7 d. ago The Wizard of the Kremlin review – Jude Law is Putin in adaptation of Kremlin spin doctor bestseller

Venice film festival The rise of Vladimir Putin, chillingly played by Law, is portrayed through the eyes of a wily insider, but Paul Dano’s protagonist cuts a one-note figureGiuliano da Empoli’s smash-hit satirical novel The Wizard of the Kremlin, about a Putin spin doctor called Vadim Baranov and based on shadowy Russian politician Vladislav Surkov, has now been converted into an exasperatingly laborious and literal-minded movie, burdened with endless dull voiceover. It has been written for the screen by its estimable director Olivier Assayas, working with the formidable author and reportage journalist Emmanuel Carrère; Carrère in fact has a cameo here, playing a supercilious French figure at a raucous Moscow student party in the early 90s, patronisingly informing the young people present that it was the communism they’ve just rejected that really believed in the arts.The action takes us through the 1990s decline of ailing president Boris Yeltsin and the promotion of FSB chief Vlad...

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9 d. ago US Open’s dating show proves a double fault in search for new fans

Game, Set, Matchmaker aims to woo a pop-culture audience. But with tennis sidelined in favor of awkward small talk, it risks alienating its core supportersOn the first day of this year’s US Open, Alexandra Eala came back from 5-1 down in the third set to upset Clara Tauson in front of a rapturous crowd, Novak Djokovic rope-a-doped a fresher opponent barely half his age, Rebeka Masarova hit an overhead smash into the only racket-sized area inside the lines that would ensure she lost the point, and Daniil Medvedev all but incited a riot in the stands of Louis Armstrong Stadium while down match point.Amidst the overstimulating slate of matches, the US Open quietly published the first episode of the dating video series Game, Set, Matchmaker on their official YouTube channel. In it, host Ilana Sedaka, a figure skater and influencer, had a blind date with Ronnie, a lacrosse coach. They exchanged bright smiles and music tastes. They bonded over their love of Drake – what were the odds? Tho...

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9 d. ago David Ellis on Hanbaagaasuuteeki: Another burger joint — but this one’s a smash hit

David Ellis on Hanbaagaasuuteeki: Another burger joint — but this one’s a smash hit  London Evening Standard

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1 week ago David Ellis reviews Hanbaagaasuuteeki: Another burger joint — but this one’s a smash hit

In a city of smashburger specialists, this is one that will make you forget the rest

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1 week ago Netflix KPop Demon Hunters is streaming giant's most watched movie of all time with 236m views

Netflix viewers are desperate to know if there's a sequel to smash hit Kpop Demon Hunters in the works...

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1 week ago ‘The pope complained about the lyrics!’: the Bluebells and Siobhan Fahey on how they made Young at Heart

‘I had moved down from Glasgow and was sharing a council flat with the girls from Bananarama. We wrote the song after watching the Frank Sinatra film’I first glimpsed Siobhan Fahey at my publisher’s offices. Later that day, when I was being interviewed by Smash Hits, I told the interviewer: “I really fancy Siobhan from Bananarama.” The next night, she was at our concert, at the front. I remember saying to my bandmates Ken and Dave McCluskey: “I’m gonna get off with her.” Continue reading...

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2 w. ago Black Mirror's Charlie Brooker makes chilling cinema prediction over 'worrying' AI

Charlie Brooker, who created the smash-hit Netflix series The Black Mirror, has shared his thoughts on the future of artificial intelligence as its use increases

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2 w. ago Meet Corey Mylchreest, the up and coming star of Netflix's Hostage

The actor has played love interests in Netflix smash-hits Queen Charlotte and My Oxford Year - now he’s in a political thriller

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2 w. ago 'Netflix show's twisted ending left me in mourning after I watched it 20 years too late'

Social News reporter Jess Flaherty recently started watching a smash hit crime show which first aired in the mid 00s but the huge twist at the end of one episode was tough viewing

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3 w. ago Nearly half of voters fear the Government will not be able to 'smash the gangs' after migrant count hits 50,000

While the poll applies to British governments in general, it indicates a lack of faith in Sir Keir Starmer's 'smash the gangs' policy to control the boats.

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3 w. ago Slow jams, smash hits and Popeye samples: Carly Rae Jepsen’s 20 best songs – ranked!

As her landmark pop album Emotion turns 10, we run down the funky, feverish and feral of the Canadian star’s greatest hitsCarly Rae Jepsen loves to squirrel away killer songs for her now-standard B-side collections. The opener to The Loveliest Time (the companion to 2022’s The Loneliest Time) evinces several CRJ trademarks: a love of odd production in the drily funky guitar and playful percussion, breathy falsetto – and obsessive, intense lyrics about being willing to do anything for love. Continue reading...

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3 w. ago Cheer up, Ice Cube, your War of the Worlds movie may be really bad, but it's not worthless | Saranka Maheswaran

Awful clunkers occasionally emerge from both Hollywood and Bollywood, but I have found value in most cinematic calamitiesIf the latest adaptation of HG Wells’s 1898 novel The War of the Worlds, a movie starring Ice Cube and Eva Longoria, was designed to make us pause and ask questions, it has certainly succeeded. Unfortunately, what a lot of viewers have been asking is why it was inflicted on the public in the first place. Is War of the Worlds “one of the worst movies ever made?”, asked the BBC. “Shockingly bad War of the Worlds is one of the worst movies of the decade,” said the New York Post. “Amazon’s War of the Worlds update should never have been released,” declared the Telegraph.The 2005 adaptation, starring Tom Cruise, was a smash hit. Now people are flocking to the remake to see just how bad a film can be – it’s in the top 10 films watched in the UK and US on Amazon Prime. It seems that we have come to love “bad” films almost as much as those deemed good. The website Rotten ...

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3 w. ago Netflix fans can't get over Wednesday star Hunter Doohan's age after risqué scenes

The second instalment of Netflix's smash hit series Wednesday dropped earlier this month, with Jenna Ortega returning in the lead role. Her co-star Hunter Doohan's age has raised a few eyebrows

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3 w. ago My Chemical Romance to bring The Black Parade back to the UK in 2026

The celebrated ‘emo’ head back to the United Kingdom in celebration of their smash-hit work, ‘The Black Parade’

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