Liverpool Theatre News & Reviews
This Week's Best Movie Releases & Discounted Liverpool Cinema Tickets
Below, we've rounded up the 17 best films currently screening in Liverpool cinemas together with the 14 best releases new to the streaming services this week. (Updated 25 Apr 2025):
Quick Links: 
IN CINEMAS 
NEW TO STREAMING
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1 ~ LA HAINE (30th Anniversary 4K Restoration).
~ 1995 Cannes Festival Winner: Best Director (Mathieu Kassovitz).
★★★★★ Mathieu Kassovitz’s celebrated story of inequality in a Paris banlieue is an effervescent classic which radiates with rage and comedy. ~ The Guardian.
★★★★★ It's been labelled French cinema's answer to Boyz N The Hood, but La Haine (Hate) has a flavour all of its own. Writer-director Kassovitz butts European urbanity up against American street style as kids clash with cops in suburban Paris. The result is an explosion of scathing social commentary and dynamic storytelling. ~ BBC.
This socially conscious crime drama was hailed as groundbreaking – and considered highly controversial – when it premiered in 1995. Its raw and righteous exploration of class conflict, racial discrimination and police brutality remains gut-churningly relevant today. ~ NME.
★★★★★ Stark, exquisite black-and-white photography drains what little cheer there is out of the concrete jungle, creating an alien cityscape devoid of sunshine. But Mathieu Kassovitz's triumph is in finding humanity in every single one of his characters. ~ Empire.
★★★★★ For anyone grown weary of French cinema's bourgeois sheen, La Haine is a wonderful wake-up call. See it. ~ The Times.
★★★★★ The politics of the piece are confrontational, to say the least, but there is a maturity and depth to the characterisation which goes beyond mere agitprop: society may be on the point of self-combustion, but this film betrays no appetite for the explosion. A vital, scalding piece of work. ~ Time Out.
★★★★★ It remains as provocative as a petrol bomb. ~ Total Film.
★★★★ ~ Radio Times.
2 ~ BLUE ROAD: THE EDNA O'BRIEN STORY.
★★★★ A trailblazing talent is finally given her due in this deft documentary. ~ Irish Independent.
★★★★ One of Ireland’s most important novelists and a woman of fierce intelligence and bravery is celebrated in Sinéad O’Shea’s thoroughly enjoyable documentary. ~ The Guardian.
★★★★ An insightful tribute to a formidable writer. ~ Financial Times.
★★★★ The dizzy highs and painful lows of the late writer’s life are laid bare in Sinéad O’Shea’s moving documentary. ~ The Observer.
★★★★★ It is one of the best documentaries you'll see in 2025 and hits the genre's bullseye: leaves you wanting to know more about its subject. There'll be another rake of books to add to that list too. ~ RTE.
3 ~ FLOW.
~ 2025 Oscar Winner: Best Animated Feature Film.
★★★★★ This Oscar-winning Latvian animation is utterly dreamy. Made on a budget of just £2.3 million, this story of a group of animals learning to survive in a postapocalyptic world delivers brilliant action sequences and storytelling. ~ The Times.
★★★★★ Mysterious and magical, this Oscar-winning survival adventure is an animation worthy of Studio Ghibli. ~ Time Out
★★★★★ A mesmerising, wondrous example of animation’s potential; a thoughtful allegory about ecocide and death; and an adorable ode to four-legged (and two-legged) friends. No ebbs here: Flow is the real deal. ~ Empire.
★★★★ ~ The Independent.
★★★★ ~ Little White Lies.
★★★★ ~ Sunday Times.
★★★★ ~ The Observer.
★★★★ ~ The Guardian
★★★★ ~ Telegraph.
Odeon Cinemas - Save up to £6 on tickets
Vue Cinemas - Save up to £3.59 on tickets
Watch at Cineworld - up to £4 off tickets
4 ~ APRIL.
