The Conjuring: Last Rites review – Enjoyable chiller lets franchise rest in peace
While it doesn't possess many new ideas, the latest entry in the Warrens' supernatural spook-fest should please long-time fans.
The most successful horror franchise in movie history ends with little we haven’t seen before in the past paranormal investigations carried out by the powerhouse psychic duo of Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga). While a polished push-button scare affair well-marshalled by director Michael Chaves, who has series form with The Nun II, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It and the near relative The Curse Of La Llorona, The Conjuring: Last Rites doesn’t break any new ground in the demonic possession or poltergeist arena. Chaves competently juggles the expected components of a successful shocker – sudden ghostly images, off-screen bangs, slow camera pans to menacing objects, in-your-face apparitions – but the visceral excitement is missing as Last Rites seems more haunted by the Amityville Horror movies than anything supernaturally innovative. Beginning in 1964, we witness the young Warrens investigating their very first case concerning a haunted Gothic mirror that causes pregnant Lorraine to give a traumatic birth to their daughter Judy (Mia Tomlinson). Swiftly moving to five years after events in The Devil Made Me Do It, semi-retired Ed and Lorraine are on the safe university lecture circuit having stepped back from actively pursuing spooky phenomena due to Ed’s heart attack in that third instalment. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2025/09/the-conjuring-last-rites-patrick-wilson-vera-farmiga-9ec097f.jpeg" width="6000" height="4000" alt="Patrick Wilson as Ed Warren and Vera Farmiga as Lorraine Warren in The Conjuring: Last Rites standing in a lecture theatre giving a talk, with a screen showing a scary clown face behind them." title="Patrick Wilson as Ed Warren and Vera Farmiga as Lorraine Warren in The Conjuring: Last Rites" /> As Judy and her new ex-cop boyfriend Tony (Ben Hardy) start planning their wedding, something Ed is clearly unsettled by, their priest Father Gordon (series regular Steve Coulter) hears about the blue collar Smurl family, comprised of a madhouse eight members, who moved into their West Pittston, Pennsylvania, home in 1973, and after enduring years of creepy disturbances and unexplained spiritual activity in their duplex finally went public in 1986 with their terrifying torment. After Father Gordon goes to high-ranking Catholic Church officials to plead an exorcism for the media-swamped Smurls, ‘sensitive’ Judy feels drawn to the case for reasons she can’t spell out. And so her concerned parents have no other option than to follow her into the dark abyss of Chase Street where three demons are in control of the Smurl household and the haunted mirror from their past proves to be the key to the turmoil involving strange sounds, dark figures in the shadows, physical attacks by everyday objects, nighttime levitation and an appearance by Annabelle, the doll star of three offshoots in the Conjuring universe. The clear chemistry between Wilson and Farmiga is once more the central anchor for this over-long stale tale of the not-so-unexpected that is smoothly efficient in its handling of the slight fright that still does maintain a consistently enjoyably chill against all the odds. Frankly the soap opera marriage-go-round does a disservice to the thrust of the narrative, diluting the skilful old-school build-up. View oEmbed on the source website Best moments concern a pantry telephone cable set-up, one character's Final Destination-style demise, a wedding dress fitting room close encounter of the hellish kind and the final fearful flurry involving the haunted mirror revolving like a whirling dervish. It’s Chaves’s assertive visual command that pushes the tried-and-true theatrics towards the finish line. And what a conclusion because the Conjuring fan collective will greatly appreciate the respect Last Rites shows to its heritage in the rather moving epilogue reuniting franchise cast members, plus a cheeky cameo from producer/writer/director James Wan himself as the credits roll over archive footage and home movies of the real Warren family going about their much maligned daily business. It has been a case of diminishing returns regarding the nine-movie nerve-jangling blockbuster juggernaut and while Last Rites hardly matches the pioneering nightmare spirit of the original film, it churns the cliché chills with a pleasing confidence. The Conjuring: Last Rites is released in UK cinemas on Friday 5th September 2025. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Ballerina review – Ana de Armas leads a propulsively flamboyant John Wick spin-off
This tale of an elite female assassin is not terribly original – but it's the very definition of a summer treat.
★★★★☆ Ballerina is in cinemas from 6 June 2025. Add it to your watchlist This propulsively flamboyant spin-off set in the world of John Wick satisfies enormously, despite being a not terribly original tale about an elite female assassin. The plot takes place between the events of John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum and John Wick: Chapter 4, when Wick (Keanu Reeves) is on the run from the High Table. The focus is now on Eve Macarro (Ana de Armas) as she sees her father Javier (David Casteneda) murdered by mysterious members of an ancient cult marked with X wrist brands, and led by the evil Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne). Taken under the wing of The Continental manager Winston (Ian McShane), young Eve is adopted by the shadowy Ruska Roma organisation. There, in the Suspiria-like environs of a New York theatre, she is trained in ballet, assorted martial arts and lightning fast gun etiquette under the watchful eye of the Director (Angelica Huston). Proving herself combat ready after foiling a Chinese mafia abduction in – where else – a neon-drenched ice disco, Eve then goes rogue after tracking down ex X cult member Daniel Pine (Norman Reedus). Like her father before him, he is trying to free his young daughter from the Chancellor’s insidious clutches. After an explosively fun skirmish in a Prague arms emporium, Eve finally learns the location of the cult’s base - a picture postcard Alpine village community where everyone’s a killer from the chalet cafe barmaid to the local tourists. But her arrival unlocks past family secrets and so John Wick is sent by an enraged Director to halt any possibility of warfare between the two factions that could shatter their 1,000-year truce. Read more film reviews: Lilo & Stitch review: A lavish Disney remake with oodles of oddball charm The Phoenician Scheme review: Wes Anderson's latest is a quaint tale of industrial espionage Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning review: A clunky but undeniably exhilarating closing chapter for Tom Cruise's action franchise Thunderbolts* review: Florence Pugh shines bright in Marvel's thoughtful return to form Having previously shown her stunt chops as Cuban CIA agent Paloma in No Time to Die, de Armas shines here with a cool integrity, imbuing her character with sensitivity, credibility and purpose. She really goes high intensity mode in every single epic action moment that is marshalled by director Len Wiseman (Underworld). An amazing Manhattan car crash sequence must have the Fast and Furious crew fuming they never thought of it. Meanwhile, there’s great fun to be had in Eve’s inventive use of television remote controls, ice skate blades, flamethrowers, plus the usual arsenal of ice picks, meat mallets, katana swords and firehoses. Elsewhere, the typical gallery of eccentrics play their high-camp parts with suitable tongue-in-cheek finesse. It’s always great to see McShane’s gravitas in full swing, while Huston channels Cher complete with a hilarious Belarus accent, and Byrne hams it up in the final snowy showdown. There’s also a sad goodbye to Continental concierge Lance Reddick in the actor’s final screen appearance. Overall, the film veers only slightly away from the established John Wick template, but brings enough of its own freshness to justify its existence. It is a pace-perfect, slick designer thriller that is the very definition of a summer treat.
Ballerina review – A propulsively flamboyant John Wick spin-off
This tale of an elite female assassin played by Ana de Armas is not terribly original – but it's the very definition of a summer treat.
This propulsively flamboyant spin-off set in the world of John Wick satisfies enormously, despite being a not terribly original tale about an elite female assassin. The plot takes place between the events of John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum and John Wick: Chapter 4, when Wick (Keanu Reeves) is on the run from the High Table. The focus is now on Eve Macarro (Ana de Armas) as she sees her father Javier (David Casteneda) murdered by mysterious members of an ancient cult marked with X wrist brands, and led by the evil Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne). Taken under the wing of The Continental manager Winston (Ian McShane), young Eve is adopted by the shadowy Ruska Roma organisation. There, in the Suspiria-like environs of a New York theatre, she is trained in ballet, assorted martial arts and lightning fast gun etiquette under the watchful eye of the Director (Anjelica Huston). Proving herself combat ready after foiling a Chinese mafia abduction in – where else – a neon-drenched ice disco, Eve then goes rogue after tracking down ex X cult member Daniel Pine (Norman Reedus). Like her father before him, he is trying to free his young daughter from the Chancellor’s insidious clutches. Sponsored by Vue Save up to 30% on the latest releases at Vue in 2025 Are you a movie lover who always wants to be up to date with the latest releases? Then you're in luck, as RadioTimes.com readers can enjoy new films at Vue Cinemas for less. Customers will receive up to 30% off films with Vue Pass, as long as they have a RadioTimes.com account. It's a great time for new releases, with films such as Wicked, Nosferatu, The Brutalist and Moana 2 taking UK cinemas by storm. Head to your nearest Vue to catch these movies and more for up to 30% less if you're signed up as a RadioTimes.com member. Save up to 30% with Vue Pass After an explosively fun skirmish in a Prague arms emporium, Eve finally learns the location of the cult’s base - a picture postcard Alpine village community where everyone’s a killer, from the chalet cafe barmaid to the local tourists. But her arrival unlocks past family secrets and so John Wick is sent by an enraged Director to halt any possibility of warfare between the two factions that could shatter their 1000 year truce. Having previously shown her stunt chops as Cuban CIA agent Paloma in No Time to Die, de Armas shines here with a cool integrity, imbuing her character with sensitivity, credibility and purpose. She really goes high intensity mode in every single epic action moment that is marshalled by director Len Wiseman (Underworld). An amazing Manhattan car crash sequence must have the Fast and Furious crew furious they never thought of it. Meanwhile, there’s great fun to be had in Eve’s inventive use of television remote controls, ice skate blades, flamethrowers, plus the usual arsenal of ice picks, meat mallets, katana swords and firehoses. Elsewhere the typical gallery of eccentrics play their high-camp parts with suitable tongue-in-cheek finesse. It’s always great to see McShane’s gravitas in full swing, while Huston channels Cher complete with a hilarious Belarus accent, and Byrne hams it up in the final snowy showdown. There’s also a sad goodbye to Continental concierge Lance Reddick in the actor’s final screen appearance. Read more: Fountain of Youth review: Guy Ritchie's Indiana Jones tribute is fast, fun and dumb Karate Kid: Legends review – Reboot lacks the soul and heft of previous outings Overall, the film veers only slightly away from the established John Wick template, but brings enough of its own freshness to justify its existence. It is a pace-perfect, slick designer thriller that is the very definition of a summer treat. From the World of John Wick: Ballerina will release in UK cinemas on 6th June 2025. If you're looking for something to watch tonight, check out our TV Guide and Streaming Guide or visit our Film hub for all the latest news. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
The Whale review: An eloquent and powerful look at last-chance redemption
Brendan Fraser delivers a barnstorming performance in Darren Aronofsky's new film.
Director Darren Aronofsky once more goes down his favoured thematic rabbit hole with the idea of pushing the human body to its absolute limits and the psychological strains on the soul in doing so. In The Fountain it was metaphysical, in Requiem for a Dream it was drug-related and in both The Wrestler and Black Swan it was purely physical. The Whale continues that haunting premise with binge-eating Charlie (Brendan Fraser), a morbidly obese, 600-pound gay recluse who is literally punishing his body for the suicidal death of his lover from anorexia. Based on Simon D Hunter’s acclaimed semi-autobiographical play (premiered off-Broadway in 2012), it is easily Aronofsky’s most eloquent, powerful and sincere examination of last-chance redemption within a vivid portrait of the inability to escape the sadness of one’s own existence. In a run-down apartment in rural Idaho, teacher Charlie is giving online writing lessons over Zoom with his webcam turned off – he says it’s broken - so his pupils can’t see him in person. On one hand, he’s offering remote advice while actually trying to desperately reconnect with his estranged daughter (superb Sadie Sink from Stranger Things) by ghostwriting her English essay homework. He’s even blackmailing her into grudging visits with promises of inheritance money. But her bitchy viciousness is a hurdle proving hard to dodge even though the two exploring the boundaries of mutual trust are among the most wildly funny and moving scenes. It’s within this narrow universe that Charlie’s deceased boyfriend’s sister (wonderful Hong Chau) is nagging him to seek medical attention before eating himself to death, a confused New Life missionary (wide-eyed Ty Simpkins) sees him as a doorstep convert challenge, his hurt ex-wife (Samantha Morton in uber fierce mode) wants relationship answers, and a virtually unseen pizza delivery man checks up on the welfare of his best customer through the letterbox. Trading on everyone’s shared experiences with limited pandemic connection and keeping his stage-to-screen adaptation simplicity itself, Aronofsky deliberately reins in his often flamboyant style, underlining the theatrical origins of the intense chamber piece by using the claustrophobic Academy ratio to make this penetrating look at self-destruction through abject grief a lesson in how people are incapable of not caring. With every one of the stellar supporting cast making an indelible impact, The Whale isn’t just a one-man show. Nevertheless, it’s Brendan Fraser who dominates the confined setting with a self-deprecating, barnstorming performance as the lovable man mountain in constant mourning. In a flawlessly CGI-augmented prosthetic suit, underrated comeback kid Fraser trades on his past goofy charms to great effect. View oEmbed on the source website In semi-retirement due to painful stunt injuries and alleging that he was industry blacklisted after making sexual assault claims, Fraser proved he was more than puppy dog eyes and muscles in Gods and Monsters. Here his masterful take on Charlie’s never-wavering dignity and refusal to be defeated by traumatic addiction as he showers, masturbates to gay porn and staggers around his rundown apartment with a barely adequate zimmer frame, keeps Aronofsky’s significant drama well-balanced and convincing. Oscar voters will clearly be paying attention. Aronofsky has never been one to shy away from religious issues – mother! anyone? – and Simpkins’s character (interestingly changed from Mormon in the play to a more nebulous faith) embodies that spiritual dichotomy even more, especially as Charlie’s boyfriend also suffered from the damaging New Life doctrine. And then there’s The Whale title itself, the true Moby Dick meaning only snapping into focus in the final moments of this emotional epic that’s big-hearted – in fact exceptionally big in every single sense. View Green Video on the source website The Whale is released in UK cinemas on Friday 3rd February 2023. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. Try Radio Times magazine today and get 12 issues for only £1 with delivery to your home – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the Radio Times View From My Sofa podcast.
