AVENGERS: ENDGAME

Cert 12A 181mins Stars 5

The world of Marvel’s superheroes is changed forever with this epic and emotional finale which fulfils the promise of the preceding 21 films by serving up a hugely satisfying and super-sized blast of popcorn entertainment.

Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth allowed full rein to be at their crowd pleasing best as Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor who risk their lives in a last gasp attempt at saving the universe.

Following directly on from the events of last year’s Avengers: Infinity War, it sees our heroes consumed by grief and anger after Josh Brolin’s intergalactic warlord, Thanos, succeeded in killing half the world’s population including many of our favourite heroes such as Spider-Man.

Not to be outdone by the boys, Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel is involved from the off and it’s great to see Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow and Karen Gillan’s Nebula afforded plenty of screen time and their own key moments.

Never feeling anywhere near its length, this huge movie is surprisingly light on its feet as it skips about the galaxy, through time and into the quantum realm, from which Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man is released and then has to return to.

With lots of call-back moments to previous adventures Marvel shamelessly plays to the galley which they have every right to do after delivering eleven years of quality thrills.

They cherry pick from the best of the series to splices the laugh-out-loud comedy of Thor: Ragnarok, the two-fisted action of Captain America: Civil War, and the hidden heart of Iron Man.

Casual viewers as well as dedicated fans will be gasp by its many twists, shocks and surprises and the spectacular smack-down is almost too much to take in.

This is an event as much as a movie which demands to be seen on the biggest available screen and is so tightly packed you may need to see it twice.

JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3 – PARABELLUM

Cert 15 130min Stars 4

Keanu Reeves burns the candle at both ends and in the middle in as he returns as the titular hitman this blistering all-action thriller.

Fast, ferocious and surprisingly funny, we join the much feared dog-loving assassin exactly where the previous film left him, alone in New York with a $14m bounty on his head and every hitman in the Big Apple gunning for him.

Almost immediately he’s busting out his brutal bone-breaking and head-cracking action moves. Where once he killed a man with only a pencil, here he uses a library book as a lethal weapon in his bid to survive, as well as an assortment of more traditional weapons, such as knives, pistols and automatic rifles.

Among the tremendously and energetically staged ultra-violent fights which had me wincing with their savagery, one in a stable full of horses and another utilises motorbikes.

Ian McShane is back as the nonchalant manager of New York’s most sumptuous hotel, The Continental, while franchise newcomer Anjelica Huston is majestic as a powerful Belarusian matriarch.

An angry Halle Berry is far more interesting and kick-ass here than she ever was as a sidekick to Pierce Brosnan’s 007 in 2002’s Die Another Day. And her pair of trained attack dogs deserving of their own spin-off adventure.

A sojourn to Casablanca adds epic sweep, and there are nods to Clint Eastwood in his Spaghetti Westerns, and with every frame capturing the tactile weight of the luxuriously decadent interiors, this is easily the most handsome action franchise. 

Unfortunately the running time is as much a hindrance as the clumsy title, and takes the sting out of the climactic battle, which is overlong and less inventive and impressive than those preceding it.

Parabellum comes from a latin phrase meaning ‘prepare for war’. Well, you can’t say this bloody and frequently brilliant episode doesn’t warn you of what to expect.

 

ROCKETMAN

Cert 15 121mins Stars 4

Taron Egerton launches his inner diva into the spotlight with a wonderfully versatile performance as Elton John, in this redemptive musical biopic of the singers stellar career.

Charting his rise from suburban schoolboy to global superstar, we sees the tears behind the tantrums as Elton struggles with a lack of self-worth which results in a multitude of self-destructive addictions including, drugs, booze, sex and shopping.

Packed with greatest hits such as Crocodile Rock, and Your Song, it’s an orgy of clothes,, cars, mansions, and um, orgies, though unlike the outrageous costumes, the intimate sex scenes are tasteful, sincere and won’t scare the horses.

I’ve never been a fan of Kingsman star Egerton, though I did enjoy his turn as a singing gorilla in 2016’s animated caper, Sing.

But no there’s no denying the range, commitment and all round excellence of his performance as the Pinball Wizard, particularly his ability to transition in a moment from from heartbroken heap to grandstanding onstage star.

He makes Elton a magnificently flawed, petulant, often unpleasant figure who wins our sympathy through his honesty and eventual willingness to confront his demons. And the actors playing the childhood Elton are also terrific.

Jamie Bell plays Elton’s lyricist, Bernie Taupin and their bromance is the beating heart of the movie.

As Elton’s abusive manager, Richard ‘Bodyguard’ Madden is a compellingly sharklike, and Bryce Dallas Howard is breathtakingly cold as Elton’s mother.

From playing as Babyface in kiddie caper, Bugsy Malone, to making The Proclaimers jukebox musical, Sunshine on Leith, and taking up the reins on last years smash, Bohemian Rhapsody, director Dexter Fletcher is a veteran of big screen musicals.

His dynamic and slickly choreographed numbers full of visually inventive flights of fancy reveal his empathy for Elton and is  clearly a huge fan of the Rocketman. And so will you be after this.

ON THE BASIS OF SEX

Cert 12A 120mins Stars 3

Hollywood gives a makeover to a spartan legal warrior in this earnest and easy to follow biopic of US lawyer, Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

Now an 85 year old Supreme Court judge and a popular media figure who’s known to her devotees as RBG, she made her name fighting gender inequality.

Her long career is boiled down here down to a landmark legal case of 1972. When Charles Moritz is denied to claim a caregiver’s tax deduction because he’s a man, RBG argues in the Appeals court discrimination on the basis of sex is unconstitutional.