★★★★ Shocking violence is tempered by strange, silent sequences in the much-admired Georgian director Dea Kulumbegashvili's sophomore feature about an obstetrician under investigation, which has echoes of The Piano Teacher. ~ The Guardian.
★★★★ Eerily elusive, superbly acted and crafted, it is one of those rare films with just as tight a grasp on form as it has on substance. ~ Little White Lies.
5 ~ SINNERS.
★★★★★ Finally free from the Marvel machine, Ryan Coogler delivers the goods and then some with his music-powered, genre-splicing latest. ~ Little White Lies.
★★★★★ Part period bloodsucker flick, part blues-heavy musical, with not one but two Michael B Jordans and an insanely violent denouement. The best film of 2025 so far. ~ The Irish Times.
★★★★ ~ Evening Standard.
★★★★ ~ The Independent.
★★★★ ~ The Telegraph.
★★★★ ~ The Observer.
★★★★ ~ Radio Times.
★★★★ ~ Time Out.
★★★★ ~ Empire.
★★★★ ~ The i.
★★★★ ~ NME.
Odeon Cinemas - Save up to £6 on tickets
Vue Cinemas - Save up to £3.59 on tickets
Watch at Cineworld - up to £4 off tickets
6 ~ HOLY COW.
~ 2024 Cannes Festival Winner: Un Certain Regard - Youth Prize.
★★★★ A bittersweet treat. Louise Courvoisier crafts a moving tale about cheese-making and coming of age, set in the rural French region of Jura. ~ Little White Lies.
★★★★ A largely nonprofessional cast shine in Courvoisier’s gritty rural tale that feels satisfyingly real. ~ The Observer.
★★★★ Heartwarming, authentic and far from cheesy. ~ The Times.
★★★★ ~ Financial Times.
★★★★ ~ The Irish Times.
★★★★ ~ Time Out.
7 ~ JULIE KEEPS QUIET.
~ 2024 Cannes Festival Winner: SACD Award + GAN Foundation Award.
★★★★ A star player at an elite tennis school decides to stay silent when the head coach is suspended in Leonardo Van Dijl’s absorbing tense movie of things unsaid and subjects avoided. ~ The Guardian.
★★★★ There are no big melodramatic fireworks here; instead, with masterful precision, the film tracks how Julie’s diligence and determination on the court gradually reveals her strength of character off it. ~ The Scotsman.
★★★✭ A slick, steely piece of storytelling. ~ Little White Lies.
8 ~ ONE TO ONE: JOHN & YOKO.
★★★★ This new documentary catches the world's most famous dropouts at work and play and provides new revelations about The Beatles afterlife of John Lennon. It also does a very good job of rehabilitating the unfairly maligned Yoko Ono. ~ RTE.
★★★★ Kevin Macdonald’s immersive collage is a pop culture fever dream; a collection of staggering TV clips and amazing audio of Lennon and Ono’s life in 1970s NYC, this film is a mosaic of countercultural moments. ~ The Guardian.
★★★★★ A riveting portrait of post-Beatles idealism, activism and binge-watching. ~ Financial Times.
★★★★★ Dissecting Lennon and Ono’s post-Beatles life, this fascinating look at the couple's NYC era is a total treat. ~ NME.
★★★★ A casually dazzling, offbeat portrait of Lennon and Ono. Kevin Macdonald’s frenzied documentary about the couple’s charity gigs plunges viewers into the cultural moment of New York in the 1970s. ~ The Telegrapgh.
★★★★ This is an effortlessly absorbing portrait of a megastar dancing to a charged political era. ~ Irish Independent.
★★★★ One to One goes further than fan service for Beatlemaniacs. It’s a document of a febrile time and a wake-up call for a fizzled revolution. ~ Time Out.
★★★★✭ There is always room for a post-Beatles doc if it’s this good and this original. ~ Irish Times.
★★★★ ~ The Observer.
★★★★ ~ Radio Times.
