Director Roger Michell’s last film is based on the true story of the 1961 theft of Goya’s painting of the Duke of Wellington from the national gallery. Jim Broadbent plays Kempton Bunton a man struggling to hold down a job, but a social idealist wanting to do more for the good of the people. His latest focus is demanding that over 75’s get a free BBC TV licence. At his side is his long suffering wife Dorothy (Helen Mirren), loves her husband but is frustrated by his campaigning. When Kempton learns about the £140,000 spent on the Goya he is frustrated and decides enough is enough and takes his campaign to parliament. While there the Goya is stolen and next time we see it, it’s in Kempton’s spare bedroom! With the help of his son Jackie (Fionn Whitehead) he hides it and uses it to demand money to fund TV licenses for the elderly. But when the risk of getting caught gets too much Kempton returns the painting, gets arrested and stands trial.

While the story lends itself to a comic caper there is a little more to it than that. In the background is a sadness for Kempton and Dorothy as they struggle to come to terms with loss of their daughter.

While this does give it a little depth, ultimately it is pretty light fair, the kind of thing to watch with a biscuit and a cup of tea! Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. That’s very true here, a nice film with an unlikely hero and unlikely story.

Jim Broadbent is perfect as Kempton, his effortless charm and impeccable comic timing carry you along. Helen Mirren provides the perfect foil for him to work off. The two leads are well supported by a solid cast, but it is Broadbent who really makes this work.

The Duke is a nice enjoyable film, a fascinating and crazy story, well played with plenty of humour, heart and charm. It is pretty light and fluffy, and that’s just fine. One of those films that you’ll find on TV on a Sunday afternoon in years to come and settle down and watch again.

Joe Wright directs this screen adaptation of Erica Schmidt’s musical version of the Cyrano de Begerac story. Cyrano (Peter Dinklage) is a soldier with an artistic heart, a poet and a wit, but is also self conscious of his diminutive stature. Roxanne (Hayley Bennett) is his secret love, a long time friend, smart, articulate and wanting to be wooed. One night she sees at the theatre Christian (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) a young soldier about to join Cyrano’s unit and she falls for him. But Christian lacks the poetic heart to woo her. Together Cyrano and Christian give each other what they lack, Cyrano gets his looks, Christian his voice. But as always the road to love is never easy, especially at a time of war, and is filled with jealousy and heartbreak.

There are certainly things to enjoy in this musical adaptation of the well known story, but sadly not everything worked for me as much as I wished it had.

On the plus side there are lots of beautifully judged performances and the three leads particularly bring lots of charm to the screen. Dinklage full of wit and charisma and Bennett brings effortless charm to Roxanne.

Visually it is gorgeous to look at from the packed theatre to the desolation of the battlefield. And the use of dance is inspired often bringing a real beauty to scenes.

Sadly not everything works as well. The musical numbers are a little hit and miss, and pacing felt a problem throughout.

That said the film finishes on a high with a beautifully moving final act from the battlefields to a heart wrenching moment between Cyrano and Roxanne.

But overall it was a little uneven, at its best it is beautiful, moving and funny. But it doesn’t sustain that throughout and ultimately falls a little flat overall.

I did want to enjoy Cyrano more than I did. There are moments to enjoy and the three leads are each enjoyable. At its best it is wonderful, but unfortunately it’s not at its best often enough.

Directed by Channing Tatum and Reid Carolin also written by Carolin and starring Tatum, is Dog. Tatum is Briggs a former US Ranger looking to get back on rotation after serious injury. When he is brought back together with his former company to remember his friend Rodriguez recently killed in a car crash, he takes the chance to push his case with his former Sargent. When he receives a call to come to the barracks he thinks persistence has paid off. However, it’s not the opportunity he expects as he’s presented with the job of taking Rodriguez’s Ranger hero dog, Lulu, on a road trip along the Pacific coast highway to his funeral. Lulu is as battle hardened and damaged a soldier as Briggs as they set off on a road trip that will change them both.

