Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Roger Michell Stars: Jim Broadbent, Helen Mirren, Matthew Goode, Fionn Whitehead, James Wilby. Another film that proves that fact is often stranger than fiction. In 1961, Kempton Bunton (played here by Oscar winner Jim Broadbent), an eccentric 60-year-old taxi driver, stole a valuable Goya masterpiece from the National Gallery of London. Incensed that the British government had spent £140,000 on purchasing Goya’s portrait of the Duke of Wellington, Kempton stole the painting. He sent ransom notes to the authorities saying …
PADDINGTON 2
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Paul King Stars: voices of Ben Whishaw, Imelda Staunton, Michael Gambon; Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Hugh Grant, Madeleine Harris, Samuel Joslin, Brendan Gleeson, Jim Broadbent, Peter Capaldi, Tom Conti, Julie Walters, Ben Miller, Richard Ayoade, Joanna Lumley. Paddington, the marmalade loving bear from the wildest jungles of Peru who found a new home in the suburbs of London, was created by the late Michael Bond in 1958. Since then the late author wrote over 100 books about the misadventures of Paddington; they have sold …
THE SENSE OF AN ENDING
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Ritesh Batra Stars: Jim Broadbent, Charlotte Rampling, Harriet Walter, Michelle Dockery, Joe Alwyn, Emily Mortimer, Matthew Goode, Freya Mayo. Based on the 2011 novel written by British author Julian Barnes, The Sense Of An Ending is a meditation on memory, guilt, regret, secrets and repressed emotions and the dark unreliability of nostalgia. The drama was driven by an unreliable narrator and offered up a distorted view of its narrator's personal history. Oscar winner Jim Broadbent (Iris, etc) plays Tony Webster, a …
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 …
THE LEGEND OF TARZAN
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: David Yates Stars: Alexander Skarsgard, Margot Robbie, Samuel L Jackson, Christoph Waltz, Djimon Hounsou, Jim Broadbent, Ben Chaplin. Created by Edgar Rice Burroughs over a century ago, Tarzan is one of the most popular fictional heroes in literature. The child of English aristocrats, he was raised in the jungles of Africa by apes after the death of his parents. He is intelligent, loyal, strong and courageous and fights against evil and colonial powers in deepest darkest Africa. There are a few similarities between his character …
EDDIE THE EAGLE
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Dexter Fletcher Stars: Taron Egerton, Hugh Jackman, Tim McInnerny, Keith Allen, Jo Hartley, Christopher Walken, Jim Broadbent, Edvin Endre, Iris Berben, Mark Benton, Rune Temte, Ania Sowinski. White men can't ski jump? The 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics have already given us one feel good underdog story with the Jamaican bobsled team who defied all odds to compete, and their inspiring story was recounted in the crowd pleasing film Cool Runnings. Now we get another crowd pleasing feel good story with this biopic of British ski jumper …
THE LADY IN THE VAN
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Nicholas Hytner Stars: Maggie Smith, Alex Jennings, Roger Allam, Jim Broadbent, Dominic Cooper, James Corden, Frances de la Tour, Sam Spruell, Claire Foy, Cecilia Noble. Based on the stage play written by Alan Bennett, one of most successful contemporary playwrights in England with credits including The History Boys, The Madness Of King George, etc, this is "mostly a true story" that mixes fact and fiction in an entertaining mix. The play was inspired by Bennett's encounter with Mary Shepherd (dual Oscar winner Maggie Smith), the …
BROOKLYN
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: John Crowley Stars: Saoirse Ronan, Emory Cohen, Domhnall Gleeson, Jim Broadbent, Julie Walters, Jane Brennan, Brid Brennan, Fiona Glascott. Set in the 1950s, this Oscar nominated romantic story exploring one woman's experience of the post-war immigration to America is also a sweet love story and coming of age tale. Eilis Lacey (played by Saoirse Ronan) is an introspective, sensitive and somewhat naive young Irish girl who leaves her small, claustrophobic village and goes to Brooklyn for work and a new life. She leaves behind the insular …