Starring Francesca Hayward, James Corden, Judi Dench, Jason Derulo, Idris Elba, Jennifer Hudson, Ian McKellen, Taylor Swift, Rebel Wilson
1 STAR (out of 5)
Ok – a disclaimer, first. There are plenty of reasons why I’m choosing to review this now, after my publication of 2019’s best and worst movies. For one, Cats is still in cinemas, to some extent. For another, I’ve received considerable... read more »
Starring Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Anthony Daniels, Naomi Ackie, Domhnall Gleeson, Richard E Grant, Lupita Nyong’o, Keri Russell, Joonas Suotamo, Kelly Marie Tran, Ian McDiarmid, Billy Dee Williams
Starring Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, Awkwafina, Alex Wolff, Morgan Turner, Ser’Darius Blain, Madison Iseman, Rory McCann, Danny Glover, Danny DeVito
4.5 STARS (out of 5)
As someone who was never a fan of the original Jumanji – you’re free to stop reading there if you like – I found ‘Welcome to The Jungle’, the 2017 reimagining of the franchise, to be genuinely surprising. It was well-cast, creative,... read more »
Starring Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott, Ella Balinska, Elizabeth Banks, Djimon Hounsou, Sam Claflin, Noah Centineo, Patrick Stewart
3 STARS (out of 5)
Of all the Classic TV properties that seem to keep rearing their heads, Charlie’s Angels is one which never seems to go away. That’s no bad thing – however, in a post-feminist world, or at least one where we are still striving for equality,... read more »
Starring Idina Menzel, Kristen Bell, Jonathan Groff, Josh Gad, Sterling K Brown, Evan Rachel Wood, Alfred Molina, Martha Plimpton
4 STARS (out of 5)
Let’s face it, Frozen 2 was always going to happen. It’s interesting that Disney has recently chosen to go against its ‘no sequels at the cinema’ strategy, though it’s clear why they chose to push a sequel to Frozen out of the door as... read more »
Starring Matt Damon, Christian Bale, Jon Bernthal, Caitriona Balfe, Noah Jupe, Tracy Letts, Ray McKinnon, Josh Lucas, Remo Girone
4 STARS (out of 5)
Biopics and modern period pieces don’t always turn out the way they intend to. However, a lot of the time, that’s down to getting too bogged down in the details. Ford v Ferrari, or as it is known in the UK, Le Mans ’66, does well to weave around... read more »
Starring Ian McKellen, Helen Mirren, Russell Tovey, Jim Carter
2.5 STARS (out of 5)
With a cast boasting two big stars like McKellen and Mirren, you immediately assume that you are in for a rip-roaring ride that is going to be chasing scores of Oscars. It doesn’t always follow this way, of course, as even the biggest of stars have to pull in... read more »
Starring Justin Fletcher, John Sparkes, Amalia Vitale, Kate Harbour, David Holt, Richard Webber, Simon Greenall
4.5 STARS (out of 5)
Shaun the Sheep is nothing short of a phenomenon. Having come an amazing ways since spinning off from parent Aardman animation Wallace and Gromit, it’s safe to say that kids and parents everywhere have been enraptured by the plasticine critter’s antics. ... read more »
Starring Oscar Isaac, Charlize Theron, Chloe Grace Moretz, Finn Wolfhard, Nick Kroll, Snoop Dogg, Bette Midler, Allison Janney
2.5 STARS (out of 5)
The Addams Family is a pop culture staple which has been around for decades. As such, it’s seen various reinventions, some sticking to the source material of Charles Addams’ comic strip, while others choosing to flesh out the world a little. Ultimately,... read more »
Starring Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Abigail Breslin, Emma Stone, Rosario Dawson, Zoey Deutch, Luke Wilson
4.5 STARS (out of 5)
A sequel to Zombieland is something that pretty much came out of nowhere. While zombies are still pretty popular with the target demographic, it’s been a while since brain-eaters were considered ‘mainstream fodder’. That being said, Zombieland,... read more »
Starring Chloe Bennet, Albert Tsai, Tenzing Norgay Trainor, Eddie Izzard, Sarah Paulson, Tsai Chin, Michelle Wong
5 STARS (out of 5)
2019 will remain, for me, as the year where I gave two yeti-themed movies five stars out of five. With three animated movies now receiving the golden accolade, is there a pattern emerging? Not necessarily. It’s just Abominable is such a joyous triumph in... read more »
Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Frances Conroy
4.5 STARS (out of 5)
DISCLAIMER: While I am reviewing this movie for the purpose of sharing an opinion, I am not in a position where I can recommend it to viewers. This is as a result of soundtrack choice – specifically, ‘Rock and Roll (Part Two)’, by Gary Glitter, who... read more »
Starring Samara Weaving, Adam Brody, Mark O’Brien, Henry Czerny, Andre MacDowell
4 STARS (out of 5)
That time of year is coming up again – where horror movies start creeping back out of the woodwork – and in many cases, you’re going to get a mix of good and bad. However, every once in a while there are a few films which bend the genre just enough... read more »
Starring Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Ruth Negga, Liv Tyler, Donald Sutherland
2 STARS (out of 5)
As someone who reviews movies week in, week out, there’s nothing I enjoy more than an original premise. Ad Astra is a screenplay which is something of a novelty, particularly in big screen science fiction, as it is neither an adaptation, nor a reboot. ... read more »
Starring Hugh Bonneville, Jim Carter, Michelle Dockery, Elizabeth McGovern, Maggie Smith, Imelda Staunton, Penelope Wilton
4 STARS (out of 5)
This is a strange one. Do TV shows always translate so well to the big screen? Certainly not if you use Sex and The City as an example. The Simpsons, too, had mixed reviews. However, it really does depend on the type of show being adapted, and to what end. ... read more »
Starring Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Hader, Isaiah Mustafa, Jay Ryan, James Ransone, Andy Bean, Bill Skarsgard
4 STARS (out of 5)
So, we’re here again. A re-imagining of Stephen King’s seminal 1986 novel ‘IT’ was always going to need a long runtime. It just so happens that the first instalment of the re-imagining broke all kinds of records for horror movies at the... read more »
