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Long Shot looks like the kind of comedy I’ve seen a zillion times, but I’d heard good things about it, even though 125 minutes does seem way too long for comedy. About 100 minutes should be the max.
In this, Seth Rogen (50/50) plays himself, but here, as Fred Flarsky, a journalist who’s about to find himself in need of new employment. Elsewhere, Charlotte Field (Charlize Theron – Atomic Blonde) is the youngest female Secretary of State under US President Chambers (Bob Odenkirk), and like the real-life Ukraine President, Chambers is an actor, but this one was just a TV actor who wants to get into films. He also has some Trump-like opinions, which shows some of the quality of the writing right there(!)
Charlotte is looking to run for President next time, but both her and Fred met when they were younger, and now, almost 30 years later, their paths cross at a posh party where Boyz II Men are playing. Fred fancied her back then, but she already had a significant other. Will things work out for them now? What do you think, as this film is plain mediocre, and it plays out exactly the way you expect.
Charlotte’s plan is to have a set out a green ‘climate plan’ by jetting around 20 different countries. That’s like when David Attenborough flies more air miles in a month than you ever will in a lifetime. And don’t get started on the 300,000 people FLYING to each annual COP Conference… There’s no sign of ‘green’ going on there.
(Oh, and if you ever cite ‘scientists’ as your proof, then note that in the past week, so-called scientists have just stated that the Loch Ness Monster is real!)
There’s an amusing moment where we see Charlotte sleeps standing up and with her eyes open, as she never gets any decent sleep, but less so with Andy Serkis laying on the latex (on his face) to portray an old letch, and Phoebe from Friends is on hand to basically play Phoebe. So glad it’s just for one scene.
Overall, I was expecting an engaging rom-com, but… I didn’t get it. I really did get exactly what I expected, and because it runs over two hours, it feels more like three. There’s so much dialogue and situations which either repeats or could be cut out to make it run much tighter. In fact, the longer it goes on, the more tiresome and predictable it becomes. I could make it a half-decent film by chopping it down to around 80 minutes.
The extras are as follows. They’re all shot at the same time – so may as well be part of the same long extra, but at least there’s a lot to get stuck into if you’re a fan… and I wasn’t, but I still went through them just for you 🙂
- All’s Fair in Love and Politics: Making Long Shot (29:55): A straight-forward ‘making of’ with clips from the film mixed in with chat from the cast and crew. It’s described as an old-school rom-com, and it does feel like something out of the ’80s, and with modern references thrown in. However, it’s one of those old-school movies which you’d watch and then instantly forget what you saw.
And given that this extra is 30 minutes long, I should’ve just watched this and saved a hell of a lot of time!
- Seven Minutes in Heaven: Seth and Charlize Uncensored (6:55): The name of this extra references a line of the film when she’s so busy in her job that she can only spare him seven minutes out of her day’s schedule. This is a joint interview where they show oh, what buddies they are!
- Secret Weapons (15:53): An extra about the supporting characters.
- Epic Flarsky Fails (6:12): How the character’s trips and falls were done. Well, it’s mostly about the ‘window/car’ stunt and a lot less of the ‘stairs’ stunt, but I’ll give no spoilers here.
- Prime Minister Steward O-Rama (4:55): A piece about Alexander Skarsgård’s character.
- Hanging with Boyz II Men (5:49): I could do without them when they were famous, so I’ll pass on this one.
- Just Kinda Crushing It! (4:13): Referencing a term used in the film, this is just various on-set takes.
- The First Mister: A Portrait (7:25): an extra about something in the film and to detail it here would be to give spoilers. However, I can say that the Todd McFarlane picture was cool.
- An Imperfect Union (7:28): A general piece about the two leads, with other cast members blowing smoke up their backsides.
- Love & Politics (5:15): More of the same, but mentioning politics, naturally.
- Friends Like These (3:56): A piece about the collaborative cast.
- Audio description track: Does exactly what it says on the tin.
The main menu features music from the film mixed with stills. There are a bog-standard 12 chapters and subtitles are in English only.
Long Shot is released tomorrow on Blu-ray, Amazon Video and DVD.
|
FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS |
3 10 8 6 |
| OVERALL | 7 |
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 125 minutes
Year: 2019
Distributor: Lionsgate
Cat.no: LIB95789R0
Released: September 9th 2019
Chapters: 12
Picture: 1080p High Definition
Sound: DTS HD-MA 5.1
Languages: English
Subtitles: English SDH
Format: 2.39:1 (Anamorphic Master Scope)
Disc Format: BD50
Director: Jonathan Levine
Producers: AJ Dix, Evan Goldberg, Beth Kono, Seth Rogen, Charlize Theron, James Weaver
Screenplay: Dan Sterling, Liz Hannah
Music: Marco Beltrami, Miles Hankins
Cast:
Charlotte Field: Charlize Theron
Fred Flarsky: Seth Rogen
Maggie Millikin: June Diane Raphael
Lance: O’Shea Jackson Jr
Tom: Ravi Patel
President Chambers: Bob Odenkirk
Parker Wembley: Andy Serkis
Boss: Randall Park
Agent M: Tristan D Lalla
Canadian Prime Minister James Steward: Alexander Skarsgård
Bharath: Aladeen Tawfeek
Boyz II Men: Nathan Morris, Wanya Morris, Shawn Stockman
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.