Magic Mike XXL ****
One big bag of entertainment, doing exactly as it sets out to do, unashamedly, and well worth the ticket price for sheer titillation.
Category: Drama
West (Westen) ****
An intense watch, perpetuated by the hand-held and urgent camerawork at moments. West relies on its strong characters to build the atmosphere and our imagination to fill in the deliberate gaps in their back stories.
LFF 2014: Queen and Country ***
Very much a mixed bag of surprises – though poignant – that will leave some fulfilled and others wanting. It will make you laugh at the lunacy of old-school British etiquette that is still alive and kicking in certain institutions today.
San Andreas ***
Clichéd, predictable and rather daft sometimes, but its cast is easy on the eye and characters promote family values – with a little shake up of the earth beneath their feet. It’s an easily digestible flick that ultimately makes some of us relieved we aren’t living in the Sunshine State for once.
LFF 2014: The Goob ***
Norfolk gets its film outing at this year’s festival, portrayed in both a good and bad light in debut feature-film writer-director Guy Myhill’s The Goob. Apart from the sinister (and consistently impressive) Sean Harris as the star attraction, the other highlight is the Norfolk countryside, both alluring and achingly desolate, simultaneously. Young Goob (newcomer Liam …
Mad Max: Fury Road ****
A complete rush of the senses … Mad Max the character becomes almost a sideshow to the film’s juggernaut momentum. If that’s still acceptable for fans, Fury Road will thrill the living daylights out of you.
Big Game **
Big Game aims big in action and heart-felt fun but is lacking in anything else.
Spooks: The Greater Good ***
Spooks: The Greater Good is the extended TV episode, and though it’s bogged down by clunky scripting and overly forced dialogue, it has it’s delicious little gibes between characters, with Firth coming out the champion of the lot.
Fast & Furious 7 ****
It’s the long-awaited follow-up that unleashes (a p****d) Jason Statham on the franchise, but also, sadly, says goodbye to Paul Walker, an actor who made his name in the series with surprisingly average acting skills but just all-American good looks. Fast & Furious 7 puts horror’s James Wan (Insidious 2 and The Conjuring) in the …