It may come across as CBeebies does “No Man’s Sky” or, perhaps, Nick Jr’s “Avatar” but there’s actually a lot to enjoy in delightfully vibrant French animation “Astro Kid”. When their survey ship is destroyed while navigating an asteroid field, Willy finds himself separated from his parents and stranded on an uncharted planet with only…
Tag: 2019
Good Omens is a nice and accurate adaptation of the book, but not much more.
“Good Omens”, starting on BBC2 tonight after an exclusive first run on Amazon Prime is a nice and accurate translation of a long-thought unfilmable book to the small screen, but that’s about it. Despite note-perfect casting, decent special effects and the presence of Neil Gaiman himself as showrunner, somehow the series ends up less than…
A triumphant delight, Gerwig’s Little Women (2019) is a new classic cut from the cloth of an old one.
I must confess that although I’ve been aware of “Little Women” for many more years than I care to remember or admit, I’ve never actually read or watched any adaptations of it before – at least none that I can remember. I knew it was a renowned and respected novel of the lives of four…
Netflix’s The Two Popes (2019) explores the fallibility of the infallible.
It would seem to be something of a contradiction in terms to deliver a warm and whimsical drama about the leadership of the Catholic Church during some of its most tumultuous years but that’s exactly what Fernando Meirelles’ gently absorbing chronicle of this archly ceremonial game of Papal thrones. Essentially a biographical film tracing the…
Spies In Disguise (2019) is a pleasant post-Christmas surprise
Tom Holland, for the second time this year, finds himself on an unexpected adventure in Venice in BlueSky’s amiable family-friendly animated action movie “Spies In Disguise”. Together with Will Smith, who seems to have rediscovered his 1990’s happy-go-lucky charm this year, the two of them take on the villainous Killian, voiced – of course –…
Playing With Fire (2019) produces plenty of smoke but never catches alight.
Although it suffers from the same problem which blighted the 2016 “Ghostbusters” – every supporting cast member is competing to one-up each other in a game of schtick – once things settle down a little and John Cena starts to take ownership of the movie, it ends up being a sweet – if slight –…