Odeon Cinemas - Save up to £6 on tickets
Vue Cinemas - Save up to £3.59 on tickets
Watch at Cineworld - up to £4 off tickets
9 ~ KAIJU No.8: MISSION RECON.
★★★★ A high school-style training academy is the setting for Tomomi Kamiya and Shigeyuki Miya’s punky anime tale of a volunteer army’s battle against the Godzilla-like kaiju. ~ The Guardian.
Odeon Cinemas - Save up to £6 on tickets
10 ~ WARFARE.
★★★★✭ One of the standout films of the year. ~ RTE.
★★★★★ Co-directors Alex Garland and former US Navy Seal Ray Mendoza recreate a 2006 battle with almost unbearable intensity – and a dazzling ensemble cast. A nerve-shredding real-time Iraq war film which drags you into visceral frontline combat. ~ The Observer.
★★★★★ The most harrowing – and honest – depiction of modern combat ever made.
Based on memories of a battle in Iraq, Garland and Mendoza’s film is an astonishing evocation of the fire and fury of real conflict. ~ The Telegraph.
★★★★★ This is a movie that’s as difficult to watch as it is to forget. It’s a sensory blitz, a percussive nightmare and a relentless assault on the soul. ~ The Times.
★★★★★ Warfare does what film does best, recreating the feelings of fear and simple will to live when you are trapped. ~ BBC.
★★★★★ War is hell, and Warfare refuses to shy away from it. Free of the operatics of most supposed anti-war films, it’s all the more effective for its simplicity. It is respectfully gruelling. ~ Empire.
★★★★ ~ Evening Standard.
★★★★ ~ Irish Times.
★★★★ ~ Time Out.
★★★★ ~ NME.
Odeon Cinemas - Save up to £6 on tickets
Vue Cinemas - Save up to £3.59 on tickets
Watch at Cineworld - up to £4 off tickets
11 ~ THE LAST DANCE.
★★★★ An irascible priest loses his patience with a newcomer to Hong Kong’s funeral traditions in this punchy melodrama of a film. ~ The Guardian.
★★★ This likable Cantonese-language comedy drama starts out as an odd couple story but evolves into something more complex and satisfying. ~ The Observer.
Odeon Cinemas - Save up to £6 on tickets
12 ~ BLACK BAG.
★★★★ Steven Soderbergh is back to his very best with a knowing and outlandishly sexy spy thriller. ~ Time Out.
★★★★★ Soderbergh’s new thriller about married spies is brilliant, sexy, and as tight as a drum; an immensely pleasurable new genre outing. ~ The Independent.
★★★★ More John le Carré than James Bond, this is a very entertaining thriller, which applies Soderbergh’s well-trodden heist mechanics to espionage with slickly rewarding results. ~ Empire.
★★★★ ~ Irish Independent.
★★★★ ~ The Scotsman.
★★★★ ~ The Telegraph.
★★★★ ~ Sunday Times.
★★★★ ~ Irish Times.
★★★★ ~ The i.
★★★★ ~ NME.
★★★★ ~ RTE.
Odeon Cinemas - Save up to £6 on tickets
Vue Cinemas - Save up to £3.59 on tickets
Watch at Cineworld - up to £4 off tickets
13 ~ PRIDE & PREJUDICE (20th Anniversary Reissue).
~ 2006 Oscar Nominee: Best Actress (Kiera Knightly) + Best Original Score (Dario Marianelli) + Best Costume + Best Art Direction.
★★★★ It must have been daunting to bring Jane Austen's period drama to the big screen for the first time in 65 years. Not only is the 1940 Laurence Olivier/Greer Garson version seen as a classic, but it was also followed by a number of revered TV adaptations - notably the 1995 BBC production starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. So it's to his credit that debut director Joe Wright does such a beautiful job with his gutsy and less idealised interpretation. ~ Radio Times.
