filmsExaminer

Slapstick British made animated comedy from Oscar winning Nick Park (Aardman) The beginning sees a meteor that wipes out the dinosaurs, the red hot ball of fire becomes the first ever football, cave paintings show the tribe at the time skilfully playing football. Generations later natural progress results in a threat from an army of more advanced Bronze Age people who invade the valley. The cavemen are outed from their valley. Our hero (Dug) challenges the Bronze Age people to a football match, if they win they get their valley back, but if they lose they must mine ore ever after (Escape to Victory style). Most of the film shows the cavemen training for the big match, watch out for the subtle jokes in the background, around the characters and around the main action. An enjoyable film with likeable characters, plenty of one liners and humorous moments, but lacking the charm of Wallace & Gromit or Shaun the Sheep. 7/10

This is a BBC Films Production, a slow burning humorous (but not a comedy) WW2 wartime drama. Gemma Arterton gives one of her best, and completely convincing, performances. Her character lands a job at the Ministry of Information where she plays a script writer. Bill Nighy provides the most essential contribution, he plays a fading matinée star and delivers almost all the humour and best lines. The Ministry are making short morale boosting films. Their latest production is about the Battle of Dunkirk, this time they want to emphasise a feminine perspective. You really want their film to be a success (which it is!) - Some scenes would make fabulous atmospheric still images. Essentially this is a film inside a film and is a joy to watch. 8/10

Based on true events, the story takes place immediately after the tragic 9/11 attacks on The Twin Towers. The film starts with scenes of the planes flying into the towers and begins introducing the most prominent character backgrounds. Chris Hemsworth plays Capt. Mitch Nelson, he had just moved to Kentucky with his family and is called for service. He builds a team of 12 elite Special Forces soldiers, these are first American soldiers to go into Afghanistan after 9/11. Once they land in Uzbekistan, they form an alliance with an Afghan warlord, their 3 week mission is to infiltrate Afghanistan and gradually bring down the Taliban. With tough action scenes and tension that makes you feel like you're in their battles, this is a film that honours their incredible efforts. 7/10

The true story of the independence of India, a complicated historical drama. This is a very good example of why no-one does costume dramas better than the Brits. Set in 1947, Lord Mountbatten, played by a very convincing Hugh Bonneville had been appointed as the last viceroy of India, his responsibility was to administer independence and the partition of India. What he didn't know when he arrived was that the plan had already been orchestrated by Winston Churchill. He was just there to deliver it. While the political drama was going on we see another romantic sub-plot being played out between two Indian members of palace staff, their differing religions making their relationship extremely difficult. At the end of film are displayed many grainy black and white photos explaining the consequences of the partition. 14 million people, more than at any other time in history were displaced and over a million died during the ensuing riots across India. Recommended. 7/10

I'm reviewing The Circus of Horrors, you'll probably remember this act from 'Britain's Got Talent', where they condensed the 'best' bits of their show into their 2 minute slot. With that in mind we had a rough idea of what to expect and we really tried to enjoy this show (part of my birthday treat)  It really wasn't great! Basically some old and dated acts, for instance, acrobats, sword swallower, scantily clad women and random nudity (designed to shock) and a dwarf lifting a 'canon ball' with his private parts and dragging a 'Henry' Hoover around the stage with the same, that's a strange skill by any standards and an even stranger way to earn a living - NOT GOOD - All in all we thought the African acrobats were the best of the whole show. Maybe we've been 'spoilt' with Cirque du Soleil but we found this show painfully amateurish in comparison Cannot recommend. 2/10

Fantasy adventure. I liked the idea and the trailer makes it look like a comedy. It should be a comedy, but don't expect it to be or you'll be disappointed, the ending is full of environmental messages and warnings! We already know that the human race is destroying the planet. The answer is to use a pioneering process to shrink people to 5 inches, so that they need fewer resources and generate less waste. The clear message delivered was that mankind will soon be extinct in its current state. A possible answer is provided in the utopia of Leisure Land in a miniature state. The concept is an interesting idea that Matt Damon and Kirsten Wigg's character's take up. They separate since they need to progress through separate male / female treatment channels. However, Damon goes through with it, but Wigg gets cold feet and changes her mind. Their marriage cannot survive and Wigg soon abandons their seemingly happy marriage. Damon meets a one-legged Vietnamese house cleaner, wh

Three veteran acting legends (all Oscar winners) are the attraction, and all in all they do a good job. The characters work at a steel factory, their jobs are in jeopardy, their pensions have been frozen. What lives they have left are looking bleak. Though they're playing their 'standard' characters, they exhibit some great chemistry. They decide to rob a bank with the help of an expert in order to recover no more than the money they are no longer receiving from their pensions. The themes here are revenge, anger and justice. Before robbing their bank they have a practice robbery at a bargain supermarket with humorous consequences. Going in Style is a comedy, with more heart than I was expecting. This film will make you chuckle quite a bit throughout. 7/10.

