★★★★
Get past the been there done that feeling that pervades Guy Ritchie’s touched up but essentially familiar remake of Disney’s animated Aladdin and you may well see the diamond for the rough. Whilst fault lines are striking, smart updates do well to justify the extended runtime. With a budget more dazzling than the cave of wonders itself, Ritchie’s production is shining, shimmering, splendid and sure to put a smile on willing faces.
★★★
Thunder Road is one for the more patient among us. It is an uncomfortable feature-length account of grief, rage, sorrow, and just about every other adverse emotion conceivable. Based on an award-winning short of the same name, this comedy-drama follows well-intentioned but volatile police officer Jim Arnaud (Jim Cummings) as he struggles to cope in the wake of his beloved mother’s passing. Hostile relations with estranged wife Rosalind (Jocelyn DeBoer) don’t help matters for this moustachioed, ticking timebomb, especially as she’s divorcing him and claiming full custody of his resentful daughter Crystal (Kendal Farr).
★★★★
It’s taken Elton John and partner David Furnish the best part of two decades to produce Rocketman. That’s one hell of a dedicated vanity project. Now, with Dexter Fletcher at the helm, the dream has become a whiz-banging reality, albeit one with a relatively loose grasp on the truth. Rocketman is glitzy, fantastical and increasingly dark entertainment. The more Elton loses control on screen, the more Fletcher seizes it behind. Come for the music, take away surprisingly acute insight into the nature of addiction and the pitfalls of fame.
The Film Blog 