Mirror’s Edge Catalyst review: The free-running, wall-climbing, ledge-shimmying postwoman returns in this parkour sequel June 8, 2016 Platforms: Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC | ★★★☆☆ Much like its eight-year-old predecessor, Mirror’s Edge Catalyst revels in the thrill of movement and physical momentum. You play an urban parkour enthusiast in a hyper-surveilled Orwellian futurescape, delivering clandestine snailmail by leaping from rooftop to perilous rooftop, climbing up vertiginous elevator shafts and whizzing across miles [...]
HP Elite X2 1012 review: An enterprise-level, two-in-one laptop that’s too business-minded to be much fun June 8, 2016 There’s a great deal to dislike about the HP Elite X2 1012, a business-level, tablet-laptop hybrid with a sleek and detachable aluminium keyboard and a surprisingly lovely iPhone 5 style chamfered finish. You’ve got ugly little grievances, like the default, HP-branded desktop wallpaper, which appears to be a picture of a petri dish filled with [...]
The Audi SQ7 is a torque monster and the world’s most powerful diesel SUV June 6, 2016 Torque: it’s easy to feel, but difficult to explain. As my physics teacher once told me, “power is the speed you hit the wall. Torque is how far you take the wall with you”. If you do need to move a tonne of bricks, cemented or otherwise, the Audi SQ7 is the perfect choice. With [...]
Prints charming: How clashing, patterned prints are transforming the drab into the spectacular June 6, 2016 In the City, a full Prince of Wales check suit is considered rather outré, so the idea of an entire outfit made up of garish or contrasting patterns will be anathema to some. But top fashion houses from Alexander McQueen to Richard James disagree – and so do we. Sort of. While we're not sure if [...]
You may love many cars in a lifetime, but you only ever have one first love. For me, it was an Aston Martin June 6, 2016 With 568 British horsepower it’s quite appropriate I should pay a visit to Her Majesty’s stud. Driving down Kings Avenue towards the Sandringham Estate I spotted the stables to the right, a big ‘ER’ embedded in the brickwork, and swung my Aston Martin through the open gate. Within seven seconds a royal protection officer arrived [...]
The beautiful Caribbean island of Anguilla is the shimmering blue epitome of tropical fun times June 3, 2016 Far out in the well charted waters of the east Caribbean lies the Leeward Island chain, and at its northern tip is an utterly charming little strip of limestone called Anguilla. Its interior is arid, scrubby and overrun with semi-domesticated goats and chickens, but it is frilled with some of the most incredible beaches in [...]
This boozed-up and Giamatti-less theatre production of Sideways fails to live up to its big screen cousin June 3, 2016 St James Theatre | ★★☆☆☆ If you could forget about Sideways, the Oscar-winning film starring Paul Giamatti, this play (by the author of the original novel but based on the movie) would be a passable if unremarkable comedy. But the film does exist: it’s a brilliant, poignant exploration of obsession. This production is a poor cousin [...]
Sunset at the Villa Thalia tackles 1960s Greek politics from a deckchair June 3, 2016 Dorfman Theatre | ★★★★☆ Alexi Kaye Campbell’s new play is a deeply personal effort. Born and raised in Greece, he was a baby at the time of the 1967 military coup, which is his play’s organising event; the two acts are set during its occurrence and aftermath, formulated around two holidays at the eponymous villa. Theo [...]
Race review: A moving and uplifting biopic that sadly fails to fully address America’s own historic hurdles June 2, 2016 Dir. Stephen Hopkins | ★★★☆☆ It’s disappointing but not surprising, given Hollywood's unfortunate record with diversity, that it's taken 80 years for the fascinating story of Jesse Owens to get a biopic. After all, it's only a couple of years since both Martin Luther King (Selma) and Jackie Robinson (42) were given the big screen treatment. [...]
Threepenny Opera at the National Theatre review: An explosively raucous show June 2, 2016 Olivier Theatre | ★★★★★ The National Theatre’s production of The Threepenny Opera is stagy, artificial, vulgar, nihilistic, hilarious, and brilliant. This is opera for people who don’t like opera. Bertolt Brecht, Elisabeth Hauptmann and Kurt Weill’s Weimar Republic-era adaptation of John Gay’s 18th century ballad opera The Beggar’s Opera, is returned to its London roots in [...]
