Reviews by Andrew Robertson

Order by: Date, A–Z

• 
  Dad, Lenin And Freddy (2011)

  Review preview for Dad, Lenin And Freddy

  This is an entertaining if occasionally anachronistic slice of silliness.

  Daddy is often away from home. Is it Vladimir Lenin's fault, or Freddy Krueger's?
• 
  Danger Of Complete Extinction (2012)

  Review preview for Danger Of Complete Extinction

  Konstantin Kolesov's film doesn't have nothing to say but it doesn't have much to say about nothing.

  A man who is worried about turning into hiis dad reacts against the world at large.
• 
  Daphne (2017)

  Review preview for Daphne

  It's an unfairness to the quality of her supporting cost to mention how good Beecham is again and again, but life isn't fair.

  A young woman finds herself thrown off balance after she saves the life of a shopkeeper.
• 
  The Dark Mile (2017)

  Review preview for The Dark Mile

  Watchable, even occasionally thrilling, but The Dark Mile does not shine.

  Two woman book a sailing trip after a personal tragedy... but trouble lurks on the loch.
• 
  Days Of Glory (2006)

  Review preview for Days Of Glory

  Days of Glory is a great film, thoroughly deserving of the award attention that it has received.

  Four North African men join the French army to fight the Nazis, but will their deeds be remembered?
• 
  Dad's Sneakers (2021)

  Review preview for Dad's Sneakers

  This is heartbreaking.

  An immersive insight into the last hours of 13-year-old Sasha’s life in a boarding school for children deprived of parental care.
• 
  Danger Close (2019)

  Review preview for Danger Close

  There are good performances made of small moments throughout.

  The true story of the Anzac's Battle of Long Tan in Vietnam.
• 
  Dayfly (2021)

  Review preview for Dayfly

  Yi Baoxingchen's film is as mixed media as a single thing like film can be, and all the stronger for it.

  Life is a ray of sunshine that breaks through darkness. In the vast universe, the life of human beings and of all the things in the world comes to an end, a short and wonderful experience which is at the same time evanescent, just like a dayfly.
• 
  Days Lost (2020)

  Review preview for Days Lost

  Though it has subtleties aplenty its core confrontation lays it on a little too thick.

  Olja and Igor's sibling equilibrium is broken by his new girlfriend, and will be tested further by what they leave behind.
• 
  Day Watch (2006)

  Review preview for Day Watch

  The action sequences are stunning, the special effects impressive.

  The forces of good and evil battle over a device with the power to save or destroy Moscow.
• 
  Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)

  Review preview for Deadpool & Wolverine

  Deadpool & Wolverine is more of the same.

  Wolverine is recovering from his injuries when he crosses paths with the loudmouth Deadpool. They team up to defeat a common enemy.
• 
  The Dead Don't Hurt (2023)

  Review preview for The Dead Don't Hurt

  A small and human story in the sweep of a West both mythic and mundane.

  A fiercely independent French Canadian woman embarks on an affair with a Danish immigrant.
• 
  Dead In A Week (Or Your Money Back) (2018)

  Review preview for Dead In A Week (Or Your Money Back)

  It's well executed (a phrase I use unthinkingly) and did make me laugh, but not enough to allay my concerns.

  An ageing hitman offers to help a young man who keeps failing at suicide.
• 
  Death Of A Unicorn (2025)

  Review preview for Death Of A Unicorn

  The alchemy of film means that sometimes this amount of gold can still feel leaden.

  A father and daughter accidentally hit and kill a unicorn while en route to a weekend retreat, where the father's billionaire boss seeks to exploit the creature’s miraculous curative properties.
• 
  Death Of The Soundman (2017)

  Review preview for Death Of The Soundman

  An adept bit of film-making.

  Two sound mixers are working hard on a film. But will anyone really pay attention to the sound of a film?
• 
  The Deer King (2021)

  Review preview for The Deer King

  Directed by Masashi Ando, this is absolutely gorgeous... For all its beauty though, it labours.

  When a pack of dogs race through a Zol-controlled mine, Van, an enslaved former soldier, and a young girl named Yuna are both bitten, but manage to escape as the sole survivors of the attack. They seek out a simple, peaceful existence in the countryside but the deadly Black Wolf Fever complicates everything.
• 
  Defence Of The Realm (1985)

  Review preview for Defence Of The Realm

  A taut thriller rooted in several strong performances.

