news. Luckily, we...

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Momentous photo shoot proves that Ben Affleck is dead inside

Movie Feature | Matt Looker | 15th July 2015

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The Super Bowl ad gifs no one wanted (and when to use them)

Movie Feature | Matt Looker | 3rd February 2015

The Shiznit: Colouring in the 'Movies vs. Social Media' venn diagram intersection with a blunt crayon since 2011. Ish.

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Big Hero 6

Movie Review | TheShiznit.co.uk | 25th January 2015

If you want an example of how our relationship with technology has accelerated at a terrifying rate, show a young millennial the first Toy Story movie, which turns 20 years old this year. Made in 1995, the first fully CG-animated movie was a cinematic landmark yet it was still, tellingly, a tale of simple toys and derring do. That millennial you roped in (I won't asked questions how) will now look at Toy Story and turn their nose up at the relatively rudimentary visuals; they're much more likely to get their kicks from a movie like Big Hero 6, a breathlessly exciting, migraine-inducingly busy animation that must have surely pushed the Disney render farms to meltdown. Purely from a technological standpoint, it makes Toy Story look like a Punch & Judy show.

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