THE SAPPHIRES

Cert 12A  Stars 3

Irish comic Chris O’Dowd steams into the cinema aboard the soul train in this retro feel-good slice of fun of musical comedy-drama.

In the Australian Outback of 1968 O’Dowd’s drunkard keyboard player, Dave, recognises the potential of four wannabe soul singers and appoints himself their manager.

Whisking the girls off to the Vietnam war to entertain the troops, Dave proves less than reliable when romance, rivalry, and the war itself threaten the band’s chances of success.

Deborah Mailman, Jessica Mauboy, Shari Sebbens, Miranda Tapsell as the singers are attractive and nicely argumentative personalities, and if they’re not brilliant actors then at least they’re great singers. O’Dowd gives his all but is occasionally embarrassing in a thinly written part.

Budget constraints mean that the combat scenes aren’t hugely convincing but the film is surprisingly robustly effective when addressing the racism the band encounter.

The Sapphires bursts with humour and soul classics that drive the movie along. There’s not much that’s original but it’s warm-hearted and though it won’t win awards, it will win hearts.

MADAGASCAR 3 – EUROPE’S MOST WANTED

Cert PG Stars 4

Putting the mad firmly into Madagascar, this animated threequel is a day-glo riot of cartoon fun and the film equivalent of a bucketful of sugary pick’n’mix

Alex the lion returns to lead Marty the zebra, Melman the giraffe and Gloria the hippo out of Africa and across Europe on board a struggling animal circus.

And the wisecracking penguins return to comment on the action while throwing chaos into the mix in their well-intentioned and self-interested manner.

They are all chased on a train ride of manic adventure by the malevolent police officer Captain DuBois, a puddle-licking and poison-shooting insect who wants to kill Alex and mount his head on a plaque on her office wall.

Jokes, songs, action, romance and buckets of slapstick are all wrapped up in a rainbow of good-humoured anarchy.

This is a film that is absolutely determined to entertain with boundless energy and a irresistible creative zeal. When a pink bear in a multi-coloured afro super-biking around Rome while romancing a ring-tailed lemur, you know it’s time to abandon your marbles and gleefully embrace the insanity.

And don’t worry if a given joke doesn’t amuse, there’ll be another along in a second. And probably a song as well.

The animation is in turns dynamic, vivid and beautiful. Rome is ravishingly rendered; London comes a close second with a dazzling circus performance that gives the recent Olympic opening ceremony a run for its money.

Madagascar is feel good family fun that will leave you feeling exhilarated and craving more. It doesn’t matter if you haven’t seen the first two movies, just go and enjoy this one.

SHAZAM!

Cert 12A Stars 4

Magic and monsters cause mayhem in this terrific crowd pleasing superhero romp which doubles as a body swap comedy. 

This confident seventh instalment in the increasingly lighthearted, bright and colourful, DC Extended Universe, takes place in same world as the recent billion dollar success, Aquaman, but don’t hold your breath waiting for the king of Atlantis to turn up.

Billy is a teenage orphan who while searching for his mother, finds himself endowed with extraordinary powers and unlooked for responsibility.

Following an encounter with a wizard, whenever Billy says the magic word, ‘Shazam’, he’s magically transformed into an adult superhero, with strength, speed and the ability to shoot electric bolts from his fingertips.

Asher Angel is fresh faced and likeable as 14 year old Billy, with an exuberantly gleeful and goofy Zachary Levi, as his super-powered alter ego.

The script owes a lot to Tom Hanks’ 1988 comedy, Big, and pays homage to it during a fight in a department store, while the films energy has the wide-eyed excitable tone of 1980’s kid caper, The Goonies.

As Billy learns to control his powers, the warm family dynamic of his diverse foster family provides an strong emotional grounding. It’s here we meet Faithe Herman, as Billy’s new sister, a delightful pocket-sized scene stealer who’ll win your heart with her charm and humour.

Packed with jokes, this is funnier than Deadpool and has more laughs than Kick Ass, plus it’s also much kinder and far more appropriate for a family audience.

Brit actor Mark Strong played the bad guy in Kick Ass, and appears here as a super-villain who’s hunting Shazam to steal his powers, and is involved in all the flashy CGI action such as magic realms, scary demons, and mid-air fights.

Yet Shazam!’s greatest strength is knowing superheroes were created as a wish fulfilment fantasy for lonely adolescents, and is all the more enjoyable for putting them centre stage.

CREED II

Cert 12 Stars 4

Sylvester Stallone and Dolph Lundgren return to reignite the Cold War as they face off once more in a typically two-fisted and enjoyably bruising bout from Sly’s ‘Rocky’ boxing franchise.

A loose retelling of Rocky 4, the former fighters are now the trainers of the younger generation, which sees Michael B. Jordan’s world heavyweight champ take on the son of the Russian who killed his dad.

