Review

Liam Neeson’s rise as a grizzled action star in the autumn of his career is one of Hollywood’s more intriguing trends. Compare him to certain ’80s action heroes who’ve descended into self-parody: in films like Taken and The Grey , Neeson has brought gravitas to his ageing hard-men roles. His …

There will come a point during your time with Rayman Legends where you’ll run out of ways to express how much you enjoy it. By a few hours in, you’ll have exhausted every synonym you know for “pretty.” A few stages after that, “fun.” By the end: “challenging.” And only …

The hype: Fable will revolutionize video games by giving you an unprecedented level of control over your character’s growth, and you’ll be able to affect the world of Albion in real, permanent ways. The reality: Fable was an above-average action-RPG, with most of its pie-in-the-sky possibilities failing to live up …

The best sports films are less about sport than sportspeople. As the calibre of filmmakers – J.J. Abrams, Stephen Frears, Jay Roach – also planning movies about Lance Armstrong suggests, Alex Gibney’s documentary has a corker in cycling’s fallen angel. It might have been good enough had Gibney made his …

Lara Croft is dead. This time, she was ripped apart by wolves. Death has also come in a variety of other forms: boulders, bear traps, spikes to the throat–each over-the-top execution a display of vulnerability. These shocking moments are heavy-handed with their message, but it comes across loud and clear: …

Hang Wire book review . Usually, the scariest thing about a circus is the clowns. Not in Adam Christopher’s world. There, the scariest thing about the circus is the vintage carousel, where kids ride on bizarre and hideous monsters – closely followed by the pagan dance troupe, and then maybe …

No hard feelings might’ve been a more appropriate title for this unpunchy dramedy. Not only do the combatants fail to muster much animosity for one another, they also seem incapable of incurring anyone else’s wrath, regardless of their cock-ups. What good is a boxing flick that’s unkeen on conflict? The …

Every gong season gives us moments to relish, and 2014 is no exception. Case in point? Julia Roberts telling Meryl Streep to “Eat the fish, bitch!” in this juicy slice of Southern melodrama which sees an all-star cast tear strips off each other on the occasion of a funeral-mandated family …

The Queen Of Dreams by Peter Hamilton review . Peter F Hamilton is the father of two children, Sophie and Felix, aged nine and seven at the time of writing. Statistically speaking, this means Peter F Hamilton is likely to be permanently on the edge of sleep deprivation, that he …

Taken at face value, Matthew Cooke’s doc seems downright irresponsible, offering convincing tips on how to graduate from street-corner dope slinger to cartel lord without getting a) killed or b) jailed. But before you know it, this satire has become Michael Moore-style polemic, arguing that the war on drugs is …