Breaking news
Trolls World Tour (Rakuten TV, U) Verdict: Inventive and fun Rating: The Iron Mask (various streaming platforms, 12A) Verdict: A spectacular mess Rating: There’s no snobbery quite like music snobbery. Dare to profess an admiration for the work of Phil Collins or Bono, let alone Justin Bieber, and in some circles you will be treated … Read more
Four Kids And It (PG, Sky Cinema) Verdict: Forced whimsy Rating: Elephant (PG, Disney +) Verdict: One shade of grey Rating: A new film that families can enjoy together is a precious commodity at the moment, rather like a bumper pack of loo rolls. Moreover, Four Kids And It (on Sky Cinema) combines the storytelling … Read more
We keep hearing that the nation is facing its biggest crisis since World War II, yet one of the things the British do during challenging times is go to the pictures. Cinema attendance rocketed during the war, and the war years yielded some wonderful films such as Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity and David Lean’s Brief … Read more
Onward (U) Verdict: Another Pixar triumph Rating: Worryingly for those of us who remember it like it was yesterday, or at any rate the day before yesterday, this year marks a quarter of a century since Pixar burst into cinema-goers’ consciousness with the sublime Toy Story. Since 1995, those supremely gifted animators, writers and directors … Read more
Dark Waters (12A) Rating: Verdict: Quietly impressive Downhill (15) Rating: Verdict: Funny and thought-provoking Not many actors have played crusaders against villainy in quite as many guises as Mark Ruffalo. He is the mighty Hulk in the Avengers movies, turning his superhuman strength against the forces of evil. In the Oscar-winning Spotlight (2016), he was one … Read more
Greed (15) Rating: Verdict: Tycoon lampooned Like A Boss (15) Rating: Verdict: Slick and soulless The main emotion when you leave the cinema at the end of Greed might well be surprise that there’s not a posse of lawyers running in with an injunction on behalf of billionaire Sir Philip Green. The film’s star, Steve Coogan, … Read more
Emma (U) Verdict: Lavish step back in time Rating: Sonic the Hedgehog (PG) Verdict: More chronic than tonic Rating: What could be a bigger treat for Valentine’s Day than a new adaptation of a Jane Austen novel? In truth, you can probably think of quite a few contenders. Do we really need another excursion back … Read more
The Personal History of David Copperfield (PG) Rating: Verdict: What the Dickens! The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (15) Rating: Verdict: Incoherent fun Years pass without a single film based on an autobiographical novel about an aspiring young writer emerging out of genteel impoverishment in the mid‑19th century . . . then, what do you … Read more