Helen O’Hara

It only took about 70 years, but television is finally getting some respect. In the decades leading up to this point, TV was largely considered among the lowest forms of entertainment. It was smeared as ‘the idiot box’, ‘the boob tube’. Edward R Murrow referred to it as ‘the opiate of the masses’, and Bruce Springsteen even wrote a song about the malaise of fruitless channel surfing. Was its poor reputation deserved? Certainly, the ratio of garbage to gold was high, and though it’s hard to quantify if it was worse than any other artistic medium, the fact that it was all being beamed directly into your living room made the dreck much harder to avoid.  That’s all changed. Television is now the dominant medium in basically all of entertainment, to the degree that the only thing separating movies and TV is the screen you’re watching on. The shift in perception is widely credited to the arrival of The Sopranos, which completely reinvented the notion of what a TV show could do, and the advent of streaming has made it so that hundreds of new shows are now continually flipping the script every few years, if not months.  But that doesn’t mean everything before 1999 is pure dross. Far from it: television has been popular since World War II, after all. And while this list is dominated by 21st century programs, there are hundreds of shows that deserve credit for pushing TV forward into its current golden age. Chiselling them down to a neat hundred is tough, so we elected to leave off tal

Emerging from the pink-and-grey phenomenon that was Barbenheimer like a hand emerging from the ground, ace Aussie chiller Talk to Me is the latest in a broad array of horror movies to storm, creep and skulk into our cinemas this year. There have been atmospheric supernatural meditations (Enys Men), slowburn freak-outs (Infinity Pool, Knock at the Cabin), demonic deluges (Evil Dead Rise, The Boogeyman) and meme-worthy horror comedies with tongues in their cheek and menace in their hearts (M3GAN). Even a few of the non-horror films, Beau Is Afraid, Tár and Oppenheimer among them, have lent into the ghostly trappings of the genre. In short, we’ve never been too far from a satisfyingly upsetting night at the pictures so far in 2023. Not everything has landed, admittedly, with Scream VI showing its age, Insidious: The Red Door creaking on its hinges and Winnie the Pooh: Blood And Honey probably causing AA Milne to turn in his grave. But the good has firmly outweighed the bad, and gorehounds, Dead Heads and genre aficionados have had plenty of reasons to celebrate.   RECOMMENDED: 💀 The 100 greatest horror films of all time🔥 The best movies of 2023 (so far)📺 The best TV shows of 2023 you need to stream

Movie monsters are a many-splendored thing, with a strong emphasis on ‘thing’. Some may take the form of giant irradiated lizards or skyscraper-sized apes, others amphibious swamp creatures or slow-creeping mounds of gelatin. Some represent the biggest fears of society at large, others are manifestations of their creators’ personal hang-ups. Others, meanwhile, are more instinctual, killing either for food or just for the sheer fun of it. If you’ve read this far, you may be experiencing some déjà vu. Didn’t we already write a list of the best monster movies of all-time? Indeed we did. But not all of cinema’s greatest monsters inhabit great movies. Sure, there’s a good deal of crossover. But as with actual human actors, some of the most memorable creatures in film history can be found slumming it in subpar productions – and they deserve to have their moment in the spotlight. A few caveats: this list largely follows the same parameters as our monster movies list, meaning that it steers away from non-mutated animals – sorry, Bruce the Shark and the spiders from Arachnophobia – as well as slasher villains such as Freddy Krueger or Michael Myers. But zombies? Trolls? Brundlefly? You’ll find them all below. Recommended: 👹 The 50 best monster movies ever made💀 The 100 best horror movies of all-time🧟 The best zombie movies of all-time👹 Cinema’s creepiest anthology horror movies🩸 The 15 scariest horror movies based on true stories

British-born director Christopher Nolan has reinvented the comic-book movie, somehow made a thriller that takes place entirely inside the mind, spawned significant scientific contributions to astrophysical theory and just turned a story of nuclear physics into a smash-hit summer blockbuster. And he did it all without even rumpling his suit. But which is his best work? We took a look back… RECOMMENDED: 📽️ The 100 best movies of all time🔥 The best movies of 2023 (so far)

Stunt professionals put their bodies, and sometimes even their lives, on the line daily to pull off the coolest action beats in massive blockbusters. There’s no Oscar for it and they rarely get to walk the red carpet taking the plaudits, but make no mistake, they’re the lifeblood of many of our favourite movies. And if you sell ice packs, they’re probably your number one customers. Thanks to VFX, the way action movies are made has changed radically since the madcap silent era days of Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd clinging precariously to buildings. But one thing has stayed the same: it’s still a job for tough, daring and visually inventive people seeking new ways to keep audiences slack-jawed and on the edge of their seats. There is one more thing that unites them: they’re passionate movielovers, to a man and woman, who regularly look to cinema’s past for inspiration. To celebrate their work – and kick off Time Out’s Action Month – we asked some of the most respected, experienced stunt people in cinema, including bona fide legends like Vic Armstrong and Simon Crane, to pick a stunt or sequence that they love above all others, and give an expert’s view of how it was pulled off. And guess what? They love Jackie Chan even more than the rest of us. RECOMMENDED: 💥 The 101 greatest action movies ever made👊 The 30 best fight scenes ever filmed

