John Wick 3 review: Keanu Reeves shines in the action franchise’s brilliant third installment May 24, 2019 The John Wick films are so far ahead of other Hollywood action movies that this third installment is the best the genre has produced in recent years, without even being the best film in the franchise. We pick up immediately after the end of Chapter 2, with Wick having been declared ‘excommunicado’ from the High [...]
Aladdin review: Disney fails to justify remaking the classic animation May 24, 2019 The first thing you notice about this $180m live-action reboot of Disney’s beloved 1992 animation is the unexpected poverty of its visuals. The set design has an end-of-year school play vibe, all gaudy colours and plywood walls stuck together with adhesive. It feels more Disneyland than Disney. The widespread scepticism that greeted Guy Ritchie’s installment [...]
Gaps between tenancies can be a real money sink. Here’s how to avoid them May 24, 2019 Most experienced landlords will know that the biggest real losses come from long periods between tenancies, where they can end up haemorrhaging money if the presentation and marketing of their property isn’t well managed. The areas that are often the cause of these voids are: Difficulty in access for viewings Poor presentation Too high a [...]
Our Town review: Thornton Wilder’s classic play about everyday life comes to Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre May 24, 2019 Thornton Wilder’s 1938 play Our Town is a kind of time capsule, a snapshot of everyday life in a New Hampshire town during the first years of the 20th century. The fourth-wall breaking narrator says as much, promising to bury the play’s text in a box alongside the US constitution, a bible and a copy [...]
Greggs shares are on fire, but can it last? May 24, 2019 | City Talk By Graeme Evans from interactive investor. After some great results, shares in fast-growing Greggs have taken just seven months to double in value. Thanks to a social media frenzy and masterclass in PR, the Greggs vegan sausage roll is now surely a thing of stock market folklore. The transformation of the Greggs (LSE:GRG) brand and [...]
Rocketman is an explosively imaginative biopic charting the life of the iconic piano man May 23, 2019 Take the John Lewis Christmas ad that made your sherry-drunk Aunt Pauline cry into her sprouts and stretch it out over a hundred or so minutes and you’ve got yourself Rocketman, the Taron Egerton fronted musical biopic charting the life and travails of bespectacled piano man Elton John. The setting is a booze ‘n’ drugs [...]
Anna at the National Theatre review: A brilliant play about the Stasi that makes you wear headphones May 23, 2019 It’s Stasi-era East Germany and a young woman prepares for a dinner party while a hidden group of shadowy men and women wearing headphones listen in to her every move. The twist? You’re one of them. Anna casts the audience as collaborators in this tale of a young woman caught up in a surveillance operation [...]
DEBATE: Does the Jamie’s Italian chain have only itself to blame for its demise? May 23, 2019 Does the Jamie’s Italian chain have only itself to blame for its demise? Patrick Clover, founder and chief executive of BLACKBX, says YES. It’s a sad story for all involved, not least the 1,000 workers made redundant, but to call Jamie’s Italian a victim of external forces is too simplistic. The climate for mid-market restaurants [...]
This new private members’ club is only for successful start-ups May 21, 2019 "I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member,” Groucho Marx famously said, reputedly resigning from the Friars’ Club in the 1940s. The nature of private members’ clubs has adapted considerably since then, and many are now relaxed as to whom they accept. Bucking this trend, however, is Home [...]
Property Legal Q&A: I am buying a flat and have been advised that the landlord of the building is missing. Should I be worried? May 21, 2019 Often, where the owner of a flat has not heard from the landlord in a while, they will consider the landlord as “missing” but that may not necessarily be the case. Your solicitor should check what enquiries have been made to try and locate the landlord. For example, the landlord may have died and his [...]