Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Sam Mendes Stars: Olivia Colman, Micheal Ward, Toby Jones, Colin Firth, Tanya Moodie, Tom Brooke, Hannah Oslow. The latest film from Oscar winning director Sam Mendes (Skyfall, 1917, etc) is something of a love letter to the cinema and the effect of films on our lives. But it is something of a tepid love letter when compared to films like the glorious Cinema Paradiso and the like. The film is set in the dreary coastal town of Margate, which has seen better years, and most of the drama centres around the art deco Empire …
MOTHERING SUNDAY
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Eva Husson Stars: Odessa Young, Colin Firth, Olivia Colman, Josh O'Connor, Emma D'Arcy, Glenda Jackson, Sope Dirisu, Patsy Ferran. This period drama about doomed love is sort of like an edgier variation on Upstairs Downstairs. The film is set mainly in the spring of 1924. The central character is Jane Fairchild (played by Australian actress Odessa Young), a maid working for the aristocratic Niven family. Jane is an orphan and although she has no family and no formal education she dreams of making her way through …
OPERATION MINCEMEAT
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: John Madden Stars: Colin Firth, Matthew Macfadyen, Kelly Macdonald, Johnny Flynn, Penelope Wilton, Jason Isaacs, Simon Russell Beale, Rufus Wright, Mark Gatiss. Another film that proves that often truth is stranger than fiction. A case in point is this true story of an elaborate WWII deception operation conceived by British Intelligence to disguise the 1943 Allied invasion of Sicily by tricking the German high command into thinking that the attack would take place in Greece. The operation was the brainchild of the secret XX …
MARY POPPINS RETURNS
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Rob Marshall Stars: Emily Blunt, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ben Whishaw, Emily Mortimer, Colin Firth, Meryle Streep, Julie Walters, Pixie Davies, Nathanael Saleh, Joel Dawson, Angela Lansbury, Dick Van Dyke, Jeremy Swift, Kobna Holbrook-Smith, David Warner, Jim Norton, voices of Chris O'Dowd, Mark Addy. It's been fifty years since Disney released their endearing and enduring live action musical adaptation of P L Travers' Mary Poppins, fantastical tale of the magical nanny who arrived to heal the Banks family in their time of trouble. …
MAMMA MIA! HERE WE GO AGAIN
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Ol Parker Stars: Amanda Seyfried, Lily James, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgard, Christine Baranski, Julie Walters, Andy Garcia, Cher, Hugh Skinner, Josh Dylan, Jeremy Irvine, Dominic Cooper, Cher, Meryl Streep, Jessica Kennan Wynn, Alexa Davies, Celia Imrie. Mamma Mia! (2008) was a film adaptation of the successful stage juke box musical featuring many of the catchiest hit songs from popular Swedish pop quartet ABBA, and it grossed $600 million at the box office. It’s not surprising that the producers have a second …
BRIDGET JONES’S BABY
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Sharon Maguire Stars: Renee Zellweger, Colin Firth, Patrick Dempsey, Emma Thompson, Sarah Solemani, Jim Broadbent, Gemma Jones, Shirley Henderson, Neil Pearson, Sally Phillips, Patrick Malahide, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Ed Sheeran, Enzo Cilenti, Celia Imrie. In 1995 author Helen Fielding created the character of Bridget Jones, a thirty something single professional woman living in London, for a column in London's Independent newspaper. Bridget Jones was an iconic character for single women, and the character became so popular that …
KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Matthew Vaughn Stars: Colin Firth, Taron Egerton, Mark Strong, Samuel L Jackson, Michael Caine, Sofia Boutella, Jack Davenport, Mark Hamill, Sophie Cookson, Tom Prior. "The name is Darcy, Mr Darcy...?" Colin Firth becomes an unlikely action hero and super spy in this over the top but entertaining spy action thriller from the creative team behind Kick-Ass. The Kingsmen are an independent intelligence agency operating at the highest level of discretion and their mission is simply to protect the world from those who would try to …
BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Rowan Joffe Stars: Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Anne Marie Duff. A woman with anterograde amnesia, a rare form of memory loss tries to find out the truth behind the traumatic accident responsible for her condition. But how far can she trust her husband? And can she trust the mysterious psychiatrist who is treating her? Memory loss has been the driving force of many films, from Christopher Nolan's tricky and intelligent Memento through to the action-oriented The Bourne Identity, and even the comedic Adam Sandler vehicle 50 …