★★★★ Not as divine as Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility, but engagingly comparable to the Gwyneth Paltrow-starring Emma and vastly superior to Mansfield Park. ~ Empire.
Odeon Cinemas - Save up to £6 on tickets
Vue Cinemas - Save up to £3.59 on tickets
Watch at Cineworld - up to £4 off tickets
14 ~ THE FRIEND.
★★★★ Bill Murray and Naomi Watts are genuinely touching in this lovely New York fantasy while the newcomer Bing is full of charm as the dog whose presence causes Watts’s character to confront what’s missing in her life. ~ Irish Times.
★★★★ Watts and Murray, both guilty of being underutilised to their full potential in recent years, immerse themselves into characters with rich interiors who are conversing across the afterlife. ~ Irish Independent.
Odeon Cinemas - Save up to £6 on tickets
Vue Cinemas - Save up to £3.59 on tickets
Watch at Cineworld - up to £4 off tickets
15 ~ BRIDGET JONES: MAD ABOUT THE BOY.
★★★★★ Now in her 50s, Renée Zellweger’s Bridget is a singleton once more – and what a joy it is to see her back on our screens. There's big laughs and even bigger emotions in her best film yet. ~ The Telegraph.
★★★★ Bridget faces new challenges in parenting and love, but it’s the familiar faces around her who deliver heart and humour in this unexpectedly poignant fourth outing. ~ The Observer.
★★★★★ This is the best film since 2001's original – a deeply moving and joyful look at grief, friendship and love that is a triumph in its own right. ~ The i.
★★★★ ~ Irish Independent.
★★★★ ~ The Independent.
★★★★ ~ Sunday Times.
★★★★ ~ Radio Times.
★★★★ ~ Irish Times.
★★★★ ~ The Times.
★★★★ ~ Time Out.
Watch at Odeon - up to £6 off tickets
16 ~ DOG MAN.
★★★✭ DreamWorks’ second feature-length Dav Pilkey adaptation is a lot of bark and solid bite; zippy, beautifully constructed family fun. ~ Little White Lies.
★★★★ An animation with wisdom and bite. ~ The Times.
★★★★ Dav Pilkey’s half-dog, half-cop Captain Underpants spin-off is now a superb animation with cross-generational appeal. ~ The Observer.
★★★★ Centering on a half-human half-canine cop, this colourful adaptation of the popular children’s books retains all the series’ wacky excesses. Like something a six-year-old would make up after bingeing on Maoams. ~ The Telegraph.
★★★★ ~ Irish Independent.
★★★★ ~ RTE.
Watch at Odeon - up to £6 off tickets
Watch at Cineworld - up to £4 off tickets
17 ~ MICKEY 17.
★★★★★ Bong Joon Ho's best English movie to date and arguably Robert Pattinson's best movie ever. ~ Total Film.
★★★★ Robert Pattinson is a hangdog delight in this enjoyably mad sci-fi confection which satirises the bleak religification of 21st-century corporate identity. ~ Telegraph.
★★★★ Gross and heartwarming in equal measure. ~ Little White Lies.
★★★★ A highly entertaining absurdist ride. ~ The i.
★★★★ ~ Evening Standard.
★★★★ ~ Time Out.
★★★★ ~ NME.
Odeon Cinemas - Save up to £6 on tickets
Vue Cinemas - Save up to £3.59 on tickets
Watch at Cineworld - up to £4 off tickets
ALSO SCREENING:
★★★✭ Just Another Girl on the I.R.T.
★★★✭ Ne Zha 2.
★★★✭ Last Swim.
★★★✭ War Paint: Women at War.
★★★✭ Restless.
★★★✭ The Return.
★★★✭ Drop.
★★★✭ Cloud.
★★★ Mr. Burton.
★★★ The End.
★★★ Four Mothers.
★★★ Sebastian.
★★★ Treading Water.
★★★ Moana 2.
★★★ The Monkey.
★★★ Mufasa: The Lion King.