Starring Gerard Butler, Morgan Freeman, Jada Pinkett Smith, Lance Reddick, Tim Blake Nelson, Piper Perabo, Nick Nolte, Danny Huston
4 STARS (out of 5)
Take a look at the score above, and take a look at the score I gave for London Has Fallen three years ago. This is perhaps one of the biggest shocks of the year – at least for me – as I genuinely enjoyed Angel Has Fallen, and I’m really not sure... read more »
If I run out of things to say about Crawl, it’s not for want of trying to review it. In a movie landscape where animal-based disaster flicks are really coming back in a big way, this is a movie which was always going to be inevitable. In some ways, Crawl... read more »
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Emile Hirsch, Margaret Qualley, Timothy Olyphant, Austin Butler, Dakota Fanning, Bruce Dern, Al Pacino
3.5 STARS (out of 5)
Tarantino movies are always seen as big events. And why not? Despite Once Upon a Time in Hollywood being only his ninth movie to head to the big screen as director, some of his films are regarded as the most iconic of the past 25 years. Reservoir Dogs and Pulp... read more »
Starring Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Leslie Jones, Bill Hader, Awkwafina, Sterling K Brown, Eugenio Derbez, Danny McBride, Peter Dinklage
4 STARS (out of 5)
Ok – we’re here again. Anyone who was reading my movie columns back in 2016 will remember that I was awkwardly surprised to genuinely enjoy the first Angry Birds movie. So were a lot of people. Video game adaptations rarely do well critically, if... read more »
Starring Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Idris Elba, Vanessa Kirby, Helen Mirren, Roman Reigns, Eddie Marsan, Eiza Gonzalez
4.5 STARS (out of 5)
Am I really giving a Fast & Furious movie a 4.5 star rating? Perhaps I’ve had a change of heart over these sorts of movies over the years, because I can quite safely say that I had an absolutely fantastic time watching Hobbs and Shaw, and I think plenty... read more »
Starring Sebastian Croft, Emilia Jones, Nick Frost, Craig Roberts, Kim Cattrall, Kate Nash, Rupert Graves, Alex Macqueen, Derek Jacobi
3.5 STARS (out of 5)
Some things are wonderfully ‘British’. Horrible Histories has been a staple of both the British library and children’s TV for over 25 years – it’s a typically cheeky, no-holds-barred jab at some of history’s most bizarre and often... read more »
Starring Donald Glover, Seth Rogen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Alfre Woodard, Billy Eichner, John Kani, John Oliver, Beyonce Knowles-Carter, James Earl Jones
2 STARS (out of 5)
That’s a rating I wasn’t expecting to give this movie, but hear me out. It’s not as a result of Disney remake fatigue, and it’s certainly not because it’s badly made. Far from it. The Lion King remake is a fairly unique case for me to... read more »
Starring Kumail Nanjiani, Dave Bautista, Iko Uwais, Natalie Morales, Betty Gilpin, Jimmy Tatro, Mira Sorvino, Karen Gillan
4 STARS (out of 5)
Buddy comedies have been around for a long time. They don’t always work, either. It’s not too hard to understand why – pair two people with opposite personalities and throw them into a bizarre situation – it’s a cookie-cutter script... read more »
Starring Tom Holland, Samuel L Jackson, Zendaya, Cobie Smulders, Jon Favreau, JB Smoove, Jacob Batalon, Martin Starr, Marisa Tomei, Jake Gyllenhaal
4.5 STARS (out of 5)
Are there any Marvel Universe movies which aren’t going to score a 4 or more? At this stage in proceedings, the MCU is an amazingly well-oiled machine. Every film is a guaranteed hit, and whether or not the screenplay is up to scratch, we’re always... read more »
Starring Chris Hemsworth, Tessa Thompson, Rebecca Ferguson, Kumail Nanjiani, Rafe Spall, Laurent Bourgeois, Larry Bourgeois, Liam Neeson, Emma Thompson
2 STARS (out of 5)
Quite why they refused to put a ‘4’ on the end of the title for this Men in Black outing remains a mystery, though it’s likely because there was a focus here on starting afresh. The Men in Black series is one which, sadly, dwindled from the first... read more »
Starring Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Annie Potts, Tony Hale, Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Madeleine McGraw, Christina Hendricks, Keanu Reeves, Ally Maki, Jay Hernandez, Lori Alan, Joan Cusack
3.5 STARS (out of 5)
Toy Story is, of course, a series which has stood the test of time. Originally leading the way for computer animation back in 1995, little did we know that Pixar would still be at the top of their game decades later. There have been a few fits and starts, of course,... read more »
Starring Clara Rugaard, Rose Byrne, Hilary Swank, Luke Hawker
4.5 STARS (out of 5)
Sometimes, it’s nice to see a bit of genuine sci-fi on the big screen. Too much of the genre is muddled with good guys and bad guys, plot twists and big-budget explosions – which is why, when we get something that makes us think, rather than something... read more »
Starring Patton Oswalt, Eric Stonestreet, Kevin Hart, Jenny Slate, Tiffany Haddish, Lake Bell, Nick Kroll, Dana Carvey, Ellie Kemper, Chris Renaud, Hannibal Buress, Bobby Moynihan, Harrison Ford
3.5 STARS (out of 5)
Illumination is a production company who, while having made tons of money over the years, continues to drive a bit of a wedge between audiences and critics. They’ve struck oil with the likes of Despicable Me, and in recent years, The Secret Life of Pets has... read more »
Starring Will Smith, Mena Massoud, Naomi Scott, Marian Kenzari, Navid Negahban, Nasim Pedrad, Billy Magnussen, Alan Tudyk
4.5 STARS (out of 5)
Having seen Disney’s last live-action re-imagining of an animated classic, Dumbo, in recent weeks, truth be told I wasn’t holding out too much hope for Aladdin. Aladdin is the second in an impressive line-up of updates to Disney material to head to the... read more »
Starring Anne Hathaway, Rebel Wilson, Alex Sharp, Dean Norris, Ingrid Oliver
1.5 STARS (out of 5)
Ever seen a movie that you feel you’ve watched a million times before? I’m not talking about your favourite films, here – I’m talking about unoriginality. In a day and age where cinematic creativity has never been so broad (even with so many... read more »
