45 h. ago BRIAN VINER reviews Sisu: Road to revenge... it's violent but exhilaratingly bonkers

Nobody can ever convince me that predictive text-messaging doesn't have a sense of humour.

Politics

3 d. ago BRIAN VINER: Is Christmas Karma the worst festive movie of all time?

Scarcely able to believe how ghastly it was after last week's screening with fellow critics in London, on Tuesday afternoon I went to the Odeon in Hereford to endure it again.

Politics

3 d. ago BRIAN VINER reviews Christmas Karma: This spectacularly dreadful offering will empty cinemas quicker than an outbreak of dysentery!

Scarcely able to believe how ghastly it was after last week's screening with fellow critics in London, on Tuesday afternoon I went to the Odeon in Hereford to endure it again.

Science

3 d. ago Sisu: Road to Revenge review – Finnish hero takes on a Red Army butcher in terrific sequel

Punchy, old-school stunt work, inventive baddie-splattering and a simple plot as our grizzled Finish prospector finds a new foe in his Soviet-occupied homelandIn 2022, the Finnish indie action movie Sisu had the look of a one-hit wonder. Pitting a grizzled prospector against an entire platoon of Nazis, writer-director Jalmari Helander heeded the lessons of George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road, principally that there is serious cinematic value in going pedal-to-the-metal along a single, straight narrative line. That profitable sleeper hit now yields this choice follow-up, which somehow feels more expansive while still clocking in under 90 minutes.Having seen off the SS, indomitable hero Aatami (Jorma Tommila) gains a tragic backstory and a new, vicious postwar foe in the tremendously named Red Army butcher Igor Draganov, played by wily James Cameron favourite Stephen Lang. Again, the economy of Helander’s approach proves striking and thrilling. No unnecessary obstacles have been placed...

Events

4 d. ago Film reviews: Wicked: For Good | The Thing With Feathers | Sisu: Road to Revenge

Jon M Chu’s attempt to mine yet more backstory from the rich lore of The Wizard of Oz is utterly devoid of magic, writes Alistair Harkness

Politics

4 d. ago BRIAN VINER reviews Wicked: For Good: Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo are magnificent in this extravagantly sumptuous sequel

Like last year's film, this one is extravagantly sumptuous on the eye.

Politics

8 d. ago BRIAN VINER reviews The Running Man: A deadly game of traitors and faithfuls (with a billion dollar prize)

BRIAN VINER: This version of The Running Man is not a straight remake, although there's a wink to the original with big Arnie on the US banknotes known as 'new' dollars.

Events

2 w. ago BRIAN VINER reviews Nicholas Hytner's The Choral: Too many duff notes in this sub

This week's good news is that Alan Bennett, now aged 91, has written a new original screenplay.

Politics

4 w. ago Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere review: This is no fun watch, but Jeremy Allen White brings passion and conviction to this bold, intense biopic, says BRIAN VINER

Jeremy Allen White makes a plausibly tormented Bruce Springsteen, on the cusp both of super-stardom and mental disintegration.

Events