Like Christmas morning or the Super Bowl, the Oscars are all about the build-up. Sure, sometimes the ceremony lives up to the hype of being ‘Hollywood’s biggest night’, with a few thrilling upsets, memorable speeches, bizarre Best Original Song performances, awkward interactions between mismatched presenters and maybe a swear word or two sneaking past censors. Most of the time, though, the excitement peaks a week or two before the telecast, as fans and pundits alike try to predict winners and work overtime to convince themselves that, hey, maybe that weird little indie success story has a fighting chance against the tepid period drama everyone’s convinced will take home the big prize. Unusually, there aren’t many ‘wrong choices’ for the Academy to make this year. Unlike in recent years, there’s no true ‘villain nominee’ threatening to send social media into convulsions of outrage, nor are there many likeable-if-unexciting safe picks to make viewers shrug. In fact, the frontrunner just might be the weirdest flick with a chance to dominate in the history of the awards. Still, it’s hard to say what will happen – but we have some ideas of what should happen. Here are our 2023 Oscar predictions. Recommended: 🏆 Everything you need to know about this year’s Academy Awards🤔 Six things we learned from the Oscar nominations🌟 The best films of 2022👍 The 50 most deserving Oscar winners of all-time

⭑⭑⭑✩✩ La gente de Downton Abbey nunca se ha sentido identificado, pero esta vez realmente lo harán. Aquellos personajes que carecieron del buen sentido de nacer en el dinero terminan enamorados, al menos, y, a menudo, un poco más ricos también. Es una fantasía poco probable pero placentera donde suceden cosas buenas, los ricos son benévolos y los pobres se las arreglan bien. No hay mucho que decir sobre la trama, excepto que aproximadamente la mitad del elenco visita la Riviera en un momento dado, para inspeccionar esa nueva villa, mientras que los demás defienden el fuerte contra una invasión de cineastas enloquecidos (señalan a los recién llegados Hugh Dancy, Dominic West y Laura Haddock, que de alguna manera no han estado en el programa antes). El director Simon Curtis, un veterano en dramas de época, tiene una idea de los personajes y la comedia, aunque hay descuidos extraños en esta producción. Las lentes distorsionadas estropean algunas tomas de drones y algunos personajes lucen bronceados inverosímiles mucho antes de sus vacaciones; Detalles menores, quizás, pero no algo que debería haber llegado a la pantalla. Aparte de eso, en su mayor parte se trata de una producción de calidad. El escritor Julian Fellowes, quien creó el programa, cree que la mayoría de las personas están haciendo todo lo posible y que el optimismo esencial hace que este sea un grupo agradable, aunque poco exigente, para pasar el rato. Ha creado personalidades creíbles en la familia Crawley y su pe

⭑⭑⭑⭑✩ Las celebridades que se interpretan a sí mismas pueden ser enormemente vergonzosas o, si son lo suficientemente autocríticas, realmente entrañables. Pero pocos se lanzan a la tarea con tanto entusiasmo como Nicolas Cage reúne aquí, ensartando sus propios excesos con un ojo sorprendentemente agudo. Puede esperar resultados divertidos y, a veces, insoportablemente incómodos; lo que no verá venir es lo conmovedora que es la película del director Tom Gormican. Este "Nick Cage" comparte la filmografía del hombre real, pero está monstruosamente comprometido con su propio estrellato y es incapaz de ver el costo que ha tenido para su ex esposa Olivia (Sharon Horgan) y su hija Addy (Lily Mo Sheen). Acepta a regañadientes una invitación a la fiesta de cumpleaños de un millonario para pagar algunas deudas y se vincula con el excéntrico Javi (Pedro Pascal). Desgraciadamente, la agente de la CIA Vivian (Tiffany Haddish) interviene para decirle a Cage que Javi es un narcotraficante. Ella recluta a Cage para que trabaje contra su anfitrión con el fin de recuperar a una víctima de secuestro y evitar un golpe. Es alegremente absurdo, por supuesto, filmado en un complejo de lujo bañado por el sol directamente del gran libro de clichés de películas de acción, pero sin las florituras de John Woo o Michael Bay. Pero la creciente amistad entre el superfan entusiasta Javi y la estrella cautelosa y dañada es especial.Pascal baila a lo largo de una línea imposible entre resplandecientemente si