Starring Ryan Reynolds, Justice Smith, Kathryn Newton, Suki Waterhouse, Omar Chaparro, Chris Geere, Ken Watanabe, Bill Nighy
3.5 STARS (out of 5)
While it may only have been a matter of time before the Pokemon franchise finally claimed itself a live-action movie all of its own, it really has been a long time coming. It’s been over 20 years since the cute monster-catching videogame franchise first hit the... read more »
Starring Zac Efron, Lily Collins, Kayla Scodelario, Jeffrey Donovan, Angela Sarafyan, Dylan Baker, Brian Geraghty, Jim Parsons, John Malkovich, Haley Joel Osment, James Hetfield
2.5 STARS (out of 5)
Biopics are some of my favourite movies to watch, dissect and discuss, and while that’s a personal quirk of mine, they also remain hugely popular with the wider public. In the case of notorious serial killer Theodore ‘Ted’ Bundy, there has been... read more »
Starring Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Don Cheadle, Paul Rudd, Brie Larson, Karen Gillan, Danai Gurira, Bradley Cooper, Josh Brolin
5 STARS (out of 5)
DON’T WORRY – NO SPOILERS FOR ENDGAME LIE AHEAD!read more »
Starring David Harbour, Milla Jovovich, Ian McShane, Sasha Lane, Daniel Dae Kim, Thomas Haden Church, Stephen Graham
0.5 STARS (out of 5)
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a movie this ugly. And that’s making no jokes about the look of the main character. This is an absolute stinker of a film, and I cannot wait to tell you for why. I genuinely can’t remember the last time I... read more »
Starring Hugh Jackman, Zoe Saldana, Emma Thompson, Stephen Fry, David Walliams, Timothy Olyphant, Matt Lucas, Amrita Acharia, Zach Galifianakis
5 STARS (out of 5)
What makes a five-star movie? I rarely give these marks away – in fact, only Arrival, Kubo and The Two Strings and Avengers: Infinity War have managed the accolade coming into my fourth year as One News Page’s movie critic. Missing Link, at least, has... read more »
Starring Zachary Levi, Mark Strong, Asher Angel, Jack Dylan Grazer, Djimon Hounsou, Faithe Herman, Grace Fulton, Ian Chen, Jovan Armand, Marta Milans, Cooper Andrews
4 STARS (out of 5)
What is happening with DC just lately? In a world where we are expected to see Marvel Studios sweeping up all the plaudits and all the praise, it seems their rival counterparts in the comic book movie industry are fighting back more and more. Wonder Woman and Aquaman... read more »
Starring Colin Farrell, Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito, Eva Green, Alan Arkin, Nico Parker, Finley Hobbins, Roshan Seth
2 STARS (out of 5)
Disney is kicking off what looks set to be another groundbreaking year of box office smashes for the brand with another of their much-lauded ‘live action remakes’ of their animated classics. Following in the footsteps of Cinderella, The Jungle Book and... read more »
Starring Taraji P Henson, Aldi Hodge, Richard Roundtree, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Tracy Morgan, Josh Brener, Tamala Jones, Phoebe Robinson, Max Greenfield, Erykah Badu, Brian Bosworth
2.5 STARS (out of 5)
Gender-flipping certain scripts and ideas is nothing new. In the day and age of gender equality, a sideways look at the Nancy Meyers-directed What Women Want was always going to be prescient. While that movie focused on Mel Gibson being able to hear women’s... read more »
Starring Brie Larson, Samuel L Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Djimon Hounsou, Lee Pace, Lashana Lynch, Gemma Chan, Annette Bening, Clark Gregg, Jude Law
4 STARS (out of 5)
Disney really seems to be knocking Marvel movies out of the park at a blistering rate these days. Captain Marvel, in any case, is perhaps one of the longest-awaited releases in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) line, and as such, plenty of anticipation has been... read more »
Starring Florence Pugh, Lena Headey, Nick Frost, Jack Lowden, Vince Vaughn, Dwayne Johnson
3.5 STARS (out of 5)
Before I start this review, let’s make one thing clear. If you’re going into this movie expecting Dwayne Johnson to play a pivotal role, you may be disappointed. Sure – he appears as himself – important enough, you’d argue – but he... read more »
Starring Liam Neeson, Tom Bateman, Tom Jackson, Emmy Rossum, Domenick Lombardozzi, Julia Jones, John Doman, Laura Dern
3.5 STARS (out of 5)
Cold Pursuit is a movie which perhaps picked up more press than had initially been anticipated. Anyone paying attention to entertainment press in the past few weeks will likely have seen the ongoing controversy surrounding remarks lead actor Liam Neeson had made... read more »
Starring Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, Ed Skrein, Jackie Earle Haley, Keean Johnson
4 STARS (out of 5)
There is something of a ‘curse’ when it comes to adapting anime and manga to the big screen, at least when it comes to Hollywood. You only have to look at the lukewarm reception offered to Ghost in The Shell a few years back to understand why. This form... read more »
Starring Jay Baruchel, America Ferrera, F. Murray Abraham, Cate Blanchett, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Kristen Wiig, Kit Harington
4 STARS (out of 5)
For reasons beyond my own knowledge, How To Train Your Dragon 3 drops the ‘3’ and goes the subtitle route, bringing forth the long-awaited third and final movie to finish off one of the most beloved animated trilogies of the modern age. DreamWorks’... read more »
Starring Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Steve Carell, Sam Rockwell, Tyler Perry, Alison Pill, Jesse Plemons
4.5 STARS (out of 5)
Vice was always going to be a controversial movie. However – did anyone really expect it to be more controversial with regard to its style and artistic licence as opposed to its handling of subject matter? In any case, it’s up for a few awards at the... read more »
Starring James McAvoy, Bruce Willis, Anya Taylor-Joy, Sarah Paulson, Samuel L Jackson, Spencer Treat Clark, Charlayne Woodard
4 STARS (out of 5)
