ANNA AND THE APOCALYPSE
DISOBEDIENCE THE KING AND I
Cert 15 Running time 98 minutes
★★★★ The best British zom-romcom-musical of the year!
Well, maybe the blissfully enjoyable Anna and the Apocalypse is possibly the only Scottishset festive romanticcomedy zombie-musical around, but that doesn’t alter the fact that it is engaging and toetappingly tuneful, delivering thrills ’n’ chills alongside laughs ’n’ love and driven by a series of impressive lead performances by a largely unknown cast.
Our plucky heroine Anna (the wonderfully charismatic Ella Hunt) is planning a gap year – much to the annoyance of her dad/school caretaker (the always funny Mark Benton) – but first she has to get through the last few days of term as well as the cheesy Christmas school show.
The fact that her hometown gets hit by a zombie apocalypse does rather hamper things, but Anna and her pals prove pretty adept at handling the walking dead (three-foot long candy canes are especially handy) as they try and rescue school survivors.
The music is great, the choreography fun and there are plenty of laughs to be had in amongst the knowing horror mayhem... this zombie musical romp is a real festive feast of un-dead fun.
Cert 15 Running time 114mins
Cert U
Rachel Weisz is compelling as Ronit, the estranged daughter of a London Orthodox Jewish rabbi who returns home from New York for his funeral and is drawn back into a relationship with the wife of her childhood friend. The recent production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical stars Kelli O’hara as Anna and Ken Watanabe as The King. Filmed at the London Palladium, it’s worth catching for fans of classy musicals.