⭑⭑⭑✩✩ Se ha estado desarrollando una adaptación cinematográfica de la serie de juegos Uncharted durante dos décadas; tiempo que Mark Wahlberg, ahora elegido como figura mentor Sully, originalmente debía interpretar al héroe Nathan Drake (ahora Tom Holland). El mayor problema para la serie fue que los juegos comenzaron como un aspirante a Indiana Jones, y escapar de esa larga sombra con sombrero no fue tarea fácil. Finalmente, llega como precuela, con un joven Drake dando sus primeros pasos como cazador de tesoros. Cuando lo conocemos como adulto, de hecho, es cantinero y carterista, pero sabemos, por una escena de apertura de la infancia, que también es un fanático de la historia de una larga línea de cazadores de tesoros. Sully (Wahlberg) lo recluta para encontrar el tesoro perdido de Magellan, prometiéndole pistas sobre el paradero de su hermano perdido en el camino. Pero enfrentándose al multimillonario Santiago Moncado (Antonio Banderas) y su sicario Braddock (Tati Gabrielle), y con una de las pistas en manos de la desconfiada Chloe Frazer (Sophia Ali), no será fácil. Aquí verás personas que caen de aviones, persecuciones subterráneas, trampas y acertijos, todos presentantes de los juegos. Pero a pesar de la mano normalmente firme de Ruben Fleischer de Zombieland como director, el tono es inquieto. En la primera escena de Holland, se disculpa con un secuaz sin rostro, que es demasiado Peter Parker. Es como si el estudio no confiara en su carisma lejos de Spider-Man, aunqu

⭑⭑✩✩✩ Debemos aceptar que hay mucha diversión en la última entrega de espías de Matthew Vaughn. Tiene algunas escenas de acción divertidas, nos da un período de tiempo que rara vez hemos visto en este tipo de travesuras y ofrece un elenco sobrecualificado. El problema es que hay suficiente de todo eso para quizás una película de 90 minutos, y esto llena los 40 minutos restantes con una trama demasiado elaborada en un contexto de historia para tontos. Esta precuela de las películas The Kingsmen de Vaughn prometía explicar cómo se formó esa organización secreta de espionaje, una premisa que finalmente recuerda entregar en sus últimos segundos. Nuestro héroe es el duque de Oxford, Orlando (Ralph Fiennes), un diplomático y bienhechor con un turbio pasado en las fuerzas coloniales. Intenta criar a su hijo, Conrad (Harris Dickinson), como pacifista, pero cuando estalla la Primera Guerra Mundial, el duque se enfoca en mantener a su hijo fuera del conflicto y rastrear a la figura sombría que está manipulando los eventos mundiales a su favor.  La historia apenas importa y, sin embargo, es interminable. Hay tramas internacionales, años de historia y figuras sombrías que intentan moldear la política mundial para sus propios fines. Hay muy poco que hacer por Gemma Arterton o Djimon Hounsou, como empleados letales de Orlando. El tono cambia de la tontería épica de una lucha gonzo con Rasputín (Rhys Ifans, muy divertido) al realismo cercano de un campo de batalla de la Primera Guerra Mundi

⭑⭑⭑⭑✩ Advertencia para todos los nacidos antes de 1990: este musical contiene discusiones repetidas sobre los horrores de cumplir 30 años que pueden causar angustia o vergüenza. En su defensa, el autor y protagonista Jonathan Larson murió trágicamente a los 35 años, inmediatamente antes del estreno de su obra más conocida, Rent, y poco después de escribir esta pieza semiautobiográfica. Para Larson, el tiempo realmente se estaba acabando, y esa es una sensación que el  autor de Hamilton, y ahora el debutante director de cine debutante, Lin-Manuel Miranda capta de manera experta. Un interminable y convincente Andrew Garfield interpreta a Larson, que trabaja en un restaurante durante el día y trabaja como esclavo en su musical de ciencia ficción Superbia por la noche. Nos unimos a él en la semana anterior a su primera presentación, mientras lidia con la presión de este proyecto decisivo de ocho años que se acerca a su clímax. Está tratando de escribir una canción final para la pieza —como lo recomendó Stephen Sondheim (Bradley Whitford), un mentor del joven Larson—, negociar cambios en la relación con su novia bailarina Susan (Alexandra Shipp) y de alguna manera recaudar el dinero para pagar a los artistas. Mientras tanto, sus amigos están cambiando.  Los artistas que antes luchaban están renunciando a sus sueños por trabajos seguros y otros enfrentan diagnósticos de sida, en el apogeo de esa epidemia. Es mucha pasión y energía inquieta, a veces mal dirigida, para canalizar a tr