Glass was always going to be a movie that had an incredible amount riding on it. A relative rarity outside of Marvel and DC in that it’s the direct sequel to two different movies – Unbreakable, released in 2000, and Split, released in 2016 – this... read more »
Starring Oscar Isaac, Olivia Wilde, Mandy Patinkin, Olivia Cooke, Laia Costa, Annette Bening, Antonio Banderas, Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Samuel L Jackson, Lorenza Izzo
1 STAR (out of 5)
Ever fancied watching the cinematic equivalent of a headache?read more »
Starring Sandra Bullock, Trevante Rhodes, John Malkovich, Vivien Lyra Blair, Julian Edwards, Danielle Macdonald, Lil Rel Howery, Jacki Weaver, Rosa Salazar, Colson Baker, BD Wong, Tom Hollander, Sarah Paulson
4 STARS (out of 5)
Netflix continue to really push the envelope as far as original movies are concerned, with very few failing to ignite at least some positive critical attention in recent times. With the emergence of ‘nu-horror’ movies in the form of A Quiet Place,... read more »
Starring Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz, Nicholas Hoult, Joe Alwyn, James Smith, Mark Gatiss
3.5 STARS (out of 5)
The Favourite is a difficult movie to watch. Certainly, it has been one of the most celebrated of the past 12 to 18 months for a variety of reasons, and it’s already being touted as a potential sweeper-up at the Oscars. With some movies that have already... read more »
Starring Hailee Steinfeld, John Cena, Jorge Lendeborg Jr, John Ortiz, Jason Drucker, Pamela Adlon
2.5 STARS (out of 5)
The Transformers movies are something of a bizarre phenomenon. Never quite ever being critical darlings (far from it), they seem to keep making serious money at the box office. To this end, it was only going to be a matter of time before one of the robots in... read more »
Starring Fionn Whitehead, Will Poulter, Asim Chaudhry, Craig Parkinson, Alice Lowe, Tallulah Haddon
4 STARS (out of 5)
Black Mirror is a hugely popular TV series which has, for several years now, been making a number of viewers incredibly uncomfortable – with its often tech-based tales of horror and intrigue, writer Charlie Brooker has brought a number of anthology stories to... read more »
Starring Emily Blunt, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ben Whishaw, Emily Mortimer, Julie Walters, Dick Van Dyke, Angela Lansbury, Colin Firth, Meryl Streep
4.5 STARS (out of 5)
There was concern rife for a while over whether or not the world really, truly needed a sequel to Mary Poppins. How do you follow up on one of the most iconic family films of all time? Was there a need to bring the magical nanny for another round of songs and... read more »
Starring Jason Momoa, Amber Heard, Willem Dafoe, Patrick Wilson, Dolph Lundgren, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Nicole Kidman, Julie Andrews
4.5 STARS (out of 5)
Is this the movie to finally solve all of DC’s cinematic woes? Maybe not. But I’ll give you this – it comes pretty close, and for my money at least, this is the best movie from the comics stable to have hit the big screen in over a decade. Is the... read more »
Starring John C Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Gal Gadot, Taraji P Henson, Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch, Alan Tudyk, Alfred Molina, Ed O’Neill
4.5 STARS (out of 5)
While we’ve been treated to a couple of new Pixar films over the past 18 months, it’s been a fair amount of time since anything has emerged directly from Disney’s traditional ‘animated canon’. For the first time since 1990, the firm has... read more »
Starring Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller, Zoe Kravitz, Callum Turner, Carmen Ejogo, Claudia Kim, William Nadylam, Kevin Guthrie, Jude Law, Johnny Depp
2 STARS (out of 5)
Those of you who have been reading my movie reviews for some time with One News Page will likely remember that I was fairly positive about the first Fantastic Beasts movie. It is a great idea to dip back into the Wizarding World of JK Rowling – after all, the... read more »
Yes – the Christmas movies have already started rolling out – and is there any way more apt than to lead into the holiday season with a remake of one of the most beloved holiday stories (and TV specials) of all time? How The Grinch Stole Christmas is, of... read more »
Starring Keira Knightley, Mackenzie Foy, Eugenio Derbez, Matthew Macfadyen, Richard E Grant, Misty Copeland, Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman
3 STARS (out of 5)
Christmas is well on its way, which means that it’s more than time for us to start seeing a few festive pictures hit the big screen. Leading the way in plenty of advance is Disney’s latest super-ambitious novel adaptation, which – following in the... read more »
Starring Rami Malek, Lucy Boynton, Gwilym Lee, Ben Hardy, Joseph Mazzello, Aidan Gillen, Tom Hollander, Allen Leech, Mike Myers
3 STARS (out of 5)
Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide, did this movie actually finally get made? Yes – it really did – though it’s such a shame it’s not the barnstorming warts-and-all biopic it really, really should have been.read more »
Starring Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, Dakota Johnson, Jon Hamm, Cailee Spaeny, Lewis Pullman, Chris Hemsworth, Nick Offerman
4.5 STARS (out of 5)
I like original movies. Just about everything is derivative nowadays, but think about all of the films I’ve reviewed this year. How many are truly original? Some are based on books, some are sequels, some are reboots – some are offered up from lazy... read more »
Starring Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Corey Stoll, Pablo Schreiber, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, Ciaran Hinds, Lukas Haas
2 STARS (out of 5)
I’m never one to normally fly in the face of critical opinion – however, it appears that this may be twice in a row for the One News Page movie review platform where we offer something a little bit against the grain. Last week, we advised you go see... read more »
Starring Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed, Scott Haze, Reid Scott
4 STARS (out of 5)