This film is a dark and creepy horror / thriller with tense 'jump-scare' moments, about a black photographer (Chris) who visits his white girl-friends (Rose) wealthy parents for the first time. There is a strange atmosphere from all the white people around him, especially from those at the annual garden party. He feels justifiably awkward when in their company. Rose's father is neuro-surgeon, her mother is a hypnotherapist, something sinister is going on, but to begin with you're never really sure. The plot thickens when we discover that the mother has been hypnotising all the daughter's previous boyfriends (all have been black athletes). We then discover that her father has been transplanting old (white) people's brains into these healthy (black) athlete's bodies. Chris also gets hypnotised but escapes, but not before horrifically killing everyone. Horror is NOT my favorite genre, but this film is passive racial as well. Not a bad film, but not great eith

'Fake News' Set in the early 1970's. This is an Oscar contender, based on a true story. The film opens with intense battle scenes from the Vietnam War and then takes some time to introduce the prominent news reporting characters and flesh them out. The Washington Post managed to obtain evidence of a government cover-up and was considering whether to publish a more comprehensive article about the war after the New York Times had been given a court order not to print any material obtained from the same source. We see the low tech 'clunky' newspaper production methods of the time, the print room is poised, will they publish or won't they? The middle onwards is filled with suspense, as the Washington Post gambles with their reputation, their shareholders and their employee's careers. We see the 'news' challenge the authority of the government, what we currently recognise as Trump's 'Fake News'. The film ends where the Watergate story be

  Close Edit Delete Pensioners Behaving Badly An emotional comedy starring Joan Collins, who was the unlike-able, selfish, has-been diva and Pauline Collins, the downtrodden and long suffering wife. The two leads developed an interesting chemistry. The 'diva' intended to go to her ex-lover's funeral in France where she suspects lots of film directors will also be attending. Her ulterior motive was to hopefully restart her film career. The downtrodden housewife finds herself accidentally on the same coach-trip as the 'diva', this mishap isn't too much of an issue as she's unhappy and just wants to 'run away' from her domineering husband, who has been harbouring a very long term grudge. The film tries to be funny with a serious foundation, but becomes a ludicrous buddy road trip with some predictable humour. Not a bad film, but not a great film either.

Produced by Film4. This Oscar contender could fall into several categories. A murder mystery, or revenge in search of justice, or black comedy. This is about a truly angry mother, Mildred (Frances McDormand) who is grieving the rape and murder of her teenage daughter. She is frustrated with the lack of progress in the case, so after 7 months decides to put up three large billboard signs leading into town with bold messages to prompt the local police force, particularly chief Willoughby (Woody Harrelson) into action. Another interesting character is Officer Dixon (Sam Rockwell), who is a crooked racist cop, everything you wouldn't want in a police officer.  Mildred's anger at the police's relaxed approach is understandable. The town's folk have sympathy for Mildred but also respect the police chief, we also learn that the chief is dying of cancer, hence the added controversy behind the billboards.  The story that follows is fascinating and unpredictable. Essentially, all

This is a highly tense documentary drama set during the early days of World War II. Britain faces the imminent threat of a German invasion, the fate of Britain hangs on the leadership of the newly-appointed British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill. The burden of leadership was enormous, but Churchill shows through his passionate speeches that he is the right man for the job. Intelligence in the War Room shows that France is about to fall, Germany is closing in on Britain, the dilemma facing Churchill was either negotiate with Hitler, or rally the Nation to fight on against unbelievable odds. Churchill was on the brink of signing a peace treaty but his confidence is restored after taking a spontaneous ride on the underground, he talks to a diverse group of London's general public and is encouraged by their fighting spirit. With some astonishing make-up I never thought for one moment that Gary Oldman was not the abrasive Churchill character, the physical transformation was remarkabl

This is an animated film from Pixar, which features a very dark plot. The protagonist is Miguel, he is a Mexican child who dreams of becoming a musician despite his family's strong disapproval.  He is transported into the 'Land of the Dead' to seek his hero Ernesto de la Cruz, a famous musician from previous generations. However, it becomes evident that he will never return to the 'Land of the Living' if he stays too long. Miguel's adventure results in the uncovering of a murder and he discovers a new hero. The animation is very atmospheric, especially the colourful and imaginative scenes while in the 'Land of the Dead'. This film is enjoyable for both children and adults, you will laugh and maybe cry like my wife did (several times) 7/10.