⭑⭑⭑⭑✩ Se le podría perdonar el ser cínico a Rey Richard. Las extraordinarias Venus y Serena Williams, dos de las mejores jugadoras en la historia del tenis femenino, se convierten aquí en personajes secundarios en un drama sobre su padre, Richard. Oh, mira, Hollywood ha encontrado la historia que vale la pena contar. Es mérito del director Reinaldo Marcus Green y Will Smith que esta película defienda su punto focal contraintuitivo.Richard Williams (Will Smith) es esposo, guardia de seguridad y padre de cinco hijas junto a su segunda esposa Brandy (Aunjanue Ellis). Los dos menores, Venus (Saniyya Sidney) y Serena (Demi Singleton), han sido preparadas para la grandeza del tenis de acuerdo con un plan que Williams elaboró ​​antes de que nacieran. Sus esperanzas parecen grandiosas en el mejor de los casos (engañadas en el peor), mientras recorre clubes de tenis en busca de entrenadores, patrocinadores o simplemente descartar pelotas de tenis. Pero Williams sigue presionando a sus hijos de una manera que podría ser difícil de perdonar si no se esfuerzan más.Smith refrena su despreocupada confianza habitual a favor de algo más esforzado, pero mantiene un brillo en los ojos de Williams mientras pide favores, se abre camino en clubes de campo y convence a los entrenadores estrella para que vean jugar a sus hijas. Esos entrenadores están por turnos fascinados y exasperados.El director Green, cuya última película, Monsters and Men, trató explícitamente de la policía racista, hace que l

Hollywood films don’t come much more ripped from the headlines than this account of the 2021 GameStop financial scandal that saw ordinary day traders take on Wall Street and win. Or did they? Rather than a simple story of underdogs vs The Man, director Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya) has made a complicated, sometimes funny story that is not a comedy, and sometimes feels like a horror.   Paul Dano, in Fabelmans-esque gentle dad mode, is Keith Gill, aka Fierce Kitty, a small time YouTuber who posts about his investments. He encourages his followers to buy stock in GameStop, a US retail chain that has been heavily shorted by Wall Street. His quixotic campaign snowballs, leaving the big firms that have bet against the stock price facing a loss of billions. Hedge funder Gabe Plotkin (Seth Rogen) is particularly exposed, and faces public humiliation as ordinary people – played by the likes of America Ferrera, Anthony Ramos and Talia Ryder – see their fortunes soar, at least on paper. It would be a Cinderella story but for Gillespie’s reminders that these small investors can’t afford to write off their possible losses, in contrast to the corporates they are facing. It’s a point given visual resonance in the pandemic-era setting, where the poor protagonists and rich men’s staff are largely masked, while the billionaires never have to hide their faces.  Consequences are other people’s problems. It’s good to be reminded that late-stage capitalism considers us all dumb money There is, perhap

For every faithful ‘Musketeers’ adaptation there’s another one with flying galleons or dogs playing people. Apparently the French have had enough, and have reclaimed their classic novel for a two-part epic (part two arrives at the end of 2023). Thanks to some judicious plot tweaks and a full-bodied commitment to action, director Martin Bourboulon (Eiffel) has succeeded in making the best Alexandre Dumas adaptation in decades.The year is 1627 and young d’Artagnan (François Civil) is riding to Paris to join the Musketeers when he happens upon a murderous scuffle. This proves significant to a link between the Queen, Anne of Austria (Vicky Krieps), and an English minister; one that Milady (Eva Green) and her boss Richelieu (Eric Ruf) are trying to manipulate. D’Artagnan and the friends he soon makes will have to foil these plans to save the Queen and King Louis XIII (Louis Garrel). It’s a strong cast even before you get to the titular trio: Athos (Vincent Cassel), Aramis (Romain Duris) and Porthos (Pio Marmai). Then it becomes clear that this is sort of a Gallic Avengers, a ludicrous embarrassment of riches in fabulous costumes and swishy wigs. What really sets it apart, however, is the smartness of its adaptation. Bourboulon hews close to Dumas for iconic moments – d’Artagnan’s rash introduction to his fellows, Athos’s backstory – but is never slavish. He draws out timely questions of religious and political paranoia to give depth to the effectively chaotic fight scenes, shot in

There’s nothing wrong with putting familiar characters in a new genre; The Muppets made a career of it. With the earliest of AA Milne’s stories now out of copyright, this horror twist on the Hundred Acre Wood could have been a witty, punky spin on ‘Winnie the Pooh’. Unfortunately, writer-director Rhys Frake-Waterfield’s has made just another sadistic slasher movie, notably only for its inexpressive animal masks. Here, a gang of mutant beasts have turned to cannibalism and murder after their childhood friend, Christopher Robin (Nikolai Leon), grew up and stopped bringing them food. Now Pooh and Piglet attack anyone who ventures nearby – notably Chris Robin, back for a visit, and a pack of girl friends on a weekend break. The issue is not so much the abuse of beloved childhood icons as the assumption that having Piglet kill people is enough to carry a movie. Apart from regularly dripping honey from his motionless snout, this Pooh (Craig David Dowsett) has nothing in common with Milne’s creation; rather than having to run from bees, for example, he seems to control them, judging by one, entirely unexplained third act scene.  It revels in misogyny and titillation and gore, but forgets to give us characters It’s very bad – and worse, it’s a missed opportunity. Copyright law really is unfit for purpose; it fails to ensure that creators are rewarded in life and stops innovation or reinvention by others. If Frake-Waterfield had done something exciting or clever here, he might have d