Surprises come in two flavours, generally – good and bad – and while most critics appear to be tearing into Ruben Fleischer’s take on Spider-Man’s most famous villain with some abandon, this is movie that needs to be looked at with a slightly... read more »
On paper, this one was always going to be interesting. An adaptation of the first in a long line of juvenile mystery books written by John Bellairs, helmed by Eli Roth, who’s no stranger to horror – The House With a Clock in its Walls (known as Clock... read more »
Starring Demian Bichir, Tissa Farmiga, Jonas Bloquet, Bonnie Aarons, Charlotte Hope
2.5 STARS (out of 5)
Are we really here already? Horror movies seem to only really pop up in two big blocks each year – at the very start of the year, when the truly awful ones can be buried without notice, and towards Halloween, when – well, have a guess. Horror movies... read more »
Starring Mila Kunis, Kate McKinnon, Justin Theroux, Sam Heughan, Gillian Anderson
2.5 STARS (out of 5)
Comedy movies are still somewhat in that bizarre little corner of modern cinema where they are still considered somewhat ‘niche’. It is rare that a comedy movie will pick up a huge amount of plaudits from anything as broad as the Academy, largely because... read more »
Starring Ewan McGregor, Hayley Atwell, Bronte Carmichael, Jim Cummings, Brad Garrett, Mark Gatiss, Nick Mohammed, Peter Capaldi, Sophie Okonedo, Sara Sheen, Toby Jones
3 STARS (out of 5)
Disney has generally been doing sterling work of retooling their animated classics into live action movies of late – The Jungle Book, for me as a critic at least, being a high point – and it was perhaps only a matter of time before thoughts turned back to... read more »
Starring Jason Statham, Li Bingbing, Rainn Wilson, Ruby Rose, Winston Chao, Cliff Curtis
4 STARS (out of 5)
If there’s a movie which ever deserved to get made, it’s The Meg. The adaptation of Steve Alten’s 1997 novel about a prehistoric shark getting unearthed and going on a human-eating frenzy has been in development hell for 20 years. Initially, the... read more »
Starring Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Pena, Walton Goggins, Bobby Cannavale, Judy Greer, Tip ‘T.I.’ Harris, David Dastmalchian, Hannah John-Kamen, Abby Ryder Fortson, Randall Park, Michelle Pfeiffer, Laurence Fishburne, Michael Douglas
3 STARS (out of 5)
It hardly seems five minutes since the last Marvel Studios movie hit the big screen, and while we’re all likely still reeling from where Infinity War left off, there was clear need for Marvel to come forward with something of a palate cleanser. That arrives in... read more »
Starring Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, David Spade, Steve Buscemi, Keegan-Michael Key, Molly Shannon, Fran Drescher, Kathryn Hahn, Jim Gaffigan, Mel Brooks
3.5 STARS (out of 5)
Love them or find them a little irritating, Hotel Transylvania is now very much part of the animated movie landscape, and for the most part – while I may not be part of the majority for saying this – these movies are surprisingly enjoyable. While any... read more »
Starring Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Sean Harris, Michelle Monaghan, Angela Bassett, Alec Baldwin
4.5 STARS (out of 5)
Anyone who is tired of seeing Mission: Impossible movies rolling out has either never seen one in its entirety, or simply isn’t part of the core demographic. These movies have been on the crest of a wave for several years now, far outstripping the perhaps... read more »
Is it hard to believe that Mamma Mia – as a musical – is set to celebrate its 20th anniversary next year? Perhaps it’s harder to believe that the original movie adaptation – originally led by Meryl Streep – is around a decade old on its... read more »
Starring Craig T Nelson, Holly Hunter, Sarah Vowell, Huck Milner, Samuel L Jackson, Bob Odenkirk, Eli Fucile, Catherine Keener, John Ratzenberger, Brad Bird, Jonathan Banks
4.5 STARS (out of 5)
Is the Pixar slump well and truly over? It certainly seems that way. Controversial though it may seem, I believed we weren’t truly on the other side of the slump – which reportedly started with the sub-par Cars 2 – until Finding Dory had come to... read more »
The Purge series of movies is seen as somewhat of a cult endeavour despite now approaching its fourth instalment and despite generally being something of a success, at least critically, with its core audience. These movies are, on the face of things, rather niche... read more »
Starring Ed Helms, Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner, Jake Johnson, Hannibal Buress, Isla Fisher, Annabelle Wallis, Leslie Bibb, Rashida Jones
2 STARS (out of 5)
Earlier this year, I reviewed a comedy movie that outstripped all of my expectations – Game Night – which offered genuine character development, unexpected twists, humour that didn’t slap you around the face with sledgehammer intensity and a plot... read more »
Starring Toni Colette, Alex Wolff, Milly Shapiro, Ann Dowd, Gabriel Byrne
4.5 STARS (out of 5)
This is, perhaps outside of Infinity War, the most hyped movie of the past few months – and considering it’s a horror movie, that really is saying something. Social media and viral news marketing have helped to make Hereditary something of an... read more »
Starring Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson, Awkwafina, Rihanna, Helena Bonham Carter
3.5 STARS (out of 5)
Sequels are hardly anything new – far from it – though in recent years, it’s the remakes and the rehashes – not to mention the most dreaded of them all, the reboot – which seem to have come along and taken control of the Hollywood gravy... read more »
Starring Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rafe Spall, Justice Smith, Daniella Pineda, James Cromwell, Toby Jones, Ted Levine, BD Wong, Isabella Sermon, Geraldine Chaplin, Jeff Goldblum
3.5 STARS (out of 5)
Yep, here we are again – if there’s anything that moviegoers seem to really lap up time and time again, it’s big, bustling dinosaur adventures – and why not? The Jurassic series has continued to wow audiences for over 20 years now and –... read more »
Starring Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, Mary Steenburgen, Craig T Nelson, Andy Garcia, Don Johnson, Alicia Silverstone, Richard Dreyfuss, Ed Begley Jr