Juggling poignant drama with visual pizzazz, Pixar's dazzlingly surreal and ambitious coming-of-age tale finds the animation house at the top its game and one step ahead of the competition
Inside Out is one of the more recent Disney Pixar films to hit our screens, and is another family classic for Christmas 2019 on the TV. When is Inside Out on TV this Christmas? Inside Out is on BBC One at 3pm on Saturday 28th December. Is it any good? Do you have a review? ★★★★★ Pixar might have been out of sight for the past two years but they certainly haven’t been out of mind. For their latest masterpiece, the beloved animation company navigates through the brain control centre of Riley, an ice hockey-loving 11-year-old girl who is upset by her family’s move from rural Minnesota to bustling San Francisco. The film premiered out of competition at the Cannes film festival to overwhelming praise – even hardened critics melt when confronted by the cineaste-approved Pixar brand – and is already raking it in at the US box office. It’s also well on the way to being regarded as a pinnacle of achievement on the scale of Wall-E, Toy Story and Up. It’s easy to see why. Co-directors Ronaldo Del Carmen and Pete Docter (who got the basic concept by observing his own daughter’s glumness) simplify the complexity of intellect in an easy-to-understand way. Hard at work inside Riley’s cranium HQ are her anthropomorphically realised emotions: Joy (voiced by Parks and Recreation’s Amy Poehler); Sadness (Phyllis Smith); Fear (Bill Hader); Anger (Lewis Black); and Disgust (Mindy Kaling, star of E4’s The Mindy Project). Imagination is a theme park full of wild amusement rides. Dreams are made in a Hollywood-style film studio nearby – the blockbuster holdover being “I’m Falling for a Very Long Time into a Pit”. The Subconscious is all dark and sinister metaphor. Riley's character traits and interests are self-contained islands that have to be maintained. Trains of Thought connect each world together, while her memories are marbles, colour co-ordinated by associated emotional degrees: black moods, sunny disposition, green envy, etc. This dazzlingly surreal texture is neatly folded into what is essentially a uniquely slanted coming-of-age tale, in which Riley’s mixed emotions offer up boyfriend advice and help her through the everyday upheaval of adjusting to her new life in the big city as she nostalgically yearns for her past existence. It’s her first day at a new school that snaps every swirling feeling into sharp focus as a battle between Joy and Sadness relegate “core memories” to the Thought Dump, leaving Anger, Disgust and Fear to take control and cause Riley to contemplate running away from home. The precision juggling of poignant drama with visual pizzazz is once more the disarming rocket fuel for Docter and Del Carmen’s literal head-trip, shaking up the clichés of the family-orientated animation genre and letting them fall in the quirkiest of places. Many will find the first five minutes charting Riley’s birth and the baby steps of her inner emotions as equally affecting as the montage at the start of Up or the restaurant critic’s food memories from Ratatouille. It’s the moving exploration of shared human experience that Pixar mines so perfectly; engaging adults while their children are enticed by a sight gag or a vividly resplendent Day-Glo image. The constantly changing headlines on Anger’s newspaper, the use of past animation styles at key junctures (even Hayao Miyazaki’s influence can be felt here), the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Hitchcock homages and the absolutely brilliant closing sequence where other characters’ brains are delved into, are proof enough that Pixar’s attention to detail will always keep the studio ahead of the game. Then there’s Bing Bong (Richard Kind), the once-cherished imaginary friend Riley hasn’t thought about in years. Dredged up from Riley’s distant childhood recollections, this soft-toy icon makes one last, and remarkably touching, play for her affections on his song-powered rocket, before giving up the effort in the face of her crumbling innocence as she embarks on the even bumpier road of entering teenage territory. You see, in order to restore Riley’s charm and wellbeing, Sadness must take a far greater role in the future. And when was the last time you saw that message in a cartoon? Only Pixar can make these sorts of ambitious notions work so well, and they do so by blending meaningful and multilayered storytelling with clever jokes and plenty of heartfelt moments. Pixar may not own the copyright on animation excellence but they never fail to locate the sweet spot between stylish smartness and tear-jerking goofiness, and Inside Out is another tremendously entertaining triumph in that refined regard. Is there a trailer? View oEmbed on the source website
Beauty and the Beast review: "everything you want from an old-fashioned musical fairy tale is here"
Emma Watson discovers love means never having to say you're hairy in another spectacular live-action makeover for Disney's animated classics
★★★★ Tweaking their revered animated classics with the star power, cinematic language and digital rendering of the day has provided Disney with a sure-fire way of making their back catalogue relevant for an entirely new generation. Canny marketing and expert brand management has cleverly extended the lives of the most familiar stories and fairy tales, and produced such recent hits as Maleficent, Cinderella and The Jungle Book. With Dumbo, Cruella, Mulan, The Lion King and The Little Mermaid all in current states of development, it’s clearly a business strategy that is not going to disappear anytime soon. View oEmbed on the source website So where does director Bill Condon’s sumptuous and lavish update of the 1991 musical fantasy Beauty and the Beast fit into the grand Mouse House Makeover scheme of things? Well, while that transfixing masterpiece was the first animated film to be nominated for the best picture Oscar, this technically marvelous, live-action retelling won’t achieve any such accolade, although like its predecessor it may fare well in the craft categories. And while Condon’s impressively mounted spectacular won’t replace the original in terms of being sheer magic from joyous start to radiant finish – it’s just too enervatingly frothy and slightly saggy for that – it will stake its claim in the affections of those to whom the classic cartoon now feels more like rose-tinted nostalgia. The story is virtually an identikit of that 90s delight: a meld of de Villeneuve’s original French fairy tale and Leprince de Beaumont's abridged 1756 version. Transformed into an ugly beast by a sorceress, a selfish prince (Dan Stevens) must find a girl to fall in love with him to break the spell and prove that beauty is only skin deep. Enter Belle (Emma Watson), a local village’s oddball student, scorned by the locals for her bookish ways and inventive cleverness (she devises the first mechanical washing machine), who takes her father’s place as the Beast’s prisoner when he’s caught picking a rose in gloomy castle grounds plunged into a permanent state of winter. The enchanted servant household, including candelabra Lumiere (Ewan McGregor), carriage clock Cogsworth (Ian McKellen), matronly teapot Mrs Potts (Emma Thompson), her teacup son Chip (Nathan Mack), wardrobe Madame Garderobe (Audra McDonald), harpsichord Cadenza (Stanley Tucci) and feather duster Plumette (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), know Belle is the Beast’s final chance for love before the last petal falls from the dying rose and their fate is sealed. So they cosset Belle and lay the foundations for her to hopefully see their master’s inner soul in the proper romantic light. But no one has reckoned on vainglorious lothario Gaston (Luke Evans) to storm the castle and once more try and win Belle’s hand in marriage with one last violent gesture. Screenwriters Stephen Chbosky and Evan Spiliotopoulos over-egg the already rich pudding by adding in numerous backstories. Where the 1991 version began with a concise stained-glass-window explanation of the curse, here we get an extravagant pre-credits ballroom sequence spelling out events. Gaston’s goofy sidekick LeFou (Josh Gad) also emerges with a more fleshed-out character, although the much-reported-on gay undertones are subtle to the point of virtual invisibility in the light of the ethnic tolerance and feminist slants. Much of the extra 44-minute running time, compared to the tightly constructed original, is taken up with the strained relationship between Belle and her father Maurice (Kevin Kline), who never gives a reason for her mother’s sudden exit from their lives. One of the additional fantasy adornments has the Beast allowing Belle to use a magic atlas to travel back in time to Paris to learn the sad truth. With respect to the songs and soundtrack, all the evergreen hits have been included in re-recorded versions, including new material written by Alan Menken and Tim Rice like “Days in the Sun” and “Evermore”. In the case of the familiar “Gaston”, Menken has restored lyrics initially dropped by Howard Ashman as a fitting tribute to his late writing partner. Happily the "I use antlers in all of my decorating" line remains, surely one of the best lyrics ever! Does Emma Thompson’s version of the title song improve on Angela Lansbury’s stunning 1991 rendition? Not in a million years! But at least the Busby Berkeley-inspired “Be Our Guest” survives to be the undisputed showstopper once more. You really will feel like applauding at the end of this gorgeously appointed sequence. Incredible to think that the original plan was to film the story without the songs, that is until Frozen became a massive hit and made Disney see sense. Condon (who has musical pedigree with Dreamgirls) is clearly having fun throughout his ambitious flight of chocolate-box imagination, wickedly calling to mind The Sound of Music in one particular hilltop aria and Emma Watson’s past life as a Hogwarts pupil with castle interiors that owe more than a production design nod to both Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and Jean Cocteau's La Belle and la Bête (1946). With Dan Stevens being a somewhat stiff CGI rendition of Jean Marais from that latter masterpiece and Watson a rather too earnest damsel in little distress, acting kudos must go to Luke Evans who captures perfectly the funny yet sinister sides of Gaston’s conceited narcissism. Only sometimes putting a foot wrong, everything you want from an old-fashioned musical fairy tale is all present and correct here. And given the most up-to-date technical finessing, it looks fabulous, the gilded CGI household is superlative and the palpable aura of grandeur is on a sophisticated and stylish epic scale. But as good as this Beauty and the Beast is, it’s just not as transporting, engaging, witty, charming or touching as the peerless original. It really is as simple as that. When is Beauty and the Beast on TV? Beauty and the Beast is on Christmas Eve (24th December) at 5.30pm on BBC1
Downton Abbey the movie: "everything you want with a cocktail olive on top"
"Cosy comfort-viewing played to the cliché hilt by a miraculous cast of national treasures enveloped in exquisite settings and luxurious locations"
Imagine an entire season of storylines crammed into a Christmas special and that’s what the film spin-off from the much lauded and beloved Downton Abbey TV series feels like. Nothing wrong with that, of course, for its legions of fans who can’t wait to find out what’s been happening upstairs and downstairs at the Crawley family stately home since we last saw them four years ago. But for anyone coming cold to this lavish pleasure cruise through the lifestyles of the aristocratic and their devoted servants, it’s episodic nature, superficial narrative, barely-there plot developments and character arcs played out for maximum sentiment might be a little too much to take. Hey, if it ain’t broke, etc. It’s 1927 and everyone at Downton is all of a dither about a royal visit from King George V (Simon Jones) and Queen Mary (Geraldine James) during their upcoming tour of Yorkshire. Lord of the manor Robert (Hugh Bonneville), his wife Cora (Elizabeth McGovern) and their thoroughly modern daughter Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) want everything shipshape and Bristol fashion to impress and the staff can’t wait to step up to the majestic mark. But Mary is worried that head butler Barrow (Robert James-Collier) can’t cope and reinstates retired Mr Carson (Jim Carter) to oversee preparations, much to the chagrin of his housekeeper wife (Phyllis Logan). View oEmbed on the source website Unfortunately, it looks like none of the below-stairs workers will be needed as a London entourage arrives led by the bossy Mr Wilson (David Haig) who’s ready to take care of every royal whim from cooking to dressing. So, the miffed staff has a quick meeting in the wine cellars to decide a rebellious course of action to ensure they will take their rightful places at this historic event. Meanwhile, everyone is worried about what embarrassment Irish Republican Tom Branson (Allen Leech) might cause, there’s a whiff of inheritance scandal, priceless knick-knacks are going missing and Lady Edith’s ballgown doesn’t look like it will arrive in time for the dance… Frock horror! Directed by Michael Engler, a past master of the TV series, who knows exactly what the audience wants, expects and delivers, this is a safe and sumptuous combination of wit, taste and charm just about held together by returning creator/screenwriter Julian Fellowes, whose ability to weave through and around the intricacies of the British class system with breathless ease is astonishing. Here Fellowes expertly juggles with deceptive simplicity the welter of previously half-started plotlines with a few new wrinkles, mainly concerning the Crawley family feud with the Queen’s companion Lady Bagshaw (Imelda Staunton). Does it matter you can see the pay-offs coming from the get-go? Not really. That’s the Downton appeal in a nutshell: cosy comfort-viewing played to the cliché hilt by a miraculous cast of national treasures enveloped in exquisite settings and luxurious locations. The main difference between its TV origins and this film incarnation is an even more visually glorious, epic scope and extensive use of drone cameras for sweeping countryside vistas. Every cast member gets their moment in the spotlight and each rises to the irresistible occasion as it becomes clear the main screenplay thrust is the old guard making way for the younger generation and all that means in terms of future franchise opportunities. While the virtuoso character dynamics continue to fuse, spark and play to the gallery in time-honoured fashion, perhaps the most hilariously crowd-pleasing moment comes courtesy of returning servant Molesley (Kevin Doyle) when he commits the ultimate royal faux pas. Then there’s the indomitable Maggie Smith, the quintessential grand dame of Downton, whose Countess of Grantham steals every scene with her distinct snobbery, disdainful detachment and brittle comments that cut straight to the quick. Her prickly relationship with Baroness Isobel (Penelope Wilton) remains a one-liner delight and there won’t be a dry eye in the house come the spectacular ballroom finale. Memo to Smith: get those awards acceptance speeches ready. A feast for the eyes in terms of gilt-edged production resplendence, this is elegant, well-groomed and highly polished costume drama to savour. It won’t win any converts to the Downton cause, as you really do have to be a die-hard fan to get the significance of many alluded-to past events. But for those who have loved the high-society soap tomfoolery and lowbrow kitchen-sink mischief, spanning the sinking of the Titanic to the horrors of the First World War and that car crash at the end of Season Three, it’s time to rejoice as Downton Abbey the movie is everything you want it to be and with a cocktail olive on top.
IT Chapter Two review: Could this be the best Stephen King film ever?
