ALSO SHOWING
THE LITTLE VAMPIRE (U)
THE Little Vampire desiccates a familiar yarn of friendship between two boys – one mortal, the other fanged.
Vampires flock to Transylvania to celebrate the coming of age of birthday boy, Rudolph Sackville-Bagg (voiced by Rasmus Hardiker).
Festivities are interrupted by hunter of the undead, Rookery ( Jim Carter), and his apprentice Maney ( Joseph Kloska).
Rudolph escapes but is separated from his clan and seeks refuge in a guesthouse in the Black Forest, where he befriends 13-year-old vampire fanatic Tony (Amy Saville). However, Rudolph’s father forbids the human/ vampire fraternisation.
The Little Vampire is drained of energy and laughs. Stereotypes are perpetuated with glee – Matthew Marsh and Miriam Margolyes adopting German accents straight out of ‘Allo ‘Allo! as the guesthouse’s owners.
Fangs for nothing.
DEADPOOL 2 (15)
DIRECTED by “one of the guys who killed the dog in John Wick”, Deadpool 2 is a rollicking, gleefully irreverent and pottymouthed sequel, which proves you can have too much of a good thing.
The weight of giddy expectation on David Leitch’s slam-bang sequel compels returning screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick to chase bigger laughs and outlandish thrills with tongue-in-cheek contributions to the script from leading man Ryan Reynolds, whose red-suited motormouth takes on lethal assassin Cable ( Josh Brolin, pictured).
Consequently, these rumbustious two hours are crammed to bursting with pop culture references, droll one-liners and machine-gun profanities that try a smidgen too hard to push the envelope.
ON CHESIL BEACH (15)
SKILFULLY adapted by Ian McEwan from his Booker Prize-nominated novella, On Chesil Beach is a heartbreaking portrait of doomed love.
Three-time Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan and Billy Howle, pictured, are impeccably cast as trembling virginal newlyweds, who are illequipped to navigate the minefields of each other’s insecurities and sensitively handled intimations of sexual abuse by one parent.
There is a tragic inevitability to the trajectory of the couple’s fragile relationship, and a quiet devastation shared by us and the characters as awkwardness, shame and incomprehension push the young lovers’ relationship towards the rocks.