Toby Kebbell

News, Reviews & Features

LFF 2016: A Monster Calls

Movie Review | Matt Looker | 8th October 2016

It's a tricky thing to underpin the emotional core of your movie with a giant CGI monster. Hypothetically speaking, you could have a massive tree creature offering support to a little boy coping with his mother's terminal illness and, every time he walks away, some members of the audience might get distracted by the behemoth's huge bark-buttocks chafing with every step. Hypothetically speaking.

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Warcraft: The Beginning

Movie Review | Becky Suter | 30th May 2016

Unlike Game Of Thrones, there are no tits and dragons in Warcraft: The Beginning. There are wizards with hipster beards, giant eagles and a progressive orc, though. And in an apt allegory of recent times, an invading horde trigger immigration anxiety amongst a bunch of white people. Rather than rinsing a failing health service and steal jobs, these invaders need mortal souls toâ€¦ do something. I'm not quite sure. It's all a bit of a blur, to be quite honest with you. I really hope Duncan Jones doesn't read mid-level, sarcastic film blogs, because things are about to get orc-ward; Warcraft is an epic mess of a movie.

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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, arenâ€™t they? All kid-friendly colours and CGI slapstick; they might as well be cartoons. Itâ€™s great then, that this â€“ say it with me â€“ gritty reboot finally aims to give comicsâ€™ 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 canâ€™t do it. Come back, Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans and, yes even you, Michael Chiklisâ€™ foam fatsuit. All is forgiven.

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Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes

Movie Review | Ali Gray | 14th July 2014

CGI guys: I think it's safe to say the monkeys look enough like monkeys now. So could we maybe move the focus onto, y'know, the humans? Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes is similar to its predecessor, Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, in that the revolutionary effects work is so impressive, it successfully distracts from the film's complete and total lack of three-dimensional human characters. Though Dawn is a sturdy sequel that really gets into the swing of things about an hour or so in, it slips on that same banana peel â€“ in making monkey more interesting and more fully-rounded than man, you question why they even bother giving the humans any screen time at all. I can confidently say that a third Apes movie featuring no human characters whatsoever would be the perfect evolution for an otherwise thrilling series that has itself evolved way beyond reasonable expectations.

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Wrath Of The Titans

Movie Review | Matt | 30th March 2012

When you consider the critical shitpanning that was given to Clash Of The Titans upon release, it's hard to understand how a sequel was ever greenlit. Absurd plot points, stilted dialogue and 3D so eye-bleedingly bad it nearly undid all of Avatar's goodwill singlehandedly...and yet here we are again. With the promise of bigger and better monsters - and a new, less anachronistic haircut for Sam Worthington - is this film a vast improvement? Nuh-uh.

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War Horse

Movie Review | Ali | 12th January 2012

At the screening of War Horse I attended, there were people in floods of tears. Floods. Not just quiet, reflective sobbing, but that godless, wretched honking that's usually accompanied by snot and friends who wish they were somewhere else. Me? I didn't shed a single tear â€“ I walked out of there like Moses parting a salty sea. Bear in mind I once got a bit teary because I thought one of my cats was upset with me, and that should tell you a little about me, but everything about War Horse. It's about as manipulative a film has Steven Spielberg has ever made â€“ a movie that's been custom-designed from the ground up to play a sad harp solo on the heartstrings; a story cynically told to invoke as many tears as possible. You'd swear it was bankrolled by Kleenex.

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The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Movie Review | Rob | 18th August 2010

18th Century poetry isn't usually the biggest fountain of ideas when it comes to full-on, bold, effects-driven summer blockbusters. But when has logic stood in the way of uber-producer Jerry Bruckheimer? After all, this is the man who turned a crappy theme park ride into the billion dollar Pirates Of The Caribbean franchise and made Prince Of Persia a successful... er... yeah... (*awkward pause*).

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Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time

Movie Review | Ali | 22nd May 2010

Movie rule of thumb #1: if Jerry Bruckheimer's name is on the poster, check your brain in with your coat. Prince Of Persia is typically undemanding summer blockbuster fare - all SFX and stylish set-pieces, but very little in the way of substance. I'm not complaining. These movies have their place. But if you're making a big, dumb movie that invites you to switch off and enjoy, then don't over complicate the plot - Pirates Of The Caribbean did it and Prince Of Persia does it too. It's a Bruckheimer trait.

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