It scored a knockout £160m worldwide on a puny £40m budget due to the strong character work and screen history that gives emotional weight to the heavy punching.

15 MINUTES OF WAR

Cert 15 Stars 3

Olga Kurylenko grabs the opportunity to stretch her talents, as a US teacher in this agreeably tense hostage drama inspired by true events of 1976 in East Africa.

And the former Bond girl delivers a more compelling performance than Brit actress Rosamund Pike did in last year’s similarly themed Ugandan kidnap thriller, Entebbe.

Gun wielding terrorists kidnap her young class but their school bus crashes within sight of the Somali and Djibouti border, leading to an armed stand-off.

Strong location work provides a dusty authenticity, and the script is unafraid to draw parallels to contemporary events.

THE ACCOUNTANT OF AUSCHWITZ

Cert 12 Stars 3

Nazi atrocities of the Second World War will never lose their capacity to shock and horrify, and the focus of this brisk and grimly fascinating documentary is the trial of a 93 year old former guard.

Oskar Groning was responsible for collecting cash and personal valuables from prisoners as they arrived at the Auschwitz extermination camp, and in 2015 was charged with complicity in the murder of 300,000 people.

Exploring how subsequent changes in legal thought lead to Groning’s belated arrest, his case is used to reflect on the failures of the 1946 Nuremberg trials in their prosecution of war criminals.

US

Cert 15 116mins Stars 5

Get scared out of your skin by the full-blooded popcorn thrills of this intense home invasion horror which asks cutting questions about identity.

A suburban family holiday near the coastal resort of Santa Cruz, turns into a fight for survival when attacked in their house.

They’re terrorised by a family who are identical to themselves, except for wearing prison fatigues and bearing scissors and a grudge.

Having won an Oscar for harrowing drama, 12 Years A Slave, Lupita Nyong’o is now the woman to beat at next year’s awards ceremony for this demonstration of her remarkable range in a physical demanding role.

She’s an electric wire of anxiety as the fearful mother on a mission to protect her husband and two kids, and her fellow cast members are equally likeable and committed, and not shy of talent.

With telling nods to Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, and Michael Jackson’s Thriller video, this is an ambitious and scalpel-sharp fable which combines deadpan humour, acute social observation and stomach churning violence.

The assured storytelling is in the cruel tradition of folktales in leading us down a very dark path to reveal hard truths about ourselves.

As the story expands with an apocalyptic vibe there’s a welcome element of political paranoia typical of 1950’s sci-fi, which isn’t surprising as the script is influenced by an episode of TV’s The Twilight Zone from the era.

Writer, director and co-producer, Jordan Peele is the multi-talented and busy creative force who was responsible for 2017’s comedy horror smash, Get Out, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. 

And while again exploring racial fault lines in US society Peele also broadens his scope to include class division, but he never sacrifices pace, excitement or knuckle-chewing action..

It’s a privilege to watch as Peele pushes on creatively, and I’ll be shocked if this isn’t scaring up support at next year’s Oscars.

POSSUM

Cert 15 Stars 3

This disturbing psychological British drama from debutant director and writer, Matthew Holness, is a deeply unsettling small budget success.

Sean Harris oozes self-hate as Philip, a gaunt and socially inadequate puppeteer who returns to his dilapidated childhood home in Norfolk to confront his dark past.

Once there he’s confronted by Alun Armstrong’s aged relative, who mocks Philip with memories of a calamitous fire which damaged the property sometime ago.

This is a dark portrait of shame, guilt, anger and torment which refuses to offer comfort or shelter to the audience.

THE EXORCISM OF KAREN WALKER

Cert 15 Stars 1

Family secrets are brought into focus in this lumbering and laboured British supernatural horror which takes his inspiration from the Soviet inventor, Semyon Kirlian, who claimed to be able to photograph a person’s ‘aura’.

Written and directed by Steve Lawson, it sees expecting couple Diane and Mitch Walker move into his late uncle’s spooky country house, where they unwittingly release an ancient evil.

Released as ‘Aura’ in the US where this is unconvincingly set, Spanish actress Denise Moreno plays Karen, and Rula Lenska enjoys herself as a local psychic far more than I did watching this.

HALLOWEEN (2018)

Cert 18 Stars 3

Scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis returns as Laurie Strode to the horror slasher franchise which kick-started her career, as forty years after she survived the killing spree of masked knife-wielding psychopath, Michael Myers, he returns once more to torment her.

And her star presence helped to scare up nearly £200m world wide on a terrifyingly tiny £8m budget, making this the biggest grossing episode of the eleven strong series.

It’s success was also helped by being a direct sequel to the 1978 original, and by basically pretending all the other films don’t exist, it’s easy to catch up.