A grim homecoming awaits the Losers' Club in this captivating conclusion to the killer-clown saga
IT’s alive! With this satisfying conclusion to the highest-grossing horror movie of all time, IT director Andy Muschietti returns to the Stephen King territory he mined so well in 2017, providing a follow-up that once more insidiously frightens. With his signature style and quirky finesse, he creates a magnum opus about childhood and the hidden scars it can leave behind. Twenty-seven years after the Losers’ Club defeated Pennywise the clown (Bill Skarsgard), the ancient trans-dimensional monster has reawakened to feed on the fear of children. Now upwardly mobile adults with jobs in media, fashion, entertainment and finance, Beverly (Jessica Chastain), Bill (James McAvoy), Richie (Bill Hader), Ben (Jay Ryan), Eddie (James Ransone) and Stanley (Andy Bean) have long since moved away from Derry, Maine. Only Mike (Isaiah Mustafa) has remained in their sleepy home town to keep watch for unusual events. View oEmbed on the source website When kids start disappearing again, and a vicious gay-bashing leads to the discovery of dismembered bodies in the river, Mike calls his friends to remind them of the oath they took to fight the evil should it reappear. Through his research, he learns of a Native American Indian ritual to help defeat the monster. For a second time, the Losers’ Club unite to trawl through past experiences (happily, the original cast of adolescents return in flashbacks at key junctures), conquer their deepest fears and destroy the deadlier-than-ever Pennywise. IT Chapter Two clocks in at an impressive 169 minutes, making it the longest-ever horror movie. Only some mid-section, get-on-with-it meandering prevents Muschietti’s film from emerging as a total success. Yet it remains a captivating, character-driven chiller throughout, one fraught with an indefinable otherworldliness and an arresting sense of grim, grand poetry. Beginning in crackerjack mode as the adult Losers' Club assemble to share their hazy recollections, present dilemmas and terrifying prospects – Beverly has dreamt about all their deaths – IT Chapter Two kicks off in a determinedly deranged way that separates it from the genre pack. In a remarkably potent Chinese restaurant sequence, the fortune cookies come to life and make it monstrously clear what the re-formed group – and the audience –­ are up against. Indeed, there are some pretty effective scares dotted throughout the densely plotted narrative, none more memorable than Beverly’s visit to her old family house. To say more would ruin the home-comfort horrors that will become one of the film's most talked-about passages. Isaiah Mustafa, Bill Hader, James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain and Jay Ryan in IT Chapter Two Over the course of the story, each of the seven leading characters has to come to terms with their guilt and regrets, and so a certain episodic melancholy creeps in. But once the spectacular finale hoves into view, the flabbiness is forgotten and Muschietti’s penchant for crisp expressionism comes to the fore in an explosion of Giger-esque design, Spielbergian chutzpah and on-the-nose references to King's other stories, plus, surprisingly, John Carpenter’s The Thing. The director also boasts a knack for layered suspense, with wonderfully clever scene-dissolves, superior visual effects – the upwardly dripping blood is a favourite – and ambitious montage, while the collection of intense performances (Hader will win many fans for his finely judged display of edgy humour) provides a solid base for the myriad funhouse pyrotechnics. Perhaps the manner in which Pennywise meets his comeuppance is a little underwhelming given what has gone before, but there’s no denying the power of the climax. As distinguished as it is disarming, IT Chapter Two could very well be the ultimate adaptation of a Stephen King novel. It: Chapter Two is released in cinemas on Friday 6th September
Mary Queen of Scots review: "a worthy journey through the usual monarch mayhem"
Saoirse Ronan's Mary steals the acting crown from Margot Robbie's Elizabeth in this otherwise dull game of competing thrones
★★★ Lavish British costume drama remains one of the most enduringly popular genres, especially when it focuses on historically drawn sovereign spats, real-life games of thrones and conniving courtly conspiracies. The spotlight here is thrown on that time-honoured 16th-century rivalry between royal cousins Mary Stuart (Saoirse Ronan) and Queen Elizabeth (Margot Robbie). Making her feature debut as director, Josie Rourke presents an unevenly balanced juggling act of fact and faction, which she describes as “a Renaissance version of Heat”. John Guy's acclaimed biography Queen of Scots: the True Life of Mary Stuart is the inspiration for the film, and it's ambitiously adapted by scriptwriter Beau Willimon (who helped develop Netflix’s House of Cards). He gives the material a keen feminist slant, while bolting on contemporary diversity values, upfront sexuality and clear allusions to current fake news debates. But there’s little spark or energy flowing through all the regal shenanigans to label this latest version of events as anything more than a worthy journey through the usual bog-standard monarch mayhem. View oEmbed on the source website Concentrating on the seven-year period between 1561 and 1568, the film charts Catholic Mary's return to Scotland following her brief tenure as queen consort of France, setting in motion a tug of war with Elizabeth over her entitlement to the English throne. Scotland at this time was in the throes of the Reformation and a widening Protestant/Catholic split. A husband for Mary seems the best chance for stability, but her choice of Lord Darnley (Jack Lowden) does little to help matters. Mary becomes pregnant (with the future King James VI), but the bisexual Darnley proves to be weak and a drunk, and becomes an integral part of a complicated plot to ensure Mary never claims her true birthright. Despite their best efforts, Mary and Elizabeth struggle to assert themselves in a male-dominated world and become locked in an ever-increasing political battle of strong wills. There's court intrigue to be had, of course, but little of it is actually intriguing. Key historical figures are grossly exaggerated or criminally undervalued: Darnley is painted as a hustler, pure and simple, Mary’s half-brother, the Earl of Moray (James McArdle), is a loathsome opportunist; her head of security and third husband, the Earl of Bothwell (Martin Compston), is a lapdog; and most startling of all, fire-and-brimstone spouting reformation leader John Knox (an unrecognisable David Tennant in hilarious Nostradamus drag) is seen as responsible for the gross misinformation campaign that has caused Mary to be forever maligned. While inveterate virgin Elizabeth is losing her looks to smallpox and sacrificing her lover Robert Dudley (Joe Alwyn) to the North/South split cause, Mary seems to be achieving everything her heart desires, including producing an heir. In one scene after another, often with the same actions repeated by the two actresses, Rourke contrasts their plights. However, the conceit gets old pretty fast and becomes a parody of itself in the post-birth sequence, where Mary lies exhausted in bloodstained sheets, while Elizabeth stares at arts and crafts red ribbons between her legs. Nuance and subtlety are the two qualities sadly in short supply here. There is still something about this Mary, though, and that’s Saoirse Ronan’s beguiling central performance. She fleshes out her role with an insouciant fearlessness, regal hauteur and coded modernity – and a lack of distracting ageing make-up – that makes you buy into her majestic entitlement. On the other hand, Margot Robbie is saddled with the pantomime-dame look, and the worst prosthetic nose since Nicole Kidman’s in The Hours. The fact Robbie manages to bring a quiet dignity to a role that’s part talcum powder, part flame-coloured fright wig is a miracle. Once more, a meeting scene between the two is devised even though it never happened in real life. And once again it seems superficially immaterial to the main events. Despite paying lip service to the zeitgeist, Mary Queen of Scots doesn’t upend the genre like the viciously irreverent The Favourite. Neither is it as involving as Wolf Hall nor as joyful as The Crown. Instead, it hews close to those other screen versions of past history, the Vanessa Redgrave/Glenda Jackson 1971 film Mary, Queen of Scots and Elizabeth: the Golden Age (2007). With its chopping-block bookends, shortbread-tin highland vistas, gloomily claustrophobic castle action and minimal sword-clashing battles, this tale of divided loyalties and duelling rulers feels like a quaint museum piece, and one that struggles to maintain the interest. Mary Queen of Scots is released in cinemas on Friday 18 January
Fantastic Beasts: the Crimes of Grindelwald review "a wonder and a joy to behold"
JK Rowling piles on the characters and plot complexity in this first sequel, but the results continue to amaze
★★★★ A sumptuous and absorbing spectacle, this second episode in the five-film Fantastic Beasts franchise is an absolute wonder and a joy to behold. True, the plot is complicated and introduces characters and plot arcs that will obviously be extrapolated over the next three adventures. However, nobody does it better than JK Rowling when it comes to storytelling power. Shrewdly including a couple of trips to Hogwarts to add a further Harry Potter patina to the resplendent mix, The Crimes of Grindelwald begins on a supernaturally dark high that never lets up. Picking up in 1927, six months after the action of the original film, the shape-shifting wizard Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) escapes from his New York prison and sets about moving his world-domination base of operations to Paris. Grindelwald wants pure-blood wizards – no mixed-bloods allowed – to rule over humanity, and the global Ministries of Magic are out to stop him from up-ending the centuries-old status quo of peaceful tolerance. The British Ministry asks magizoologist Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) to help stop Grindelwald in return for allowing him to travel freely once more, a perk withdrawn after the creatures-on-the-loose fiasco highlighted last time out. View oEmbed on the source website Newt refuses, until an encounter with his former Hogwarts teacher Albus Dumbeldore (Jude Law). Their meeting takes place in a fog-shrouded London, the pea-souper created by the spell-caster to keep their meeting clandestine. It’s such brilliantly textured strokes that make this extravagant marvel such a fertile fable. For mysterious reasons, the all-powerful Dumbeldore cannot duel with Grindelwald himself and pleads with Newt to go to Paris and capture him. Meanwhile, Grindelwald is scouring the City of Lights for Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller), the key to his masterplan, who has taken flight from Le Cirque Arcanas with his Maledictus girlfriend Nagini (Claudia Kim) to discover his true identity and family. Soon, everyone around Newt is searching for the enigmatic Credence: his friend Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler), who also wants to find his missing squeeze Queenie Goldstein (Alison Sudol); the object of his affection, Porpentina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston); his Ministry brother, Theseus (Callum Turner); his fiancée Leta Lestrange (Zoë Kravitz); and other sundry shady characters. Why is Credence so important? Well, that’s the ultimate revelation in the starkly thrilling cliffhanger that points towards further breathtaking pleasures to come. David Yates directed the first Fantastic Beasts and four of the Harry Potter movies, and he once more navigates the densely plotted escapades with a fast-paced efficiency that never once becomes a mystifying ball of confusion. And considering the amount of detail and subtlety here, that’s quite some feat. Blockbuster directors rarely get the credit they deserve, as top-notch CGI can often mask their best work. A master at martialling vigorous and rousing action, Yates deserves the highest praise for such wonders as a soaring flight over Manhattan in a Phantom Carriage, with Grindelwald a malevolent Santa Claus, focusing on the dubious delights of a circus freakshow, chasing through a continually morphing Ministry library, and capping it all with an atmospheric call-to-arms-rally underneath the Père Lachaise cemetery. The swerves into Titanic and Prince and the Pauper territory are merely more delicious icing on the cake. Once more, the success of the movie rests firmly on the shoulders of the ever-reliable Eddie Redmayne. He adds further nuance to his bumbling magizoologist schtick, as we see his London apartment expand like his suitcase to include a petting zoo, veterinarian section and country lake. Although the fantastic beasts are a limited menagerie this time – the most memorable being the Chinese lion-dragon Zouwu – each plays an important part in the story, especially Pickett, the Groot-like mantis plant that lives in Newt’s jacket pocket, and the cute Niffler whose thievery will doubtless prove invaluable to the next episode. While Jude Law’s role as Dumbledore is minor, he makes a massive impact and cuts his own uniquely warm and cosy characterisation away from either Michael Gambon or Richard Harris’s reading of the beloved fantasy icon. Johnny Depp is malevolence personified, and his Aryan albino look a sobering facet indeed. It’s also plenty of fun to see young versions of your favourite teachers in the Hogwarts flashbacks. Far darker than many will be expecting, with hints of a doomed gay romance, and dazzling special effects that push the imaginative boundaries to their limit, The Crimes of Grindelwald is an enchanting treasure trove of fascinating derring-go, eerie gusto, powerful dynamism and thrilling supernatural ambition. Clearly emboldened by the success of the original film, Rowling has grabbed the Zouwu by the horns and gone for mythic importance big time. The results are amazing in every respect, and a fine continuation for this magnificent legend for the ages. Fantastic Beasts: the Crimes of Grindelwald is in cinemas on Friday 16 November
The Girl in the Spider's Web review: "More a female James Bond than the antisocial pariah of old"
Claire Foy throws herself into the iconic role of Lisbeth Salander in this entertaining follow-up to Stieg Larsson's celebrated crime thriller series, but the feral intensity of the original character is missing
★★★ The timing really couldn’t be better. Late author Stieg Larsson’s seminal Lisbeth Salander character returns as a poster child for the #MeToo movement in the new guise of Claire Foy, an actress having her own specific moment in the accolade spotlight. If only the movie highlighting both wasn’t so much of a patchy, improbable affair, recasting the abused Salander more in a female James Bond mould than the jaggedly antisocial pariah of old. The plot is loosely based on author David Lagercrantz’s continuation of Larsson’s original Millennium trilogy, the difference between it and director Fede Alvarez’s super chilled-out thriller being that the movie's tale of international espionage is far more fascinating than the heroine at its centre. The exact reverse was true of both Swedish and American versions of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009, 2011) by Niels Arden Oplev and David Fincher respectively, and the two other parts of the trilogy, The Girl Who Played with Fire (2009) and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (2009) both by Daniel Alfredson. View oEmbed on the source website In all those Salander was a gutsy bisexual punk hacker whose traumatic childhood caused her to turn sexual abuse vigilante and trailblaze a vision of right-on female empowerment to her peers, her tiny circle of friends and law enforcement. Here she’s still that twisted avenging angel – an opening salvo shows her coolly stripping one victim of his anger, pride and money – but now also an absolute IT genius who can enter any system with two clicks of a mouse to cause global frenzy. She can also drive fast and furiously a neat range of flashy vehicles, and escape any death-defying situation in true Tom Cruise fashion. It’s all too much, but still not enough for Foy to accurately make her mark on the iconic character. She certainly eclipses Rooney Mara in the Fincher adaptation that’s for sure, but barely comes close to the bewitching quality and steely resolve Noomi Rapace exuded in the original franchise foundation. Still, you have to admire Foy for having a game try in the high-velocity narrative that's been heavily rejigged from the source material. After a new, played-down, childhood-abuse backstory establishing Salander’s death-wish motivations, she’s hired by quantum scientist Frans Balder (Stephen Merchant), who is frightened that his new software programme, Firefall (see what they did there?), which is capable of hacking into all the world’s nuclear sites, could fall into the wrong hands after being sold to the US government. Salander’s job is to illegally download the programme from the NSA, under the shocked eyes of tech security agent Edwin Needham (Lakeith Stanfield), and erase it. Problem is, Balder’s autistic savant son August (Christopher Convery) is the only one with the passwords to enable the deletion. And then the data is stolen by the mysterious Spider organisation, which targets both Balder and August, and so Salander is once again caught in a web of deceit, double-cross, past family history and mental distress. As usual she calls Millennium magazine writer/unfaithful lover Mikael Blomkvist (Sverrir Gudnason) for help and once more puts her accidental protector in perilous danger as the identity of the Spider leader is revealed. Frankly, Gudnason’s Blomkvist is more a spare part, it’s Stanfield’s Needham who makes the most impression as he travels to Sweden to first confront Salander and then be her backup. It's very much a retread of the familiar themes avid readers of the books will instantly recognise, but problems arise about midway through the gripping action when a couple of truly stupid plot holes downgrade the disturbingly dark events, placing the movie firmly into scarcely believable potboiler territory. Until that collision between exciting edginess and mechanical emptiness occurs, director Alvarez mines the suspense and abject horror that his previous films, Don't Breathe (2016) and the Evil Dead remake (2013), traded in expertly. The nail-biting car chases manifest headlong speed-racer precision and one sequence featuring complex prosthetics is easily the grisliest shock to the system you’ll see this year. The stylish and wintry Swedish locations give the movie seriously stunning looks, but the psychological shadings are dutiful rather than providing anything substantial to match that icy backdrop – the laughably emotional climactic confrontation being the best example. Alvarez does keep the wonky tension at a premium even as Salander turns into a goth Wonder Woman, facing ever-more ludicrous threats armed with just her trusty cattle prod. But the feral intensity is gone, the seat-edge creepiness is missing, the eerie psychology absent, and while The Girl in the Spider's Web is ultimately an entertaining thriller, it’s sadly and conspicuously nothing else.