This is a Sci-fi suspense horror film, staring an A-list cast. The crew are isolated in a space-station, which feels incredibly claustrophobic. The mission is to analyse some soil samples from Mars and in the process the crew discover a dangerous 'octopusy' like alien life-form. The Alien (they name 'Calvin') grows very quickly and slowly picks off the crew in it's attempts to survive. The alien is fairly scary but I don't think will measure up to some other film monsters, and I'm not sure if I'm ever going to enjoy calamari again. The plot is heavily inspired by the original Ridley Scott 'Alien' film, while the very heavy CGI opening scenes are heavily inspired by 'Gravity'. The zero gravity 'floaty' scenes are well filmed and very effective. The sound-track is very atmospheric but is 'bigger' than the film. In summary, the film is watch-able but there is a very predictable twist at the end and the film is ultimatel

It's a reboot film with lots of action, set in the 1970's a team of scientists, soldiers, adventurers and a war photographer unite to explore a remote island in the Pacific. They're there to rediscover the 'monsters' that inhabited the earth before 'man' ever did. Once they arrive they flush out Kong, the action is immediate and intensive. Kong is angry, he destroys their helicopters with ease, some of these scenes are really scary, with very effective 3D CGI and loads of depth. Their mission becomes one of survival. The references to other films are pretty obvious. There's a good 60's Rock 'n' Roll soundtrack that makes a strong reference to 'Apocalypse Now'. The cinematography is good and makes a strong reference to 'Jurassic Park'. Tracking Kong sequences makes a strong reference to 'Predator'. Stay until after the rolling end credits, approx. 10 minutes (there's a lot of people involved) to see a scene that int

Emotional and tense Weston drama, set in 1892. The film opens with a quote from DH Lawrence - "The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer". The film then goes straight into a violent action scene where we see a rancher and his children are murdered by a band of Comanche, the horses are led away but the (now) widow escapes.  At this point Christian Bale's character (Capt. Blocker) is introduced, he is a legendary army captain, who has just been given a mission to escort an old Indian chief and his family back home across the desolate challenging landscape. Blocker is initially reluctant, he has a bad history with the native Indians, and the chief who is dying of cancer is a longstanding adversary. However, the mission has come directly from the President and he is further threatened with the loss of his pension if he refuses. Rollercoaster brutal action interspersed with quiet thoughtful set-pieces, where a lot is depicted with very few words.

Kidnapping drama based on a true story, set in 1973. John Paul Getty was the richest man in the world (in the history of the world). His 16 year old grandson was kidnapped in Rome and held captive in the countryside in squalid conditions. The ransom was $17 million, loose change! Although Getty wouldn't pay and wouldn't negotiate. The reason given is that he didn't want to set a president for ransoms on his other grandchildren. The film follows the five month ordeal as the tension builds, especially after the grandson was 'sold' to the mafia. Will Getty pay the Mafia? What will the new kidnappers do?  We learn that in order to evade tax Getty couldn't actually spend his wealth, however, he could put his money into trusts and invest into incredibly valuable art, sculptures and buildings. The film is surrounded by controversy. Particularly Kevin Spacey, who was replaced by Christopher Plummer after sexual misconduct allegations and the finished film becomes un-rel

To be honest I was apprehensive going in as I couldn't help comparing with the recent film Deep-Water Horizon, which I didn't like, but Patriots Day has none of the cliché "American hero thumping their chest" that the oil rig disaster film suffered with. Based on actual events of The Boston Marathon bombing which took place in 2013, this is a crime drama of the terrorist attack, the chaos that ensues and the resulting man-hunt that is documented over the subsequent 90+ hours. We see realistic gory scenes following the 2 explosions. The emergency services are rushed in to attend to very detailed bloody injury, missing limbs, or arms and legs blown apart. The authorities feared there may be more bombs ready to detonate so they needed to find the perpetrators, they needed to move very quickly. The film cleverly incorporates actual video surveillance footage from grainy CCTV and mobile phones taken at the time. It's tense, it's exciting, the background music is mo

The drive for us (from north Hertfordshire) was quick and simple. We previously visited the O2 when it was an exhibition centre for the Millennium, we were truly impressed by how this has developed into the ‘go to’ venue in London and a model for venues around the world. Besides the concert hall there are plenty of restaurants, fast food places, also bowling, Cineworld, night clubs around the inside edge of the dome.  FOOD - Expect everything to be very pricy but we also found a Tesco Express just outside the Dome entrance, there is public seating inside the Dome before you enter the concert hall so a very reasonably priced snack is possible. PARKING – Plenty, well organised but very pricey – there is an attendant at the machine (O2 mobile customers get a discount). The parking ticket is not checked by the exit attendant. THE SHOW – Tons of Disney characters on skates play out 5-10 minute snippets of the most recognisable film scenes, although this did not include ‘Frozen’ which was a

