Reviews by Angus Wolfe Murray

Order by: Date, A–Z

• 
  Spider-Man Into The Spider-Verse (2018)

  Review preview for Spider-Man Into The Spider-Verse

  The drawing is good as the story scatters.

  A teenager bitten by a radioactive spider realises he's not the only one with super powers.
• 
  The Nun (2018)

  Review preview for The Nun

  The honour of horror has been disemboweled by this film

  A priest and a novice investigate devilish goings on in an isolated Romanian nunnery in the Fifties
• 
  King Of Thieves (2018)

  Review preview for King Of Thieves

  This gang may look like lovable rogues but they're as hard as a boot in the bollocks when things get sticky

  The famous Hatton Garden jewel robbery carried out by a team of retired villains in 2015 that became "the largest burglary in English legal history"
• 
  American Animals (2018)

  Review preview for American Animals

  As a cinematic first the audacity and imagination of Bart Leyton's way of working breaks new ground

  Four young men mistake their lives for a movie and attempt one of the most audacious heists in US history.
• 
  Tom Jones (1963)

  Review preview for Tom Jones

  The film races along with an air of tumultuous enjoyment.

  Adaptation of the 18th century classic about the adventures of a foundling.
• 
  Upgrade (2018)

  Review preview for Upgrade

  This bespoke script for a brave new world jams in the machine and blows inspiration into a thousand pieces

  Set in the near-future, technology controls nearly all aspects of life. But when Grey, a self-identified technophobe, has his world turned upside down, his only hope for revenge is an experimental computer chip implant called Stem.
• 
  Yardie (2018)

  Review preview for Yardie

  The performances are powerful and Idris Elba's ability to recreate the feel of the times is impressive.

  Gang wars in Kingston in the Seventies are imported into Hackney in the Eighties affecting the life of a Jamaican boy who seeks vengeance for the murder of his brother
• 
  The Spy Who Dumped Me (2018)

  Review preview for The Spy Who Dumped Me

  People are being shot everywhere you look

  Two friends find themselves caught up in an international conspiracy thanks to one of their ex-boyfriends.
• 
  Alpha (2018)

  Review preview for Alpha

  Sentimental tosh

  Ice age survival drama involving a wounded teenager and an injured wolf
• 
  The Children Act (2017)

  Review preview for The Children Act

  Intelligent, disciplined, elegant and closely guarded in matters of privacy

  A high court lady judge has an agonising decision to make when a teenage boy refuses a life saving transfusion while at home her marriage is freezing over
• 
  Bagdad Cafe (1987)

  Review preview for Bagdad Cafe

  The look is as unforgettable as the power that drives your emotional response.

  After a German woman falls out with her husband in the Mojave desert, she storms off to a truck stop, where she begins to transform - and be transformed by - the people who live there.
• 
  The Equalizer 2 (2018)

  Review preview for The Equalizer 2

  It's complicated and increasingly violent

  Ex-CIA hitman, Robert McCall, is trying to stay incognito and low key as a Boston cab driver but is drawn into a mysterious murder in Brussels that has fatal and violent consequences.
• 
  The Meg (2018)

  Review preview for The Meg

  CGI shocks don't shiver your timbers because you've been here, seen that, and what's left is betting on who's next for Meg's brekky

  The biggest shark in the history of scary movies surfaces and you can guess what happens next. Wear a wet suit.
• 
  The Darkest Minds (2018)

  Review preview for The Darkest Minds

  What you suspect will happen almost certainly will

  After a disease killed 98% of young people in the US, the 2% who managed to survive have developed superpowers, but have been locked in internment camps. One teenager escapes.
• 
  Sicilian Ghost Story (2017)

  Review preview for Sicilian Ghost Story

  It avoids every cliche laid down in the history of search-and-rescue movies

  When a boy disappears, a young girl goes looking for him in the dark world that has swallowed him.
• 
  Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation (2018)

  Review preview for Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation

  The plot flies in and out of lunacy at gasp speed

  Vampires and their monster friends go on hols to Atlantis and Dracula falls in love
• 
  Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018)

  Review preview for Mission: Impossible - Fallout

  Open your eyes. Admire the death defying artistry.

