ALSO SHOWING
The Lego Ninjago Movie Cert G; Now showing
The second Lego Movie outing of 2017 is the first to have a narrative based on a toy range. So, while Batman starred in the first two films, this is based around Lego Ninjago characters. It means the film and director Charlie Bean, in his first feature, have to establish the characters as well as tell their story. The film doesn’t overstay its welcome and with plenty of action and butt jokes it will please younger kids, but it falls short of its very clever predecessors. It opens on a live action scene in which a young boy enters a curio shop where the mysterious owner (Jackie Chan) tells him the story of a battered Lego figure, Lloyd (Dave Franco). Son of evil overlord Garmadon (Justin Theroux), Lloyd is not popular at school because his father keeps attacking the city. But what his schoolmates don’t know is that Lloyd is really the Green Ninja, one of a band of five teenagers, under the tutelage of Master Wu (Chan), who regularly save the city from Garmadon. The plot is weak and descends into weird mawkishness at the end, but the voice talents are great and there are plenty of laughs.
The Party Cert: 15A; Selected cinemas
Janet (Kristin Scott Thomas) is celebrating her promotion to shadow health secretary and hosts a small shindig in the home she shares with stupefied husband Bill (Timothy Spall). First to arrive are cynical pal April (Patricia Clarkson) and long-suffering husband Gottfried (Bruno Ganz). Lesbian couple Martha and Jinny (Cherry Jones and Emily Mortimer) turn up but have their good-news announcement overhauled. Arriving in a blur of sweat and twitches is Cillian Murphy’s cokehoovering finance man. With a few big reveals bubbling under the surface and a firearm on one character’s person, chaos is about to ensue. Veteran writer-director Sally Potter (Orlando, Ginger & Rosa) lights a match and stands back in this dotty black and white chamber piece that trades mainly on the flexible muscularity of its ensemble cast. In this respect, Scott Thomas and Clarkson stand out. Potter’s script is full of vim and vigour but the farcical seam that runs throughout does make you slightly thankful for the brisk 70-minute running time. HILARY A WHITE
The Snowman Cert: 15A; Now showing
Oslo looks nice. This murder mystery — based on the Jo Nesbo crime bestseller — has lots of shots of pretty, clean streets decked out in seasonal decorations, efficient public transport and tidy, functional residential developments. We’re trying very hard here because there are scant other virtues to this abominable busted flush of a film whose most interesting facet is that it should misfire despite its considerable talent pool.
As the director of Let The Right One In and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Tomas Alfredson looked a sure bet. Cinematographer Dion Beebe has a BAFTA nomination on his CV and editor Claire Simpson won an Oscar for Platoon. The cast has something for everyone — Michael Fassbender, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Rebecca Ferguson, Toby Jones, JK Simmons, even Val Kilmer.
System failures abound, from the glassy, TV-drama visual finish and horrid CGI, to the abrupt, stilted editing that halts any flow to the cluttered tale. The cast look as lost as we are. Fassbender is tortured detective Harry Hole. A woman has gone missing, and a serial killer who builds snowmen at the scene of his crimes may be involved. Harry and partner Katrine (Ferguson) investigate as Simmons’s shifty businessman skulks in the background. As for Kilmer, the less said the better.
You’ll recoil in horror but for all the wrong reasons. HILARY A WHITE