  After a newspaper reporter helps expose a Member of Parliament as a possible spy, he finds that there's much more to the story than that.
• 
  Despicable Me 4 (2024)

  Review preview for Despicable Me 4

  Good enough.

  Gru, Lucy, Margo, Edith and Agnes welcome a new member to the family, Gru Jr, who is intent on tormenting his dad. Gru faces a new nemesis in Maxime Le Mal and his girlfriend Valentina, and the family is forced to go on the run.
• 
  Diabolik (2021)

  Review preview for Diabolik

  Diabolik is a protagonist, but not a likeable one. Not only an antihero, a murderer. Luca Marinelli has charisma in spades, but not here.

  The story of the first meeting between master thief Diabolik and Eva Kant, set in the fictional state of Clerville in the late 1960s. Inspector Ginko is on the hunt for the criminal, trying to thwart his plans.
• 
  Die Hard 4.0 (2007)

  Review preview for Die Hard 4.0

  While its action and tone are robust and entertaining, it feels over-familiar, overconfident, and over-long.

  John McClane takes on internet terrorists.
• 
  Digger (2026)

  Review preview for Digger

  Digger is not a film that invites fence sitting.

  The most powerful man in the world embarks on a frantic mission to prove he is humanity's saviour before the disaster he's unleashed destroys everything.
• 
  The Dinner After (2021)

  Review preview for The Dinner After

  This is a simple tale, simply done, but strong for it.

  A guilt-stricken Angela, visits her parents for what at first seems to be a routine family dinner, only for a painful truth to bubble to the surface, and the evening descends into a nightmare.
• 
  Dinosaur Eggs In The Living Room (2011)

  Review preview for Dinosaur Eggs In The Living Room

  This is polyglot internationalism, verging on magical realism.

  A recently widowed woman archives the treasures brought back from travels around the world.
• 
  Displaced (2021)

  Review preview for Displaced

  It is a fascinating piece, beautifully constructed and observed.

  ​In post-war Kosovo, driven by the ambition of keeping their beloved sport alive, two local table tennis players wander from one obscure location to another.
• 
  Disquiet (2011)

  Review preview for Disquiet

  Stunning to look at.

  A remote figure traverses the landscapes of the mind.
• 
  The Dissidents (2017)

  Review preview for The Dissidents

  As a comedy it delivers laughs, as a piece of northerly 'ostalgia' it manages quite ably to convey culture clashes and the various disappointments of leaving one's homeland.

  An upbeat comedy about three boys that escape from Soviet Estonia to Sweden via Finland in the Eighties to fulfill their dreams in the free world.
• 
  Django & Django (2021)

  Review preview for Django & Django

  Corbucci's influence on Tarantino can be seen, heard - as can his passion.

  Homage to director Sergio Corbucci led by Quentin Tarantino.
• 
  Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness (2022)

  Review preview for Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness

  To consider it alone is to find oneself with antagonists whose motivation(s) seem lacking, protagonists whose character arcs may seem shallow, and to wonder what might have been.

  Dr Strange tries to protect a girl who can jump between points in the multiverse.
• 
  Doomsday (2008)

  Review preview for Doomsday

  If you like the post-apocalypse films of the Eighties and fancy seeing another one that just happened to have been made 19 years late, this is the film for you.

  Many years after a plague has devastated Scotland, it reappears in London, and a special team is sent north in search of a rumoured cure.
• 
  Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale (2025)

  Review preview for Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale

  Recursive nostalgia is no substitute for quality, and it drowns everything else in tepidity.

  When Mary finds herself in a public scandal and the family faces financial trouble, the household grapples with the threat of social disgrace. The Crawleys must embrace change with the next generation leading Downton Abbey into the future.
• 
  Dragged Across Concrete (2018)

  Review preview for Dragged Across Concrete

  Long, slow and at times painful.

  A pair of cops suspended for strong-arm tactics descend into the criminal underworld.
• 
  Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero (2022)

  Review preview for Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero

  An entertaining slice of ludicrously over-powered martial action with some broad comedy too.