  The MIF team chase down a group of international baddies who plan on taking over the world after nuking capital cities and killing anyone who moves.
• 
  Crowhurst (2017)

  Review preview for Crowhurst

  What the film achieves with very little money is the pathological journey from hope to hell.

  Story of the amateur sailor who tried to circumnavigate the globe.
• 
  Thomas & Friends: Big World! Big Adventures! The Movie (2018)

  Review preview for Thomas & Friends: Big World! Big Adventures! The Movie

  This isn't the Thomas we loved when there was nothing else to watch

  A shiny new tank engine goes on a journey through five continents with an Australian racing car and a friendly African train
• 
  Spitfire (2018)

  Review preview for Spitfire

  The film succeeds in making you understand how these young men saved the country from enemy occupation and how desperately close it was.

  The story of the planes that won The Battle of Britain and those who flew in them.
• 
  Sweet Country (2017)

  Review preview for Sweet Country

  There is artistry here and an absence of cliche.

  Australian frontier drama, told from an Aboriginal perspective.
• 
  The Bridge: Season 4 (2017)

  Review preview for The Bridge: Season 4

  Season 4 proves to be difficult, absorbing, dark and of the highest quality of Scandi Crime.

  Final season of the Scandi crime drama.
• 
  Adrift (2018)

  Review preview for Adrift

  Just because Tami's story is true doesn't make it worth watching

  Young and in love and lost at sea after a hurricane has practically destroyed their boat Tami and Richard struggle to survive as they wait for rescue.
• 
  Whitney (2018)

  Review preview for Whitney

  More than Aretha, more than anyone, she became the figure of change for the black community

  The sad life and stupendous success of a singing superstar.
• 
  The Parting Glass (2018)

  Review preview for The Parting Glass

  The acting is precise in its natural flow

  A family delve into memories as they try to piece together a portrait of the woman they have lost.
• 
  Dirt Road To Lafayette (2018)

  Review preview for Dirt Road To Lafayette

  The clash of cultures is right here, the black music and the white rejection

  A teenager and his dad travel from Scotland to Alabama to visit relatives after a family death.
• 
  Kayak To Klemtu (2018)

  Review preview for Kayak To Klemtu

  Heart strings are taut for plucking

  A First Nations teenager sets off on a journey, determined to kayak the Inside Passage in British Colombia.
• 
  Papillon (2017)

  Review preview for Papillon

  The violence is backed up with solitary confinement and mental deprivation

  Adaptation of the classic novel about prisoners in a French penal colony.
• 
  Eaten By Lions (2018)

  Review preview for Eaten By Lions

  There are no surprises, no laughs out loud

  Two half-brothers head to Blackpool in search of lost family.
• 
  What Will People Say (2017)

  Review preview for What Will People Say

  Iram Haq's second feature has its own dynamic and a powerful authenticity that avoids ex-colonial prejudice.

  Sixteen-year-old Nisha lives a double life.
• 
  Becoming Animal (2018)

  Review preview for Becoming Animal

  If this was a lecture it would be an intellectual maze into which students lose themselves and never find a way out

  Audiovisual essay considering the spaces where humans and animals meet.
• 
  Super Troopers 2 (2018)

  Review preview for Super Troopers 2

  Subtlety is a dead fish in a toilet bowl and character development has been blocked with bile

  A band of highway patrol cops are sent to the Canadian border to sort out a land dispute. A gang of smugglers are involved. It's a farce.
• 
  Ocean's Eight (2018)

  Review preview for Ocean's Eight

  Violence and testosterone have been swiped in favour of mind games and dangerously seductive evening gowns

  Danny Ocean's estranged sister attempts to pull off the heist of the century at New York's star-studded annual Met Gala. Her first stop is to assemble the perfect all-female crew. Her second is to keep them in order
• 
  The Boy Downstairs (2017)

  Review preview for The Boy Downstairs

  As a film about non communication it feels real

  A woman finds a jewel of a home in New York until realising her downstairs neighbour is her ex whose heart she broke. Like a true New Yorker, she keeps the apartment.
• 
  McQueen (2018)

  Review preview for McQueen

  McQueen was an artist who designed dresses that became living sculptures

  Fashion designer Alexander McQueen’s rags to riches story.
• 
  Book Club (2018)

  Review preview for Book Club

  The boxes are ticked, the buttons pressed. You want happy endings? You got 'em.

