Long Shot Review – ★★★★★

Certificate – 15
Directed By – Jonathan Levine
Starring – Charlize Theron, Seth Rogen, O’Shea Jackson Jr, June Diane Raphael, Bob Odenkirk
Running Time – 125 Minutes (2 Hours 5 Minutes)

I’m going to be honest, growing up I’ve lost interest in Seth Rogen comedies as films like Superbad and The Night Before were great at the time and still find them funny today, but hated This Is The End and Sausage Party.

As someone who love’s rom-com’s, I was going into Long Shot unsure what I was getting myself in to.

Turns out I was pleasantly surprised.

What’s Long Shot About?

Charlotte Field (Theron) is Secretary of State and is preparing to make a run for the Presidency and is in need of a speechwriter. She hires gifted and free spirited journalist Fred Flarsky (Rogen) to the dismay of her trusted advisors.

A fish out of water on Charlotte’s elite team, Fred is unprepared for her glamorous and high stakes lifestyle. However, sparks fly as their unmistakable chemistry leads to a round-the-world romance that becomes embroiled in a series of dangerous and outlandish incidents.

Is It Any Good?

Yes. Long Shot is a fantastic, brilliantly laugh-out-loud romantic comedy.

This is Seth Rogen’s best performance to date delivering a brilliantly funny and fantastic performance.

He works so well off Theron, that would buy that given the time these two characters spend together and a relationship would build and it works as it clearly as a nod of the cap to Pretty Woman with the roles reversed.

It’s mental to think in her incredible, Oscar winning career the South African actress was never thought of as a romantic comedy lead and you can see her enjoying herself.

While I think he was superb in Mad Max: Fury Road and Atomic Blonde, this could be my favourite Charlize Theron performance.

Even though, it still has some of Rogen’s slapstick and humour it works so well in this role and film it never got old or annoying. If this is how director Levine can handle the actor then I’m differently going to go back and watch.

It’s not just the two leads the supporting cast is fantastic.

Rogen and Jackson’s chemistry is as good as friends from college and whenever Jackson is on screen he steals the movie. He’s also a great balance to the free-spirit nature of Rogen’s Fred.

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Meanwhile, Raphael does a solid job as Theron’s right-hand woman and Rogen’s ball-buster.

It also doesn’t work as just a rom-com it’s a funny political comedy too. As Odenkirk plays a mixture of Ronald Regan and George Bush as Alexander Skarsgard (which I heard an audible sound coming out of my plus one) was a decent typical incredibly handsome love interest.

If Crazy Rich Asians was the romantic comedy everyone had to see of 2018, then Long Shot is 100% the romantic comedy everyone has to see in 2019.

Dan Sterling and Liz Hannah’s script is fantastically written and will hopefully be the kick-starter for both writers to get plenty of work because based on this alone they deserve it.

Anything Bad About The Film?

No, I seriously can’t think of anything.

I had a cracking good time.

Verdict

A fantastic rom-com. Funny, touching with a great cast. Rogen giving his best performance and Theron my favourite performance.