All hail a brilliant double bill May 26, 2014 THEATRE WOLF HALL + BRING UP THE BODIES Aldwych Theatre | By Simon Thomson Four Stars THE UNDERTAKING is epic; two three-hour plays, back to back. But with crackling dialogue, compelling acting, minimalist sets, masterful special effects, extravagant costumes and ersatz crumhorns, the six hours fly by. Adapted from the first two-thirds of Hilary Mantel’s [...]
Godzilla thunders back onto screens May 15, 2014 FILM GODZILLA Cert 12a | By Alex Dymoke Three Stars SKYSCRAPERS haven’t come in for this much abuse since Prince Charles started sounding off about contemporary architecture. Brit director Gareth Edwards’ take on the classic Japanese B-movie doesn’t so much reimagine the original as inject it with growth hormones. It’s a monster of a monster [...]
Cannes 2014: old boys dominate the selection again May 15, 2014 From Cronenberg to Godard, familiar names leave room for only five Palme newcomers TWO DAYS ago, the Cannes Film Festival opened with a right royal stinker. Nicole Kidman’s Grace Kelly biopic Grace of Monaco was met with a galaxy of one star reviews, the consensus being that it surpassed even last year’s Naomi Watts’ Diana [...]
Muddy Waters’ son keeps the blues alive in the City May 15, 2014 Mud Morganfield is back in town for the launch of Blues Kitchen Shoreditch – Alex Dymoke caught up with him FINALLY the square mile finally has a place to exorcise those blues. Last night Mud Morganfield was on hand to mark the opening of the Blues Kitchen Shoreditch, a new restaurant and music venue metres from [...]
How comics reflect a very British psyche May 12, 2014 ARTS COMICS UNMASKED British Library | By Steve Dinneen Four Stars FOR AN art form that is seen as quintessentially American, we Brits have a disproportionately large influence on the world of comics. It wasn’t always so: for decades our publications evolved as largely insular, unmistakeably British alternatives to the musclebound US titles. But in [...]
A violent eruption of camp madness May 1, 2014 FILM POMPEII 3D Cert 12a Two Stars THE DESTRUCTION of Pompeii, the ancient Roman city buried under the ash of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, has long held a grip on the public imagination. Only eight months ago, tickets sold out in advance for the British Museum’s exhibition Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum, [...]
Baddiel: party like it isn’t 1999 May 1, 2014 COMEDY FAME: NOT THE MUSICAL Menier Chocolate Factory Four Stars REMEMBER David Baddiel? Of course you do. He did The Mary Whitehouse Experience, Fantasy Football League, Baddiel and Skinner, and the Euro96 anthem Three Lions (Football’s Coming Home). After a 15 year break, and aged almost 50, he is back with stand-up, reflections on fame [...]
An unnecessary, poorly-animated Tarzan adaptation May 1, 2014 FILM TARZAN 3D Cert PG Two Stars SINCE Edgar Rice Burroughs’ first Tarzan story in 1912, the character has been played or voiced by over 20 actors, including Herman Brix, Buster Carabbe and the late, great, five time Olympic gold medal winning Johnny Weissmüller who played the iconic jungle-dweller between the wars. To this illustrious [...]
Hernan Bas: the best young painter in the world? May 1, 2014 ART HERNAN BAS: MEMPHIS LIVING Victoria Miro Five Stars FLORIDIAN artist Hernan Bas’ early paintings were richly detailed and dimly lit with knotty vegetation and winding rivers, innocent adolescents in the foreground and erotic encounters in the shadows. They were his attempt to replicate the deep imaginative immersion of the novels and poems he fell [...]
Donmar Privacy play reveals all April 28, 2014 THEATRE PRIVACY Donmar Warehouse | By Alex Dymoke Four Stars “IN 21 YEARS of invading people’s privacy I’ve never found anybody doing any good… Privacy is for paedos. Privacy is evil.” This speech by former News of the World hack Paul McMullan delivered to the Leveson inquiry is quoted verbatim in the first act of [...]