Adaptation fails to soar

The Angry Birds Movie (U)

This adaptation of the hugely popular video game fails to fly high as a soaring success.

The plot is thinner than a sheet of paper and most of the jokes fall flat.

A talented voice cast includes top comic like Jason Sudeikis, Maya Rudolph and Bill Hader but the grumpy-fuelled antics limp along at a sedate pace.

Grimm Season 5 (15)

More focus comes into play in this penultimate run with a season-wide arc testing our heroes.

There’s still too much emphasis on super-powered youngsters and use of dodgy CGI.

But the cast give it their all and none of the characters feel short-changed, with Sasha Roiz in particular gifted an attitude adjustment.

Cell (15)

The page-to-screen transition of Stephen King’s sort-of-zombie tale falls way short of delivering frequent short, sharp scares.

That’s despite a memorably manic opening sequence that sees people fight, planes collide and dogs eaten.

But the flick never hits those heights again as the pace slows and the cast sit around chatting about nothing particularly interesting for long spells.

John Cusack fails to halt his descent into career hell in a performance well short of his pre-2007 brilliance.

Samuel L. Jackson’s everyman is one of his most low key roles in years and the lead duo are outshone by Isabelle Fuhrman’s feisty teen.

And any sprinklings of earlier goodwill are ruined by a dire ending.