SURF'S UP! THE KEANU

REEVES COVER OF THE MODERN REVIEW. LOW CULTURE FOR HIGH BROWS WAS THE STATED AIM OF THE SHORT-LIVED AMAZINE AND

IT NEVER SUNK SO LOW TO REACH SUCH HEIGHTS AS IT

DID WITH THIS COVER!

As good as it ever got. And very, very rare to find now. We didn't even know at the time that the cover line was a direct quote from Point Break. This was in W.H. Smiths on the high street in 1993. It felt very brave - indeed. 

The Modern Review was founded in 1991 by British journalism's enfants terribles Julie Burchill, Toby Young and Cosmo Landesman. It was funded, for the most part, by Peter York. It was very much a product of the Groucho Club. What it did differently from all other magazines in the world up until that point was talk trash in newsprint, in proper sentences with long words.

Arnie's amazing turn as Hamlet is very watchable here. 

As good as it ever got (again). Brilliant Liz Hurley cover line. This is the June 1994 issue. In May 1994, Liz Hurley wore the Versace safety pin dress to the Four Weddings And A Funeral premiere. This was right in the middle of the nineties and right in the middle of everything. Julie Burchill had published Ambition in 1989. It is absolutely filthy. The cassette of Liz Hurley reading the dirtiest of the filthiest parts was sold with this issue.

Uma Thurman gets a cover but without innuendo. Two great and sweetly short film reviews on the cover though: Interview With A Vampire: It Sucks and Pret-A-Porter: Nul Points. They were not wrong. Ever wonder why British people tend toward the acerbic and are about as much fun as Alan Rickman's Snape... this is how we are brought up. 

Harsh. You might think. But then this was 1994, the same year that Charles went on TV and admitted to adultery...

And finally. Four years and 21 issues after it started, The Modern Review was over. In part of a victim of its own success. It's postmodern high/low positioning was wholesale ripped by The Sunday Times Culture section and The Guardian Guide. We have tried for a while to find every issue and never quite managed it. This time we have 17 of the 21 but as it does include Keanu (aka most extra unordinary cover of all time) and the Liz Hurley with the cassette, we are calling it complete. 

BUY THEM NOW ON THE BUTTON BELOW!