Bear antics offer an hilarious spectacle
KANE SKENNAR Based on Barry Crump’s book Wild Pork and Watercress, Taika Waititi’s 2016 box-office smash focuses on a national manhunt for a rebellious kid and his foster uncle who go missing in the wild New Zealand bush. Sam Neill and Julian Dennison star. ‘‘Warmly funny and deeply delightful, Hunt For The Wilderpeople is a tale of two misfits told with such generosity of spirit and consistent good humour that it’s a pleasant surprise to discover how sneakily touching it is as well,’’ wrote Screen International‘ s Tim Grierson. The Tears. The Triumphs. The Tweets. It’s the year in review like you’ve never seen it before. Join quizmaster Jeremy Wells as he puts teams through the 2017 ringer – covering everything from entertainment and politics to sports, and media. Madeleine Sami, Melanie Bracewell, Leigh Hart, Jason Hoyte and Matt Heath are among those competing. As Poplar faces its coldest winter in 300 years, the midwives strive to provide the best possible care amidst the ever-changing world of 1960s UK. All around them they see the old East End vanishing as slum clearances make way for bold new tower blocks to accommodate expanding communities, and the first West Indian midwife joins the team. Bob Mortimer joins the winners of series one to four – Josh Widdicombe, Katherine Ryan, Noel Fielding and Rob Beckett – in the ultimate fight for glory when he competes in this two-night Champion of Champions competition of this hilarious British panel show. Part II screens on Friday at the same time. Its source may have been described as Australia’s To Kill a Mockingbird, but this 2017 adaptation of Craig Silvey’s 2009 novel feels more like a cross between The Dressmaker, Stand ByMe and our own The Scarecrow. Screenwriter Shaun Grant keeps many of the novel’s many weighty themes, but delivers them with such verve and taut storytelling that watching it all unfold is a joy.– James Croot
Paddington 2 provides some of the best family entertainment you’ll have at the cinema all year.
Paddington 2 (G) 103 mins PADDINGTON’S Aunt Lucy always believed that, in London, the rivers ran with marmalade and the streets were paved with bread.
While not exactly true, life at Windsor Gardens is pretty good for our young Peruvian ursus when we join the action second time around.
Mrs Brown (Sally Hawkins) is plotting a cross-Channel swim, teenager Judy (Madeleine Harris) has started her own newspaper and her brother Jonathan (Samuel Joslin) has joined the hip crowd. Even Mr Brown (Hugh Bonneville) has a new found vitality, if only because of a midlife crisis caused by being passed over for a promotion at work.
So when Paddington discovers the perfect present for his beloved aunt’s birthday – a pop-up book of the city’s major landmarks – comes at a price, he decides to fundraise for it himself.
But just when he’s about to reach his goal, one of his newer neighbours gets wind of the precious parchment. Phoenix Buchanan (a magnificently Machiavellian Hugh Grant) is a once-famed thespian who has fallen on hard times.
Still dreaming of performing the greatest one-man show the West End has ever seen, Buchanan believes the book has history and could be the key to finding a fortune.
As with the hilarious and highly entertaining 2014 original, Paddington 2 provides some of the best family entertainment you’ll have at the cinema all year.
Returning director Paul King keeps the action and jokes coming thick and fast, while also allowing his vast cast of the creme of British acting talent to shine. Apart from the bear himself (beautifully voiced again by Ben Whishaw), the real stars are two newcomers. Brendan Gleeson’s Knuckles McGinty and Grant’s self-absorbed Buchanan are comic creations for the ages in what is a fitting tribute to Paddington creator Michael Bond, who died in June. – James Croot