2 STARS (out of 5)
There are some movies you feel you’ve already seen before you actually do. You have your genres, your copycat movies, your recycled scripts – and then you have movies like Book Club, which, on paper, reads so familiarly and is marketed in such a... read more »
Starring Alden Ehrenreich, Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover, Thandie Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Joonas Suotamo, Paul Bettany
4 STARS (out of 5)
Out of all the Star Wars movies which were emerging in recent months, this one remained perhaps the most interesting – and that’s despite the mystery of The Last Jedi at the time. We’ve only ever had one other Star Wars spin-off thus far, the... read more »
Starring Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Morena Baccarin, Julian Dennison, Zazie Beetz, TJ Miller, Brianna Hildebrand, Jack Kesy
4.5 STARS (out of 5)
Was Deadpool 2 wise to stay out of theaters until after Infinity War was out of the way? Perhaps – but then again, as any comic book movie aficionado will know, the Avengers and Deadpool lines of movies are rather different fish. So much so, in fact, that the... read more »
Starring Zhang Hanyu, Masaharu Fukuyama, Qi Wei, Ha Jiwon, Jun Kunimura
2.5 STARS (out of 5)
John Woo is a name that’s synonymous with action movies of pretty much all calibres – he’s not afraid to parody his own sense of super-fast, hyper-cheesy action – and in his latest effort, Manhunt, this has never been more evident. Manhunt is... read more »
Starring Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Rachel Dratch, Steve Buscemi, Alison Strong, Noah Robbins
2.5 STARS (out of 5)
It should be fairly old news by now that Adam Sandler has had a partnership set up between his production company and Netflix, and this fourth movie – The Week Of – seeks to perhaps try and do something a little different. Sandler’s name is one... read more »
Starring Robert Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Don Cheadle, Tom Holland, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Danai Gurira, Letitia Wright, Dave Bautista, Pom Klementieff, Zoe Saldana, Josh Brolin, Chris Pratt, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel
5 STARS (out of 5)
This was always going to be the big one. Anyone who has been following our movie reviews for some time now will know that I have continued to see increasing merit in Marvel’s line-up of comic book adaptations – and while the phenomenally successful Black... read more »
Starring Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, Tuva Novotny, Oscar Isaac
2.5 STARS (out of 5)
Horror movies still seem to be seeping out of every cinematic crevice right now, even when we’re neither at the start of the year nor even close to approaching Halloween – is this the ‘Get Out’ effect in play? Regardless – Annihilation... read more »
Starring Emily Blunt, John Krasinski, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe
4 STARS (out of 5)
If you’ve heard of John Krasinski before it’s likely for good reason – while he’s been in a fair number of projects in front of the camera, A Quiet Place marks what looks to be his breakout hit as a director. Many people will know him as Jim... read more »
Starring Dwayne Johnson, Naomie Harris, Malin Akerman, Jake Lacy, Jeffrey Dean Morgan
3 STARS (out of 5)
This is an odd one. Is it complete sacrilege for me to grade what is, by all accounts, a big, daft, action movie about giant animals literally going ape – in line with what many are calling another sublime effort from Steven Spielberg in Ready Player One? I... read more »
Starring Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, TJ Miller, Simon Pegg, Mark Rylance
3 STARS (out of 5)
Despite the overwhelmingly positive Rotten Tomatoes score it appears that this movie is on course to receive, it goes without saying that this one is dividing critics like crazy. Ready Player One is based on the popular book written by Ernest Cline, and some who... read more »
Starring Jason Bateman, Rachel McAdams, Billy Magnussen, Sharon Horgan, Lamorne Morris, Kylie Bunbury, Jesse Plemons, Michael C Hall, Kyle Chandler
4.5 STARS (out of 5)
Getting comedy right in this day and age is more difficult than you’d imagine. Is this because we’re refining our tastes as to what’s funny and what isn’t? Hardly – many people, myself included, would argue that comedy is becoming more... read more »
Starring Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Michael Pena, Storm Reid, Zach Galifianakis, Chris Pine
2 STARS (out of 5)
Based on a critically lauded book written by Madeleine L’Engle many years ago and having already been developed by Disney for a TV movie in recent years, A Wrinkle in Time is a story which, while it may have been out of public consciousness for some time, is... read more »
Starring Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Doug Jones, Michael Stuhlbarg, Octavia Spencer
4.5 STARS (out of 5)
By the time you read this, Guillermo Del Toro’s latest movie may well be the first-ever Best Picture winner to feature inter-species romance. It may also be the first movie to ever win the coveted Oscar featuring a mute lead – with Sally Hawkins also in... read more »
Starring Matt Damon, Christoph Waltz, Hong Chau, Kristen Wiig, Udo Kier
0.5 STARS (out of 5)
Downsizing has been out in cinemas for some time now, and while I have only had the chance to watch and review the movie in recent times, I genuinely feel it is worth doing for a number of reasons. Last week, I reviewed the third instalment in the critically... read more »
Starring Chadwick Boseman, Michael B Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Martin Freeman, Daniel Kaluuya, Letitia Wright, Winston Duke, Angela Bassett, Forest Whitaker, Andy Serkis
4 STARS (out of 5)
2018 is a very big year indeed for Marvel as a brand, particularly as it seems that everything is building up towards a particularly dramatic conflict with Avengers: Infinity War, which is due to head to the big screen by the summer. In the meantime, there is still... read more »
