PREVIEW 2024
Total Film|Christmas 2023
Movie Reviews
JORDAN FARLEY, JAMIE GRAHAM, JORDAN FARLEY
PREVIEW 2024

NOVEL CONCEPT
Matthew Vaughn puts Bond through the blender...

DIRECTOR MATTHEW VAUGHN
STARRING HENRY CAVILL, BRYCE DALLAS
HOWARD, SAM ROCKWELL, JOHN CENA,
SAMUEL L. JACKSON
ETA 2 FEBRUARY

‘You know, one of the biggest arguments I have with my children is trying to get them to watch old movies,’ smiles Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass, Kingsman: The Secret Service) from beneath his trademark baseball cap. ‘These are the movies I fell in love with at the cinema. In one week, I watched, with them, Charade and North by Northwest. I was like, “This is amazing.” And they were like, “But it’s a bunch of old people”. Actually, they were a lot younger than Brad Pitt and Cruise and stuff – they just looked older!’

There’s a reason Vaughn is telling Total Film how he spent his lockdown herding the kids in front of the TV. He’s explaining why he chose to make his new movie, Argylle. A meta-spy adventure, it sees a bestselling author of espionage books suddenly caught up in a real-life globe-trotting thrill ride involving secret agents, cool gadgets and sleek vehicles.

‘And then I put on Romancing  the Stone, and they flipped for it,’ he continues. ‘They first went, “Dad, why is no one making movies like that?” And then they pointed at me, and went, “You could do something like that.”’

This story is from the Christmas 2023 edition of Total Film.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

This story is from the Christmas 2023 edition of Total Film.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

MORE STORIES FROM TOTAL FILMView All
Snow Time to Die - Red One J.K. Simmons' Santa gets kidnapped. Luckily, Dwayne Johnson's on hand to save him...
Total Film

Snow Time to Die - Red One J.K. Simmons' Santa gets kidnapped. Luckily, Dwayne Johnson's on hand to save him...

If 2022's Violent Night gave us Die Hard in a Santa suit, Jake Kasdan's Red One could be retitled North Pole Has Fallen. The world imagined by Kasdan finds Saint Nick kidnapped two days before Christmas Eve. It's up to Dwayne Johnson's head of security, Callum Drift, and Chris Evans' unscrupulous hacker-for-hire, Jack O'Malley, to hunt down the man in red in time for the big day.

time-read
4 mins  |
November 2024
Back With a Vengeance - Sir Ridley Scott returns to the Colosseum with Gladiator II, the long-awaited sequel to the greatest historical epic of this century. Total Film meets the director and cast to discover how Maximus' legacy is echoing in eternity.
Total Film

Back With a Vengeance - Sir Ridley Scott returns to the Colosseum with Gladiator II, the long-awaited sequel to the greatest historical epic of this century. Total Film meets the director and cast to discover how Maximus' legacy is echoing in eternity.

Ridley Scott is not a filmmaker to repeat himself. It's a trait that's all the more remarkable when you consider how prolific he's been over the nearly five decades since his feature debut, 1977's The Duellists. Alien prequels Prometheus and Alien: Covenant are the only times he's gone back to the same world, and those films are radical departures from the original.

time-read
10+ mins  |
November 2024
Bad Romance - Timestalker Alice Lowe falls in love with the wrong man time and time again...
Total Film

Bad Romance - Timestalker Alice Lowe falls in love with the wrong man time and time again...

Her antidote to that? Timestalker a dark not-quite-romcom set over the course of centuries. Her protagonist Agnes finds herself attracted to the same man, Alex (Dunkirk's Aneurin Barnard), in every lifetime as she's reincarnated in the 1680s, 1790s, 1980s and the 22nd century. As romantic as that may sound, there's a bit of a catch: 'He's sort of a dickhead. On the surface he's appealing, but under, he's not.'

time-read
2 mins  |
October 2024
McQueen & Country
Total Film

McQueen & Country

A moment of national pride and terror comes to the screen with World War Two historical drama Blitz. Total Film speaks to writer/director Steve McQueen and his stars Saoirse Ronan and Stephen Graham about uncovering the truth and celebrating the triumph of a defining moment in modern British history.

time-read
7 mins  |
November 2024
'I WAS, AND AM STILL, SURPRISED BY EVERY OPPORTUNITY. I'VE BEEN CONTINUOUS AND FEEL AT THE TOP OF MY FORM' JEFF GOLDBLUM
Total Film

'I WAS, AND AM STILL, SURPRISED BY EVERY OPPORTUNITY. I'VE BEEN CONTINUOUS AND FEEL AT THE TOP OF MY FORM' JEFF GOLDBLUM

Seth Brundle. Dr. Ian Malcolm. Grandmaster. Jeff Goldblum has played some titanic characters over his 50-year career, and is celebrating a half-century on our screens by going bigger than ever. First he played Zeus in Netflix show Kaos, and now he's the Wizard of Oz in Wicked. Total Film meets the man behind the curtain...

time-read
10+ mins  |
November 2024
STICKY SITUATION
Total Film

STICKY SITUATION

Seven years on from his last big-screen appearance, marmalade's biggest fan returns for Paddington in Peru. Total Film talks to director Dougal Wilson, actor Hugh Bonneville and the visual-effects wizards who make the magic happen...

time-read
9 mins  |
November 2024
BORN TO BE WILD
Total Film

BORN TO BE WILD

BROTHERS IS THE MOST SURPRISING ACTION COMEDY OF THE YEAR, AND NOT JUST BECAUSE JOSH BROLIN AND PETER DINKLAGE PLAY CRIMINAL TWINS. TOTAL FILM ROUNDS UP THE STARS TO TALK ABOUT DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILIES, THE 'HARD AS NAILS' COMEDIES THEY GREW UP WITH, AND MASTURBATING MONKEYS...

time-read
10+ mins  |
November 2024
TRIPPING THE LIGHT FANTASTIC
Total Film

TRIPPING THE LIGHT FANTASTIC

ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT Payal Kapadia's film shows the Mumbai you've never seen...

time-read
2 mins  |
November 2024
HUMPH DAY BOGART: LIFE COMES IN FLASHES
Total Film

HUMPH DAY BOGART: LIFE COMES IN FLASHES

Behind every great man is a great woman. Or in Humphrey Bogart's case, four great women...

time-read
2 mins  |
November 2024
CALLING THE SHOTS
Total Film

CALLING THE SHOTS

NEVER LOOK AWAY Lucy Lawless directs a bio-doc about a trailblazing camerawoman...

time-read
2 mins  |
November 2024