A Star Is Born review: "surprisingly slick, emotionally affecting and packing an unexpectedly meaningful punch"
Bradley Cooper makes sweet music with an impressive Lady Gaga in this crowd-pleasing update of the showbiz weepie - a star may indeed be born
★★★★ The basic rags-to-riches-to-ditches story has been set in stone since its first incarnation in What Price Hollywood (1932) but was then recycled as A Star Is Born in 1937 - a showbiz romance-cum-tragedy that has stood the test of musical times since then (with the finest being Judy Garland’s 1954 version, the most bloated the 1976 Barbra Streisand vanity production) and returns in 2018 as big-studio schmaltz of a very hip, crowd-pleasing order and throbbing with wall-to-wall catchy pop melodies. Skilfully assembled by Bradley Cooper on his auspicious feature directing debut and highlighting an open-hearted, winning performance from diva Lady Gaga, this Hollywood warhorse about a struggling star in the making who falls for a hard-drinking singer on the way down hits the gold standard for tart soap opera. An assured rehash it may be, but it’s one that’s surprisingly slick, emotionally affecting and packing a final unexpectedly meaningful punch. View oEmbed on the source website Alcoholic, drug-addicted country-and-western superstar Jackson Maine (Cooper) stops off for a nightcap at the Bleu Bleu drag bar and catches the only female performer the queens allow on stage singing Piaf’s signature tune La Vie en Rose. Besotted by her evident vocal talent, Jackson invites waitress Ally (Gaga) to his next arena gig and cajoles her on stage to belt out one of her own compositions, which delivers a record number of hits on YouTube and a contract with top British agent Rez (Rafi Gavron). But after the two get married and Ally wins a Grammy for her debut album, Jackson finds himself relegated to the background as his reliance on booze and pills swamps his own diminishing career. Time in rehab seems to help until some unfortunately well-chosen words from Rez encourage Jackson to make the ultimate sacrifice before his barely contained demons take down his beloved as well. However, it isn’t all over until the fab lady sings the blues and declares herself “Mrs Jackson Maine” after a flashback montage of all the couple’s most memorable moments. This fourth iteration of A Star Is Born is a captivating package of effortless direction, graceful subtleties and dynamic central casting that finds its bedrock in the core romance and believable chemistry between a career-best Cooper and a rough-yet-ready Gaga. Both give deeply affecting turns as the devoted duo, mutually supportive no matter what life throws at them. From their meeting in the drag bar (Gaga playing shamelessly to her gay fanbase) and supermarket car-park courting to the not-so cut-and-dried reasons for Jackson’s downward spiral (he’s losing his hearing) and award-ceremony stage embarrassment, their initial excitement about and respect for each other never waivers as they build a truly convincing relationship. Through confidence and backup, Ally never stops supporting Jackson and he is never self-pitying or spiteful about her success. Cooper’s masterstroke is never forgetting that his eloquent entertainment is a love story first and foremost, and must remain so right to the bitter end. Kudos should also be given to Andrew Dice Clay as Ally’s limo-driver father, whose dreams of being Frank Sinatra kept his daughter’s own hopes alive, and as Jackson’s older brother-turned-carer Bobby, veteran star Sam Elliott mines his few scenes for character gold. Occasionally along the way the glitterball does get dropped: it’s scarcely credible that only after one day together, Jackson would provide Ally with a stage spotlight (that’s a bit like an episode of Nashville) and Rez’s advice to make Ally’s act glitzier by turning her into, well, er, Lady Gaga, is a little too on the nose even by these loose self-referential standards. And while the soundtrack is easy on the ears, there’s really nothing on first hearing to match Judy Garland’s uber-torchy The Man That Got Away or Barbra Streisand’s MOR classic Evergreen. Time will only tell, of course. But there’s no denying this is an enormously satisfying and well-tuned blockbuster gala musical; a vibrant, up-to-date Super Trouper crackling with happiness and heartbreak, sprinkled with stardust and star-maker gumption. A Star Is Born is released in cinemas on Wednesday 3 October
The Predator review: "big, noisy, busy and brash"
Shane Black's spin on the alien-hunter series is brimming with 80s action-movie nostalgia – just don't expect anything more
★★★ Just like the original Predator in 1987, co-writer/director Shane Black’s franchise reboot succeeds on the slam-bang visceral level thanks to lashings of tough-guy machismo, spectacular stunts and gory dismemberment. If only it made sense and wasn’t so enervating to watch. Well done to Black and co-writer Fred Dekker for putting a new spin on the militarised monster mayhem by placing it in an urban environment. But, and here comes the inevitable Black & Dekker joke, their one-note amusement ride feels very do-it-yourself. Fuzzy plot points and zero-credibility characters trip over one another in the misguided effort to make proceedings feel anything else but a retro throwback to 1980s attitudes and action, the era Black seems most comfortable with, having scripted Lethal Weapon and cult horror The Monster Squad with Dekker. The sixth Predator movie in the franchise (if you count the smackdowns with the Alien) posits the fact that Predators have been coming to Earth for a while now and aren’t quite the secret they used to be. The government has established a defence agency dedicated solely to protecting humans from the intergalactic hunters and Project Stargazer is where the incarcerated beasties are studied. View oEmbed on the source website The film begins in zippy Star Wars style, with two Predator craft battling in deep space until one escapes through a wormhole to Earth, where it crashes in a Mexican forest just as retired Special Forces army ranger-turned-mercenary Quinn McKenna (Boyd Holbrook) is about to terminate members of a drug cartel. Anticipating a cover-up, McKenna steals a state-of-the-art alien helmet and gauntlet from the spaceship and sends it home as evidence before the Stargazer outfit apprehend him for debriefing. In a suitably secret underground lab, he learns the Predator passenger has been sedated and biologist Dr Casey Bracket (Olivia Munn) has been seconded to provide her genetic expertise, as the subject has human DNA in its body. Just as McKenna is about to be shipped off to maximum security with a dirty half-dozen of other military outlaws, nicknamed the Loonies, the Predator escapes. Of course, he needs his lost equipment, but that is now in the possession of McKenna’s son Rory (Jacob Tremblay, star of Room and Wonder), who somehow understands the alien-tech owing to being on the autistic spectrum. An invaluable talent, as it turns out, because the captured Predator is only an hors d’oeuvre for the real Predator to arrive with an agenda spelling dire consequences for the human race. With the Loonies, sinister agency head Traeger (Sterling K Brown), Bracket and Rory either against each other or suddenly working together – you figure it out! – the incoherent, over-the-top slaughter spirals out of control in a welter of energetic face-offs that are neither scary nor suspenseful. Through it all, though, the bio-mechanical creatures still impress with their invisibility cloaking devices, heat-sensitive vision and ability to kill with their range of superior weaponry. The arrival of the giant, super-sadistic Predator ratchets up the knuckle-headed thrills, though his pit bull pets look like they’ve wandered in from an old Resident Evil film. The humour is utterly Neanderthal, the dialogue unbelievably cheesy and the blatant exposition is of the “lousy husband, good soldier” ilk. For easy laughs, one of the Loonies, Baxley (Thomas Jane), has Tourette syndrome, so the pointless vulgarity is often as quick-fire as the machine guns. But even this quickly becomes tiresome. The best to be said about this big, noisy, busy and brash comic-book affair is that there really is never a dull moment and there are many fun nods to the previous Predator films (including Lawrence Gordon Middle School and Jake Busey as the son of his father Gary’s character in Predator 2). You just wish the super-charged action adventure had been given a sharper narrative focus to deliver something more than a superficial wallow in flippant 80s pulp nostalgia. The Predator is released in cinemas on Wednesday 12 September
The Meg: “Big, glossy and stupid, if only it were more fun”
Jason Statham enters troubled waters in an entertaining if toothless monster movie
★★★ Big, glossy and stupid, The Meg is exactly what you would expect from what can essentially be log-lined as ‘The Stath versus Jurassic Shark’. If only it were more fun. Yes, star Jason Statham is involved in ludicrous sea-faring action. Yes, there’s plenty of crowd-pleasing spectacle in the Sanya Bay resort conclusion. And yes, the giant prehistoric megalodon eats people and destroys benign marine life in the process. But the carnage amounts to little more than sound effects and suggestion, more toothless than jawsome, while the exposition-packed script is cheesily dreadful. View oEmbed on the source website Bearing absolutely no relation to Steve Alten’s 1997 bestselling airport novel Meg (which currently boasts six book sequels, who knew?), National Treasure director Jon Turteltaub’s tame stab at monster-movie glory begins with expert deepsea rescue diver Jonas Taylor (Statham) aborting a mission. He’s convinced a mammoth 70-foot predator, thought to be extinct for two million years, is on the warpath. The subsequent loss of life – and his scoffed-at claims – cost him both dishonourable discharge from the Navy and his marriage, and he ends up drunk in a fishing community. (Listening to the Thai version of Toni Basil’s 1981 pop hit ‘Mickey’, so things aren’t all that bad.) Five years later, billionaire Jack Morris (Rainn Wilson) has financed an undersea observation programme based on the Mana One research facility off the coast of China. A submersible exploring the depths of the Pacific Mariana Trench is attacked by a huge sea creature resembling the one Jonas formerly described. Disabled by the assault, and with his ex-wife seriously injured on board, Jonas is recruited by oceanographer Dr. Zhang (Winston Chao) against the wishes of his daughter Suyin (Li Bingbing) to save the crew from what seems to be an unstoppable threat. With the rescue out of the way within the first hour, it would be unfair to reveal what happens next in the drawn-out proceedings that repeatedly jump the shark. But if you’ve never seen 1961 monster movie Gorgo, if you can resist counting the minutes for evil Capitalism to rear its ugly head, and if you don’t have an aversion to the sentimental matchmaking by moppet prodigy Shuya Sophia Cai, you’re likely to go home entertained. The ‘swimming with sharks’ tricks of the Spielberg trade are all present and correct in Turteltaub’s more waterlogged replications, but they just about hit the suspense spot. There’s an epic quality to many of the set-pieces, including Statham escaping from enormous jaws of death as his teammates reel him in, the helicopter strike on a whale mistakenly thought to be the Meg, and the feeding frenzy finale in Sanya Bay, where the shadow of the beast swims under bathers in Fruit Loop-style lifesavers. But if it’s tension, teeth and terror you’re after, you really are looking in the wrong place, despite the unexpectedly neat tribute to James Cameron’s The Abyss when the sub penetrates the ocean’s murky pits. No shark movie has ever matched up to Jaws and, bizarrely, The Meg fails to fully have fun with its fish-out-water clichés, aside from the Pippin the dog moment that finishes off the marine mayhem. With a poorly used supporting cast – chums Ruby Rose, Cliff Curtis, Page Kennedy and Robert Taylor barely register as anything other than, well, chum – it’s left to Statham and the Chinese superstar cast to carry the partners-in-brine plot. But they're saddled with some bland lost-in-translation humour and hilarious errors of science fact, and barely keep their heads above the water. Over 20 years in development, with such illustrious names as Jan De Bont, Guillermo del Toro and Eli Roth once attached to direct, the film’s fundamental mistake is clearly evident here. The Meg should have been a zippy, bloody 85-minute B movie, not the bloated behemoth it has been puffed up into with all the intelligence of a sea cucumber. The Meg is released in UK cinemas on Friday 10th August.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: “A refreshingly different and delightful spectacle”
Paul Rudd goes big with a goofily entertaining addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe
★★★★ Ant-Man may be a second-string Marvel superhero (despite being a founder member of the Avengers in the team’s comic-book debut), but his self-deprecating manner and lack of pretension mean his goofy adventures have a winning quirkiness all their own. As the Marvel movie machine thunderously rolls on, threatening total domination over the blockbuster landscape, it’s good to know that there’s still room for such nimble dopiness and coolly absurd shenanigans as positioned by this light-hearted ace in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Why isn’t Ant-Man and the Wasp out in UK cinemas yet? Marvel confirms Ant-Man and The Wasp “connects directly” to Avengers 4 When is Ant-Man and the Wasp out? UK release date, cast, trailer and plot View oEmbed on the source website Some may prefer this less pompous approach, too. Thank star and co-writer Paul Rudd for that. The low-key humour he’s famous for finds its natural outlet in his Ant-Man persona, coupled with a pleasingly deadpan demeanour that strikes the perfect balance between silly, subversive and serious. Ant-Man missed out on Avengers: Infinity War, so this second solo outing is importantly placed just after Captain America: Civil War (2016), when his alter ego Scott Lang is nearing the end of being put under house arrest by the FBI for his involvement in that bipartisan bust-up. But, after a weird dream about the original Wasp, Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), he is whisked off to the laboratory of former SHIELD member Dr Hank Pym (Michael Douglas, in distinguished mode). Pym realises his wife Janet has found a connection to Scott, despite having been trapped in the Quantum Realm for 30 years after she sacrificed herself to defuse a bomb. Hank won’t rest until he rescues his miniaturised wife from this psychedelic hell and, with his daughter Hope – aka the new Wasp (Evangeline Lilly) – has built a super-powered minimiser tunnel that will locate her precise location in the void. View oEmbed on the source website However, the lab on which Janet’s fate depends can be shrunk to portable suitcase size, and two opposing factions covet the inventions inside. One is black-market tech trafficker Sonny Burch (Walton Goggins, once more playing the oiliest of villains) and the other is Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), who wants to reverse the painful ability of phasing through solid objects, the result of a failed experiment she holds Pym responsible for. Returning to helm his second mini-epic is Peyton Reed, who keeps the good-natured aspects in check with a disciplined hand while having enormous fun with all the comedic possibilities of scale. The flying dynamic duo popping between micro-dimensions, normality and, in the case of Ant-Man, going gigantic in the blink of an eye is always thrilling. And much of the goon-fighting is given a further visual kick by the likes of the Wasp diminutively gliding down thrown knife blades before becoming face-off huge again. There’s also the never-gets-old lab-shrinking gag, and the tinker-toy range of ever-morphing cars that transforms the chases through the streets of San Francisco into Hot Wheels heaven. Gone is any residue from the original film detailing Scott in a dark, despairing place as an ex-con loser and terrible role model for his daughter Cassie (Abby Ryder Fortson). Here, much mileage is instead made out of Scott avoiding being found by pernickety FBI man Jimmy Woo (Randall Park) because of a giant ant wearing his ankle monitor around the house. The tone and atmosphere is bright, breezy and carefree, while the rapid-fire dialogue, redolent with pop-culture resonance, is consistently amusing. But the two hysterical standouts are when Scott’s business partner Luis (ever-reliable Michael Peña) is injected with “truth serum” and his confessional monologue is mimed by every character he mentions. More hilarity ensues when Janet mind-melds with Scott for a second time and brings out, shall we say, his more feminine personality around Hope and Hank. These are just a couple of the more dazzling moments in a refreshingly different and delightful spectacle that also excels as a rip-roaring, fast-paced and engaging diversion. Ant-Man and the Wasp might be about teeny types, but its largesse and entertaining impact is huge. Ant-Man and the Wasp is released in UK cinemas on Thursday 2nd August