There’s a fine tradition of Christmas-set action movies, thanks mainly to the entire career of Shane Black (Lethal Weapon, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Last Action Hero: all Christmas movies) and, of course, Die Hard. But Santa himself rarely gets in on the action. Until now, at least. In this fun action-thriller, David Harbour’s Santa is less Saint Nick and more John Wick.The Lightstone family, including dad (Alex Hassell), his estranged wife (Alexis Louder) and their adorable daughter (Leah Bradley), arrive home to his family estate for Christmas. His outrageously rich and powerful mother Gertrude (Beverly d’Angelo, in a witty nod to Christmas Vacation) rules the family with an iron wallet, but she’s targeted by a thief calling himself ‘Scrooge’ (John Leguizamo) and his goons. Luckily for the Lightstones, midway through delivering their presents, Santa (Harbour) has collapsed in a disillusioned, drunken stupor upstairs. Moved by the youngest Lightstone’s plight, he tools up to take on the thieves. There are over-familiar touches of Bad Santa, and it’s yet another Christmas story about the problems of a super-rich kid, which is perhaps not the most relatable option these days. But Dead Snow director Tommy Wirkola keeps it all moving briskly, and there are some hilariously inventive deaths involving beloved Christmas paraphernalia.   You’ll never look at nutcrackers the same way again But Harbour is enormous fun as Santa, equally at home with scurrying away in panic, drunkenly r

Becoming Jane. Miss Potter. Dickinson. However slight the recorded romantic history of a well-known female author is, you can be sure it will become a key part of her biopic. Joining the trend now is this account of the life of Emily Brontë, which spends a chunk of its time on a romance that may not have happened. It’s well played and well written, but it’s an odd addition to a story that is remarkable even without invention: studios need to start letting spinsters be spinsters. Debutante director Frances O’Connor, previously best known for her acting roles in the likes of Mansfield Park, shows a real feel for the texture and tenor of the Brontë sisters’ lives here as she establishes a bustling, intellectually vibrant house for the three sisters – Charlotte (Alexandra Dowling), Emily (Emma Mackey) and Anne (Amelia Gething) – their brother Branwell (Dunkirk’s Fionn Whitehead) and vicar father Patrick (Adrian Dunbar). Our heroine, Emily, spends her time out on the moors dreaming up new stories and struggles to limit herself to the role available to her in 19th century society. Enter William Weightman (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), the vicarage’s new curate.  The love story that follows is delicately played by both. O’Connor just manages to step around the tropes of the genre as the two young intellectuals move from vague hostility to true connection. Nanu Segal’s cinematography backs them up, switching from colours of rain and heather to sun and wind, bringing a sense of change and ho

In times of stress and unrest, there’s a lot to be said for the simple pleasures of a thriller where the world’s anxieties are reduced to a simple struggle to survive only one threat: in this case, an enraged cat on the prowl. This effort, from Everest director Baltasar Kormákur, doesn’t exploit its premise to the max, but with the help of a solid cast it manages enough tension to distract us from, well, all our other tension. Idris Elba is Nate, a doctor who has taken his bereaved daughters Mer (Iyana Halley) and Norah (Leah Sava Jeffries) to South Africa on safari, to visit their late mother's home and see her old friend, gamekeeper Martin (Sharlto Copley). Alas, this little gang arrive in the wilderness to find a rogue lion on the loose. The menaced posse must find a way back to safety as it stalks them through the bush. In keeping with the modern tendency to give every villain a sympathetic backstory, this king of the jungle is merely acting out after its pride are slaughtered by poachers. As with any modern man versus nature tale, there’s a distinct temptation to side with the baddie here – despite the cast’s considerable efforts to make their thinly written characters likeable. Still, it poses an almost supernatural threat to every human it encounters, capable of taking down an entire village without an effective shot being fired, apparently. As with most man vs nature tales, the temptation is to side with the baddie Kormákur creates some effective jump scares and cons

The people of Downton Abbey have never been relatable, but they’re really pushing it this time. One of them, gifted an unwanted villa (!) on the Riviera (!!), bequeaths it to a great-grandchild who would otherwise grow up without an estate to call her own (the horror!!!). Another welcomes a film crew into her home because their exorbitant fees will pay for a new roof. Those characters who lacked the good sense to be born into money end up in love, at least, and often slightly richer too. It’s an unlikely but pleasant fantasy where good things just happen, the rich are benevolent and the poor all muddle along nicely. There’s not much to say about the plot except that roughly half the cast visit the Riviera at one point, to inspect that new villa, while the others hold down the fort against an invasion of rampaging filmmakers (cue newcomers Hugh Dancy, Dominic West and Laura Haddock, who have somehow not been on the show before). Director Simon Curtis, an old hand at a period drama, has a feel for the characters and the comedy, though there are odd oversights in this production. Distorting lenses mar some drone shots and a few characters sport implausible tans long before their holiday; minor details, perhaps, but not something that should have reached the screen. The people of Downton Abbey have never been relatable, but they’re really pushing it this time That aside, for the most part this is a quality production. Writer Julian Fellowes, who created the show, believes that m

