John C. Reilly

News, Reviews & Features

Review: Ralph Breaks The Internet, but is that what kids even want?

Movie Review | Matt Looker | 28th November 2018

Due to what I'm sure were very important reasons, we never got round to reviewing the recent Suspiria remake here, so apologies for that. It is, however, a truly exceptional film that chills to the bone and slowly builds to a darkly disturbing crescendo of menace and gore. Its only major problem is that there is an early scene so horrifying, so deeply, core-shakingly terrifying, that nothing afterwards can match it for sheer horror. It is truly nasty beyond reproach and is hands-down the most repulsive film scene of 2018. I mention this because, against all odds, Ralph Breaks The Internet contains a sequence that comes a close second.

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Kong: Skull Island

Movie Review | Matt Looker | 11th March 2017

There will surely be a time soon when the film industry decides that monster movies just aren't a good fit for modern cinema audiences. That we have developed a more sophisticated taste for storytelling and an appreciation for nuance, and that therein lies a problem for films that are essentially about giant rage-beasts smashing things up with their clumsy hoof-paws. Luckily, that time hasn't come yet and until it does we still have opportunities like this one to enjoy creature features that are as big, dumb and ridiculous as whatever enormous idiot monkey is causing all the destruction in the first place. That's right, this film is a gigantic fun monster - a stupidly thrilling buffoon baboon of a movie - and we shouldn't want it any other way.

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Sing

Movie Review | Matt Looker | 24th January 2017

I can't tell you how long I have been waiting to take my two-year-old son on his first trip to the cinema. Well, actually, I suppose I can. It's been two years. Obviously. But that wait finally came to an end with this movie, one which I thought might be an appropriate introduction to the big screen for him because a) it's about singing cartoon characters, and b) it wasn't written by Seth Rogen. Of course, I was still fully prepared for failure. Expecting a toddler to stay still and quiet in a chair surrounded by strangers for nearly two hours? Surely impossible. And yet, that's exactly what he did, while fixated on the movie. So whatever I say in this review from now on, know that my son â€“ easily closer in age to the target demographic than I â€“ rates it 10 out of 10 choo-choo trains or whatever.

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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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Wreck-It Ralph

Movie Review | Matt | 3rd February 2013

I'm sorry to dispel the idea that this site is run entirely by the kind of geeks who immerse themselves in every form of popular culture available, but I'm not much of a gamer. By all accounts, the other guys are, but I couldnâ€™t tell apart a Far Cry from a Mass Effect, or even a Vita from a DS for that matter. I mention this only as a way of making it clear upfront that I may not be the best person to appreciate Wreck-It Ralph's myriad of 8-bit cameos and gaming references â€“ just in case my right to review a film about a fairly unfamiliar subject matter is ever called into question. Let alone my opinion: it's actually rather good.

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Cedar Rapids

Movie Review | Matt | 28th April 2011

You know the score â€“ kooky characters meet low-brow humour in a loosely-strung together plot. Thereâ€™s bound to be some physical pain played for laughs, some hilarious cringeworthy moments for the main character and, of course, improvised dialogue (I blame Will Ferrell), The question is: is it funny? In this instance, yeah, sure. Pretty much.

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Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby

Movie Review | Ali | 18th September 2006

That Will Ferrell is a Marmite kind of guy, but love him or hate him, there's a certain quality to him that you just can't ignore. Having graduated to the grand overlord of the Frat Pack over the last few years (by default more than anything: put out enough movies and you'll rise through the ranks), Ferrell divides audiences li...

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