Oban Phoenix Cinema

• 2019
• US
• 3h 1min
• 12A

• Directed by: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo
• Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Don Cheadle, Tom Holland, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Letitia Wright, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana

Five years after Thanos’s victory, the Avengers are in despair until Ant-Man (Rudd) kicks the story back into action. The final film in the saga verges on fanservice, but there’s intelligent character development, everyone (except Johansson) is given enough to do, and some arcs have a truly poignant sense of closure. Playful, inventive and highly entertaining.

• 88%
• 78%

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• 2019
• USA
• 18

• Directed by: Ron Scalpello
• Cast: Sam Claflin, Timothy Spall, Naomi Ackie

Set against the run up to the 2012 London Olympics, an ex-convict tries to win back his estranged family.

• 64%

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• 2008
• UK/US
• 1h 48min

• Directed by: Phyllida Lloyd
• Cast: Meryl Streep, Amanda Seyfried, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård, Dominic Cooper, Julie Walters, Christine Baranski

Help drown out Pierce Brosan's parts by belting along with the popular musical.

• 64%
• 51%
• 54%

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• 2002
• UK/Canada
• 1h 37min
• 15

• Directed by: Lynne Ramsay
• Written by: Lynne Ramsay, Liana Dognini, Alan Warner (novel)
• Cast: Samantha Morton, Kathleen McDermott

Small town hedonist and check-out girl Morvern Callar (Morton) awakes one morning to find her boyfriend has committed suicide. When she finds the finished manuscript of her boyfriend's novel she puts her name on it, sells it to a publisher and goes on holiday with her best friend Lanna (McDermott). Initially, the vacation is little more than a jaunt to Ibiza, but Callar soon finds her expectations of life change even as her friend remains devout to her shitheel life in a dead end town. Ramsay, co-screenwriter Liana Dognini and Morton have done a remarkable job of transposing this quirky, distant character and her awkward strange journey to the screen. In an age of saccharine and spice and all things predictable this is surprisingly brave cerebral filmmaking.

• 68%
• 78%
• 84%

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• 2018
• UK
• 1h 50min

• Directed by: Trevor Nunn
• Cast: Judy Dench, Sophie Cookson, Tom Hughes

Joan (Cookson when young, Dench later on) arrives at Cambridge in 1938 and is beguiled by radical politics into becoming a Soviet spy. Nunn’s first movie in over 20 years is a plodding, pedestrian affair, and while Dench captures her befuddlement and steely resolve, it fails to find the drama in a story inspired by intriguing real life events.

• 63%
• 45%

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• 2019
• UK / US
• 2h 1min

• Directed by: Dexter Fletcher
• Cast: Taron Egerton, Jamie Bell, Richard Madden, Bryce Dallas Howard

This Elton John biopic, exec-produced by its subject, could have been a vanity project, but it’s a fun and cute fantasy musical; Egerton as John as exuberant and sympathetic, and the framing device is sensible. Hardly revelatory, but Fletcher does a good job and sprinkles some inventiveness. Classic songbook helps.

• 78%
• 73%

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• 2019
• USA / Japan / France

• Directed by: Chris Renaud, Jonathan del Val
• Cast: Patton Oswalt, Eric Stonestreet, Kevin Hart

A sequel to the 2016 film.

• 65%
• 52%

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• 2019
• US

• Directed by: David F. Sandberg
• Cast: Zachary Levi, Asher Angel, Mark Strong, Jack Dylan Grazer, Grace Fulton, Ian Chen, Jovan Armand, Faithe Herman, Cooper Andrews, Marta Milans, Djimon Hounsou

Billy Batson (Angel) is a teenager raised by a foster family, who’s given magic powers by The Wizard (Hounsou): if he shouts ‘SHAZAM!’ he becomes the titular cape-wearing adult (Levi). A superhero movie bursting with humour and heart, with a mischievous performance from Levi, inspired jokes, emotion and surprising cameos.

• 75%
• 70%

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• 1950
• US
• 1h 42min
• U

• Directed by: Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen
• Written by: Betty Comden, Adolph Green
• Cast: Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds, Jean Hagen, Millard Mitchell

Hollywood undergoes the transition from the silent era to the talkies and reputations rise and fall. Absolutely wonderful musical entertainment, with the slickest of snappy dialogue, enduringly catchy numbers, a cast of genuine charisma, and an engaging picture of the industry in transition into the bargain. Quite splendid.

• 83%
• 99%
• 100%

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• 2019
• US
• 1h 52min
• 12A

• Directed by: Dome Karukoski
• Cast: Lily Collins, Nicholas Hoult, Genevieve O'Reilly

Young J.R.R. Tolkien (Gilby, then Hoult) romances Edith Bratt (Keene, then Collins), forms friendships and then fights in the trenches of WWI. Hoult is charismatic as the lead and Collins is charming as Edith, and it’s a convincing enough portrait, but it’s a bit too cosy and traditional, especially the family-friendly combat sequences.

• 70%
• 48%

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