CINEMA REVIEWS
SUNSHINE ON LEITH As most movies are now saturated with mood-prompting songs – they can often seem like little more than soundtracks with accompanying visuals – the fully blown musical runs the risk of being uncomfortably twee, if not entirely implausible. But Across The Universe (2007), based on the Beatles’ catalogue, proved that it can still be a viable genre and this, inspired by the Proclaimers’ 1988 album of the same name, furthers the cause with ebullient big-heartedness. Not that Craig and Charlie Reid are in the same league as Lennon/ McCartney, but their tunes and lyrics are straightforward, feature a strong narrative component and, most significantly, are understanding of the people and place that give them such life. The story deals with everyday but complex personal relationships (what relationships are not?) and it is told in a simple, direct manner. Davy (George MacKay) and Ally (Kevin Guthrie) return home to Edinburgh after a tour of duty in
Afghanistan (the Reids can be spotted emerging from a pub as the boys dance down the street). De-mobbed, Ally wants to settle down with Davy’s beautiful freckled sister, Liz (Freya Mavor), while Davy falls for an English nurse, Yvonne (Antonia Thomas). On the night that Davy and Liz’s parents, Rab and Jean (Peter Mullan and Jane Horrocks), are celebrating their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, an ancient infidelity comes to light and ultimately all three couples find themselves confronted by the prospect of losing the love they so cherish. It is as cheesy as it gets, but not for one minute did I not care about what the end result might be for the characters. The songs are mostly ‘unplugged’, with the vocals given every opportunity to eke out the words’ emotional nuances and, without exception, each of the players sells the conceit (Mavor is especially winning). Edinburgh never looked so good and the closing, Bollywoodesque rendition of 500 Miles, including mass choreography outside the city’s National Gallery, will lift the spirits of anybody concerned by the dousing of the sunshine that once shone on our country. John Campbell
TUESDAY
27 MAY to
WEDNESDAY
4 JUNE
OPENS THU 29 MAY
OPENS THU 29 MAY
A MILLION WAYS TO DIE IN THE WEST (MA15+) (No Free Tickets) Thu 29-Wed 4: 2:10, 4:20, 6:50, 9:20pm HEALING (M) (No Free Tickets) Thu 29-Wed 4: 1:30pm MALEFICENT (M) (No Free Tickets) Thu 29-Wed 4: 9:50am, 12:00, 6:45pm 2D X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST (M) (No Free Tickets) Tue 27, Wed 28: 1:30, 9:00pm Thu 29-Wed 4: 1:40, 9:15pm 3D X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST (M) (No Free Tickets) Tue 27, Wed 28: 4:00, 6:30pm Thu 29-Wed 4: 4:00, 6:40pm
OPENS THU 29 MAY
SUNSHINE ON LEITH (PG) (No Free Tickets) Tue 27th: 1.55, 4.50, 7pm Wed 28: 2:50, 4:40, 6:50pm Thu 29-Wed 4: 9:10, 11:20am, 9:00 BAD NEIGHBOURS (MA15+) Tue 27: 11:45am, 4:05, 8:30pm Wed 28: 12:40, 5:00, 9:20pm Thu 29-Wed 4: 4:35pm CHEF (M) Tue 27: 12:15, 9:10pm Wed 28: 10:15am, 9:00pm Thu 29-Wed 4: 11:10am THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL (M) Tue 27: 2:40, 6:15pm Wed 28: 2:30, 7:10pm Thu 29-Wed 4: 9:00am FADING GIGOLO (M) Tue 27, Wed 28: 11:30am POB: THE WINTER’S TALE (2014) (CTC) (No Free Tickets) Wed 28: 11:00am
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26 May 27, 2014 The Byron Shire Echo
X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST
There’s a terrific scene where Iceman freezes the moment to ultra-slo-mo while he darts around the room re-directing bullets as they inch their way like snails towards his buddies, My companion mollified me by saying that David and but my mind was wandering long before we’d reached the Margaret had described this movie as being ‘better than halfway point. Hugh’s party-piece is to unleash extra-long they expected’. That is possibly the ultimate in back-handed compliments, but it nevertheless was enough to give me some claws that emerge from between his knuckles, but it loses its hope for the approaching couple of hours. novelty value when he’s done it for about the fifteenth time and the same goes for Jennifer’s blue metamorphosis trick – Alas, that hope, falsely nurtured, was cruelly shattered in the time it took for the first blast of tedious, brain-breaking CGI to if she turned into anybody else I was ready to scream. assault my senses – by which I mean straightaway. Honestly, I Other than praising it for its obvious technical achievements, struggle to understand how anybody other than testosteroneI’m unable to say anything good about this bombastic addled teenage boys can sit through this sort of thing. nightmare, for I was literally bored to distraction. John F Wolverine (Hugh Jackman – he seems like such a nice bloke, Kennedy, it turns out, may also have been a mutant but too) is sent to the past to do something or other that will alter confirmation never arrived, for my companion leaned over to the course of history, a curly assignment that, as anybody ask, ‘Do you have any idea what’s going on?’ I confessed that remotely familiar with the caper will know, is simply not I didn’t and, more importantly, that I didn’t give a rat’s either possible. There are a lot of big stars helping him out, most way. We walked. Life’s too short. notably Jennifer Lawrence as Raven/Mystique, a sort of blue mannequin who can transform herself into other people. John Campbell
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