Total Film Magazine - Issue 201

The Comedy Issue

This month, we're offering you the ultimate antidote to the winter blues with our comedy special. Cheer yourself up with a ribtickling look at Anchorman 2 , The Hangover 3 and This Is 40 , and groundhog botherer Bill Murray tells us about playing the US president. And, there's the greatest comedy movie one-liners as voted for by you!

Plus, we get an exclusive on set visit to The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and talk to cover star Martin Freeman star and co about the most awaited film of 2012. That's not all though, as there's a wealth of movie gold inside, including Carrie , Evil Dead , and Samuel L. Jackson.

Also, you may have already heard that Total Film magazine is now available on your iPad, and it now costs just £1.99 per issue , or £12.99 for a whole year ($2.99 per issue or $17.99 yearly for the US and Canada, €2.39 per issue or €14.49 yearly for the Europe)! Read about the key features of Total Film 's interactive iPad edition.

Fans of the good old-fashioned paper edition need not worry - this version ain’t going anywhere! Like the look of that exclusive subscribers-only cover? Well, subscribe to Total Film magazine then - and save 50% with our winter 2012 offer !

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Unless you’ve been living in a cave for a few years, you will be aware that Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is set to take cinemagoers back to Tolkien’s wondrous Middle-earth once more.

TF gets an exclusive on-set visit to the biggest production of 2012 (and 2013, and 2014), and we chat with Freeman, Jackson and co. as they take us through the epic beginning of Bilbo Baggins’ quest into life outside the Shire.

Our Review Of 2012

From a rash of quality blockbusters to a flurry of leftfield surprises, 2012 has been stamped with cinematic excellence. In this issue, TF reviews a year that has seen girls kicking ass, documentaries ruling the screen and archery scoring a comeback.

We consider everything from the greatest scenes and scares, to the very worst dire-logue. Plus, we give you a run down of all of the must-see films from the year including the likes of noirish doc The Imposter , Michael Fassbender's brutal and uncompromising lead in Shame , and Gareth Evans' super violent and super brilliant, The Raid .

Carrie and Evil Dead

Horror is booming right now. Although many may roll their eyes at the sight of more remakes of '80s classics, we look at two that could really shock.

Chloë Grace Moretz’s takes the lead in a new version of Carrie , and Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell bless the remake of Evil Dead , which has been scribed by Diablo Cody.

This Is 40

This is 40 , the latest Judd Apatow comedy and self-titled ‘sort-of’ sequel to Knocked Up , sees Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann continue to fight their way through their marriage and (mid-)life’s struggles.

Judd Apatow invites us around the set and talks about his latest comedy, and how his regular comedic chums have now become his extended family.

The Sessions

Passion and paralysis is the backdrop for the unlikeliest feel-good drama of the year in The Sessions. Could a romance between a man in an iron lung and his sex therapist be set for Oscar glory?

Helen Hunt and John Hawkes talk about their film version of the true story of quadriplegic Mark O’Brien, and the continuing awards buzz that refuses to dim.

Fatal Attraction: 25 Years On

That poor bunny. Never stood a chance against Glenn Close’s revenge-driven Alex Forrest as she obsessed over her one-night-stand lover, Michael Douglas’s Dan Gallagher.

We speak to director Adrian Lyne and the cast of Fatal Attraction about the 1987 sexual thriller that shocked the world, and how 25 years on, the movie still refuses to be ignored.

Buzz and Agenda

Following the events of New York, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) struggles to adapt to post- Avengers life, facing his toughest battle yet against the mysterious and powerful The Mandarin (a reprehensible Ben Kingsley).

We go in-depth with a HUGE picture preview of Iron Man 3 in Buzz, providing a vital guide to all the new faces in the upcoming threequel. Also this month, we check out Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson in Michael Bay's 'smallest' film, Pain and Gain , and we look to awards season with a preview for 2013's Oscar front-runners.

In Agenda , Ryan Gosling sets off on a jam-packed 2013, Kit Harington talks horror, and we investigate the raft of A-list actors now plying their craft on videogame consoles.

Screen and Lounge

In Screen , Ang Lee’s beautiful and inspiring Life Of Pi is our Film of the Month. Sightseers , Seven Psychopaths , Pitch Perfect and Celeste & Jesse Forever are all reviewed too, as they aim to provide laughs aplenty to blast away the winter blues. Also, we’ve got the latest Dickens adaptation from Mike Newell, Great Expectations .

Christopher Nolan’s epic conclusion to the Batman saga, The Dark Knight Rises , is the star of Lounge this month, as we revisit it on Blu-ray. There’s also reviews for surprise smash hit Magic Mike , as well as Pixar’s latest outing in Brave . This month’s instant expert is Killer Joe director William Friedkin, while one of our writers questions whether 2001: A Space Odyssey is, in fact, the most overrated film of all time.

The Total Film Interview: Samuel L. Jackson

Nick Fury, Mace Windu, Zeus Carver, Jules Winnfield... just one of these iconic roles could define another actor’s career, yet Samuel L Jackson has played them all. However, the man shows no sign of stopping as he is set to star in José Padilha's Robocop , Spike Lee's Oldboy , and more over the course of the next 18 months.

We hold court with the outspoken Oscar-nominated leading man about his work, his future, and his collaborations with Quentin Tarantino, not least his fifth film with the director, the upcoming Django Unchained .