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again review: "A sequel that only sporadically springs into vividly irresistible life"
A familiar fairy-tale formula, but if you like Abba, spandex, glitter dust, 70s kitsch and holiday romances, it's a musical worth taking a chance on
★★★ Even if movie musicals are based on a hit Broadway or West End show, they rarely get the sequel treatment. Mainly because the original is so perfectly formed after years of well-honed productions, their emotional through-lines are brought to such a satisfactory conclusion that it’s considered a pointless exercise. Well, in the artistic sense, not the commercial one, which is really the only reason why Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again exists. It does nothing the first film didn’t do, except hang some more catchy Abba songs on an even thinner plot that pays lip service to themes of female empowerment, friendship and love, while providing another chance for gifted actors to perform quality pop in sun-kissed, picturesque summer-holiday surroundings. View oEmbed on the source website Solving the problem of whether to go back to the beginning or pick up where Mamma Mia! left off, writers Richard Curtis, Catherine Johnson and director Ol Parker have it both ways by transitioning two storylines together, so the flashback past informs the chaotic present. Think The Notebook in espadrilles! Back on the Greek island of Kalokairi, Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) is organising a gala re-opening of her mother Donna’s (Meryl Streep) taverna, now rebranded the Hotel Bella Donna. Sophie’s relationship with Sky (Dominic Cooper) is going through a rocky patch – he’s in New York supposedly learning the restaurant trade – so she leans on her mother’s visiting best friends Tanya (Christine Baranski) and Rosie (Julie Walters) for support, especially when she realises she’s pregnant. Because these events mirror her mother’s experiences in 1979, Tanya and Rosie share memories of Donna’s adventurous youth: how her Oxford graduation ceremony began The Dynamos, why she ended up broke in Greece renovating an old villa, how she met each one of Sophie’s possible fathers - Sam (Pierce Brosnan), Bill (Stellan Skarsgård) and Harry (Colin Firth) - and then coped raising a daughter as a single parent far from home. Playing the younger counterpoints to the established stars are Lily James, who is absolutely adorable as Donna, Jessica Keenan Wynn, who nails Baranski’s spiky attitude perfectly as Tanya, and Alexa Davies who overdoes the over-emotional Rosie. Immature Sam, Bill and Harry are respectively played by Jeremy Irvine, Hugh Skinner and Josh Dylan, who all look their handsome parts and do the heavy-lifting when it comes to singing, although you do have Brosnan amusingly humming a few bars of SOS while his compadres simply join in with the group numbers. Most of Abba’s back catalogue of crown jewels were used in Mamma Mia!, although there are also reprises of that title song, Dancing Queen (which gets an epic seafaring treatment), I Have a Dream and Super Trouper, which all the cast croon over the end credits. Subsequently, the sing-along material is provided by Knowing Me, Knowing You, The Name of the Game and Waterloo, the latter a raucous routine staged in a Paris café. But it’s such lesser-known gems as When I Kissed the Teacher, One of Us and Why Did It Have to Be Me? that really resonate and inject much-needed energy into the flat proceedings. In the case of Angel Eyes and I’ve Been Waiting for You, both sung by the trio of Baranski, Walters and Seyfried, Parker’s journeyman direction is transcended by pure star power, with further heights reached by James’s gorgeous rendition of Andante, Andante. But it’s down to cannily cast diva Cher, playing Sophie’s maternal grandmother Ruby Sheridan, to really raise the roof as she does singing Fernando in duet with her lost love (played by Andy Garcia). The moment white-wigged Cher steps out of her helicopter on the jetty in that sparkling, sun-drenched bay, she owns the movie hook, line and sinker and virtually nothing else exists. Or at least until Meryl Streep appears singing My Love, My Life in that famous cliff-top church and instantly reduces the audience to floods of tears. In a replica of The Winner Takes It All showstopper in Mamma Mia!, it’s a stunningly bravura moment that will live long in the memory. Flashes of brilliance like those make this sequel sporadically spring to vividly irresistible life. The very nature of the dual timeline and free-for-all plot means many of the actors are reduced to playing glorified cameos, as the main body is shouldered by the younger cast and while Richard Curtis’s involvement is clear with some of the more pithy and vulgar one-liners, the old-fashioned screenplay is fairy-tale formula all the way. It says a lot that Omid Djalili, playing a cynical Greek customs officer, has the best laughs and his surprise contribution was obviously considered crucial enough for him to be given the post-final credits sign-off. Look, if you love Abba, spandex, glitter dust, 70s kitsch and holiday romances, Here We Go Again is worth taking a chance on as it fits the candyfloss bill to the letter despite the flaws. Will it make yet more money, money, money at the box office? Probably. Does it deserve to? Not really. But such is the universal love for Abba in their all-conquering pop-culture glory, that just having the opportunity to hear their jukebox repertoire sung wonderfully once more is enough cause for mass celebration. Released in cinemas on Friday 20 July
Mission: Impossible - Fallout review: "An explosive espionage extravaganza you will be powerless to resist"
Tom Cruise's super secret agent Ethan Hunt runs, races and jumps his way through the most action-drenched adventure yet
★★★★★ More like Mission: Impressive. It will be hard for any other action movie this year to top the superb staging, extraordinary stunt work and sheer exhilaration marshalled by writer/director Christopher McQuarrie in the sixth astonishing instalment of the Tom Cruise-fronted franchise. Uniquely the only director to return to the fold (after Rogue Nation in 2015), McQuarrie steers the testosterone-drenched, explosive espionage extravaganza into unusually stately recesses, further electrified by a ramping up of narrative depth, absorbing character gravitas and awe-inspiring ambition. View oEmbed on the source website Perhaps the only IMF escapade where you do really need to know your Ethan Hunt history because many past story threads interconnect with major impact on Fallout’s main frame, it’s no accident that the iconic self-destruct tape that usually initiates Hunt’s assignments is here contained within a copy of Homer’s The Odyssey. In an extended pre-credits scene-setter, Hunt (Cruise) and his buddy operatives – laconic Luther (Ving Rhames) and ever-panicky Benji (Simon Pegg) – mess up an undercover purchase of illegal plutonium, putting it back out on the covert market. As Hunt refused to put his friends’ lives at risk during the recovery mission, CIA head honcho Erica Stone (Angela Bassett) insists her agent, August Walker (Henry Cavill), babysits all future operations, which includes Hunt posing as mysterious international terrorist John Lark to buy the plutonium back before a doomsday scenario erupts. But the new owners of the stolen nuclear material are the Apostles and they don’t want money, just the return of their incarcerated leader, Solomon Lane (Sean Harris). He’s the psycho MI6 agent who migrated to the dark side in Rogue Nation and joined the Syndicate’s crusade to cause global catastrophe and trigger a new world order. So, Hunt must intercept Lane’s armoured car journey before desperate superpowers get to interrogate him and then broker a swap through socialite arms dealer, the White Widow (played by The Crown’s Vanessa Kirby). Add in double-cross, MI6 agent Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) with her own lethal agenda, double-double-cross, IMF champion Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin), judicious use of rubber mask disguises, Hunt’s ex-wife Julia (Michelle Monaghan) hiding in plain sight, a ticking time-bomb countdown on suspense steroids, and you have another twisty, epic helping of strikingly stylish daredevil delights. While there are no prizes for guessing exactly who John Lark really is, there’s still a lot going on in McQuarrie’s densely plotted race against time so it’s sometimes hard to keep up with all the myriad assassins and former allies jostling for attention. No matter. What people want to see is Cruise giving his personal insurers yet more heart attacks by throwing himself off buildings, dangling from helicopters and plunging into mountain ravines. Here, the incredibly fit Cruise Halo-jumps through a lightning storm, masterminds a fender-level car chase through congested Paris and a breakneck motorcycle chicken run anti-clockwise around the Arc de Triomphe, super-sprints through St Paul’s Cathedral via Blackfriars Station to the Tate Modern in London and ends the whole kamikaze craziness with what must be one of the most spectacular cliffhanger stunts ever filmed, a sensational helicopter battle over snowy mountainous terrain ratcheting up the nail-biting tension to new stratospheric heights. Clearly raising the bar for action cinema in the same way as Mad Max: Fury Road, the movie’s eyes-on-stalks amazement is palpable. Nor must one forget the stunning martial arts fight in a gents toilet that proves visceral innovation isn’t only confined to the more grandiose moments. Cruise is exceptional in the derring-do department, of course, going for broke in ways few 56-year-olds would try and now fits his role like a well-worn glove. He did actually end up in hospital with a fractured ankle thanks to one stunt escapade, another example of the total dedication to his craft that earns him kudos few stars of his stature ever receive. There’s a decent amount of backstory to get to grips with, too, especially in the romantic areas where the similarity between Ilsa and Julia becomes ever-more evident. Not only has Cruise become better with each successive instalment, the actual movies have matched him all the way by pushing their pop culture durability and extreme escapism boundaries with polish and élan. Long may that topping-the-one-before, enthralling knuckle-whitening tradition continue. For now, this fast-moving, engrossing and gripping mega-thrill ride, despite being the longest to date, lays claim to being the best in the series and a transcendent kinetic pleasure you will simply be powerless to resist. Released in cinemas on Wednesday 25 July
Solo: a Star Wars Story review: "a completely satisfying mega-thrills-and-uber-spills ride"
Alden Ehrenreich has got the charm he's got the swagger in this origins tale of everyone's favourite space cowboy
★★★★ How did Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) acquire his surname? In what near-fatal circumstances did he meet his future wookie BFF Chewbacca? How exactly did he acquire the Millennium Falcon? And where does rogue gambler/frenemy Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover) fit into the picture? Have no fear Star Wars fans, all these questions and a whole lot more are answered in surprisingly wily and fun fashion by Solo, the latest Star Wars satellite story focusing on the origins of everyone’s favourite cosmic chancer. Despite its widely publicised behind-the-scenes turmoil (director Ron Howard replaced The Lego Movie duo Phil Lord and Christopher Miller several months into shooting), the final result emerges as fully engaging and propulsive space western that’s set to spark its own franchise. View oEmbed on the source website Howard and his writers, Jonathan Kasdan and his dad, Lawrence (back in the saddle again after The Force Awakens), do err on the safe side of the Star Wars universe – there really is nothing new here, just a pick-and-mix of past glories. But Solo launches at eye-catching lightspeed and keeps up the swashbuckling momentum throughout for a completely satisfying mega-thrills-and-uber-spills ride. Beginning in Oliver! mode with a teenage Solo smuggling for the Fagin-like Lady Proxima (voiced by Linda Hunt), the wannabe pilot intends to escape from his grungy home planet Corellia with his partner in crime and girlfriend Qi’ra (Emilia Clarke). Unfortunately, they get split up trying to blag their way through immigration (one of the many sly touchstones to current events) and Solo signs up for the Imperial army in desperation, ending up fighting on the war-torn mud planet Mimban. There he joins forces with a motley band of mercenaries led by grifter Beckett (Woody Harrelson), his partner Val (Thandie Newton) and four-armed alien pilot Rio (voiced by Jon Favreau). They must steal a massive consignment of Coaxium fuel from a mountain monorail shipment (the single most spectacular action extravaganza in the entire film) to pay off debts to the power-mad sociopath Dryden Vos (Paul Bettany). But when the shipment is pirated by maurauders with a rebellious agenda, they have to face the murderous music aboard Dryden’s space yacht. Solo meets Qi’ra again, only now she’s Dryden’s favourite lieutenant, and in order to save her former love from death, endorses a last-ditch payment plan to steal unrefined Coaxium from the mining planet of Kessel. What could possibly go wrong? Only double-cross, high-stakes gambling, betrayal and star-crossed romance, as Beckett’s initial words of warning to Solo – “Don’t trust anyone” – come back to haunt everyone. For a certain generation, Harrison Ford is Han Solo. So it’s with enormous respect to Ehrenreich (Hail, Caesar!) that within seconds of his appearance on screen he fits the flyboy pin-up part like a glove. The cocky swagger is there, so too is the charming arrogance and winning smile, and Ehrenreich clearly isn’t afraid to extend the character in dark ways Ford was never afforded. View oEmbed on the source website We learn why Solo’s idealism faded, his heart became hardened and why his one true faithful companion could only be Chewie, marvellously essayed by former basketball player Joonas Suotamo. Their bromance is an absolute delight and one of the many vital elements that make up the entertaining Solo whole. All the key roles are impressively played: Glover does Billy Dee Williams proud as slick cheeky chappie Calrission; Bettany exudes ice-cold malevolence as scarred Dryden Vos; Clarke makes Qi’ra a potent enigma; and best of all is Harrelson, who brings an effortless charisma to scoundrel Beckett. Many will be clamouring for more of droid L3-37, whose relationship with Calrission is hilariously complicated, and is brought brilliantly to life by a motion-captured Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag). With a grittier, dirtied down, more realistic look than is usual for the Star Wars series – take a bow Arrival cinematographer Bradford Young – Solo has a rough-around-the-edges appeal totally in keeping with its lead character. Needless to say the visual effects are exemplary, eclectically referencing everything from The Bridge on the River Kwai to The Mist for an engrossing interstellar adventure. Whether shooting down TIE fighters or squeezing through constricted black holes, the action is relentless and top notch while hewing to the George Lucas formula of old. Some reinvention would not have gone amiss amid this delicious buffet of tried-and-tested comfort science fiction, but perhaps that will come in the next voyage for our intrepid space outlaw in another galaxy far, far away. Solo: A Star Wars Story is released in cinemas on Thursday 24 May