  These ladies get hot and hotter reading 50 Shades Of Grey. They are mature enough to behave better, but, of course, don't.
• 
  My Friend Dahmer (2017)

  Review preview for My Friend Dahmer

  You might ask yourself, why is this making me feel so depressed?

  Before Jeffrey Dahmer became one of the most notorious serial killers of all time, he was a teenage loner.
• 
  Show Dogs (2018)

  Review preview for Show Dogs

  The film may be a dog trainer's day out but as entertainment it sucks on wood

  Rottweiler, working undercover for the NYPD, is flown to Florida to catch the thieves of a panda cub.
• 
  On Chesil Beach (2017)

  Review preview for On Chesil Beach

  The attempted act of consummation has a theatrical element to it. She is too passive, he is too angry.

  A honeymoon couple struggle to physically and emotionally connect in 1962
• 
  The Commuter (2018)

  Review preview for The Commuter

  Intrigue peels away to reveal darker, deeper layers of complexity and corruption. The plot explodes.

  A man finds himself racing against time on a commuter train.
• 
  Anon (2018)

  Review preview for Anon

  The future is data

  In the future data is transparent and a hacker can become invisible by eliminating personal detail. Even murder is an illusion. Possibly. A traditional detective, whose IT skills are last century, investigates
• 
  How To Talk To Girls At Parties (2017)

  Review preview for How To Talk To Girls At Parties

  The energy is electric

  Three teenage punks gatecrash a party on the Queen's jubilee night in London and have an unexpected experience that feels out of this world
• 
  Sherlock Gnomes (2018)

  Review preview for Sherlock Gnomes

  You may suffer mild face ache. This is caused by persistent smiling

  The garden gnomes of London are in mortal danger from a yellow blow-up baby. Sherlock and Dr W to the rescue! Ceramic animation rules, right?
• 
  Entebbe (2018)

  Review preview for Entebbe

  The story expands beyond the conventions of a Boys Own adventure

  Dramatisation of the rescue attempt after the 1976 hijacking of an Air France flight en route from Tel Aviv to Paris.
• 
  The Strangers: Prey At Night (2018)

  Review preview for The Strangers: Prey At Night

  Fear does strange things to people, especially teenagers

  A family's road trip takes a dangerous turn when they arrive late at their cabin in the woods
• 
  I Feel Pretty (2018)

  Review preview for I Feel Pretty

  There are no laughs unless you think being overweight, loud and inyaface is funny

  A sad fat girl reinvents herself as the face and voice of the street for a privileged fashion family
• 
  Tully (2018)

  Review preview for Tully

  Making a movie about a suffering mother who cannot admit that her tether has snapped is a brave endeavor

  The exhaustion of being a wife, mother and now having another baby is saved by a young, optimistic, attractive night nanny who loves everything, especially her job
• 
  The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society (2018)

  Review preview for The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society

  Even the surprises are too well signposted to surprise

  A naive young lady who happens to be a writer travels to Guernsey after the war to learn more about this strangely named society.
• 
  Beast (2017)

  Review preview for Beast

  The feeling of exposure to evil never fades

  A teenager finds herself torn between the control of her family and an outsider who is suspected of murder.
• 
  The Leisure Seeker (2017)

  Review preview for The Leisure Seeker

  The plot can sink without trace, which it does, because this is all about the stars

  An old couple take a road trip despite his Alzheimer's and her inability to stop talking