This is a drama and true story of Molly Bloom. She was a former Olympic worthy freestyle skier, who while competing suffered a terrible career ending fall. During the opening sequence we see the FBI arresting her for connections with a Russian money laundering operation. Also during an early flashback sequence we see that Molly had massive issues with her overbearing father, who was also her ski coach. This tense relationship ultimately translated into her later desire to control men. She moves to LA and becomes both a waitress and also PA to a real pillock of a guy. She starts by helping him to run illegal high stakes poker games before branching out on her own to become the leader of the most exclusive underground poker games in the world, entirely played by powerful men. This is a long film, full of heavy dialogue and narration, with excellent award worthy performances from Jessica Chastain, as Molly. Idris Elba, as her lawyer and Kevin Costner, as her pushy father. Look out for the

This is a deeply emotional film which is set in 1950's America, directed by Denzel Washington. This was originally a Broadway stage play, written by August Wilson, which won both Politzer and Tony prizes. Denzel Washington plays Troy, a bitter, heavy drinking man, who resents his missed opportunities due to colour and age, who we now see has conformed to the norms of society. He works hard as a rubbish collector to provide the basics for his family. Troy consistently voices his strong opinions and is definitely the master of his household. The film is very dialogue heavy with some very lengthy lines, some of which were delivered in a Shakespearian manner, this was a hugely positive aspect of the film for me. The film mainly takes place in the house or in the rear garden where we see Troy is building a fence to keep his family safe from the devil, in reality he's building a symbolic fence around himself to keep them all out. The relationship Troy has with his sons is difficult,

Fantasy action adventure. Four teenagers are stuck in school detention, they are a nerd, a football star, a shy girl and a media obsessed posh girl. They find a dusty vintage computer game console, switch it on and choose their avatars, these are nothing like themselves in fact they are their opposites. The characters are suddenly sucked into the game, and they realise that they need to make their way through the dangerous levels in order to escape the game and get home alive. The film is very funny in places, particularly the learning to flirt sequence. The humour is juvenile, for instance be prepared to explain what an erection is to a very young viewer.  You may remember the original from 1995 with Robin Williams, though you don't need to know anything about the original, or needed to have watched it to see this. What really makes this film work is the chemistry and humour between the characters.  I'm sorry to say that this film would be extremely poor without the humour.

This is an emotional independent "arty" film set in the 1980's Miami, a coming of age drama / character study. With an all black cast, the protagonist has no father figure, but finds a surrogate father in Juan (who heads a local drug-dealing gang), he lives in an urban ghetto, life is harsh. His mother is a drug addict, who is a prostitute to earn money for feed her drug problem. The story is played over 3 acts. Act 1; the child "Little" - He has difficulty making human connections except for Juan.  Act 2; the teenager "Chiron" - Suffers bullying at school, begins to discover who he is and his sexuality, is betrayed by Kevin after his first homosexual encounter with him.  Act 3; the adult "Black" - Grows very strong, a confident drug dealer, comes out. An interesting plot, but not without problems. After Juan was painted as an important influence on "Little" I was left wondering what happened to him in acts two and three.  The fil

This is the highly anticipated sci-fi action film, the very CGI heavy interpretation of a Japanese manga classic. Set in the near future, Scarlet Johansson is 'Major' who has died and has her conscience (the ghost) transferred to a cyborg body (the shell), she is the first to have her brain transferred into an entirely synthetic body.  'Major' becomes a member of an anti-terror group and is ready to be called into action, but there's something more sinister going on. She explores whether she has a soul or whether just a machine, she has flash-backs that make her question her humanity (sounds too familiar?).  There's a reoccurring theme of ownership and consent. She tries to put right what the corporation (that made her) has done to her (also too familiar?!) The visual effects are breathtaking, but even this looks familiar and a little cliché now. Not a bad film, worth watching but you won't help comparing with earlier, better examples, for instance 'Blad

We knew what to expect as this show has been developed by one of the founder members of the ‘Reduced Shakespeare Company’. I would say that there are more songs in this production; you will not be disappointed by anything about the show. All ‘actors’ double as musicians (mostly guitars) and sing their way though Dickens’s most recognisable works, finishing with a Christmas Carol.  The downsides; the venue, I’m only slightly built but found the ‘barrel’ seating cramped, a larger framed viewer or someone with long legs might struggle. The bar is quite expensive as well; a small glass of wine and small bottled beer was £10.  Well worth the trip to The Arts Theatre – Leicester Square 8/10.