Celebrities playing themselves can either be enormously cringeworthy, or, if they’re sufficiently self-deprecating, positively endearing. But few throw themselves bodily into the task with quite the gusto Nicolas Cage summons here, skewering his own excesses with a surprisingly sharp eye. You might expect hilarious, and sometimes unbearably awkward, results; what you won’t see coming is how heart-warming director Tom Gormican’s film is. This ‘Nick’ Cage shares the real man’s filmography, but he’s monstrously committed to his own stardom and unable to see the toll it has taken on ex-wife Olivia (Sharon Horgan) and daughter Addy (Lily Mo Sheen). He reluctantly accepts an invitation to a millionaire’s birthday party to pay off some debts, and bonds with the eccentric Javi (Pedro Pascal). Alas, CIA agent Vivian (Tiffany Haddish) intervenes to tell Cage that Javi is a drug lord. She recruits Cage to work against his host in order to recover a kidnap victim and prevent a coup. Cage portrays himself as an egotist and a fool, so committed to his art that he’s missed out on life It's cheerfully nonsensical, of course, shot in a sun-drenched luxury compound straight from the big book of action movie clichés, yet lacking the flourishes of a John Woo or a Michael Bay. But the growing friendship between enthusiastic superfan Javi and the wary, damaged star is special. Pascal dances along an impossible line between glowingly sincere and impossibly sinister, his performance emphasising tha

A film adaptation of the Uncharted game series has been in development for the best part of two decades – so long, in fact, that Mark Wahlberg, now cast as mentor figure Sully, was originally due to play hero Nathan Drake (now Tom Holland). The biggest problem for the series was that the games began as an Indiana Jones wannabe, and escaping that long fedora’ed shadow was no easy feat. Finally, it arrives as a prequel, with a younger Drake taking his first steps as a treasure hunter. When we meet him as an adult, in fact, he’s a bartender and pickpocket – but we know, from a childhood opening scene, that he’s also a history nut from a long line of treasure hunters. Wahlberg’s Sully recruits him to find the lost treasure of Magellan, promising him clues to his lost brother’s whereabouts on the way. But ranged against billionaire Santiago Moncado (Antonio Banderas) and his hitlady Braddock (Tati Gabrielle), and with one of the clues in the hands of the untrusting Chloe Frazer (Sophia Ali), it won’t be easy. Cue people falling from planes, underground chases, traps and puzzles – all present and correct from the games. But despite the usually steadying hand of Zombieland’s Ruben Fleischer as director, the tone is uneasy. In Holland’s first scene he apologises to a faceless henchman, which is far too Peter Parker for Drake. It’s as if the studio didn’t trust his charisma away from Spider-Man – although they should – and while his performance is good the script puts his characterisa

There’s enjoyment to be had in Matthew Vaughn’s latest slice of spy nonsense. He creates some fun action scenes, gives us a time period we’ve rarely seen in this sort of caper, and offers an overqualified cast. The problem is there’s enough of all that for perhaps a 90-minute film, and this fills the remaining 40 minutes with an over elaborate plot set against a backdrop of history for dummies. This prequel to Vaughn’s The Kingsmen films promised to explain how that secret spy organisation was formed – a premise it finally remembers to deliver in its final seconds. Our hero is the Duke Of Oxford, Orlando (Ralph Fiennes), a diplomat and do-gooder with a shady past in the colonial forces. He tries to raise his son, Conrad (Harris Dickinson), as a pacifist, but when World War I breaks out the Duke focuses on keeping his son out of the conflict, and tracking down the shadowy figure who is manipulating world events to their own ends. The story barely matters, and yet it’s endless. There are international plots, years of quasi-history and shadowy figures trying to shape world politics to their own ends. There’s far too little to do for Gemma Arterton or Djimon Hounsou, as Orlando’s lethal staffers. The tone veers from the epic silliness of a gonzo struggle with Rasputin (Rhys Ifans, loads of fun) to the near realism of a World War I battlefield, a horror that even this film takes seriously. It’s a clever gag to have Tom Hollander play George V and also his first cousins, the Tsar a