Presented with a synopsis about a damaged soldier and a damaged veteran dog on a road trip, you will imagine a certain type of road trip redemption story. Well imagine no more because Dog is that film. That’s not particularly a critisicm, it is just exactly the story you get. The Dog is the canine realisation of Briggs, all the trauma that Lulu has encountered and Briggs learns about are the things he doesn’t see in himself, but of course learns.

For all of its predictably that doesn’t stop it having a fair bit of charm, plenty of humour and some, if sometimes rather heavy handed, explorations of trauma and mental health. But what really makes it work is the ever watchable Tatum. A film almost made for his easy charm and comedic delivery and he has the perfect foil in his dog companion.

This is very much a vehicle for Tatum, there are a couple of cameo roles to enjoy Jane Adams and Kevin Nash as an isolated couple who live in the woods and Ethan Suplee as Noah the owner of Lulu’s dog sibling, in particular.

Dog won’t change anybody’s world, it’s a predictable road trip with a destination that of course visits self discovery and redemption on the way. But it’s not without charm and if what you want is Channing Tatum doing what he does best, with a dog for company, then this will work a treat.

Kenneth Branagh returns as Director and wearer of fabulous moustaches in his second outting as Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot. Death on the Nile sees Poirot in Egypt and a guest at the wedding of Simon Doyle (Armie Hammer) and Linnet Ridgeway (Gal Gadot). However proceedings are upset when Doyle’s former fiancée Jacqueline De Bellefort (Emma Mackey) aggreived at been dumped for her former friend interrupts proceedings. In order to escape her stalking the Doyle’s hire the Karnak a paddle steamer, which takes them and their wedding guests, the usual Christie style group full of secrets and motive, and of course Poirot, on a journey along the Nile. As they head off on this trip there is a murder and Poirot is called into action and of course all onboard are under suspicion.

I did want to enjoy this more as I do like Branagh as Poirot. But this second outting sadly is less than the sum of its parts. A well assembled cast, an Agatha Christie story and a sumptuous set. But sadly it seems to lack much of the fun and energy that was there to enjoy in Murder on the Orient Express.

Firstly it’s slow from the very beginning as we get a lot of Nile before we get to the death. We also suffer from one of the challenges that come with large ensemble casts of characters, we barely get to know any of them. And even for those not familiar with the story, the mystery is pretty well sign posted and you spend quite a lot of the film wating for it to reach its destination.

There are things to enjoy, Emma Mackey steals most of the scenes she was in, Sophie Okonedo and Annette Benning are reliable and watchable as is Branagh again as Poirot. And the final act does zip along and has the pace and intrigue lacking from the rest of the film. And it is big and bright and the humour when it does appear raises a smile.

Unfortunately though Death on the Nile does fall flat lacking the fun and energy of its predecessor. It moves too slowly and is all surface with little depth to engage you. Which is a pity, because Branagh as Poirot is enjoyable, but he needs to investigate why this doesn’t quite work.

Director Roland Emmerich dips his toes back into the world of sci-fi disaster movies with Moonfall. Astronauts Jo Fowler (Halle Berry) and Brian Harper (Patrick Wilson) are on a 2011 satellite repair mission when tragedy strikes. Harper is blamed for the incident which costs him his career. We find both 12 years later in very different places, Harper struggling, Fowler a senior NASA figure. The two are brought back together when conspiracy theorist and “mega structurisist” KC Houseman (John Bradley) discovers the moon is out of its orbit and is on a crash course with Earth. Together they form an unlikely group sent on a last ditch mission to the moon to solve the problem and save the planet.

Yep, disaster heading toward the earth, rag-tag group head off on last ditch attempt to save the world. Indeed it is that film. These kind of films can either be an enjoyable, if often silly action adventure or they can be Moonfall.

This is a dreadful nonsense to the extent that you start to wish the moon would just get on with it and end it for us all. It fails on many counts a terrible script at the heart of it, that at numerous times has you begging for them to stop talking. Did nobody think actors were going to have to say this out loud? And of course a ludricous plot, which is often par for the these kind of films, but Moonfall jumps the shark Evel Knievel style creating a conspiracy theorists wet dream.