  Piccolo and his former student Gohan go on a mission to save the world.
• 
  Dreaming Walls (2022)

  Review preview for Dreaming Walls

  Dreaming Walls is less a documentary than an attempt at a sense memory.

  Documents a critical juncture in the Chelsea Hotel's history, as it prepares to evict longtime residents and transform into a luxury hotel.
• 
  Dream Scenario (2023)

  Review preview for Dream Scenario

  Despite its scale this is a small story, and at that level it's classic science fiction.

  A family man discovers he has begun to appear in other people's dreams making him an overnight celebrity.
• 
  Drive-Away Dolls (2024)

  Review preview for Drive-Away Dolls

  This is one of the few films I've seen where a length of ribbon drew a round of applause.

  Jamie regrets her breakup with her girlfriend, while Marian needs to relax. In search of a fresh start, they embark on an unexpected road trip to Tallahassee. Things quickly go awry when they cross paths with a group of inept criminals.
• 
  A Drowning Man (2017)

  Review preview for A Drowning Man

  Talent behind the camera is matched by talent in front.

  Alone and far from home, The Kid makes his way through a strange city looking for the means to get through his day.
• 
  Drugs As Weapons Against Us (2018)

  Review preview for Drugs As Weapons Against Us

  An explosive cocktail whose primary ingredient is batshit.

  A documentary asserting that the CIA manipulated musicians and activists to promote drugs for social control, particularly regarding the Civil Rights and anti-war movements, and that some musicians that resisted these manipulations were killed.
• 
  Duel (1971)

  Review preview for Duel

  A remarkably efficient film.

  A car driver is relentlessly pursued by a truck.
• 
  Dundee Courier: Production Of A Great Daily Newspaper (1911)

  Review preview for Dundee Courier: Production Of A Great Daily Newspaper

  Though it's relatively long it's so packed with incident and detail that it flies by.

  Commissioned to celebrate the Dundee Courier's 50 years as a daily newspaper, the film illustrates the various newspaper activities from reporting, editing, setting the linotype to the final printing.
• 
  Dune (2021)

  Review preview for Dune

  It is pretty.

  A young man must survive on the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people.
• 
  Dune (2021)

  Review preview for Dune

  Simplifications make the length of the film all the more surprising, as so many parts of characters' dualities are removed.

  A young man must survive on the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people.
• 
  Dune: Part Two (2024)

  Review preview for Dune: Part Two

  Dune at least looks, sounds, amazing, though not always.

  Paul Atreides unites with Chani and the Fremen while seeking revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family.
• 
  Dune: Part Two (2024)

  Review preview for Dune: Part Two

  While it's pretty, and often startlingly so, I was and am disappointed. I thought some of the changes made brave, even bravura, but others feel like capitulation.

  Paul Atreides unites with Chani and the Fremen while seeking revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family.
• 
  Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves (2023)

  Review preview for Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves

  We're told you can't do everything with magic, but the film does manage to make much magical.

  A charming thief and a band of unlikely adventurers undertake an epic heist to retrieve a lost relic, but things go dangerously awry when they run afoul of the wrong people.
• 
  The Dead Lands (2014)

  Review preview for The Dead Lands

  A corking action film.

  A young Maori man sets out to avenge the death of his father.
• 
  Dead Man Running (2009)

  Review preview for Dead Man Running

  It's somewhat pedestrian, predicated on decisions that appear ludicrous, and its smartest observation might well be an accident.

  An ex-con goes on a desperate hunt for money to pay back a loan shark who is holding his mother hostage.
• 
  Deafness (2010)

  Review preview for Deafness

  This might almost be mime, were it not, well, brilliant.

  A mute man is arrested in a short film devoid of audible words.
• 
  Dear Peter (2016)

  Review preview for Dear Peter

  The story told is one that is fairly judged, well constructed, moving.

  A filmmaker tries to find the owner of a series of handwritten postcards he finds in second hand bookshop.
• 
  Death In A Nut (2012)

  Review preview for Death In A Nut

  Possessed of a compelling, folkloric intensity, Tom Chick's film is a morbid gem.

  Jack battles to stop death from stealing his mother.
• 
  Decapoda Shock (2011)

  Review preview for Decapoda Shock

  Once you have seen it you cannot help but measure every film you have ever seen against it.

  After an accident offworld, an astronaut returns home looking for those responsible.