Review

Eighty-something auteur Andrzej Wajda’s ( Ashes And Diamonds ) latest is an admiring biopic of Lech Wałęsa: trade unionist, Nobel Prize winner and Polish president 1990-95. It’s a surprisingly punchy rendition. Archive footage meshes with jostling strike scenes, while Wałęsa’s tense family life is juxtaposed with his dangerous career with …

Showing subtlety the door almost the minute it starts, David E Talbert’s romcom is the filmic equivalent of a frying pan to the skull. The impossibly gorgeous Paula Patton ( Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol ) plays impossibly single flight attendant Montana Moore, who has 30 days to get engaged before …

Doctor Who: The Doctor – His Lives And Times book review . If you’ve read James Goss and Steve Tribe’s excellent A History Of The Universe in 100 Objects , or 2012’s aptly-named Doctor Who: The Brilliant Book , you’ll have a fair idea what to expect from The Doctor: …

The Making Of The Return Of The Jedi book review. Unlike the movie it documents, the last of the lavish original Star Wars trilogy “Making Of”s is every bit as good as its predecessors – even at 40 quid it’s an essential purchase for any disciple of that galaxy far, …

Armored Core: Verdict Day goes a long way toward addressing one of Armored Core V’s most pressing issues: the fact that it was an online game with virtually no online community. That alone ought to make it intriguing to both newcomers and returning fans alike. But, of course, players will …

Everything is a gamble according to Justin Timberlake’s online poker whizz Richie Furst in Runner Runner – a philosophy that eludes this safely derivative, risk-averse script. Directed by The Lincoln Lawyer ’s Brad Furman, the plot centres around Furst’s descent into the corrupt world of Ivan Block (Ben Affleck), an …

Michael Roemer’s 1964 drama is an indie-cinema milestone, bringing an incisive grasp of place, period and performance to its up-close portrait of emergent black pride. Ivan Dixon is hugely affecting as Duff, an itinerant railroad worker in Alabama who marries teacher-and-preacher’s daughter Josie (Abbey Lincoln) despite disapproval on all sides. …

Director Fernando Trueba ( Chico & Rita ) serves up an elegant black-and-white tale of an elderly sculptor (Jean Rochefort) living in occupied France, who finds reinvigoration when he takes on young Spanish refugee (Aida Folch) to sit for him. Inspired by the relationship between real-life Franco-Catalan artist Maillol and …

Your Brother’s Blood book review . Ever since poor Duane Jones accidentally caught a bullet at the end of Night Of The Living Dead , the zombie story has felt like the natural home for mixing up social commentary with action. So it goes with David Towsey’s debut novel (the …

As I’ve said before it’s always difficult to review a book like this. You get the same approach in every book of this type; casting, costume choices, locations and so on. It’s not a bad thing, God knows I’ve been reading these things avidly since I could shave, but it …