TOY STORY 4

Cert U 99mins Stars 5

Woody and Buzz Lightyear make a triumphant and tearful return in this terrifically fun-packed and gorgeously animated sequel which is guaranteed to win the toys a whole new generation of fans.

Tom Hanks and Tim Allen return again to voice our loveable heroes and the new characters are funny and adorable, especially the new baby of the group, Forky. and Keanu Reeves speeds by to deliver a wonderfully comic turn as the Evel Knievel-style stuntman, Duke Caboom.

While on a road trip one of the gang is captured by some very sinister dolls in a creepy old antiques shop and the friends rush the rescue, aided by a revitalised Bo Peep, whose absence from the previous film is fully explained.

Her newly independent spirit is a great example of how these characters have been allowed to grow since first appearing in, gulp, 1995, just as we’ve also grown.

Many of the parents who took their kids to the first film will be grandparents now, and the script is careful to speak to members of every generation, with a powerful emphasis on the importance of loyalty to family and friends.

Plus it works as a standalone adventure so little kids will enjoy it even if they haven’t yet seen the first three films.

The practically perfect previous film so comprehensively passed the bar for a five star film, it left enough leeway for this one to be not quite as incredible but still qualify as superb entertainment in its own right.

Rather than go bigger to try and blow our cinematic socks off, this gorgeously animated adventure goes a little smaller to focus on the characters, but still provides as much giddy excitement, joyous humour and heart-melting charm as you’d expect, and delivers a hugely emotional finale which will have you in tears. You have been warned.

THE PROFESSOR

Cert 15 Stars 2

Johnny Depp stars in this comedy-drama as a married father diagnosed with cancer whose given six months to live, and begins a drink, drug and sex-fuelled campaign against the staid university authorities.

Possibly inspired by the material which allows Depp to dress and behave as a doomed yet righteous and narcissistic romantic 18th century poet, the star seems at least semi-motivated and involved, which is good to see after so the disappointments of his recent output.

Even so this exploration of the hypocrisy of middle-class morality is sadly sluggish, dull and indulgent, and teaches us nothing.

 

DESTINATION WEDDING

Cert 15 Stars 3

Keanu Reeves teams up for the fourth time with fellow 1980’s icon Winona Ryder, in this bracingly cynical and enjoyably acerbic wedding romcom.

They play strangers flying to California to attend the same wedding, and discover they’re united by their hatred of themselves, each other, weddings in general and the happy couple in particular.

It’s a slight and predictable affair but the pair are so well matched in looks and star power, and share such winning chemistry it makes you think they really should be together off screen as well as on it.

SUPPORT THE GIRLS

Cert 15 86mins Stars 3

This bittersweet day-in-the-life-drama is a far more appetising and nourishing experience than the food served in the US ‘breastaurant’ where Regina Hall’s middle-aged manager works.

After her winning performance in 2017’s raucous comedy Girls’ Trip, the actress gives a wonderfully natural turn as the busily maternal Lisa.

While valiantly attempting to uphold standards of service, dress and decorum in her young staff, Lisa finds herself at a crossroads in life among the motorised sprawl of Texas.

Double Whammies is euphemistically called a sports bar, and while the male owner insists it’s a mainstream family environment, he provides a diet of ‘boobs, brews and big screens’ to a mostly male clientele.

Loyally assisting Lisa in negotiating a daily menu of customers, cooks, cops and criminals, are the drily no-nonsense Shayna McHayle, and Haley Lu Richardson’s ray of sunshine.

And the trio provide a welcome scream of defiance in the face of limited life choices and the myth of the American dream.

 

 

THE HOLE IN THE GROUND

Cert 15 Stars 3

Seana Kerslake’s single mother is taken to the precipice of sanity in this brooding and ambitious Irish rural family horror as her young son struggles to adjust to their new tumbledown farmhouse home on the edge of a large forest.

She’s an increasingly desperate and isolated figure as she suffers panic attacks, hallucinations and premonitions.

Strong on mood, focused in its intent and anchored by performances, the sound design assaults the audience with both barrels while the cinematography makes us feel the damp chill of the wood, making for an impressively pungent directorial debut from writer, Lee Cronin.

 

MOTHER!

Cert 18 121mins Stars 5

Jennifer Lawrence is back on Oscar worthy form in this fist in the mouth intense horror. It’s a nightmarish fantasy of biblical madness from the director who dared to cast Russell Crowe on a sea of trouble as Noah.

Billed only as Mother, she plays the wife of a writer who spends her time lovingly restoring their grand old farmhouse home, to which she seems to have an almost supernatural connection.

A fan of the writer calls by and her husband invites him to stay the night. The next day members of the stranger’s family arrive, bringing with them chaos and violence.

Still only 27 years old, Lawrence has every chance of a fifth Academy award nomination and a possible second statuette for this phenomenal and punishing performance.

Despite it’s early moments of dark humour, Mother! is a very different movie from the romcom Silver Linings Playbook for which Lawrence won in 2012.

A welcome temporary lull in her blockbuster commitment to the X-Men superhero franchise allows her to team up with indie darling Darren Aronofsky.

The writer/director inspired Mickey Rourke to a nomination in 2009 for The Wrestler and guided Natalie Portman to an Academy award in his 2010 horror, Black Swan. He does his absolute utmost to repeat a similar trick here.

His camera almost sits on Lawrence’s shoulders, immersing us in her world as it spirals insanely out of control.