Starring Daniel Bruhl, Elizabeth Debicki, Aksel Henie, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Chris O’Dowd, John Ortiz, David Oyelowo, Xhang Ziyi
2 STARS (out of 5)
Cloverfield is an odd phenomenon. There’s perhaps nothing much else like it out there in movieland right now. Since the first movie’s debut in 2008, all sorts of questions have been flying around regarding exactly what happened in JJ Abrams’ initial... read more »
Starring Helen Mirren, Jason Clarke, Sarah Snook, Angus Sampson, Laura Brent, Tyler Coppin
1 STAR (out of 5)
I’d like to preface this review by getting my bias out of the way first – as a priority. I am not the biggest fan of Helen Mirren on the planet – though I do recognise her appeal and talent – but I’m even less a fan of dodgy horror... read more »
Starring Eddie Redmayne, Tom Hiddleston, Maisie Williams, Timothy Spall, Richard Ayoade, Selina Griffiths, Johnny Vegas, Mark Williams, Gina Yashere, Simon Greenall, Rob Brydon, Kayvan Novak, Miriam Margolyes, Nick Park
3.5 STARS (out of 5)
Aardman are back – and for those of us who are truly into our animation, they couldn’t arrive soon enough. Animated movies have been up and down for some time now, and while the likes of Disney, Pixar and Laika have certainly led the way in terms of their... read more »
Starring Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas, Lily James, Stephen Dillane, Ronald Pickup, Ben Mendelsohn
3.5 STARS (out of 5)
History is, of course, well trodden when it comes to cinema. It’s no surprise that we know so much about the various conflicts and historical twists and turns that have culminated in our present day situation – when there are so many historical dramas... read more »
Starring Anthony Gonzalez, Gael Garcia Bernal, Benjamin Bratt, Alana Ubach, Renee Victor, Ana Ofelia Murguia, Edward James Olmos
4.5 STARS (out of 5)
Despite Finding Dory having largely been a return to form for Pixar last year, the animation studio still had more than a little ground to make up after Cars 2 shook the very image of the brand – while Inside Out, the aforementioned Dory and even Cars 3 have... read more »
Starring Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Sarah Paulson, Bob Odenkirk, Tracy Letts, Bradley Whitford, Bruce Greenwood, Matthew Rhys
4 STARS (out of 5)
It’s awards season again – and this does of course mean that many audiences around the world will be getting set to start enjoying some movies with exceptional casts and gravitas. It is rather nice to experience these movies during winter – when... read more »
Roll up, roll up – if you’ve ever wondered about how the first traditional circus came around, this is a tale that will certainly appeal to you – as it’s half period study and half musical, taking delight in being one or the other as the... read more »
Starring Michelle Williams, Christopher Plummer, Mark Wahlberg, Romain Duris, Charlie Plummer
3 STARS (out of 5)
Despite its Golden Globe nominations – despite its gravitas with Ridley Scott at the helm – and despite Christopher Plummer having turned out a suitably good performance in a stunning nine days, this will always be the movie that is known as ‘the... read more »
Starring Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, Nick Jonas, Bobby Cannavale
4 STARS (out of 5)
Jumanji is one of those beloved properties from the 1990s that has taken on that modern-day reverence amongst those the media likes to call ‘Millenials’ – the original movie is fairly beloved, perhaps bolstered by the fact that it was one of the... read more »
Starring Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Lupita Nyong’o, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Gwendoline Christie, Kelly Marie Tran, Laura Dern, Benicio Del Toro
4.5 STARS (out of 5)
This is the big one. Disney has already had a marvellous year at the box office and they were still holding out on their ace in the hole – Star Wars Episode VIII. After The Force Awakens opened to mass acclaim in 2015, interest in the franchise, too, had been... read more »
Starring James Franco, Dave Franco, Seth Rogen, Alison Brie, Ari Graynor, Josh Hutcherson, Jacki Weaver
4.5 STARS (out of 5)
Anyone already aware of the incredible ‘so bad it’s good’ quality that lies in Tommy Wiseau’s 2003 epic ‘The Room’ will already likely know that it is a film that is just as infamous behind the scenes as it is to watch. An... read more »
Starring Dan Stevens, Christopher Plummer, Jonathan Pryce
2.5 STARS (out of 5)
Yes, December’s here at last – and that, for the most part, means that our cinemas will start filling up with yuletide fare alongside all of the potential Oscar-grabbers, the latest in terms of Star Wars tales and, if we’re particularly unlucky, a... read more »
Starring Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Linda Cardellini, John Cena, John Lithgow, Mel Gibson
1.5 STARS (out of 5)
Well, here we go. It’s that time of year again – when comedies seem to roll around for the sake of the festive season – and, unfortunately, more of them wobble than stick. It takes real craft to make a family movie that lasts the ages –... read more »
Starring Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Gal Gadot, Ezra Miller, Jason Momoa, Ray Fisher, Jeremy Irons, Ciaran Hinds, Diane Lane, Connie Nielsen, JK Simmons
2.5 STARS (out of 5)
Justice League was always supposed to be the big movie that finally put DC on the same pedestal as Marvel – the one which allowed them to start competing alongside the rival comic brand that has, in a big way, dominated this bizarre comic book/cinematic... read more »
Starring Ben Whishaw, Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Brendan Gleeson, Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent, Peter Capaldi, Hugh Grant
4.5 STARS (out of 5)
Anyone who remembers the original Paddington Bear stories and their TV adaptations will likely remember the unease that surrounded its movie adaptation in 2014. Despite such fears, Michael Bond’s affable, clumsy, duffel-coated ursine living in London... read more »
It’s rather strange that movies like this are being made – surely everyone knows the story behind Agatha Christie’s most famous murder mystery by now? Maybe not – and what better way to really relaunch the story than by filling it chock-full... read more »
