Captain Marvel (2019)

I'm suffering study fatigue in my neverending Masters of Marvel course and if there were exams tomorrow I'd struggle to answer questions on the finer plot points of this Marvel superhero movie and how it fits with all the others, except to say it is set on Earth in the 1990s before (all?) the other movies, Samuel L Jackson's Fury is a young man with two-eyes who hasn't even dreamt up the Avengers yet, and a good running joke in the movie is how slow dial-up internet is, especially for the technologically advanced Captain Marvel, a low-affect hero but great female role model who in the face of male detractors keeps getting up, dusting herself off, and keeps on getting on with her job as a, um, Krull saving the Earth from invading, er, Skrees?

★★★☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Ready Player One (2018)

The ragtag bunch of best friends has been replaced by a ragtag bunch of avatars of virtual strangers; the Fratelli family is an evil mega-corporation; One-Eyed Willy's treasure is an Easter Egg worth trillions hidden in a virtual world stuffed full of unamusing pop culture references - and the fun is in short supply in Steven Spielberg's busy but soulless millenial update of The Goonies.

★★★☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Darkest Hour (2017)

The first days of Winston Churchill's Prime Ministership are brought to the big screen in such a grand and rousing way that history teachers around the world must be starting to feel redundant, or just relieved that that  bit of the curriculum is covered for evermore.

★★★★☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS