The week's new films reviewed and rated

Two '80s re-imaginings are this week's big cinema releases, but don't miss Gruff Rhys's travels in Patagonia

These week two Hollywood nostalgia blockbusters hit our screens. It’s the '80s all over again with ‘The A-Team’ and ‘The Karate Kid’: the first is a noisy, crude but entertaining old-school action romp, while the latter is a quieter, more thoughtful but much less enjoyable coming of age drama with none of the original film’s cheesily uplifting oomph.

The big news in the arthouse world this week is ‘Gainsbourg’, an entertaining portrait of the lugubrious Francophone lothario which suffers from the usual biopic drawbacks: scatty storytelling and an inevitably downbeat final act.

Moviegoers also have the chance to grab some South American spice with a pair of radically different travelogue documentaries: ‘South of the Border’ sees provocateur Oliver Stone take the USA to task for their mistreatment of controversial political leaders like Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales, while ‘Separado!’ follows Super Furry Animals singer Gruff Rhys as he travels around Patagonia in search of his mysterious, Welsh-speaking gaucho troubador uncle.

There’s more shoestring cinema in ‘Down Terrace’, a brilliantly dark and incisive British gangster-comedy from first-timer Ben Wheatley. And the week rounds out with a pair of dramas from the Earth’s remoter corners: ‘Beautiful Kate’, a disappointingly predictable Outback-set family drama from Aussie actress Rachel Ward, and ‘Frontier Blues’, the languid, low-key and entrancing tale of four men living on the steppes of northern Iran.

Tom Huddleston on 'The A-Team'
‘An unfussy, streamlined example of old-school Hollywood summer cinema at its purest and most unpretentious.’






Tom Huddleston on 'The Karate Kid'
‘A distressing, queasy tale of bullying and retribution.’










Trevor Johnston on 'Gainsbourg'
‘While the movie’s on a roll, it’s zesty, engaging and frisky.’







Dave Calhoun on 'South of the Border'
‘Stone hotfoots it around South America, interviewing seven leaders on the fly.’

 

 

 

 

David Jenkins on 'Separado!'
‘A gentle and entertaining study of a man trying to make sense of how people remain connected to their birthplace.’

 

 

 

Tom Huddleston on 'Down Terrace'
‘Perhaps the best homegrown movie of the year so far.’

Dave Calhoun on 'Beautiful Kate'
‘A familiar, if not uninteresting, story of a prodigal son and difficult father.’

Wally Hammond on 'Frontier Blues'
‘Emotionally contained, sympathetically observant and seductively shot.’

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