Spider-Man was created as a (then) rare example of a superhero whose life was made markedly worse by having superpowers. For all the exhilaration and possibility that his abilities gave him, they also came with crushing responsibility and did nothing to alleviate the pressure of schoolwork, and making ends meet, and his obligations to family and friends. Spider-Man is always best on the back foot, and this film puts him thoroughly through the wringer. But it also gives him room to shine, and packs an emotional punch that could floor any of his villains. Last time we saw Tom Holland’s Peter Parker, he was outed as Spider-Man to the whole world and accused of murder. In the fallout of that revelation, he and his family are under siege by the authorities and by shock jock J Jonah Jameson (JK Simmons) leading a hostile media. Desperate for a way back to normality, he asks Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to cast a spell making everyone forget his identity, but something goes wrong. Soon villains who know Spider-Man – but not this version – are turning up, and Peter must get them under control and figure out a way to get them all back to their home dimensions.There’s a lot of plot in this film, and some is garbled and muddy, but it nails its emotional beats. Peter’s relationships with girlfriend MJ (Zendaya), bestie Ned (Jacob Batalon) and aunt May (Marisa Tomei) are kept front and centre of his priorities, and his challenges are as much moral as physical. How should he deal

You often heard that studios don’t make large scale, grown-up dramas any more because Hollywood is too obsessed with superheroes and cartoons. Ridley Scott is single-handedly doing his best to reverse that trend. His second film in as many months, after The Last Duel, is uneven, overlong and completely over the top, and has characters and plot turns that Marvel and Pixar would reject as ‘a bit much’. The good news is that it is undeniably a proper drama and, for the most part, wildly entertaining.Lady Gaga stars as Patrizia Reggiani, an ambitious party girl working for her dad’s business when she meets Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver), one of the heirs to the fashion empire. She contrives further encounters and sets about seducing him, but his ailing father Rodolfo (Jeremy Irons) won’t accept the woman he sees as an uncultured upstart. After marrying a disinherited Maurizio, Patrizia makes it her mission to restore him to the heart of his family via his uncle Aldo (Al Pacino) and a swanky company job in New York. But the marriage founders as Maurizio’s star rises, and Patrizia discovers too late the downsides of marrying into money.It’s a grand opera turned crime drama, with Scott casting a scathing eye over rich people’s problems, taking us from overly-competitive rugby games on a Lake Como lawn to shadowy, sterile mansions. It looks gorgeous, of course, with Dariusz Wolski’s cinematography lightly desaturated and faintly gold-tinged, as if to reflect the family’s wealth. But th

Helen O’Hara, author of ‘Women vs Hollywood: The Fall and Rise of Women in Film’, on why it’s okay to stop worrying and love Ken in Greta Gerwig’s smash-hit feminist blockbuster. If you’re the sort of man who genuinely tries to be a feminist (not the sort of man who calls himself a feminist), Barbie may have made you a bit uncomfortable. Maybe you found yourself thinking that Ryan Gosling’s Ken was the best thing in it, and now you’re wondering if you’ve betrayed the sisterhood by not embracing the full potential of this female-led film. If that’s the case, you adorable try-hard, rest easy: you are not alone. And it’s okay to feel that way. To explain why, a few spoilers for Barbie will follow. First and foremost, Ken is a creation not only of Ryan Gosling, but also of Gerwig’s direction and Gerwig and her partner Noah Baumbach’s writing. That means that he is a product of a collaboration between the sexes, something that is entirely feminist whether its end result is presented by a man or a woman. This is an auteur-made film, after all. If we’re going to give Christopher Nolan credit for everything that happens in Oppenheimer, then we should also give Gerwig credit for everything that happens in Barbie. Not to mention that star Margot Robbie, a producer on the film, could have kicked off if she thought he was unbalancing things. Secondly, and far more important, if you found Gosling funny that’s likely because you realise he’s poking fun at our current gender norms. Ken’s de

Good news for superhero fans! Another new Marvel show is coming to Disney+, and this one looks like tons of fun. Ms Marvel is the story of a New Jersey teenager of Pakistani origin, Kamala Khan, and she could come to play an important part in the Marvel Cinematic Universe going forward. Here’s what you need to know about the newest super-kid on the block. When is Ms Marvel streaming? All six episodes will be landing on Disney+ worldwide on June 8. Is there a trailer for Ms Marvel? There is! You can watch it below. Where does Ms Marvel fit into the Marvelverse? For those who haven’t been keeping up with the MCU, the pandemic forced a short break and a delayed release date for a few films and shows in 2020, but it all came roaring back with its Phase Four in 2021, the phase that continues with Ms Marvel. First out the gate was Disney+ hit WandaVision, followed by Black Widow on the big screen. Falcon & The Winter Soldier then gave us some spy shenanigans, before the Loki series took us in cosmic new dimensions and messed with the space-time continuum. Then What If…? explored some of the possibilities that might arise from multiple timelines in animated form, before Marvel returned to the big screen with Shang-Chi and Eternals. In December Hawkeye delivered a good-natured romp and Spider-Man: No Way Home brought some of that timey-wimey, multiple-reality confusion into live action. It’s a lot to keep up with. Now, following the dark-tinged Moon Knight, wh

