THE BIG SCREEN
FILM CRITIC PAUL GREENWOOD’S GUIDE TO WHAT’S ON
GONE GIRL (18, 149 MINS)
David Fincher’s stylish, pulpy and very funny thriller, based on the novel by Gillian Flynn, stars Ben Affleck as a husband who comes under suspicion when his wife (Rosamund Pike) goes missing. With outstanding performances from the leads and all the supporting cast, a twisting plot, and inspired direction that balances tension and laughs, this is tremendous entertainment for grown up audiences.
DRAFT DAY (15, 107 MINS)
Kevin Costner stars in this fast-paced sports drama as an American football team manager trying to negotiate the perils of draft day, the times when teams get to pick players for the next season. Don’t worry about the potentially confusing details and just enjoy the slick to and fro of the dealmaking, anchored by a nicely grumpy Costner on fine form.
WHAT WE DID ON OUR HOLIDAY (12A, 95 MINS)
Rosamund Pike and David Tennant are the bickering parents who take their three young kids to Scotland for the birthday of their sick grandfather (Billy Connolly) in this delightful comedy. Though it’s essentially like a feature-length episode of Outnumbered, the blend of laughs and poignancy is a winning one, and Connolly is great value.
A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES (15, 114 MINS)
Liam Neeson is an alcoholic ex-cop turned private eye investigating the murder of a drug dealer’s wife in this solid old-fashioned mystery thriller. It’s a much more talky piece than the type of action man role we’ve seen recently from Neeson, but no less compelling thanks to a tight script and brooding atmosphere.
PRIDE (15, 120 MINS)
At the height of the 1984 miners’ strike, a gay and lesbian group from London helps to raise money for the people of a small Welsh town but struggles to be accepted. Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton and many more lead a terrific cast in this uplifting, moving and very funny British drama.
THE INBETWEENERS 2 (15, 96 MINS)
The gang head to Australia to get up to all sorts of shocking antics in this hilarious second big screen outing for the hit TV series.
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (12A, 121 MINS)
A ragtag bunch of space criminals (including Chris Pratt, Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel) team up to try to save the galaxy from malevolent forces in this wildly entertaining Marvel comic book adventure. The zombie rom-com gets another lease of life with this quirky, low budget effort in which Beth (the excellent Aubrey Plaza) returns from the dead, much to the surprise of her boyfriend (Dane DeHaan). Although a number of decent chuckles are generated, the one joke premise does wear thin after a while, but it picks up for a well judged finale.
THE EQUALIZER (15, 132 MINS)
Denzel Washington plays a helpful loner with a mysterious past who comes up against Russian mobsters who want him dead. Washington is terrific and some of the action is exciting enough, but it’s much too flabby in places when it should be lean and mean.
THE BOXTROLLS (PG, 97 MINS)
A young boy is raised by the much-feared but actually harmless underground Boxtrolls in this passable stop-motion animation featuring the voices of Ben Kingsley, Richard Ayoade and Nick Frost.
THE GUEST (15, 100 MINS)
Dan Stevens stars in this effective thriller as a soldier returning from the Middle East who claims to a family that he’s a friend of their dead son. There’s some good fun to be had initially as he hands out beatings to various undesirables, but it doesn’t quite hold together when it starts to turn into something else entirely.
LUCY (15, 89 MINS)
A nippy but daft sci-fi thriller stars Scarlett Johansson as a woman who develops superhuman powers when she’s given an experimental drug. It’s often too crackpot for words, but there’s some fun to be had in the infrequent action scenes.
BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP (15, 94 MINS)
A woman (Nicole Kidman) wakes up every morning with no memory of anything in her life up to that point in this daft thriller. With Colin Firth claiming to be her husband and Mark Strong claiming to be her doctor, the mood of mistrust is overplayed.
SEX TAPE (15, 94 MINS)
The one joke in this raunchy comedy is that a couple (Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel) let their intimate video get out of their possession and spend the movie running around trying to retrieve copies of it. It wears thin quickly, with only the watchable stars and a handful of laughs keeping it tolerable.