A stately stab at stealing Agatha Christie’s crown
suspects the nurse knows more than she is letting on and uses her as a sort of gastric lie-detector test.
Johnson toys mercilessly with his audience. Red herrings are judiciously placed and suspense is expertly built before being punctured by comedy at precisely the right moment.
Unusually, the crime seems to have been solved with half of the film still to run. Then, while we’re still looking in one direction, he shuffles the pieces.
When Charlie’s Angels made their big-screen debut in 2000, they were kicking criminal behinds to the beat of Destiny’s Child’s Independent Women.that film is referenced in actress-writer-director Elizabeth Banks’ new version, which co-opts the 1970s TV series into a new adventure for the all-female spy agency.
Banks also seems to have taken her casting lead from the now-defunct girl group. There are three independent glamour pusses fighting their way through the crime plot but Kristen Stewart, like Beyonce Knowles, gets top billing. Thankfully, the Twilight actress does more than enough to fire up this light-hearted adventure, bringing comic timing and athleticism to kooky loosecannon Sabina.
Completing the trio are sensible tech expert Elena (Naomi Scott) and Jane (Ella Balinska), a bitter and supposedly grizzled former MI6 agent who looks like a 22-year-old model. Stewart gets all the laughs but the trio click nicely and Banks (who plays their handler Bosley) fires up the banter with zingy one-liners.the plot isn’t quite so refreshing, involving a mole, an apocalyptic gadget and lots of running around tourist hotspots. Some of the feminist speeches are a little clunky but this pacy action-adventure delivers all its kicks with a knowing wink.
The Two Popes is a Netflix film that is getting an awards-qualifying cinematic release, so it seems the home streaming service has some very worldly ambitions for its Vatican drama.
Screenwriter Anthony Mccarten (adapting his own stage play) uses Pope Benedict XVI’S shock 2013 retirement and the appointment of his successor Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio as a springboard for a genial, actorly drama.
Bergoglio, who represents the liberal wing of the Church, travels to the Pope’s summer palace to submit a request to the pontiff for his own retirement.
His Holiness rejects it. Since Bergoglio disagrees with the Pope’s conservative politics, the pontiff feels that his request to retire would imply criticism. But we wonder whether the Pope has another motive.there’s humour along with intrigue, as the two opposites bond over football,tv shows and music.
Anthony Hopkins gives Benedict XVI a spiky facade and soft heart. Jonathan Pryce’s Bergoglio is less guarded but is secretly tortured over refusing to stand up to Argentina’s brutal junta in the 70s.
While his dilemma is dramatised in long flashbacks, we see nothing of Benedict XVI’S childhood in Nazi Austria or his role during the reign of John Paul II in dealing with the child abuse scandal.
The performances are excellent but many victims may feel like they have been silenced again.