STAR
RATINGS
★★★★★ Fantastic
★★★★ Very good
★★★ Good
★★ Average
This week’s films rated and reviewed ★ Poor
With Film Editor Nigel Pizey
CHIEF FILM REVIEWER: JASON BESTSATURDAY 3 August
The Red Shoes
BBC2 12.50pm - 3.00pm ★★★★★
● See Our Picks of the Week, leftThe Good Dinosaur
BBC1 (not Scotland)
3.30pm - 5.00pm ★★★★
ANIMATION⊲ Imagine a world
in which evolution took a different
course, and dinosaurs never became
extinct. Well, this delightful family
animation does just that. Timid young
Apatosaurus Arlo (voiced by Raymond
Ochoa) must learn to master his fears
when events strand him miles from
home in the company of a human kid
(Jack Bright) and a cowboy-like T-rex
(Sam Elliott). Dir: Peter Sohn 2015, PG, 90min
SEX ) VIOLENCE ) LANGUAGE )Kung Fu Panda
BBC1 5.25pm - 6.45pm ★★★★
ANIMATION⊲ Po is one lazy
panda, but he’s chosen to fulfil an old
prophecy, involving training in Kung
Fu from martial arts guru Master
Shifu. Jack Black and Dustin Hoffman
form a brilliant and hilarious
odd-couple team as the voices of Po
and Shifu. The result: a stylish
animation with a smashing story,
funny lines and wonderful characters.
Dirs: John Stevenson, Mark Osborne 2008, PG, 80min
SEX ) VIOLENCE ) LANGUAGE )Jurassic World
ITV 8.00pm - 10.15pm ★★★★
ACTION ADVENTURE⊲
More than two decades after Steven
Spielberg’s Jurassic Park, the
dinosaurs are on the rampage again
in the ill-fated resort. This fourth
adventure, directed by Colin
Trevorrow, delivers the thrills and
spills we have come to expect from
the series, but it is the film’s leading
duo – Chris Pratt’s military vet-
turned-dinosaur wrangler and BryceDallas Howard’s tightly wound theme
park operations manager – who make
things swing. Dir: Colin Trevorrow 2015, 12, 135min
SEX ) VIOLENCE! LANGUAGE )Transformers:
Age of Extinction
C4 8.00pm - 11.05pm ★★★
PREMIERE SCI-FI ACTION⊲
Luckily, Shia LaBoeuf ’s whiny lead is
absent from the fourth sci-fi
blockbuster based on the shape-
changing toys, replaced by Mark
Wahlberg as a widowed amateur
inventor who gets drawn into the
ongoing battle between good and bad
alien robots. The pricey effects and
action can’t make up for the forgettable
story, but Stanley Tucci is enjoyable as
a megalomaniac tech businessman
who wants to exploit the robots’
technology. Dir: Michael Bay 2014, 12, 185min
SEX ) VIOLENCE @ LANGUAGE!Brooklyn
BBC1 10.20pm - 12midnight
(Wales 11.10pm - 12.55am) ★★★★
PERIOD DRAMA⊲ Oscar-
nominated Saoirse Ronan comes
of age as an actress with her deeply
affecting portrayal of a young
Irishwoman torn between
countries and lovers in this
romantic drama. Ronan’s
Irish emigré to 1 9 50s
New York is wooed
by Emory Cohen’s
plumber, before
circumstancestake her back to Ireland, where the
attentions of doeful Domhnall
Gleeson’s eligible suitor present her
with a heart-wrenching choice.)
Dir: John Crowley 2015, 12, 100min
SEX! VIOLENCE ) LANGUAGE!Bridget Jones’s Diary
ITV 10.35pm - 12.25am ★★★★
ROMCOM⊲ Helen Fielding’s
bestseller was the must-read book of
the late 1 99 0s and here Renée
Zellweger – impressive English accent
firmly in place – is terrific as the
chain-smoking, vodka-swilling
working girl of the title. As the men in
our heroine’s life, Hugh Grant and
Colin Firth are great as caddish
charmer and snooty lawyer
respectively. Dir: Sharon Maguire 2001, 15, 110min
SEX! VIOLENCE ) LANGUAGE @Dawn of the Planet
of the Apes
C4 11.05pm - 1.20am ★★★★
SCI-FI ACTION⊲ Both an
exciting action movie and a smart
moral fable, this sequel to 2011’s Rise
of the Planet of the Apes is excellent.
Set 10 years after the events of the
earlier film, the story sees a band of
human survivors in a post-apocalyptic
San Francisco coming into conflict
with a genetically enhanced tribe of
intelligent apes led by prime
chimp Caesar (Andy Serkis).
There are good and bad
elements on both
sides, but once
again, you’re
more likely
to be rooting
for the apes.
Dir: Matt Reeves
2014, 12, 135min
SEX )
VIOLENCE!
LANGUAGE!The Awakening
BBC1 (not Wales)
12midnight - 1.45am ★★★★
CHILLER⊲ A classy period ghost
story set in 1 9 21 England. Author
Rebecca Hall is out to expose phoney
spiritualists who are targeting the
grief-stricken who are mourning the
dead of World War One. But when
schoolmaster Dominic West implores
her to investigate bizarre events at a
remote boys’ school her views are
challenged. A cunning, elegant chiller.
Dir: Nick Murphy 2011, 15, 105min
SEX @ VIOLENCE @ LANGUAGE!The Tuxedo
Channel 5 3.10am - 4.45am ★★
ACTION COMEDY⊲ Jackie
Chan’s a cabby who becomes driver to
super-agent Jason Isaacs and takes
over his assignment when the spy’s car
is bombed. He puts on Isaacs’s magic
tuxedo and goes into action against
nasty villain Ritchie Coster. Though
the comedy’s slack, this is harmless
hokum. Dir: Kevin Donovan 2002, 12, 95min
SEX ) VIOLENCE! LANGUAGE!BEST OF THE REST
Berlin Syndrome
Film 4 10.45pm - 1.00am ★★★
PREMIERE THRILLER
Backpacking around Europe, Teresa
Palmer’s young Australian hooks up
with a charming stranger (Max
Riemelt) in Berlin. However, after a
one-night stand, she wakes in his
isolated flat and finds herself locked
in. It’s an accident, surely? Or has
her new acquaintance other designs
on her? This claustrophobic
psychological thriller is grounded in
a recognisably real world, which
makes it all the more disconcertingly
tense. Dir: Cate Shortland 2017, 15, 135min
SEX @ VIOLENCE @ LANGUAGE!Chris Pratt has
dino problems in
Jurassic WorldPo kicks out in
Kung Fu PandaRenée Zellweger in
Bridget Jones’s Diary● See listings pages for full details of regional films
Best
friends in
The Good
DinosaurTV TIMES 29