MIKE WARD’S SMALL SCREEN
AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR (12) DOES it really need Chris Evans’s Captain America, Chris Hemsworth’s Thor, Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man and more – in fact, every Marvel Comics superhero you care to name – to join forces for this latest cinematic mission?
Yes, I’m afraid so, because Josh Brolin’s evil git Thanos is rather keen to destroy the universe and so preventing him from doing this is really quite important. To boost his hopes of achieving his loopy objective, Thanos must acquire six so-called Infinity Stones, each of which will slot into his special humungous glove and give him extra strength.
So, yes, the basic idea is to stop him doing that. Except Avengers: Infinity War doesn’t really do basic.
With scores of characters, multiple storylines and 160 minutes screentime, it’s a massively ambitious movie, and yet mostly holds together pretty well.
SPITFIRE (PG)
(Download now, DVD and Blu-ray from Monday)
THE word “iconic” has become stupidly overused these days. And yet now and again such a label barely seems adequate.
Such is the case with Spitfire, the fighter plane that saw off Hitler’s Luftwaffe in the darkest days of World War Two, earning it a permanent place in the nation’s heart.
This magnificent documentary includes moving testimony from some of the last surviving combat veterans, together with remastered archive clips and aerial footage.
MARY AND THE WITCH’S FLOWER (U)
(Download, DVD and Blu-ray from Monday)
KATE Winslet, Jim Broadbent and Ewen Bremner are among the stars providing the voices for this enchanting animated fantasy.
It’s the story of a girl whose discovery of a magical flower is the beginning of a fantastic adventure.
I FEEL PRETTY (12) (Download now, DVD and Blu-ray from Monday) COMEDIAN Amy Schumer plays Renee, a woman who hates the way she looks – until an accidental blow to the head leaves her convinced she’s the most beautiful, capable woman on the planet.