The story behind Martin Freeman's new horror film Ghost Stories
How Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman brought their stage hit to the silver screen
My personal road to Ghost Stories began in October 2000 at the Sitges film festival in Spain, the Cannes of horror movies. I was cornered by actor Andy Nyman who was promoting the Martin Amis adaptation Dead Babies. I thought Nyman shone in the film, but him turning out to be my biggest fan – in a non-Misery kind of way, you understand – came as a bit of a shock. Ghost Stories review: "the most unsettling British horror film in decades" Martin Freeman has had it with fans wanting Sherlock and Watson to be lovers 9 TV shows that were cancelled WAY too soon View oEmbed on the source website Nyman told me he’d been a die-hard horror obsessive since the age of ten, when he saw Only a Scream Away, an episode of the 1974 TV anthology Thriller. He also revealed how he and his best school mate Jeremy Dyson (who went on to co-found The League of Gentlemen with Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith) would voraciously scour British horror magazines The House of Hammer, Starburst and Shivers for my reviews. Out of mutual respect developed a close camaraderie. Since then, I’ve watched Nyman’s meteoric rise, from directing illusionist Derren Brown’s live shows to starring opposite Liam Neeson in this year’s The Commuter. He kept close tabs on me, too, and became the first celebrity supporter of the annual FrightFest horror event in London, which I co-founded in 2000. It was as he was walking past the posters for The Woman in Black in the West End that Nyman conceived Ghost Stories. After all, how could it be the only horror show in London? So he and Dyson set about concocting their own stage shocker, “The Vagina Monologues with poltergeists”. Sean Holmes, artistic director of London’s Lyric theatre in Hammersmith, encouraged them towards a portmanteau of tales along the lines of classics Dr Terror’s House of Horrors and Dead of Night, an anthology format that Dyson had already mined in The League of Gentlemen. Ghost Stories focuses on a professor of parapsychology, who as a renowned sceptic of the supernatural is given three baffling para- normal cases to debunk. Over the ensuing taut 80 minutes – with no interval! – the haunting tales are brought vividly to life. Theatrical sleight-of-hand, “smell-o-vision” (a strong whiff of bleach greets the audience on entering the auditorium) and vintage soundtrack excerpts add to what is an already immersive experience. View oEmbed on the source website The play debuted in February 2010 at the Liverpool Playhouse to critical acclaim, transferred to the Lyric, then became a West End smash. Numerous international productions, including one at the Sydney Opera House, con rmed its cult status. Signi cantly, it attracted audiences who were not regular theatre-goers and had never experienced suspenseful fun in that thrilling environment. I saw the play umpteen times and marvelled at how cleverly manipulated its jolts were. Nyman and Dyson insisted on directorial control when it came to adapting Ghost Stories for the screen, determined to do it on their own terms. Backers at production companies Altitude and Warp granted them that autonomy. But there remained a problem. A big part of the play’s success is how it tailors horror-movie clichés to the theatre environment. So how to make that work for cinema audiences? Nyman and Dyson’s solution was to make it even more cinematic, accentuate the oddness and to add extra references for genre fans (so bravo if you spot the nod to 1944 ghost story The Uninvited). Because Nyman insisted I be involved in the production somewhere, I interviewed key cast for the publicity materials. In truth, I think he just needed a personal mascot around, as he kept telling the bemused crew how influential I’d been in his life. He was also adamant that his rabbi bless the sets, in the same way those 70s devil movies wheeled in priests to stave off bad luck. It must have worked: everyone agreed it was a smooth shoot. Nyman cast himself as the professor, a role he’d made his own on stage, joining a stellar cast led by Martin Freeman and The Fast Show’s Paul Whitehouse – both of whom were drawn to the screenplay’s inherent weirdness. On set, the pair revealed their own horror influences, from Freeman’s mum letting him watch Psycho when he was seven (“For years after I was scared at the bottom of staircases”) to Whitehouse being similarly traumatised, but by sheep rather than Hitchcock (“I had a scary moment when I used to go night fishing in Wales – a sheep coughing at four in the morning is very frightening!”) Location filming took place in Yorkshire – practically Dyson’s backyard. On my regular set visits, I watched Nyman and Dyson behind the camera, never arguing, never fazed by their monumental challenge. Freeman and I noticed them rubbing their hands together with glee like kids in a candy store, thrilled to be sharing their horror vision with the world. “You could see their 12-year-old fanboy selves pop out continuously,” Freeman observed. Because of our friendship, it was Frightfest that first announced news of the film version (in cinemas from Friday 6 April) and hosted the premiere at this January’s Glasgow Film festival. And as to a possible sequel, of course I’d answer the call again if a lucky mascot is needed. Ghost Stories is out in UK cinemas now
Tomb Raider review: "a puffed-up throwback to the B-movies of old"
Lara Croft's return is strictly by the movie adventurer's handbook, with Alicia Vikander struggling to fill Angelina Jolie's hiking boots
★★★ Let’s face it, this movie reboot of the once-popular video game franchise really didn’t have to try too hard to better the first two poorly received spectacles released back in the early noughties. That it barely raises the bar is really the only puzzle worth solving, though. Big in scale but small in thrill-delivery, Norwegian director Roar Uthaug’s take on the remote-controlled action heroine genre is simply a box-ticking exercise that ultimately does very little with the now stale premise. Lara Croft (Alicia Vikander) is a food delivery biker, who expertly navigates the hip streets of East London for minimum wages. Although heir to a fortune and a global business empire, she refuses to sign her beloved father’s death certificate to trigger the inheritance because it would mean admitting Lord Richard Croft (Dominic West) will never return from the unexplained quest he embarked on seven years before. Just as she’s about to succumb to the counsel of family adviser Ana Miller (Kristin Scott Thomas), her lawyer (Derek Jacobi) hands over a puzzle box to solve. What’s hidden inside sends her in search of her father’s last known destination, an unchartered island off the coast of Japan where Himiko, the legendary death queen, supposedly lies buried. After being chased over junks through Hong Kong harbour and then shipwrecked with drunken captain Lu Ren (Daniel Wu) on the mysterious island, both are captured by vicious mercenary Mathias Vogel (Walton Goggins), who works for the Order of Trinity. View oEmbed on the source website This sinister organisation rules the fate of mankind and is convinced Himiko’s coffin holds an earth-shattering secret. Vogel’s army has been forcing hordes of immigrant slaves to dig for the sorceress’s tomb. Now, with Lara in his clutches, and together with her father’s maps, notes and diary, it seems Trinity’s lengthy explorations will finally reach a conclusion. Uthaug’s initially appealing romp opens in an urban-interesting landscape that has a beguiling grittiness about it, but it isn’t long before it tumbles into clichéd exotic surrounds, complete with banal exposition and Lara dodging as many plot holes as darkly lit booby traps. Uthaug got this job based on his home-grown blockbuster The Wave, which sent a massive tsunami through the Norwegian fjords. Prior to that, his ski-lodge slasher Cold Prey blazed a Scandinavian horror trail. Traits of both his disaster epic and slick scareshow can be easily divined in Tomb Raider. However, on this occasion, his impressive muscular directing style feels stripped down to routine swashbuckling and CGI-swathed derring-do, with any concession to tautness a minor concern. The most arresting visuals aren’t the churning Devil’s Sea storm or the underground pagoda tomb with its monotonous assortment of spring-loaded dangers. No, it’s the rusting shell of a crashed airplane perched on top of a gigantic waterfall that Lara uses to escape a raging river torrent, and where her uncertain abilities, muddled mindset and dark humour finally come to mean something within the scattershot narrative. Headliner Alicia Vikander certainly has her work cut out for her. She looks ripped and action-ready in the signature outfits, but throughout the entire movie positions Lara as a hard-to-like, unrepentantly mixed-up character. Nor does Vikander have the iconic status of former Lara, Angelina Jolie, whose eminence at the time somehow transformed the interactive cyber cipher into something above the usual popcornucopia. By comparison, Vikander comes across like a supermodel caught in the headlights, stranded on a crumbling catwalk of gravity-defying stunts and extravagant special effects. Ever-dependable character actor Goggins, as the bored gun-toting psycho of the piece, gives the best performance in this derivative clutter of dizzying cliffhangers and over-kill chaos, which is essentially a puffed-up throwback to the B-movies of old – and even more of an Indiana Jones clone that the first two films put together. Higher in concept than in its execution, and saddled with the least surprising twist-ending that points towards a possible sequel, what you see is definitely what you get with this one. Many might just find that more than enough. Tomb Raider is released in cinemas on Friday 16 March
The Greatest Showman review: "pure musical entertainment of a sumptuous vintage"
Hugh Jackman puts on the ol' razzle-dazzle for this all-singing, and all-dancing tribute to circus supremo PT Barnum
★★★★ The old Technicolor 20th Century Fox logo kick-starting this razzle-dazzle musical is enough of a hint that what follows will be a determinedly old-fashioned wallow in nostalgia, and be as gloriously fictionalised as all of those great biopics from Hollywood's golden era. Does it matter? Not one iota, as commercials director and visual-effects wizard Michael Gracey’s feature debut is aimed at providing pure musical entertainment of a sumptuous vintage we haven’t seen since the genre’s 1950s heyday. In that regard, Gracey’s effortless flair echoes that of his larger-than-life subject, Phineas Taylor Barnum (Hugh Jackman), who pioneered the circus environment, the term "show business" and was the originator of the Big Top tent. The first master showman and self-confessed "Prince of Humbug" (many critics loathed his overdone hyperbole), PT Barnum brought dubious sideshow attractions to towns all over America during the mid-19th century and eventually created his "Greatest Show on Earth" three-ring circus. View oEmbed on the source website In the broadstroked screenplay by Jenny Bicks (Sex and the City) and Bill Condon (Beauty and the Beast, Dreamgirls), impoverished Barnum marries his childhood sweetheart, Charity (Michelle Williams), sinks all his money into opening New York’s first museum of curiosities, featuring the famous attractions Tom Thumb (Sam Humphrey) and the Bearded Lady (Keala Settle), and sees his fortunes – and ego – escalate. After importing Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind (Rebecca Ferguson), Barnum gains high-society respectability and starts shunning the people who made him famous. But when he spurns Lind’s romantic overture, she walks out on a lucrative nationwide tour leaving him bankrupt. An arson attack carried out by protesters over his "freak show" leaves Barnum's acts homeless, prompting him to have a rethink about his return to the big time. And in another subplot, wealthy actor Phillip Carlyle (Zac Efron) becomes Barnum’s showbiz partner and falls in love with mixed-race trapeze artist Anne Wheeler (Zendaya), much to the displeasure of his upper-class parents. This bowdlerised biography is pure soap-opera schmaltz that fleetingly touches on the melodramatic highlights of Barnum’s real life solely to provide some vague context to the extravagantly staged song-and-dance numbers. These are exuberantly performed, overloaded with fantasy camp and cascades of kitsch. The virtually entirely sung-through narrative features contemporary songs by award-winning La La Land lyricists Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. While the pop, classic American Songbook, Broadway and power ballads all work in their flash, bang, wallop moments, none are as melodically memorable as Never Enough, Lind’s show stopper, perfectly mimed by Ferguson to Loren Allred’s brilliant vocal. The kingpin of this entire whipped-cream delight is of course Hugh Jackman, whose thrilling musicality has never been in question either on stage (The Boy from Oz, Oklahoma) or film (Les Miserables). Jackman is the light-on-his-feet Gene Kelly of the whole kit and cabaret caboodle, the spark that evokes endless doses of spirit and charm, the dynamo that glitzes up the screen with sheer superstar quality and jazz-hands pizzazz. High School Musical wunderkind Zac Efron is no slouch in that department either, and stands his ground with two duets, The Other Side (with Jackman) and Rewrite the Stars (with Zendaya). The Greatest Showman is the kind of musical that depicts abject poverty as a fun birthday party on a tenement roof top, star-crossed romance as an acrobatic rope act, and adultery as a dreamy photo-op. So it’s exactly like the 1980s Broadway musical hit Barnum, which also used bullet points about the circus innovator as a mere excuse to twirl jugglers, clowns, acrobats and puppet animals in front of an audience for maximum marvel value. It perhaps never soars to the engagingly fanciful stratosphere of Moulin Rouge! (it’s nearest cinematic equivalent) or touches the heart like La La Land or zings like Singin' in the Rain. But what it is in essence is a joyously uplifting potpourii of visual resplendence, stylish choreography and solid gold magic, one engineered to approximate the lavish spectacle the movie musical once offered – a winning combination that won’t fail to resonate with every admirer of the all-singing, all-dancing art form. The Greatest Showman is released in cinemas on Boxing Day
Star Wars: The Last Jedi review "Simply, it doesn't disappoint"
Forty years on from the original Star Wars and the saga hits new cinematic heights. The best yet?
