Charlize Theron

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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Tully

Movie Review | Ed Williamson | 11th May 2018

There are no ugly people in Hollywood, and as such the idea of ugging-up a bit for a role has become a "brave" one. It puts you in the awards conversation, as though peeling off some make-up or yellowing your teeth a bit reveals depth. This involves an acknowledgement that the profound is an exception, and I suppose that the industry is therefore preoccupied by surface sheen. For actresses this proposition also suggests that to be beautiful is to be shallow, which is a bit rich, since if they aren't beautiful they aren't allowed in the door. I think Charlize Theron largely transcends this, but she remains most critically celebrated when she's made to look her least pretty.

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Atomic Blonde

Movie Review | Ed Williamson | 11th August 2017

I'd have been cool if I lived in Berlin in the Cold War. You would've been too: we would've smoked constantly and worn elegantly distressed charity-shop peacoats and listened to Bowie in a Lada. Maybe we could've been happy there, you and me.

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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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Mad Max: Fury Road, 2015's best film by a thousand miles

Movie Review | Ali Gray | 31st December 2015

I actually watched Mad Max: Fury Road in its week of release, but it was such an overwhelming experience it's taken me all of seven months to mentally unpack it all, like when someone emails you a crazy big zip file which basically nerfs your inbox and you can't do anything until it's properly downloaded. That, with writing. Anyway. This is the best film of the year by a very long stretch, I'm off to watch it again because it got it on Blu-ray for Christmas and oh you've already stopped reading.

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A Million Ways To Die In The West

Movie Review | Matt Looker | 29th May 2014

It's a tired opinion, but Seth MacFarlane really does only appeal to fans of Seth MacFarlaneâ€¦ of which, I imagine the number one fan is Seth MacFarlane. Such is the extent of the lazy self-indulgence at work here, resulting in a film that misfires as many times as its title suggests. A Million Ways To Die In The West? I donâ€™t have enough space here to list every single one, but here are the highlights.

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Gather round folks for a good old-fashioned poster cornholin'

Movie Feature | Ali Gray | 27th February 2014

How bad is this new poster for Seth MacFarlane's A Million Ways To Die In The West? Let me count the ways.

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Prometheus

Movie Review | Ali | 31st May 2012

For all the talk of Prometheus "sharing the same DNA" as Alien, Ridley Scott's prequel doesn't bear much family resemblance to its granddaddy. The economy of horror that served his 1979 effort so well is replaced by a big-budget, star-gazing sci-fi that wants you to know it has size on its side. Hugely ambitious and staggering in its grand designs, Prometheus is almost hamstrung by the fact it is an Alien movie at all â€“ the mishmash of grotesque body-horror and chin-stroking existentialism does not always make for the most coherent movie, but it is at least an entertaining one and certainly no black mark on the franchise.

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Snow White And The Huntsman

Movie Review | Ali | 29th May 2012

What's this, you say? A film about Snow White? A movie in which Kristen Stewart has to choose between two dudes? A movie in which Charlize Theron behaves like a complete lunatic? A movie in which Chris Hemsworth is a swarthy yet heroic warrior? Please, continue! How delightfully original! There hasn't been a movie like this for years! Seriously! Shit you guys! My sarcasm button is stuck! It's making it sooo difficult to write this review with any modicum of professionalism! Ugh!

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Young Adult

Movie Review | Ali | 1st February 2012

Every time I watch an American high school movie, I always wonder what happens after the prom, after the geek gets the girl, after the kids save the Rec Centre. How people's school lives affect the rest of their adult lives interests me way more than their pointless playground antics, and the fact the credits always roll before you get to see the characters venture into the big, wide world is always frustrating. Anyone who's ever stumbled upon their school bully on Facebook and secretly revelled in their shit life will get a kick out of Young Adult; a movie that shares my fascination with the fragile effect of popularity at an early age.

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