As well as demonstrating her willingness to fight for men as well as women, the timeframe allows for the box office friendly casting of Star Wars: Rogue One star, Felicity Jones as the young firebrand.

The Brit actress gives an impassioned portrayal alongside screen husband, Armie Hammer, whom the script is contradictorily over keen to crowbar in at every opportunity, leaving us to think RBG deserves better. 

 

COMMON PEOPLE

Cert 12A 89mins Stars 3

This bittersweet comedy-drama is a celebration of England’s green and pleasant public places and wears its micro-budget roots as a badge of honour.

Different stories are linked by an escaped parrot in one afternoon on London’s glorious parkland of Clapham Common, and we’re offered  defiant optimism, romance and humour in the face of homelessness and heartache.

Among the disparate groups we encounter are a birdwatching Scout troop, a philosophical party of drunks, and a woman in labour.

In his final screen role, British acting acting stalwart Sam Kelly joins a cast including Diana Payan, Iarla McGowan and Melody Weston Shaw, who jolly us along while radiating charm, raising a smile and warming the heart.

BEL CANTO

Cert 15 100mins Stars 2

Opera is the music of love in this hostage drama which is a flat, tuneless and poorly paced exercise of uncertain rhythm which staggers to a muted crescendo.

Julianne Moore is luminous in a formal evening gown as Roxane Coss, an agreeably spiky and unsympathetic US opera singer, but for such an accomplished actress Moore’s a terrible mime, and we should gifted soprano Renee Fleming is doing the actual singing.

While on a tour of Latin America her private recital at an embassy is interrupted by revolutionary guerillas who take the international dignitaries hostage.

The surprisingly relaxed regime of the khaki-clad desperadoes leads to some midnight bed hopping and at it’s most unintentionally farcical this could have been named Carry On Up the Junta.

The script assumes opera is a great unifier so you may feel excluded if your musical tastes lie elsewhere, and bullet fire is a welcome relief to the preceding dirge.

EIGHTH GRADE

Cert 15 94mins Stars 4

Youtube star turned filmmaker Bo Burnham, writes and directs this US coming-of-age comedy-drama, and it’s an impressively assured debut from the 28 year old performer.

In the UK, 8th grade is the final year of middle school and the equivalent of Year 9, a difficult time for awkward and shy 13 year olds, such as the lonely Kayla.

Played by Elsie Fisher with painful honesty, she’s a social media-addicted tangle of anxiety with imperfect skin and an ordinary physique. An absence of female confidantes and positive role models means she has to negotiate life as best she can.

Kayla’s single-parent father is as equally out of his depth at parenting as she is at growing up, but the script has huge sympathy for the pair and is happy to forgo plot in favour strong character work and a high level of emotional articulacy.

It’s a shame those who would most benefit from watching this are too young to see it in the cinema.

 

PAW PATROL: MIGHTY PUPS

Cert U 70mins Stars 2

Super powered puppies bounce into action with boundless enthusiasm in this eager-to-please animation aimed at pre-schoolers.

A spin-off from the Nickelodeon TV series with no discernible increase in quality, it’s a mercifully brief adventure full of harmless buffoonery, bad puns and robot dancing from an err, giant robot.

A moon rocket belonging to the blundering mayor Humdinger and his nefarious nephew causes cartoon canine chaos among the inhabitants of Adventure Bay when it collides with a meteor which crashes to Earth.

Seeing it bestows super powers of speed, strength, flight and so on, on our plucky puppy heroes, the baddies steal the meteorite to gain its powers for themselves and kidnap the Paw Patrol’s human leader for good measure.

So the pups to launch an audacious rescue from the villains’ flying lair and attempt to save the day.

There are sufficient uncomplicated, colourful, and cheap looking capers to occupy the little ones, while parents do their best to have a catnap.

BEATS

Cert 18 101mins Stars 3

Experience the thrill of an illegal warehouse rave in this sincere if slight Scottish coming-of-age drug-taking drama whose energy is driven by the irresistible tunes of 1990’s dance music.

To mark the forced end of their close friendship, a pair of teens abscond with a fistful of stolen cash to an all night party where various family conflicts are brought to a head.

Lorn Macdonald gives a wonderful uptempo comic performance as Spanner, though Cristian Ortega’s Johnno is a sullen, slouching and too much of a passive observer whose one decisive moment feels forced.

Filming mostly in black and white drains the period of vibrancy, however colour is used to communicate the intensity of experiencing ecstasy, and the sweaty drug-fuelled ambience of the 1990’s club culture is convincingly recreated. The soundtrack is exceptional.

Beats is a nostalgic companion to 1999’s superior Human Traffic which starred John Simm and Danny Dyer, while to compare this to Danny Boyle’s masterpiece, Trainspotting, would be an unfair for all concerned.

A DOG’S JOURNEY

Cert PG 108mins Stars 3

Friendship wears a furry face in this live action family fable full of love and loyalty which will have dog lovers wagging their tails.

A sequel to 2017’s A Dog’s Purpose it follows the many lives of the eager-to-please and  excitable pooch, Bailey, whose thoughts we hear thanks to the comic voice-over of Josh Gad.

Each time Bailey dies and reincarnates in a variety of breeds in different locations, he remembers his masters command to protect his granddaughter, CJ.

Bailey turns up to help her at moments of crises but they’re all bark and no bite and balanced with lots of bum-sniffing comedy to entertain your pups.

CJ is winningly played as an adult by former TV Skins star, Kathryn Prescott, with veterans Dennis Quaid and Marg Helgenberger going full pelt to pour on the treacle.

Despite being an avowed cat person, even I could feel this soppy shaggy dog story pulling on my heartstrings. Doggone it.