★★✭ The Amateur.
★★✭ Novocaine.
★★✭ The Penguin Lessons.
★★✭ Sonic The Hedgehog 3.
★★✭ The Woman in the Yard.
★★✭ The Alto Knights.
★★✭ Death of a Unicorn.
★★ Captain America: Brave New World.
★★ A Minecraft Movie.
★★ Snow White.
★★ Marching Powder.
★★ A Working Man.
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NEW TO STREAMING:
(Updated 25 Apr 2025):
Netflix, Amazon Prime & Sky Cinema ~ SCHINDLER'S LIST
~ 1994 Oscar Winner: Best Film + Best Director + Best Screenplay + Best Cinematography + Best Art Direction + Best Editing.
★★★★★ This outstanding Holocaust drama, based on Thomas Keneally's bestseller Schindler's Ark, won seven Oscars, including best picture, director, adapted screenplay and score. ~ Radio Times.
★★★★★ Widely considered director Steven Spielberg's masterpiece, Schindler's List is a landmark moment in cinema. It is frequently used as a teaching tool, and it has helped ensure a public awareness of Nazi atrocities for years to come. ~ AllMovie.
★★★★★ The documentary style allows Spielberg to deliver his message without preaching. The clever use of light and shade also makes it visually stunning. ~ BBC.
Spielberg employs all the emotive Hollywood tools at his disposal and the result is a remarkable film with wide appeal and real importance. Neeson is phenomenal, but matched by towering performances from Ben Kingsley and Ralph Fiennes. ~ The Times.
★★★★★ A necessary holocaust movie made for a Western audience. At times over sentimental when the subject matter hardly needs any dressing up, but this is a beautifully crafted, hopeful movie. ~ Empire.
Sky Cinema ~ THE LADYKILLERS (1955)
1957 Oscar Nominee: Best Original Screenplay.
★★★★★ A comic crime caper that still kills, the classic from Ealing Studios is still subversive, hilarious and distinctly English. ~ The Guardian.
★★★★★ One of the great Ealing comedies of the 1950s, The Ladykillers stars a buck-toothed, airily arty Alec Guinness as the leader of perhaps the most incompetent criminal heist gang. ~ The Times.
★★★★★ A supreme blend of the seedy and the sinister, this was Ealing's last post on the comedy front - indeed, the studio was shutting up shop as this film went on release. ~ Radio Times.
★★★★★ A wonderfully macabre black comedy that really does improve with age. ~ BBC.
★★★★ ~ Empire.
Netflix & Amazon Prime ~ INDIANA JONES AND THE RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK
~ 1982 Oscar Winner: Best Art Direction + Best Sound + Best Editing + Best Special Effects + Best Sound Effects Editing.
★★★★ This bullwhip-cracking action-adventure launched the Indiana Jones series starring Harrison Ford. ~ The Times.
★★★★★ Steven Spielberg's movie still looks buoyant and thrilling more than three decades later. ~ The Telegraph.
★★★★★ An homage to the glory days of Saturday matinee adventure serials and back-lot B-movies, Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of the most unabashedly enjoyable cinematic events of the 1980s. ~ AllMovie.
★★★★★ Spielberg’s deliriously entertaining throwback remains a pure pleasure, a film drawn from forgotten serials and comics and brought brilliantly to life. ~ The Guardian.
★★★★★ The end result being a movie-movie that still brings out the wide-eyed kid in all of us. ~ Total Film.
A classic action movie if ever there was one. ~ Sunday Times.
★★★★★ Hold on tight, because it starts at full throttle and never lets up in this definitive action masterpiece, and storyteller Spielberg is at the height of his powers, delighting the imagination with terrific eye-grazing tableaux, nail-biting tension and engaging characters. ~ Radio Times.
★★★★★ A timeless classic that will go on captivating youngsters long after Indy's priceless artefacts have crumbled into dust. ~ BBC.