It’s not all bad, although mostly it is, it does have some moments. Its final act has some entertaining action sequences and in John Bradley we at least get some redemption with a performance not completely handicapped by the script. But sadly for the rest of the cast, and there are fine actors in this, they cannot dig themselves out from the terrible nonsense they have to deal with.

Moonfall is terrible, with very few redeeming qualities and you will find yourself asking for it to stop on multiple occasions. Sometimes there is a place for dumb fun but sadly this is so dumb with very little fun that it will have you cheering for the moon long before the end!

Guillermo del Toro writes and directs his first film since the Oscar winning, The Shape Of Water, with this dark twisting adaptation of William Lindsey Gresham’s novel. Bradley Cooper is Stanton Carlisle, who we meet setting fire to a house, he then moves on coming across a travelling carnival, a show full of Human curiousities, non more so than Clem Hoatley’s (Willem Dafoe) “geek” show. Carlisle is a grifter an ambitious conman who falls for Rooney Mara’s electric girl, Molly. He sees her as his future with their own act. We find them two years later, with their successful act delivering them a lifestyle and money. However, when they come across Dr. Lilith Ritter (Cate Blanchett) their lives change with new opportunities, but opportunities at a high cost

This is a wonderfully dark journey an intriguing winding story that twists and turns from start to finish. As you expect Del Toro builds an engrossing world, full of complex characters. Set in the 1940’s we get the full noir feel of the period. Dark corners, half lit faces and art deco buildings.

Cooper does the heavy lifting and his natural charm helps him carry off a likeable version of an unlikeable character, as he negotiates Carlisle’s falls and rises. But it is the supporting ensemble who add so much, Mara and Defoe, Toni Collette, David Strathairn and Richard Jenkins’s Ezra Grindle. But it is Blanchett’s femme fatale doctor who shines the most.

At 2hr30 the film has to engage and it did. I found it completely absorbing and while it twists and turns those turns are signposted, with Del Toro shunning cheap tricks and “out of nowhere” surprises.

I doubt it will be for everyone, but it was for me. I loved the world that the film inhabited and the intriguing nature of the story and the journey it goes on. It’s absorbing and dark, visceral at times all of which had me hooked from start to finish.

A deliciously dark, intriguing tale, that keeps you absorbed from start to finish. If you want dark and intriguing then this is the alley to head down.

Fran Kranz delivers an excellent writing and directorial debut in this powerful story of tragedy. Set six years after a high school shooting parents of one of the victims, Evan, Jay (Jason Isaacs) and Gail (Martha Plimpton) take the opportunity to meet Linda (Anne Dowd) and Richard (Reed Burney) parents of the perpetrator, Hayden. The aim, to find a a way through the unimaginable tragedy and its impact on their lives.

Filmed in fourteen days on a small budget, this is a remarkable film. While there is some early literal scene setting, the story takes place in a single room in the back of a church. A sparse and quiet space that is the perfect canvas for an experienced and talented cast to deliver their engrossing performances.

What they do brilliantly is capture the raw emotion of their impossible situation. And it never shys away of telling both sides of the story, the hurt of Jay and Gail is matched by that of Linda and Richard who want to mourn a son, while dealing with the reality he’s a killer. Throughout each tries to keep their anger and anguish inside, but neither can bury their emotions deep enough.

This is not a joy ride, there are no cinematic tricks to bring the horrors the couples are dealing with to the screen. The single room for the majority of the film is used very effectively, as the claustrophobic feeling it creates ramps the tension and anguish, as you relive the tragic events through those who remain.

Its subject matter makes this an intense watch. The four central performances are fantastic, engaging, delivering beautifully controlled emotion that leaves you on edge right to the emotional gut punches that bring some closure.

While it does perhaps run a little long, it does not detract from what is a throughly absorbing story, well directed and outstandingly performed.

In a world full of blockbusters it’s wonderful to see cinema like this. Shot on a budget, with a simple premise, but full of emotional dept. Delivered in a performance masterclass from its cast, that engages completely. Available at cinemas and to stream it deserves to be seen.