Colin Farrell

News, Reviews & Features

Review: Widows delivers an effective, grief-stricken social drama with thrills

Movie Review | Matt Looker | 16th October 2018

Steve McQueenâ€™s dramatically weighty take on the heist movie genre starts with a blistering opening scene. We see masked robbers fleeing their crime mid-pursuit, but only from inside the back of their getaway van. With a fixed position looking out through the transitâ€™s rear, its broken doors scraping and sparking on the road as police cars and traffic crash and pile-up in the trail of the gangâ€™s escape, we cut to each of the members in moments of domesticity from earlier that day - Liam Neeson passionately kissing Viola Davis in bed, Jon Bernthal prodding at the black eye adorning Elizabeth Debickiâ€™s face, kisses goodbye, arguments in stores - until finally a chaotic shootout leaves the gang and their van exploded in flames. McQueenâ€™s intent is clear: from the physical chaos on the roads to the emotional distress at home, these robbers are leaving a lot of devastation in their wake.

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Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them

Movie Review | Matt Looker | 6th December 2016

At a time when every superhero, toy, 80s cartoon character, board game and emoji are fighting for enough space at the box office to create their own movie 'universe', J.K. Rowling's work is already done. Her wizarding world of Harry Potter is well established and still ripe for further exploration, which is pretty much the perfect environment in which to churn out money-making tie-in movies of lesser returns. And yet, instead, a far greater challenge has been undertaken: birthing an entirely new franchise of films set within the same universe. Somehow, audiences are going to have to get invested in a new story that - we can assume - will never be as important as the one we have already seen. So those beasts had better be pretty bloody fantastic.

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LFF 2015: The Lobster

Movie Review | Matt Looker | 16th October 2015

It should probably come as no surprise that it takes a film so hilariously absurd and so utterly surreal to provide what is actually very insightful commentary about the nature of everyday relationships. Sure, this is a film where people are threatened with animal transformation, where people hunt each other in the woods and where, at one point, Colin Farrell tries to take off his trousers while having one hand shackled to his belt, but this film exposes more home truths than a shelf full of self-help books. And it may all seem like ludicrous nonsense on the surface, but what it has to say about love, fidelity and dependency is more revealing than anything Farrell wears under his kecks.

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Six things that might actually be bloody going on in True Detective

TV Feature | Ed Williamson | 31st July 2015

Yeah no, the bit where he gets shot by a crow? That's a metaphor for ... I want to say the war in Iraq? Don't worry, I'm all over this.

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Saving Mr Banks

Movie Review | Ed Williamson | 26th November 2013

As obvious an awards tilt as Disney knows Saving Mr Banks to be, it seems more of a mid-budget passion project. How better to venerate its beloved founder than have cuddly ol' Tom Hanks play him? But transparent self-promotion aside - this is Disney, after all - what's really interesting is how it plays out as white-washing advocacy for the process of Hollywoodizing a popular product, using emotion rather than reason to sweep you along and make you root for the studio. And the fact that the film is itself a Hollywoodization of true events.

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Set a reminder to win Total Recall on Blu-ray! Or something

Movie Competition | Matt | 22nd December 2012

Hey, do you REMEMBER that film Total Recall? If MEMORY serves, it got remade earlier this year, didnâ€™t it? Thatâ€™s right, I nearly FORGOT. Hahahahahahaha. Now that weâ€™ve all had a laugh, fancy winning a Blu-ray?

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#LFF2012: Seven Psychopaths

Movie Review | Matt | 18th October 2012

For a film about the perils of screenwriting, Seven Psychopaths sure could have used a few extra drafts. Far from the dognapping caper the trailers would have you believe, writer/director Martin McDonagh's follow-up to In Bruges is actually a far darker, way more ambitious meta comedy about a man trying to write a genuinely heartfelt movie in spite of the various ridiculous incidents that seem determined to inform it. That it immediately invokes unfavourable comparisons to Adaptation does not necessarily make Seven Psychopaths a failure, but you do find yourself wishing that McDonagh had the foresight to intentionally ruin his own movie with as much precision as Charlie Kaufman had.

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Lessons learned from movies #182

Movie Feature | Ali | 28th August 2012

As seen in: Total Recall (2012), Children Of Men (2006) and Demolition Man (1993) among others. Apparently there's no time to wash and go when the man is keeping you down, brah.

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Total Recall

Movie Review | Ali | 27th August 2012

From what I gather due to the half-hearted outrage surrounding the existence of this remake, the original Total Recall is held in fairly high esteem. Never saw it, sorry. Go ahead, say it. I know you want to. "YOU HAVEN'T SEEN TOTAL RECALL?" Sorry, just never got around to it. "HOW CAN YOU HAVE NEVER SEEN TOTAL RECALL?" Like I just said. "I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU HAVEN'T SEEN TOTAL RECALL!" And so on. As it happens, not being on familiar terms with the original Arnoldgeddon puts me in the unique position of being able to judge Len Wiseman's reboot without bias; nowhere in this review will I bemoan the lack of/inclusion of beloved one-liners, the fact Colin Farrell isn't fit to buff Schwarzenegger's pecs or that it isn't set on Mars. My slate is clean, so I'm free to see Total Recall 2012 for exactly what it is: a bright and shiny slice of blockbuster sci-fi that's so dazzling it makes tender love to your retinas but so underwhelming it practically wipes itself from your memory the instant it's over.

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Turtle Recall trailer is toadally awesome

Movie Trailer | Ali | 1st April 2012

Arriving fashionably late for the weekend round-up, here's the full trailer for Total Recall. Is it uncool to suggest that this looks like it could be really good fun? Because... well, that.

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