With an all-star cast including Will Smith and Helen Mirren, Collateral...
It’s not often I suggest you rush to see a film, particularly when I know Collateral Beauty won’t be to everybody’s taste. But it's close to perfect for this slightly strange, in-between time of year.
View ArticleLa La Land review - The all-singing feelgood start to the movie year
In less than five glorious minutes, two crucial basics have been established – it’s a musical and it’s a promisingly good one.
View ArticleLive By Night, Ben Affleck's disjointed and complex attempt at a...
As a director, Ben Affleck has made some seriously good films, impressing rather more than he tends to as an actor. But with Live By Night he delivers his first directorial disappointment.
View ArticleJackie review: Natalie Portman shines
He wants to give us the Jackie Kennedy the public knew but he also wants to bring us the private woman they didn’t. It’s that conflict, that contradiction that Portman captures so superbly.
View ArticleHacksaw Ridge is a brilliant return to form for Mel Gibson
Everyone knows that Hollywood loves a comeback. Even so, the rehabilitation of Mel Gibson is astonishing. Ten years ago his career seemed over. But slowly he's clawing his way back.
View ArticleGold is tarnished due to Matthew McConaughey's vanity
The good news is that Matthew McConaughey’s new film, Gold, has a terrific twist up its last-reel sleeve but it comes too late to rescue this metallurgical melodrama from mediocrity.
View ArticleFifty Shades Darker is tedious, badly acted and unsexy
Christian Grey is adamant: he’s a changed man. ‘No rules, no punishments...’ he begins. ‘And no secrets?’ adds a hopeful Ana Steele, the girl who just can’t say no to the Seattle’s billionaire.
View ArticleMatt Damon just about saves face in this action-adventure
In recent years, Hollywood has become more and more aware of the commercial potential offered by the Chinese market and has adjusted its film-making habits accordingly.
View ArticleWho should, and who will, win at tonight's Oscars ceremony
Host Jimmy Kimmel has every right to be nervous ahead of the 89th Academy Awards tonight. It’s not only his first time, but also it’s the first Oscars to be held since President Trump was elected.
View ArticlePatriots Day is tragedy exploited for commercial gain
Not quite four years ago, two brothers packed pressure cookers with explosives, nails, razor blades and ball bearings, and left them among the crowds close to the finish of the Boston Marathon.
View ArticleViceroy's House review: Stunning to look at
Set mainly in the pre-independence, pre-partition India of 1947, it is very nicely acted and manages to make a difficult, challenging subject both moving and relatively easy to understand.
View ArticleKong: Skull Island underwhelms in nearly every department
At the London premiere of Kong: Skull Island, Tom Hiddleston described it as an ‘old-fashioned monster munch’, which any Americans there probably thought a cute example of British self-deprecation.
View ArticleSecret Cinema lets you be a 'star' for the night
It is 2017 and I am in Canning Town, east London, where Montmartre and the Moulin Rouge have been brilliantly and meticulously recreated by Secret Cinema.
View ArticleBeauty And The Beast: Emma Watson in best post-Potter role
Disney are on very safe ground here. Yes, they’ve brought in Emma Watson to play Belle and Downton star Dan Stevens as the Beast, but the producers know this movie recipe works.
View ArticleThe Lost City of Z is a plodding, charisma-free disaster
The Lost City Of Z is a film about the sporadically forgotten British explorer Percy Fawcett... Charlie Hunnam seems horribly miscast in the central role.
View ArticleGhost In The Shell: A big-budget remake of the cult film
All that teenage boys will need to know about Ghost In The Shell is that it’s the new sci-fi film in which Scarlett Johansson flies around in what appears to be a white skin-tight catsuit.
View ArticleGoing In Style: Crime caper packs edge and emotional punch
Going In Style, a New York crime caper, packs edge, emotional punch and sheer likability. A cast doesn’t come much classier, stylish or more venerable than this trio of Oscar winners.
View ArticleThe Sense Of An Ending: challenging expectations
Understandably, most of us prefer not to look forward to our declining years. But if we’re forced to, we all like to think that somehow everything is going to be all right in the end.
View ArticleTheir Finest is a moving wartime tale, perfectly acted
There are some films that hit you right in the heart. Their Finest is one of them. I’ve seen it twice now and absolutely loved it on both occasions. It’s made me laugh and it’s made me cry.
View ArticleGuardians Of The Galaxy Vol 2 review
I love Guardians Of The Galaxy. It’s fast become one of my favourite Marvel Comics franchises. I love the cheesy Seventies pop and the fact that one of its characters – Groot – is essentially a tree.
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