Starring Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Idris Elba, Jeff Goldblum, Tessa Thompson, Karl Urban, Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Hopkins
4.5 STARS (out of 5)
There’s come a point now that we feel we’ve seen all that we think comic book movies have to offer us. After all, how many ‘saving the world/universe’ stories can we feasibly see in one lifetime? The Marvel line has, however, done extremely... read more »
Starring Dave Franco, Justin Theroux, Fred Armisen, Abbi Jacobson, Olivia Munn, Kumail Nanijani, Michael Pena, Zach Woods, Jackie Chan
3 STARS (out of 5)
The Lego franchise of movies has now proposed a rather funny thing – an expectation or two. The brand is now synonymous, not only as perhaps the most popular toy of all time (sources pending), but with two movies that could have been quite, quite different. ... read more »
Starring Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Ana de Armas, Sylvia Hoeks, Robin Wright, Mackenzie Davis, Carla Juri, Lennie James, Dave Bautista, Jared Leto
4.5 STARS (out of 5)
The original Blade Runner – of course, based on Philip K Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep – never really fared too well on its first outing at the cinema. It was one of many movies to have been heralded as ‘great art’ and a... read more »
Starring Taron Egerton, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Julianne Moore, Halle Berry, Channing Tatum, Jeff Bridges, Elton John
3.5 STARS (out of 5)
The original Kingsman movie – The Secret Service – was a massive sleeper hit. It was inevitable that a sequel was going to follow, particularly as there doesn’t seem to be many movies actively cornering the spy spoof market at present – and... read more »
Starring Dylan O’Brien, Michael Keaton, Sanaa Lathan, Taylor Kitsch, Scott Adkins, David Suchet, Navid Negahban, Shiva Negar, Alaa Safi, Trevor White
2 STARS (out of 5)
Everyone still seems to be keen to get a slice of the elusive ‘Bourne Pie’. Lee Child’s Jack Reacher character has been brought to the big screen to middling effect; we’ve been seeing Jack Ryan movies since the 1990s, and while long-running... read more »
Starring Judi Dench, Ali Fazal, Eddie Izzard, Adeel Akhtar, Michael Gambon, Tim Pigott-Smith
2.5 STARS (out of 5)
Queen Victoria – the second-longest reigning monarch in British history – has been the subject of what must be hundreds of different works of fiction, TV serials, movies and more besides. The Queen was a rather different monarch to those who had come... read more »
Starring Jaeden Lieberher, Bill Skarsgard, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Wyatt Oleff, Chosen Jacobs, Jack Dylan Grazer, Nicholas Hamilton, Jackson Robert Scott
4 STARS (out of 5)
This was always going to be a big deal. It seems to be a summer of Stephen King right now, with The Dark Tower having recently made its way to cinemas – and having received largely mixed reviews leaning towards negative – and, as summer draws to a close,... read more »
Starring Bill Nighy, Olivia Cooke, Douglas Booth, Daniel Mays, Sam Reid, Maria Valverde, Henry Goodman, Morgan Watkins, Eddie Marsan
3 STARS (out of 5)
Horror is an odd genre – it certainly seems to vary from country to country and from culture to culture. While US cinema has been happy to perpetuate slasher flicks since the dawn of film, the influence of the Japanese has helped to make the genre evolve into... read more »
Starring Algee Smith, Anthony Mackie, Will Poulter, John Boyega, Jacob Latimore, John Krasinski, Jason Mitchell, Hannah Murray, Kaitlyn Dever
4 STARS (out of 5)
The release of Kathryn Bigelow’s Detroit is rather prescient – after the horrendous scenes in Charlottesville, Virginia in recent weeks, the topic of race relations and violence that can stem from such issues has reared its head once again. Violence in... read more »
Starring Matthew McConaughey, Idris Elba, Tom Taylor, Dennis Haysbert, Ben Gavin, Claudia Kim, Jackie Earle Haley, Fran Kranz, Abbey Lee
2 STARS (out of 5)
Stephen King is one of the most adapted authors to the big screen bar none. Many of his most famous tales have gone on to make award-winning and critically-lauded movies in their own right – consider The Shining, Stand By Me, The Green Mile, Misery –... read more »
Starring Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L Jackson, Gary Oldman, Elodie Yung, Salma Hayek, Richard E Grant, Joaquim de Almeida, Kirsty Mitchell
4 STARS (out of 5)
Anyone who reads my movie reviews regularly will already be well aware of the fact that I do enjoy buddy movies in all shapes and forms – generally, anyway – and unless you really throw everything at the wall and it fails to stick the way Baywatch and... read more »
Starring Will Arnett, Katherine Heigl, Maya Rudolph, Jackie Chan, Isabela Moner, Jeff Dunham, Bobby Moynihan, Peter Stormare, Bobby Cannavale, Tom Kenny
1.5 STARS (out of 5)
When The Nut Job 2 is one of the more palatable animated movies released in any given season, you know you’ve been in for one heck of a rough ride – at least, if you’re parents of cinema-thirsty kids. Short of Pixar’s... read more »
Starring Ed Helms, Kevin Hart, Thomas Middleditch, Nick Kroll, Kristen Schaal, Jordan Peele
4 STARS (out of 5)
Oh, boy. Just look at that title. Last week, we had the likes of Dunkirk and War For the Planet of The Apes. This week, we have Captain Underpants and The Emoji Movie. Yes – the summer holidays have started – and so, you’d be forgiven for... read more »
Starring TJ Miller, James Corden, Anna Faris, Maya Rudolph, Steven Wright, Jennifer Coolidge, Patrick Stewart, Christina Aguilera, Sofia Vergara, Rachael Ray, Sean Hayes, Jake T Austin, Tati Gabrielle
0.5 STARS (out of 5)
It’s hard to hit low when it comes to animated movies. For every Norm of the North there’s Finding Dory, there’s Kung Fu Panda 3, there’s Zootopia. For every Top Cat Begins, there’s Moana, there’s Kubo and the Two Strings –... read more »
Movies : Graham's Movie Reviews
4.5 STARS (out of 5)
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