Viggo Mortensen

News, Reviews & Features
  • Review: Green Book is a road trip that takes Route 1

    Movie Review | Ed Williamson | 6th February 2019

    If racism can be solved in microcosm, film often likes to suggest, then can't we all just get along? Sure, except for all the massive systemic obstacles to that. The buddy relationship at the heart of Peter Farrelly's Green Book, one in which a white racist comes to accept a black man as a friend, wants us to believe that prejudice can be chipped away at through prolonged exposure to its object; that we only hate what we don't know. There's probably a broad truth in that. And yet social media has introduced everyone to people and cultures they'd otherwise never interact with, and Twitter in particular seems to make people even more determined never to change their mind. So is this any use?

  • Captain Fantastic

    Movie Review | Ed Williamson | 8th September 2016

    Worst superhero movie ever. Don't bother staying for the mid-credits sting to see if Wolverine shows up; there's NOTHING.

  • The Two Faces Of January

    Movie Review | Ed Williamson | 15th May 2014

    Now I don't want you to be alarmed or make any sudden movements, but I've read the book on which this film is based. Like, all the way through. I sort of remember it, too. Which is why I told the guys they could keep their X-Men and their Godzillas, because this week I be Highsmithin'. No, I wasn't invited to the other screenings, but I don't see how that's relevant.

  • On The Road

    Movie Review | Ed Williamson | 11th October 2012

    I don't know me too much 'bout no fancy book-learnin', but I do know you can get away with a lot more fannying about in a book than you can in a film. After watching On The Road I was left with the impression that Jack Kerouac's book, from which it was adapted and which I've never read, was probably a disjointed, stream-of-consciousness kind of affair, in which traditional notions of narrative structure matter less than the overall mood. Well, good for you, Jack (*tousles Kerouac's hair*). But this is a book that's long been thought unfilmable, and it's easy to see why.

  • Quiz: On The Road poster quote or David Brent philosophy?

    Movie Feature | Ali | 27th April 2012

    I'll admit, straight out of the gate: Jack Kerouac's On The Road is not one of the one-and-a-half books I have read. However, I don't think you need to be a 'reader' to recognise that the movie's poster quotes this far are frightfully pretentious and really quite naff. In fact, they could easily be confused with the words of homespun wisdom regularly dispensed by Wernham-Hogg regional manager, David Brent. Let's play a game!

  • Boffo corner: Trailer for David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method

    Movie Trailer | Ali | 21st June 2011

    Look at us, talking about serious films like a proper, respected publication. This time it's David Cronenberg's new film, A Dangerous Method. Don't worry, it has spanking in it too.

  • Mortsensen and Cronenberg sign for Eastern Promises 2

    Movie News | Ali | 27th March 2010

    One of the greatest living actors is reteaming with one of the greatest living directors for a sequel to one of the best crime thrillers of recent years. Today is a good day.

  • The Road

    Movie Review | Ali | 13th January 2010

    Given that most of my articles on literary adaptations start with the line, "I haven't read the book, but..." it's quite rare that I actually have the opportunity to compare the film to the source material. Cormac McCarthy's The Road has the honour of being one of the finest novels I've ever read (and I've read two) but unfortunately suffers from being so downcast, bleak and utterly, utterly grim, this largely faithful adaptation makes for uneasy viewing.

  • Depression corner: The Road trailer

    Movie Trailer | Ali | 31st October 2009

    The Weinstein Company really have done a stellar job in making me forget this movie even exists, but here's the latest trailer for The Road, potentially the most upsetting way possible to spend a couple of hours.

  • The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King

    Movie Review | Ali | 3rd January 2005

    Bloody hell... where do you start? The final and most exciting chapter of the most ambitious trilogy ever committed to film is gazing down upon us like the eye of the Dark Lord himself - was there ever any chance that Return of the King was going to be rubbish? I can happily report that you were indeed correct in your assumpti...