It’s been a hard year for cinemas, but a good one for cinema. Despite the continuing upheaval in the world, great films did come out and this year’s Academy Awards have done a better job than usual of recognising them. There are still some upsets and oversights, of course, but a bit less outrage than usual – and for the second year in a row, a very clear frontrunner for Best Picture. Here are the headline nominations that leapt out at us. 1. The Power of the Dog is now hot favourite for Best Picture It’s a good day to be Jane Campion. Her extraordinary western The Power Of The Dog has most nominations with 12, ahead of Dune’s ten. And unlike the sci-fi epic they’re in all the most important categories: Oscar nerds will tell you that almost every Best Picture winner for the last 40 years has had a Best Editing nomination (Birdman is the lone exception), and almost all have Best Director nods. The Power Of The Dog is the only film in all three categories this year, making it a statistical lock on Best Picture. It’s also very good, which doesn’t hurt. But it does leave us facing the extraordinary prospect of two kinda-Westerns, both made by women and distributed digitally, being clear frontrunners in consecutive years. Oscar’s moving forward via the oldest of genres. Photograph: NetflixJesse Plemons and Kirsten Dunst are both nominated for ‘The Power of the Dog’ 2. It’s the year of the acting power couple Two real-life couples are celebrating paired nominations today, suggesti

This year’s Bafta nominations are a mixed bunch – lots of worthy contenders, a few glaring omissions (cough, West Side Story and Olivia Colman), and the odd curveball. Having slept on them, a few of the absentees have started to loom large in the mind. With the awards taking place on March 13 and the nominees locked down, there’s very little we can do to alter the facts at this point, beyond shaking a fist at the awards gods and having a bit of a moan. So we’ve done that instead. Where the heck is Olivia Colman?  Clearly Bafta voters have become bored of nominating Olivia Colman after her win for The Favourite and three wins (out of six nominations) for her TV work. But hey, she really is that good and you can’t just pretend otherwise just to mix things up. This year’s The Lost Daughter lives and dies on her performance, and she’s both spiky and sincere as an academic who develops a strange fascination with her holiday neighbours. Sure, she already has a film Bafta, three TV Baftas, an Oscar, three Golden Globes and an Emmy. But is it really enough? Does it even begin to compensate her for the time they overlooked her performance in Tyrannosaur? Photograph: NIKO TAVERNISE/NETFLIXLeonardo DiCaprio in ‘Don’t Look Up’ Why is Leonardo DiCaprio? If Bafta voters are bored of nominating Colman, they positively can’t resist DiCaprio. He’s been up for Best Actor six times before, and now he gets a seventh nod for Don’t Look Up. He’s as decent in the environmental comedy, but it’s no

After last year’s Academy Awards in an LA train station delivered all the glitz and glamour of an evening in, well, a train station, the 2022 version is already looking like a return to the swinging funtimes of Oscars of yore. Covid be damned, Hollywood is ready to party again – albeit with air kisses from an additional two yards away. And after three years without one, the Oscars will have a host to run the show on March 27. Early suggestions take in everyone from Tom Holland to Pete Davidson to Tiffany Haddish. Here’s our two cents worth on a few outstanding candidates to throw into the mix.  Hot favourites Tom HollandThe hot favourite among the Twitterati, the charming and charismatic Brit would bring something that the Oscars always yearns for: an actual audience. Holland is red-hot after No Way Home laid waste to the box office and would no doubt have younger viewers tuning in on the TV (once they’ve figured out what that is). Also, having Spider-Man the person hosting would also save the Academy from having to give Spider-Man the movie an award. If he comes on stage to Rihanna, the internet will physically break. Photograph: Shutterstock Tina Fey and Amy PoehlerYes, they're on record, repeatedly, saying they don't want to host the Oscars, but they slayed at the Golden Globes so maybe someone should throw money at them until they can't resist anymore. They would slay again.  Steve Martin and Martin ShortAn old-school vaudeville double act to bring showmanship, pisstak

There’s a truth about award shows that often goes unsaid for fear of appearing to be a sore loser: the odds are stacked against films made by, with or for women. The people that awards shows acknowledge tend to be male, their subject matter tends to be male and their leads tend to be male. The rather self-conscious grasp that cinema makes at importance every awards season is guided by voters who are mostly old, white men. For example, the Best Director nominations are chosen by the directing branch only, and that is, historically, overwhelmingly male. To be eligible to join you have to have directed two features, one within the past decade, a rate of work beyond the reach of many female directors until recently. Another factor is the kind of film that gets recognition. War movies, crime dramas, gangster stories, biopics of great men, portraits of damaged men, men’s struggles. Not just male stories, but stories about male anger and male violence.  Films about female ambition (Little Women), men working towards some sort of grace or peace (A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Honey Boy), or female anger (Hustlers) are not considered as important. We’ve been told that films about men doing things, possibly violently, are more important than stories about women, in any capacity. There’s a far greater overlap between Best Actor and Best Picture than between Best Actress and Best Picture as a result. In the last twenty years, only two Best Picture winners have had female protagonis