Michael Gambon

Review: The King's Speech

Early January release date... esteemed British cast... wartime setting... There's a very good chance that The King's Speech might be the most Bafta-iest movie ever made. It's tailor made to appeal to lovers of classic British cinema and contains all the elements needed to have the British film industry falling over each other to praise it.

Review: The Book Of Eli

Perhaps it's a reflection on the slightly darker times we live in, but cinema has come over all post-apocalyptic as we enter 2010: vampires preying on the few remaining living in Daybreakers; Viggo Mortensen battling for survival in a grim new world in The Road; and the forthcoming Legion will feature a retelling of the end of days. So much for entering the New year with a sense of optimism. The Book Of Eli furrows all too familiar post-apocalyptic territory with a grim vision of the future that is entirely bland and rather phoney.

Review: Fantastic Mr. Fox

Wes Anderson has always combined the neuroticism of Woody Allen with the visual flair of Michel Gondry to examine an assortment of fucked up families. Not exactly a winning formula for a kid's film, so it was a surprising move for Anderson to turn his attention to Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr Fox. It shouldn't, but the melding of the over-active imaginations of Dahl and Anderson just about works.

Review: Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince

First, an admission: I've not read the Harry Potter books. Go ahead: take me out back and shoot me. I've seen the films and enjoyed them as passing distractions, but never felt obliged to comment, given that they're so clearly aimed at the hardcore fans - trying to review them would be like pretending to support a football team ...

Review: Brideshead Revisited

And so, Brideshead has once again been revisited. The tale of crumbling aristocracy, Catholic fanaticism and a magnificently dysfunctional family in the days before everyone was trotting off to therapy. Charles Ryder (Goode), "a painter from Paddington", is mesmerised by charismatic Sebastian Flyte (Whishaw) when th...