7 h. ago Stranger Things season five vol 2 review – the fact that this isn’t unbearable is a miracle

Yes, the kids are now 90% Adam’s apple. Yes, Winona Ryder has been unforgivably sidelined. And yes, some characters are trapped in a room filling with yoghurt. But despite our misgivings, this show still absolutely slapsListen, this isn’t the place for newcomers. Stranger Things has been around for almost a decade, and it has spent almost all this time building a mythology that has grown so unwieldy that trying to explain it would cost me my wordcount and my will to live.However, in fairness, this new penultimate batch of episodes gives it a good try. The content of these new episodes can neatly be split into three categories. There’s action, which is high-octane and fun, and probably why you’re watching. Then there’s dialogue, which is less successful because it causes characters to stop moving and emote at each other, even though they should probably be concentrating on the imminent end of the world. Continue reading...

Politics

18 h. ago Buddy the Elf fan pays nearly £250K so they can look like Christmas movie character

Elf is one of the most iconic and well-known Christmas films made, capturing the hearts of everyone over the world - and now one fan has bought the original outfit worn by Will Ferrell for an eyewatering price

Economics

64 h. ago Beloved character makes surprise return in first Avengers Doomsday teaser trailer

A beloved Marvel character has returned for the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday movie.

Politics

1 week ago ‘Apocalyptically funny’: why The Mitchells vs the Machines is my feelgood movie

The latest in our series of writers explaining their comfort watches is a celebration of 2021’s acclaimed animated adventureAnimation is a great way of allowing you to experience the world through the eyes of another, complete with the colour, energy, imagination and chaos that this can bring. It’s true whether you’re looking at the world from the perspective of a frustrated and talented teenage girl, or from that of a megalomaniacal rogue AI who dreams of blasting every human on Earth into space in tiny hexagonal pods (with free wifi!). Such is the chaotic and sensational combination of styles that fuels animated road-trip riot The Mitchells vs the Machines, a film that crams a father-daughter conflict, a techno-apocalypse, Olivia Colman, and every colour of the rainbow into a burnt-orange 1993 station wagon.Phil Lord and Christopher Miller produce with the same kind of free-spirited approach that characterised the likes of The Lego Movie and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. It’s...

Politics

2 w. ago Runaway migrant nabbed after trying to disguise himself as nativity scene statue

A fugitive migrant tried to dodge cops by hiding himself as a 'living statue' in a Christmas nativity scene but was foiled when he was spotted moving among the other characters

Events

2 w. ago Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair – what does the new Tarantino cut offer?

The director’s two-part revenge saga has now been released as one mammoth movie with tweaks and additions here and thereQuentin Tarantino and his epic revenge saga Kill Bill had, as the vengeful lead character in the movie keeps saying, unfinished business. Actually, Tarantino mostly finished the business of re-integrating two volumes of Kill Bill into a single feature as early as 2006, just a couple of years after the release of Kill Bill: Vol 2. But while that version played at Cannes and had a few more recent runs at Tarantino-owned theaters in Los Angeles, it never reached home video (though some bootlegs attempted to recreate it) or a wide theatrical release. That’s all changed with this weekend’s debut of Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair, a four-and-a-half-hour version of the movie hitting over 1,000 screens across North America.Tarantino made long movies before and after Kill Bill; features that run over two-and-a-half hours make up the vast majority of his filmography. But...

Events

3 w. ago RoboCop statue rises in Detroit: ‘big, beautiful, bronze piece of art’

A 15-year quest ends with a monument, drawing crowds and nostalgia as Detroit embraces its cult-film pastThe statue looms and glints at more than 11 feet tall and weighing 3,500 pounds, looking out at the city with, how to put it a characteristically stern expression?Despite its daunting appearance and history as a crimefighter of last resort, the giant new bronze figure of the movie character RoboCop is being seen as a symbol of hope, drawing fans and eliciting selfie mania since it began standing guard over Detroit on Wednesday afternoon. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Marty Supreme review – Timothée Chalamet a smash in spectacular screwball ping

Following every dizzying spin of Chalamet’s table tennis hustler, Josh Safdie’s whip-crack comedy serves sensational shots – and a smart return by Gwyneth PaltrowThis new film from Josh Safdie has the fanatical energy of a 149-minute ping pong rally carried out by a single player running round and round the table. It’s a marathon sprint of gonzo calamities and uproar, a sociopath-screwball nightmare like something by Mel Brooks – only in place of gags, there are detonations of bad taste, cinephile allusions, alpha cameos, frantic deal-making, racism and antisemitism, sentimental yearning and erotic adventures. It’s a farcical race against time where no one needs to eat or sleep.Timothée Chalamet plays Marty Mauser, a spindly motormouth with the glasses of an intellectual, the moustache of a movie star and the physique of a tiny cartoon character. He’s loosely inspired by Marty “The Needle” Reisman, a real-life US table tennis champ from the 1950s who was given to Bobby Riggs-type sh...

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