Netflix & Sky Cinema ~ THE TRUMAN SHOW
~ 1999 Oscar Nominee: Best Supporting Actor (Ed Harris) + Best Director (Peter Weir) + Best Original Screenplay.
Released in 1998, the one-of-a-kind Hollywood film – a satirical sci-fi psychological comedy-drama – about one man living in a fabricated reality concocted by TV producers made an impact on its release, but no one knew quite how prescient it would be. Certainly, the film's cautionary subtext went firmly unheeded, for media voyeurism has only become a more and more ingrained part of our lives. ~ BBC.
The Truman Show may be the work of art that best predicted the 21st century. A taut, dense masterpiece whose clairvoyance only deepens with time, it has an influence so widespread that there is now an officially recognised “Truman Show disorder”. ~ The Telegraph.
★★★★★ Scripted by Gattaca's director/screenwriter Andrew Niccol and flawlessly executed by director Peter Weir, this ingenious satirical comedy drama about media omnipotence is both dazzling and sophisticated from audacious start to poignant finale. ~ Radio Times.
★★★★★ A movie with wit as well as ideas, it's an all out attack on the media's need to control, package and present real life, which may explain Jim Carrey's disgraceful Oscar snub. ~ Empire.
★★★★ Carrey's performance will impress even those whose teeth he sets on edge. ~ The Guardian.
★★★★★ He proves he has more than one acting dimension in this original, clever tale of junk-culture excess. The Truman Show makes every other block-buster look empty and stale. Hollywood take note: intelligent film-making can work. ~ Total Film.
Channel 4 ~ THE LAVENDAR HILL MOB
1953 Oscar Winner: Best Screenplay.
★★★★★ Alec Guinness shines in this hilarious British comedy. ~ Empire.
★★★★★ Ealing Studios had quite a year in 1951. Not only did the company produce the witty satire The Man in the White Suit, it also released this superb and subtle crime-film spoof. ~ Radio Times.
★★★★★ Inflation may have dented the allure of its 1m bullion heist, but this 1951 Ealing comedy is still 24-carat gold. ~ Total Film.
★★★★★ Both a joyous comedy and a tense thriller. Indeed, its climactic car-chase sequence is easily as dramatic as any of those found in today's summer blockbusters. ~ The Telegraph.
★★★★★ Charles Crichton's direction is subtle but inventive - check out the snaking, near-single-take opening in a Rio cabana - and the performances, writing and plotting are faultless. ~ Time Out.
Amazon Prime & Disney+ ~ THE REVENANT
2016 Oscar Winner: Best Actor (Leonardo DiCaprio) + Best Director (Alejandro G. Iñárritu) + Best Cinematography.
★★★★★ A thrilling adventure that pits the audience at the heart of a long, painful journey about survival and redemption. ~ Sky Cinema.
★★★★★ A tall, brutal tale, thrillingly told. ~ Sunday Times.
★★★★★ The imagery is sublime, primal landscapes straight out of an Albert Bierstadt painting and weird wastelands pulled from the subconscious of Hugh Glass. The original Bear Grylls — and almost certainly history's toughest Hugh — he was an expert tracker who achieved folk hero status by surviving an ursine assault, then clawing his way out of the wilderness to hunt down those who betrayed him.~ Empire.
★★★★★ By the 25-minute mark, you’ll be literally slack-jawed for one of the most stunning scenes ever committed to film, as Glass is attacked by a grizzly bear protecting its two young. Is it CGI? Is it real footage? However it was done, the result astonishes. ~ Total Film.
★★★★★ Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu won a hatful of Oscars for his last feature Birdman but that Broadway-set film seems like a trifle by comparison with The Revenant, his version of a western. It is a mad, visionary and quite often preposterous survival tale, very bloody, very violent and full of murky religious symbolism. It is also often astounding in its flights of macabre lyricism. ~ The Independent.