★★★★★ Review: Alan Jones The solid foundations on which the rebooted Star Wars franchise has been carefully built will not be crumbling any time soon, if the latest episode in the beloved outer space series is anything to go by. The Last Jedi sports dazzling special effects work, interestingly well-rounded characters and second-to-none action, with a cynical harder edge that lifts it out of the blockbuster comic-book arena. And with events taking place all over the galaxy, the adventure this time takes on an extra epic dimension. This mid-section marker in the current trilogy simply doesn't disappoint, realising the courage of its convictions with an intelligent story and a heart-swelling emotional resonance. Much like The Empire Strikes Back (itself the second episode in the first classic trilogy), The Last Jedi is split into several plotlines. We follow the quests of various key characters, which all converge in one satisfying ensemble ending – a bittersweet closer if ever there was one. View oEmbed on the source website The Resistance against the First Order is on its last legs and General Leia (Carrie Fisher) is the only one protecting the line of defence. As “trigger happy flyboy” Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) takes out an enemy Dreadnought craft, little does he know he’s playing straight into the hands of Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis) and General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson). Leia is injured in battle, with Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo (Laura Dern) taking command, but Dameron has no faith in her decisions. Could mutiny be in the air? Meanwhile, on that remote island seen at the end of The Force Awakens, Rey (Daisy Ridley) is trying to convince a self-exiled Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) to join Leia’s righteous cause. But Luke is in turmoil because of his past failings with Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) and is convinced the Jedi line needs to end. Will Rey develop her newly discovered abilities with Luke’s guidance even though he’s unsettled by the strength of her powers? Finn (John Boyega) learns about a chink in the First Order’s fleet. Together with besotted engineer Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran), he searches for a master code-breaker to disable the tracker mission device that is sabotaging Resistance escape strategies. But is the genius DJ (Benicio del Toro) someone they can rely on? What’s everyone else saying about The Last Jedi? JJ Abrams takes the controls for Episode IX Anatomy of a lightsaber fight: Adam Driver and Daisy Ridley The Last Jedi is an involving yarn, tremendously well told, which throws in Easter Egg curve balls to add the kind of exhilarating texture that ardent fans adore. For that we have to thank writer/director Rian Johnson. His earlier films Brick and The Brothers Bloom showed he was smart and sharp, while Looper demonstrated his sci-fi chops. But never have his visuals, clever wit (Galaxy Quest comes to mind a few times!) and storytelling melded together so harmoniously as they do here. Every frame contains something of importance, relevance or interest. Johnson can be uber-flashy one moment (the outer space Monaco-like gambling hub, with its vast casinos and exotic creatures, is A New Hope's cantina scene beautifully upgraded and re-imagined) and deadly dramatic the next (Kylo Ren and Rey’s combative telepathic connections are truly breathtaking). Johnson brings an artful impact to every special effects set-piece, helped in no measure by his cinematographer of choice, Steve Yedlin. The action simply leaps from the screen (even without 3D glasses), whether during the exciting lightsaber battles, the audacious weaponsing of light speed, Rey’s self-reflecting mirror moment or when pulling out the fairy-tale stops to portray Leia’s misfortune. It's great to see Mark Hamill back in the Skywalker saddle, albeit now riddled with self-doubt and a broken spirit. But it’s hard to watch every Carrie Fisher scene without feeling a nostalgia-tinged sadness (The Last Jedi is dedicated to her in a lovely end credit). Heritage characters aside, this is most definitely Adam Driver’s finest hour. His conflicted villain is quite the best new-wave Star Wars creation of them all. Evil emanates from his every pore, despite tiny notes of regret peeping through at key times, and the grim grit he manifests in his beautifully rendered salt desert showdown with Luke will bring audible gasps. This hugely anticipated return to a galaxy far, far away goes deliciously deeper and darker into allegorical space fantasy and the human/alien condition than ever before, and only serves to strengthen the myth-making qualities that creator George Lucas recognised in the genre 40 years ago. Primarily, though, it’s a celebratory reunion of a universe and its treasured characters that have already redefined popular cinema culture. The Star Wars saga gets richer, more accomplished and elaborate with The Last Jedi and proves that when film-makers with Johnson’s enormous skill manage to balance the visceral with the cerebral, they come up with one extraordinary entertainment. The Last Jedi is released in UK cinemas on Thursday 14 December
Atomic Blonde: "a sexy gut-punch of A-list gorgeousness"
Charlize Theron is a magnetic force of nature in a compelling if narratively flimsy action film
★★★ John Wick goes John le Carré in a distaff 007 Euro-spy adventure that provides Charlize Theron with a badass, franchise-friendly heroine to call her own. Based on the British graphic novel The Coldest City and directed by ex-stuntman David Leitch, who helmed some second unit action on John Wick, and indeed left John Wick Chapter 2 for this solo credit, Atomic Blonde is deliriously entertaining in the slick mano-a-mano feats and blazing gunplay departments. It’s when the story rears its dodgy head that things go off the rails and rapidly descend into the don’t-really-care nether regions. It’s Berlin, 1989. East/West relationships are at breaking point and, on the eve of the wall coming down, the city is loaded with secret government operatives of all nationalities looking for a missing list of double agents. One of those is MI6 superspy Lorraine Broughton (Theron) who is tasked with investigating the murder of a fellow agent, finding the perilous list and exposing a double agent traitor codenamed Satchel. Her only contact is the gone-native David Percival (James McAvoy), who immediately proves untrustworthy as he puts her in clear and present danger the moment she touches down at the airport. View oEmbed on the source website Complicating matters – well, only very slightly – are the ex-Stasi defector Spyglass (Eddie Marsan), who has committed the entire wanted list to memory, and undercover French fancy Delphine Lasalle (Sofia Boutella), who gets too lipstick-lesbian close to Lorraine (the only major narrative change from the original graphic novel). All the thrilling events are told in flashback by a battered and bruised Lorraine under closed-room interrogation by Eric Gray (Toby Jones), her superior officer, and Emmett Kurzfeld (John Goodman), a suspicious-looking CIA agent, and ends with her disclosure of who Satchel really is. Or does it? Atomic Blonde is complete style over substance at every twist and turn, but what fabulously edgy and electric style. The look is cool and comic-book-panel calculated, the swiftly paced action is brutal and kinetic and the killer 1980s soundtrack is a Deutschland Disco delight. You’ll be expecting Nena’s 99 Luftballons to turn up, but perhaps not George Michael’s Father Figure or David Bowie’s Putting Out The Fire. Missing entirely is the most obvious choice though, Atomic by Blondie! Through it all, no-nonsense Theron is a magnetic force of nature whether stabbing an adversary’s jugular with her red stiletto heel or battling thugs in front of a cinema screen showing projected images from Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker, which act as the perfect violence versus philosophy counterpoint. When Leith (who is currently directing Deadpool 2) gets those risky design choices right, he nails the action sequences, which are far more compelling than the wraparound dramatics. True, Theron’s English accent is perhaps a tad too studied and it often feels she’s still on the set of her J’Adore perfume commercials. But when the Fast & Furious 8 star moves into combat mode, her honed rage is something else – especially in the main breathtaking set-piece where she battles KGB agents down a stairway in one seemingly unbroken take, clearly taking a leaf out of the Korean Oldboy book. You can literally feel her depleting energy levels and excruciating pain. It must be said that McAvoy makes little impression and Jones, Goodman and shady watchmaker Til Schweiger do nothing more than sit behind desks. It’s very much a case of borrowing ideas from Bond and Bourne, lighting the incandescent Theron touchpaper and standing back in amazement. At its worst, Atomic Blonde is disposable popcorn fluff; at best it’s a sexy gut-punch of grisly gunfire and A-list gorgeousness, one that will make you wish for secret agent Lorraine Broughton’s rapid return in something a bit more substantial. Atomic Blonde is released in cinemas on Wednesday 9 August
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets: "a visually astonishing marvel"
Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne trip the light fantastic as do-gooding intergalactic agents in Luc Besson's sci-fi flight of fantasy
★★★★ Stunningly beautiful, spectacularly baroque, slightly banal yet totally bonkers, director Luc Besson’s latest science-fiction extravaganza is The Fifth Element redux. Twenty years ago the French wunderkind had to choose between bringing his favourite graphic novel Valerian and Laureline to cinematic life or his original brainchild, The Fifth Element. He chose the latter, knowing that the CGI technology needed to give the former its “Barbarella Psychedella” spark was not yet up to the fully-fledged mark. But now he has tackled Jean-Claude Mézierès and Pierre Christin’s European comic book – a fan favorite since its 1967 debut – and the glorious result is a visually astonishing marvel that builds on everything seminal and terrific about his 1997 cult hit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIw205Y_GtM&showinfo=0?ecver=2 Back then space aliens in Egypt, blue extraterrestrial opera divas and a genetically regenerated, red-headed heroine squeaking gibberish were a totally new texture for the sci-fi arena, the reason The Fifth Element took a while to catch on. But now in the wake of Avatar and two helpings of Guardians of the Galaxy, Besson’s ultra-hipster, monumentally creative, acerbically witty, surprisingly touching and socially conscious flight of fantasy will hopefully find a willing audience. It couldn’t be less like your average Hollywood blockbuster if it tried, in its quirky Euro-sensibilities, downplaying of razzle-dazzle violence and one-liner kiss-offs, and in this day and age of cookie-cutter superheroes, three resounding cheers for that. Valerian begins in high grandstanding style. Against a picture-perfect backdrop provided by David Bowie’s ageless Space Oddity, how a space station in the 20th century became the Metropolis-like Alpha City, home to thousands of alien species, by the 28th century is a mesmerising sequence of splendidly realised intergalactic peace missions and harmonious integration. But suddenly there’s a great disturbance in the Force. The heart of the city has become an unexplained radioactive zone that threatens to destroy the whole haphazard structure. It’s up to United Human Federation agents Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Laureline (Cara Delevingne) to investigate what’s behind those intriguing shimmering barriers at the centre of this universe. And what they find in the bowels of the diverse city exposes mistaken planetary genocide and the colossal cover-up undertaken to save the reputation of its mastermind, Commander Arün Filitt (Clive Owen). No spoiler there, Owen is clearly evil the instant he makes his appearance. How all this ties in with Valerian and Laureline’s first mission to capture a ‘Planet Mül converter’, a colourfully scaly armadillo-like creature that lays power-rich pearl eggs, in a fight taking place on a multitude of dimensions is something else. Then there’s the impressive cameo turn by Rihanna as Bubble, the blue cabaret alien, whose ability to transform into any living creature helps our ever-intrepid operatives escape Death by Banquet. Not to mention Laureline stealing jellyfish parasites off the backs of giant underwater manatees to access her spinal cortex for news on Valerian’s location. There’s a level of imaginative invention here that is truly second to none and provides a consistently heady constellation of innovation, eccentricity and amazement, all tied brilliantly to fantastic production design in every department. Quite unlike their comic-strip counterparts, Dane DeHaan is surfer-dude slacker rather than darkly rugged and Cara Delevingne more cat-like model than flame-haired starlet. But while DeHaan comes across as rather laid-back boring, Delevingne brings an engagingly gritty determination to her precocious charisma. She’s the undisputed star of this ingenious lava-lamp show. It’s Valerian’s halting marriage proposal to Laureline and the subsequent soap-opera musings that continually ground Besson’s cosmos mosaic to its detriment. When the extraordinary action is in full flow, Valerian soars through its kinetically inspired battles, slick satire and futuristic camp with deft aplomb. But when the two leads start bickering about love, commitment and sexual playlists, it crash-lands with a hefty bump. A minor quibble in the ultimate scheme of things, though. Besson’s own definitive Space Oddity is an eye-popper that’s as much a thrilling deconstruction of the sci-fi epic as it is a laser-gun blazing blend of rip-roaring Star Wars swashbucklers and Solaris-like thought-provokers. Exploring original terrain for an altogether different perspective on the Hollywood CGI rollercoaster ride, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is gala space opera of the most bizarre and exhilarating kind. And when was the last time you could honestly say you’ve seen something so totally strange, stimulating and remarkable? Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is released in cinemas on Wednesday 2 August
The Mummy review: "a careless and soulless spectacle"
Tom Cruise takes on a megalomaniac mummy – but can his star power save Universal's monster franchise from dying a death?
★★ Neither exciting nor scary enough and featuring one of the duffest of Tom Cruise performances, this gauze-wrapped, bandage-plastered, murky shambles is the epitome of bland from start to finish. But, hey, you can’t blame Universal Pictures for trying. With no real superheroes in their back catalogue or on the horizon anytime soon, it does seem to make some sort of sense to trawl through their profitable intellectual properties of old and cobble together an Avengers Assemble-type meeting of their Famous Monsters gallery. View oEmbed on the source website That financially dodgy gamble is the first instalment in the proposed Dark Universe series, which if successful will subsequently involve such other horror heavy-hitters as Frankenstein, Dracula, the Invisible Man and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Each of those icons gets a visual nod of recognition in a sweep along the shelves of Dr Henry Jekyll’s busy London laboratory. Styled like a creepy Bond villain’s lair, this is the centre of operations for Jekyll (Russell Crowe), clearly the man in charge of a mysterious organisation tasked with monitoring what the world’s classic monsters are up to, while keeping his own inner Mr Hyde in regular check with hi-tech injections. Here, the good doctor has sent feisty archaeologist Jenny Halsey (Annabelle Wallis) to Iraq to find out why an ancient Egyptian tomb has been discovered deep in the heart of the desert. She’s beaten there by roguish US Army scouts Nick Morton (Cruise) and Chris Vail (Jake Johnson), whose sideline is rescuing antiquities not destroyed by Isis militants and selling them on the black market, and they soon discover it’s not so much a tomb but a prison for the evil Princess Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella) who’s made a deal with the death god Set. In return for bringing him into the world, she will be given supernatural powers and eternal life. All she needs is a chosen host – step forward the ever-bewildered Nick - and a ritual dagger, the red jewelled half of which was stolen by Crusaders in 1127 and has recently turned up in a grave unearthed by construction workers digging out the Crossrail line in London. With the soul-sucker getting more powerful as her victim body count increases, Ahmanet is eventually captured, chained up and put under Jekyll’s watchful gaze. But the mummy princess must fulfil her pact or else…. Cue yet another CGI free-for-all as the whole lacklustre affair comes to its predictable sequel-baiting conclusion. Starting off agreeably in Raiders of the Lost Ark rollercoaster action mode before devolving into a grab-bag of steals from other better horror hybrids – An American Werewolf in London’s jokey conversations with the undead being the most obvious, Crusader zombies from 70s schlockfest Tombs of the Blind Dead being the most obscure – director Alex Kurtzman takes an essentially simple reincarnation story and embellishes it into tedious oblivion. Nothing in the action department beats the inventive and exciting plane crash sequence featured heavily in the advance publicity and, considering its 15 certificate, the shivers are pretty low on the ground, too. There’s none of the atmospheric dread that still makes the 1932 Boris Karloff vehicle a viable classic. Or even the engaging zippiness of the recent Brendan Fraser trilogy, despite Kurtzman leaning more heavily on those films for his visual references – the bats/rats/spider invasions – than anything too far back in the mists of cinematic time. A major plus point is the linking to contemporary events like the desecration of ancient monuments by militants and the whole Crossrail thread. But the basic premise of Dr Jekyll being the linchpin in this Dark Universe doesn’t feel correct or appropriate. Even the Penny Dreadful TV series didn’t go there. No doubt about it, Sofia Boutella gives the best performance as the disgruntled princess, mainly because her hieroglyphic-tattooed, dual-iris-eyed antiheroine is focused on being driven by destiny. Everyone else is at the mercy of a messy good v evil script that attempts to be both thrilling and engaging, but fails miserably. Cruise feels especially out of place as the Indiana Jones-like soldier of fortune; he has never seemed less charming or ill at ease with the fundamental traits of his flawed character. Essentially he’s miscast and that means everything else around him suffers in comparison, too. Generic to a fault and unsatisfactory in the chilling horror and adrenaline-pumping adventure stakes, The Mummy doesn’t deliver a solid foundation for the nascent Dark Universe concept. There are a few moments when the film comes to life – the London dockside sequence when Ahmanet’s sarcophagus is found and the underwater corpse chase prove suitably nightmarish – but these commendable intervals are buried under routine exposition, silly dialogue – “They were different times” says someone remarking on primordial lore – and Egyptian clichés. Ultimately it’s a careless and soulless spectacle too wrapped up in its Dark Universe origin story to work as a fully-fledged horror fantasy. The Mummy is released in cinemas on Friday 9 June