Employing biblical allusions with tremendous finesse and huge ambition, Aronofsky unleashes an apocalypse of condemnation on his targets. These include the control organised religion exerts over women, the cult of celebrity, and the vanity of the male creative process.

Javier Bardem oozes narcissistic charm as the writer and Ed Harris and Michelle Pfeiffer provide strong support.

With every department working at full mind bending tilt, this is an extraordinary experience which may leave you crying out for your own mother.

THE VAULT

Cert 15 91mins Stars 1

Clint Eastwood’s daughter Francesca leads a team of bank robbers in this a shoddy mess of a horror heist movie.

The actress is variously described as a model, television personality and socialite, and is best known for a reality series. She’s a decent enough actress undermined by some appallingly weak material.

Beginning the film as a baby doll blonde, she reveals herself as strong and determined character. But her best moves can’t save this shocker from its many flaws.

When the thieves find the safe boxes empty, James Franco’s asthmatic assistant bank manager tells them of an old vault downstairs, which many of the staff believe to be haunted.

There’s an unforgivable absence of fun to the brain drilling violence which follows, conducted with a grim determination to survive an increasingly difficult job. Which exactly mirrors my feelings towards the film. 

A nasty, repetitive, grisly and garbled work where nothing is more alarming than Franco’s 1980’s style stringy moustache.

 

GOON: LAST OF THE ENFORCERS

Cert 15 97mins Stars 2

A poor year for cinematic comedy continues with this violent ice hockey gross out comedy which left me cold.

Set in Canada’s minor league, this sequel to 2011’s sees many of the original cast reprise their roles. But the script leaves any decent jokes on the bench and whenever it strays from the playing arena, finds itself on thin ice.

Hard man team captain Doug has retired due to age and injury. Having taken a dull office job, he’s drawn back to the ice when his old team struggle without him.

Likeable actor Seann William Scott is strangely subdued in a film seemingly geared to his limited strengths. Thrust to fame as Stifler in the American Pie franchise and now 40 years old, he’s also struggled to adjust to a more adult career. 

The out takes over the closing credits are no more funny than anything include but you can console yourself the cast at least entertained themselves during filming.

 

 

IT

Cert 15 135mins Stars 3

The previous adaptation of a Stephen King novel I had to endure was the astonishingly dull sci fi bomb, The Dark Tower.

This new version of his famous horror story is excellent in many ways except in the most important, it fails to scare.

A superb coming of age take ruined by the frequent inclusion of supernatural silliness. Everything would be much improved by removing the stupid monster.

Pennywise is a psychopathic spirit who takes the form of a freak show circus clown who feeds on fear but isn’t terrible effective in tormenting his young victims.

Tim Curry played Pennywise in a memorable 1990 TV miniseries, here we have a very physical performance by Bill Skarsgard who indulges in much alarming leaping. I kept worrying he’d put his back out.

There is handsome production design and first rate performances from the younger cast members. Jaeden Lieberher plays Bill, who leads an adolescent band of social misfits on a search to find his younger brother whose been missing for a year.

Self styled as ‘the losers club’, their camaraderie is wonderfully believable, sweet and funny. Sophia Lillis is tremendously affecting as the token girl member.

Though sinks explode with blood, mattresses ooze gunk and severed heads bob about in sewers, the ordinary real life dangers facing the teens are far more scary.

Bullies, beatings, abusive parents and the struggles of talking to the opposite sex carry more emotional weight than all the spooky shenanigans.

All the best moments call to mind the superior King adaption, Stand By Me, such as when The Losers Club are tormented on their journey around town by a car driving bunch of high school hoodlums. 

Three writers are credited on the script which draws heavily on King’s excellent ear for dialogue, strong characterisation, and stresses the importance of loyalty and friendship. 

However the threat of a sequel is the most terrifying on screen moment they can conjure.

 

THE LIMEHOUSE GOLEM

Cert 15 109mins Stars 3

Get lost in the gothic and grisly gloom of this blood curdling murder mystery.

This pea souper of fact and fiction sees real life Victorian characters mixed up in a fictional serial killer in London’s down market Limehouse district.

With more than a dash of Hammer House of Horror blood splashed about, it all resembles the case of Jack the Ripper as if it were being investigated by an ageing Sherlock Holmes.

With his cadaverous face and grave manner, the venerable Bill Nighy is well cast as Inspector John Kildare, in a role originally pencilled in for Alan Rickman before his sad death.

Wild rumours suggest the mythical Golem is responsible. When the ageing detective is sent to investigate, he stumbles across a second murder case which may be connected.

Former singer and dancer Elizabeth, the prime suspect in the poisoning of her playwright husband.

Oldham born actress Emilia Cooke is fabulous in the role and in a flashback to her stage routine, her incandescent vitality and talent outshines the limelights and is the best reason for watching.

Picking his way though a shroud of intrigue, corruption, exploitation, rape and of course, murder, Kildare is led to the music hall where the famous Dan Leno performs.

The real life drag artist, dancer and comic is played with a suitably theatrical flourish by Douglas Booth.

He’s part of a bawdy repertory of performers and trapeze artists who all have their secrets, allowing for a shoal of red herrings to be scattered.

Cursed with a limited budget which doesn’t stretch stretch to grand spectacle, the money has been spent wisely on the period costumes and interior design.

Filmed on location up north, Leeds and Manchester stand in for the capital and show how sinister they can be at night. 

So beware the danger lurking in the shadows when you slip out to see the Limehouse Golem.