★★★★★ Here's a movie where the elements ooze from every shot, and Leonardo DiCaprio matches it by baring his wounds and his soul in an Oscar-winning performance of agonising honesty and intense emotion. This is majestic cinema and a technical tour-de-force. ~ Radio Times.
★★★★★ The Revenant bounces seamlessly between moments of extraordinary action and extended sequences of pure human suffering, betrayal, and survival. Not all moviegoers want to see these challenging cinematic exploits on display, but if they do appeal to your sensibilities, The Revenant is a masterpiece of filmmaking. ~ AllMovie.
★★★★★ The movie is as thrilling and painful as a sheet of ice held to the skin. ~ The Guardian.
★★★★★ ~ Evening Standard.
★★★★★ ~ Irish Independent.
★★★★★ ~ The Irish Times.
★★★★★ ~ RTE.
★★★★✭ ~ Little White Lies.
★★★★ ~ The Scotsman.
★★★★ ~ The Telegraph.
★★★★ ~ The Observer.
★★★★ ~ The Times.
★★★★ ~ Time Out.
★★★★ ~ NME.
★★★★ ~ BBC.
Amazon Prime & Disney+ ~ FIGHT CLUB
2000 Oscar Nominee: Best Sound Effects Editing.
★★★★★ David Fincher’s masterpiece is a vital assault on escapism. ~ The Times.
★★★★★ A shocking, provocative and highly amusing macho fantasy, as insomniac loser Edward Norton teams up with seditious soap salesman Brad Pitt to form a no-holds-barred fight club as an outlet for their directionless aggression. ~ Radio Times.
★★★★★ Ultimately, this is a movie that will offend many and it's hardly a pleasant experience. But it is on reflection a far less brutal experience than it first appears. It's effectiveness lies in the timing of shock moments that invariably threaten to make you laugh, despite the political incorrectness of it all. ~ BBC.
★★★★★ Wildly inventive, exceptionally cast and undeniably controversial, there's an endless list of subtexts and viewpoints which will fuel student pub debates for years. ~ Total Film.
★★★★ Great performances, stunning visuals and a plot like nothing you've ever seen. ~ Empire.
★★★★★ It's not for everyone, though, and you'll either love it or hate it.~ Radio Times.
BBC iPlayer, Amazon Prime & Sky Cinema ~ WALLACE & GROMIT: THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT
2006 Oscar Winner: Best Animation.
The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is a lot of fun and, in a likable way, very British. It's full of warmth, kindness and decent feeling. ~ The Observer.
★★★★★ It's a lovely family film packed with cheeky gags and buoyant fun, like the best-ever Bumper Holiday edition of the Beano, with the merest hint of Viz. The script, co-written by Nick Park with Steve Box, Bob Baker and Mark Burton, is a model of high-IQ comedy writing, and every scene and every frame is crafted with flair. ~ The Guardian.
★★★★★ The directors have got their feature-length story, and (relief all round) it's a belter. When you hear that four people have worked on a script you can usually expect a dog's dinner. Not here. The Curse of The Were-Rabbit seamlessly combines the familiarity of the Wallace and Gromit dynamic with a plot of headlong excitement, mined with multitudinous quirks of detail and some wondrously silly surprises. ~ The Independent.
★★★★★ Where the shorts were inspired by the gentle wit of Ealing comedy, Were-Rabbit owes a greater debt to Hammer horror. The movie pastiches come thick and fast, leavened with groansome puns and surprisingly saucy double entendres. ~ BBC.
★★★★★ We know we shouldn't, but in the spirit of Aardman's gleefully self-aware corniness: "Cracking film, Gromit!". ~ Empire.
★★★★ ~ The Telegraph.
★★★★ ~ Radio Times.
★★★★ ~ Total Film.
Amazon Prime ~ THE LEGO MOVIE
2015 Oscar Nominee: Best Song (Shawn Patterson - "Everything is Awesome").
★★★★★ A thrilling, consistently funny, all-ages extravaganza, The Lego Movie is virtually critic proof, in that we can't find a darned thing wrong with it.. ~ The Irish Times.