Churchill review: "history come to life in its most palatable and entertaining form"
Brian Cox portrays the British prime minister in all his drinking, smoking and swearing glory, as an appointment with D-Day looms
★★★★ Winston Churchill once said, “War is a game that is played with a smile,” and that’s definitely the case in director Jonathan Teplitzky’s polished film, which offers a snapshot of the British prime minister’s state of mind on the eve of Operation Overlord, the name given to the D-Day landings of June 1944. The film showcases a fantastic array of top-notch acting, spearheaded by force-of-nature Brian Cox, who gives a tremendous performance as the charismatic politician who inspired Great Britain to resist Adolf Hitler. The tone is appropriately sincere, but there are touches of sharp humour and moments of levity here, including the almost childish delight Churchill takes in wearing his zippered coverall siren suit (which makes him look like an overgrown teddy bear) and the cantankerous way he treats everyone, especially the latest in a long line of flustered secretaries. View oEmbed on the source website Much like the title of the film itself, this is an unfussy, straight-shooting and dignified peek at the great statesman. For epic battle footage, it would be wise to wait for Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk (in cinemas 21 July). And for a more upbeat portrayal, Joe Wright’s Darkest Hour would seem to be a good bet for the new year. But that would mean missing out on this precisely focused, heartfelt drama, which is skilfully positioned around one man’s self-doubt, depression and destiny. The film opens in striking style with the 70-year-old Winston staring at the ocean, lost in the swirling sea of bloodstained memories of his disastrous First World War command, which culminated in mass slaughter on the beaches of Gallipoli. Fearful of repeating the same mistake again, he just can’t bring himself to sign off on the long-planned Operation Overlord, despite a million soldiers being poised for action on the south coast of Britain, ready to invade Nazi-occupied Europe. Frustrated by his indecision, political opponents sharpen their knives, and finally a very irritated General Dwight Eisenhower (a brilliant John Slattery) and Field Marshal Montgomery (Julian Wadham) call on King George VI (James Purefoy, doing his own version of The King's Speech) to intervene. Ultimately its Churchill’s unflappable, no-nonsense wife Clementine (Miranda Richardson on superb eye-rolling form) who, realising her marriage is also in crisis, picks her husband up from the depths of despair, dusts off the hurt feelings of indifferent parental rejection and starts him on the road to recovery from the physical and mental rigours of warcraft. The battle of the 2017 Churchills won’t be decided until we’ve seen Gary Oldman’s upcoming Darkest Hour. And comparisons will also be made to Michael Gambon and John Lithgow’s recent television portrayals in Churchill's Secret and The Crown, respectively. But Cox makes the role his own. He doesn’t have to rely on his character’s unique vocal inflections or elaborate make-up to relay his short temper or defiant attitude in the face of accusations he’s not up to the job. Constantly drinking, smoking, flying off the handle and cursing, Cox is a very convincing model of the stubborn and righteous PM – his is a flesh-and-blood portrayal rather than just a bland figure reconstructed from reference books. Bolstered by clear-cut direction from Teplitzky, and with excitingly staged disputes over the controversial operation at hand, Churchill hits all the right notes, bringing a slice of history to life in its most palatable and entertaining form. Churchill is in in cinemas from Friday 16 June
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword review: "A brilliantly rough-and-ready retooling of the myth"
Charlie Hunnam's rogue hero is a diamond geezer for the Golden Age in Guy Ritchie's gloriously visual and vibrant take on all things Camelot
★★★★★ Director Guy Ritchie has found his Holy Grail. After the slapdash shenanigans of yore, he hits his stride with a brilliantly rough-and-ready retooling of the Arthurian myth that fits the requirements of today’s audiences like a gauntlet. A gloriously visual and vibrant retelling of the oft-told legend, Ritchie’s tale of warlocks, Londinium docks and 2000 smoking arrows is undoubtedly his finest and most commanding movie to date. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rbPTQIdjmY?ecver=2 Taking place in a world of knights in flaming armour, gigantic creatures and muscular magic this astonishing and stylised take on all things Camelot works because of the confident juxtaposition of hyper-reality with fantasy spectacle, the sly steals from Biblical and classic fables and the superior combination of the Mod with the medieval. Charlie Hunnam just couldn’t be better as the reluctant "Born King" either, a diamond geezer for the Dark Ages, a rogue hero you effortlessly warm to throughout the hectic action adventure. When King Uther Pendragon (Eric Bana) is murdered by his wicked brother Vortigern (Jude Law) for the Camelot crown, baby Arthur floats, Moses-like, to England’s Roman capital, Londinium, and is found by a couple of prostitutes. Raised in their brothel and learning to become streetwise the hard way, he develops into a black market wheeler-dealer, clueless about his royal birthright. But once forced by the laws of the land to try and pull the enchanted sword Excalibur from the stone, his true identity is revealed, and Vortigern vows to destroy him. Rescued from execution by resistance leaders (Djimon Hounsou, Aiden Gillen) and brought up to speed about his heritage, it’s the Mage (Astrid Berges-Frisbey), a Merlin acolyte, who must convince Arthur to fight for his legacy and yank him out of self-denial. A rather poetic and beguiling interpretation of the Lady in the Lake helps too. However Vortigern is getting more powerful by the minute thanks to mysterious mermaids in the castle cellars who expect him to pay the ultimate sacrifice – the "blood of love" – in order to up his paranormal quotient and vanquish his hated nephew once and for all. Equally accomplished as Hunnam is Jude Law, a fabulously nasty and supernaturally ambitious Vortigern. The actor’s Shakespearean artistry has clearly set him in good stead here with the frightening intensity he brings to one of his career best roles. A word, too, for Djimon Hounsou who always exudes dignity and gravitas, and Aiden Gillen as "Goosefat" Bill, none of those airy-fairy Lancelot or Gawain names here, thank you very much! Yes, David Beckham does have a pointless cameo as a scarred security guard. But so does Ritchie as a landlord unwilling to let the resistance use his dwelling as an operations centre. No matter those few lapses in judgement, King Arthur pays impressive dividends in both its coarse realism and mythic audaciousness. From the epic Mage battle opening, featuring colossal elephants and the voyage of self-discovery in the Darklands, where Arthur faces monster rats, bats and snakes, through the bare-knuckle and kung-fu fighting and climactic hack-and-slash duel, this wildly ambitious origin story zings with verve and vigour. One great innovation is having Excalibur possess its rightful owner with forces beyond the imagination. All this is helped enormously by Daniel Pemberton’s propulsive score, which adds further layers of richness to the whole gritty and glittering endeavour. Alongside the themes of camaraderie, solidarity, fairness and responsibility, Ritchie doesn’t stint on his signature flourishes, like the jump-cut fast forwards/backwards and hard-hitting editing. It’s all here in unexpected spades and, rather than distracting, enhances the bold-as-brass narrative playfulness. Nor does he shy away from clear social and political commentary, neatly disguised as a high-speed hurtle through witty pop culture given a medieval jellied-eel spin. Ritchie wants to give this clear starting point for sequels (it ends with the Round Table being constructed) his own distinctive cheeky chappie stamp, and he succeeds with his most potent and personal concoction. Many will find the virtual absence of Merlin a strange omission. But he’s actually behind the camera here. For Ritchie is the wizard in full control of this panorama of human weaknesses and strengths, of sword and sorcery set against a stunning backdrop of marvel and wonder. It’s curious how our myths change to suit current tastes, but here’s one that doesn’t devalue its source material, only enhances it with conviction and courage. King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is released in cinemas on Friday 19 May
Fast & Furious 8 review: "a charming, exhilarating, stupid, rip-roaring pure rush of adrenaline"
As Charlize Theron spirits Vin Diesel away from his four-wheeled family, this high-octane franchise remains resolutely on track
★★★★ From the opening car race in Havana to the finish line in the Arctic, this is action nirvana – a perpetual kinetic blast to keep the long-running franchise rolling on. In fact, it is probably the best and most complete thrill-ride since Mad Max: Fury Road. F Gary Gray, the director of Straight Outta Compton, takes this straight into the Hall of Fame for turbo-charged action movies with some truly incredible set pieces. Vin Diesel in a flaming, twirling armoured car, leap-frogging a nuclear submarine before being shielded by a circle of classic motors, anyone? That’s just one breathless moment in an upgraded vehicle that takes from every instalment of the series for a blitzkrieg of blockbuster brass neck. Of course, the film is also hilariously macho, with Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham being the pinnacle of anti-bromance buddy partnerships. And there’s really no point in stopping to think about the plot because it’s ludicrous. View oEmbed on the source website Dom (series regular Vin Diesel) has gone rogue. While honeymooning in Cuba with Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), he’s ambushed by power-crazed cyber terrorist Cipher, played by Charlize Theron in full-on Blofeld mode. After showing him a picture on her smart phone – of what, we don’t learn until much later – he’s coerced into stealing an electromagnetic pulse bomb in Berlin. Not only that, he robs the Russians of nuclear security codes in Manhattan and launches a military sub in the Barents Sea. No one, least of all Letty, can understand why he’s joined forces with Cipher, so it's up to Mr Nobody (a wasted Kurt Russell) and his new by-the-book assistant "Little Nobody" (perky Scott Eastwood) to get the old team back together. That’s Letty, Hobbs (Johnson), Roman (Tyrese Gibson) Tej (Ludacris), Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel) and Deckard (Statham). It goes without saying, there is a lot more subterfuge and double-dealing going on than meets God’s Eye – a so-called mega-computing programme. Plus, there are a few fun and surprising cameos. The visual artistry and seat-edged spectacle is incredible, from the giant wrecking ball that makes mincemeat of rival vehicles in Berlin to the dazzling onslaught of motor mayhem on the streets of New York. There’s also astonishing stunt work on a frozen sea and a marvellous aeroplane shoot-out with Statham literally left holding the baby. Though it ploughs its way through every action cliché possible with a devil-may-care assurance, the film is also laced with a tongue-in-cheek smartness and pays homage to past exploits and beloved characters. The final line may well make ardent fans choke up. Fast and Furious 8 (whose title in the UK has curiously been changed from The Fate of the Furious) is a charming, exhilarating, stupid, rip-roaring pure rush of adrenaline. As high grade as the weaponry on show and sublime as the soap-opera antics it wallows in, you’ll cheer every time Diesel mentions “family”. Fasten those seatbelts because this powerfully entertaining series doesn’t look like running out of gas any time soon. Fast and Furious 8 is released in cinemas on Wednesday 12 April
Freeview film of the day: Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
Tom Cruise and the Impossible Mission team return in M:I4, a thrill-ride of stunts and breathtaking action set pieces
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol ★★★★ 9.00-11.35pm Film4 The Incredibles director Brad Bird transfers his dazzling and dynamic skills to the live-action format superbly in his gripping rejuvenation of the spy action franchise. Agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his crack team are blamed for a botched mission, and the entire Impossible Missions Force is disbanded (the ghost protocol of the title). Cut off from all support, the agents must attempt to stop a rogue extremist scientist (Michael Nyqvist) from causing nuclear armageddon. The story may sound familiar, but the gadgets are more outlandish than ever (the retina-based video screen is fabulous), the spectacle absolutely amazing (Cruise dangling off the Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai, wearing suction gloves) and the special effects as high-end as they come. Jeremy Renner is a capable new addition to the IMF, and Simon Pegg is promoted to full comedy relief role. It’s an inventive, relentless and tension-laden caper. For more of today’s free-to-air films, see our TV listings Order your copy of the Radio Times Guide to Films 2017.
Assassin’s Creed review: "a thrilling, visually nightmarish Dan Brown-style conspiracy tale where Mortal Kombat meets Raiders of the Lost Ark"
Michael Fassbender leads the charge in a breakneck adaptation of the video game that pits the Order of the Templar against a brotherhood of assassins
★★★ Movies based on video games don’t have a wild success rate – for every Resident Evil there are many that have crashed and burned – and that’s usually due to the exclusion of the interactive experience. There has to be another way to engage the fanbase and on top of that, games have a dense mythology that can often be confusing and off-putting to the uninitiated. View oEmbed on the source website So, kudos goes to director Justin Kurzel whose aim with Assassin’s Creed is to remain true to the fictional history of real-world events offered by the game and marrying that with an origin story that lends itself extremely well to plenty of superhero spectacle. You don’t need to have played the game to enjoy its dynamic pleasures. At the same time those au fait with all that world's complexities will have a good time too. If Kurzel’s movie has a major fault it’s keeping the core story opaque until about two-thirds through. Essentially the focus is on a centuries-long covert war between the Templars and the Assassins. Both sects are searching for the Apple of Eden that holds the genetic code to free will. The former want it to quash disobedience in the world and the latter to prevent them from controlling hearts and minds. In the modern day, the Templars hide behind the front of the shadowy Abstergo Industries, run by Rikkin (Jeremy Irons) whose daughter Sofia (Marion Cotillard) has invented the Animus machine (impressively changed from the game’s simple chair) that can tap into genetic memories of imprisoned Assassins to regress them to their ancestral past. Their latest guinea pig is career criminal Cal Lynch (Michael Fassbender), a character new to the game universe, forced to relive the role of Assassin Aguilar de Nerha (Fassbender again) in the time of the Spanish Inquisition. But as Lynch’s spiritual power is greater than any Templar has seen, he also begins to gain the knowledge and skills necessary for his deep-rooted Assassin alter ego to confront age-old enemies. The finale, set in the sumptuous Freemasons’ Hall in London, is a swirl of death, destruction and destiny as each character moves into place, like chess pieces, for the next hoodie-wearing episodes in the proposed trilogy. The most successful aspect of this engaging enterprise is the parallel imagery between Lynch strapped into the present-day Matrix-like Animus machine while also reenacting history through glorious Spanish locales, performing elaborate sword fights, carriage chases and close hand-to-hand skirmishes across tiled rooftops. Coupled with the Parkour-inspired stunts Kurzel insists on keeping the CGI in check for the feel of an old school adventure and executes the action with a great deal of care and attention to detail. The result is a thrilling, visually nightmarish Dan Brown-style conspiracy tale where Mortal Kombat meets Raiders of the Lost Ark. The script isn’t quite so smooth with lines like “We work in the dark to serve the light”. (The location of the Apple might cause a few guffaws as well.) But a quality cast that includes Charlotte Rampling and Brendan Gleeson delivers these clunkers with an almost Shakespearean grandiosity and it gives the text far more potency than it deserves. It’s worth bearing in mind that Fassbender, Cotillard, Kurzel and his younger brother Jed (whose score hits exactly the right levels of rousing bombast), previously worked on Macbeth together, so are well versed in mining for depth and feeling between the bigger, louder moments. Those uninterested in video games may still not be convinced, but as a purely eye-popping dramatic experience, with its epic sweep, fast-paced action and yes, a bit of profundity too, Assassin’s Creed is richer in texture than you might expect. There is some real thought behind it that could see it flower into a bona fide movie franchise. Assassin's Creed is in cinemas from 1 January 2017 Order your copy of the Radio Times Guide to Films 2017