Everything feels off in this eco-friendly fable in which a 12-year-old boy (Zac Efron) searches for a “real” tree to impress earnest Audrey (Taylor Swift). The trees were wiped out by the foolish Once-ler and a wicked capitalist has exploited the town’s lack of clean air for profit. The animation is bright and garish, the humour humourless and the romance lacks charm
Matthew McConaughey, after his louche turn in Killer Joe, once again excels as an ageing, preening stripper in Steven Soderbergh’s lightweight drama.
The resurrected Dallas is riddled with far too many pretty people (Jesse Metcalfe, Julie Gonzalo) but it’s still the old stagers – Sue Ellen, Bobby Ewing, and, of course, the reptilian JR Ewing (Larry Hagman, still wonderful) – who make these slickly packaged episodes of oil skullduggery compelling.
In Jennifer Westfeldt’s shockingly disagreeable romantic comedy, she manages to reduce Jon Hamm (Don Draper), and Kristen Wiig (Bridesmaids), to mere ciphers, with not one decent funny line.
“I was an agent for three years before I realised all models are aliens.” Apart from the odd droll line – and a very amusing Andy Warhol “happening” – a lot of this third instalment feels undercooked, slightly tired, even the perennially perky Will Smith.
Yves Montand is riveting as César, a hyperactive, wealthy scrap-metal merchant who smokes big fat cigars, drives fast and adores the exquisite, younger Rosalie (Romy Schneider).
William Friedkin’s scuzzy redneck thriller only betrays it’s theatrical roots (Killer Joe is based on Tracy Letts’s play) in the final segment, when everything unravels in suitably gruesome fashion –you’ll never view a fried chicken drumstick in the same way again.
“Shut up, you soppy tart, those things are zombies,†barks Alan Ford’s pensioner, Ray, in this vigorous slasher, which lampoons and lionises London’s East End in equal measure.
Very polished and smart 20-minute slices of award-winning sitcom, presented in mockumentary style, featuring three well-heeled families: a gay couple (Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Eric Stonestreet), the Dunphy family (led by Julie Brown’s stoical mother) and the Pritchetts (Ed O’Neill and Sofia Vergara).
Ridley Scott’s muddled Alien prequel is, essentially, a remake of the original film with a far higher budget, a thick coating of pseudo-science, and a screenplay that seems to be cobbled together from a dozen different drafts.