★★★★★ Slapstick. Wit. Invention. Random laser battles. While it's easy to get carried away by the action - as the characters frequently do - it's the joyful irreverence that makes this such a terrific ride. ~ Sky Cinema.
★★★★★ Despite the fact that the film was created by one of the most successful commercial toy companies in the world and promotes LEGO products, it doesn't feel overly commercial. The self-deprecating, irreverent humour and pacey plot go a long way to preventing that from happening. ~ RTE.
★★★★★ The film is never hampered by its chosen medium. It goes everywhere and does everything, from pitched aerial battles to cities at bay against inferno. ~ Financial Times.
★★★★ ~ Evening Standard.
★★★★ ~ The Independent.
★★★★ ~ Little White Lies.
★★★★ ~ The Observer.
★★★★ ~ The Guardian.
★★★★ ~ The Telegraph.
★★★★ ~ The Scotsman.
★★★★ ~ Radio Times.
★★★★ ~ Total Film.
★★★★ ~ Time Out.
★★★★ ~ Empire.
ITV X ~ WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY
~ 1972 Oscar Nominee: Best Original Score (Leslie Bricusse, Anthony Newley & Walter Scharf).
★★★★ The 1971 version of Roald Dahl's immortal, sugar-coated morality play finds Gene Wilder as disturbing and fault-ridden but compelling as the book described. Okay, so its pacing may be slightly off (taking nearly 40 minutes to arrive at the factory gates), but this is still a Golden Ticket if ever there was one. ~ Empire.
★★★★ Add singalong ditties like The Candy Man, Pure Imagination and the Oompa-Loompa song, and you have wonderful, timeless entertainment. ~ Radio Times.
★★★★★ The movie continues to remain timeless in spite of itself. ~ Sky Cinema.
Altrincham Garrick Theatre ~ 23 Oct - 2 Nov 2025.
ITV X ~ Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
~ 1969 Oscar Nominee: Best Song (Richard & Robert Sherman - Chitty Chitty Bang Bang).
★★★★ When this splendid musical was released in 1968, it was unfairly compared with Disney classic Mary Poppins, not least because of its lacklustre box office. Not a surprise as this adaptation of the Ian Fleming novel shared Poppins star Dick Van Dyke, a super sing-a-long score by the Sherman brothers and a picture-book Edwardian setting. ~ Radio Times.
★★★★ The film is too long at well over two hours, but the effects are impressive for the time and the musical numbers zippy. ~ Empire.
Read our review of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Mar 2025
ITV X & Disney+ ~ Mrs. DOUBTFIRE
~ 1994 Oscar Winner: Best Make-Up.
★★★★ Adapted from Anne Fine's book Alias Madame Doubtfire, this knowing blend of comedy and common sense is family entertainment par excellence. ~ Radio Times.
★★★★ Although the broad comedy of the first half soon gives way to a tidal wave of entirely uncalled for sentimentality, this is still a laugh riot - the sight of our hero setting fire to his falsies never fails to amuse. ~ Empire.
Shaftesbury Theatre, London ~ Until 26 Apr 2025.
BBC iPlayer & Disney+ ~ 9 TO 5
~ 1981 Oscar Nominee: Best Original Song (Dolly Parton - Nine to Five).
★★★★ The original girl power movie is as barbed as ever. ~ Irish Times.
★★★★ This tale of misogyny, kidnap and rattling typewriters is a boldly progressive piece of film-making. 9 to 5 is tremendous fun. ~ The Guardian.
ITV X ~ THE OLIVIER AWARDS
~ Award-winning stars Beverley Knight and Billy Porter host the 2025 edition of the glitzy ceremony, which celebrates the very best in British theatre, from the Royal Albert Hall on Sunday 6th April.
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