Enola Holmes 2

In this sequel, Enola sets up a detective agency and investigates the disappearance of a girl from a London match factory, which is not a plot from Nancy Springer's books, apparently, but a new story written specially for this sequel that puts Springer's character front and centre in an actual historic union uprising - the rousing girl-power of the original movie is matched only at the very end after much long-windedness.

★★★☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994)

Victor Frankenstein's experiments are given a David Copperfield jazz-magic vibe that I don't think Mary Shelley intended but by far the biggest deviation of this mostly faithful adaptation is the fact the monster is a re-creation, not a creation - Robert De Niro is a resuscitated organ recipient, - scarred but not a hideous daemon - with prior knowledge, not a birthling - probably because it isn't easy to translate to the screen Mary Shelley's caginess regarding Frankenstein's methods of bestowing life upon the inanimate (pretty much in the book a man says the word, 'galvanisation' and then a big yellow eye opens); there's also fewer deaths in a rushed ending: once this movie's grand climax is revealed (an inspired gothic moment that repulses and horrifies and finally hits the right note) the movie decouples from the book, turning into about seven minutes years of Frankenstein's madness and incarceration and anguish, as if everyone has tired of the whole exercise and wants simply to sail prematurely home.

★★★☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Terminator Salvation (2009)

Unwisely, the Terminator series takes us for the first time to a time after the apocalyptic Judgement Day (until now, just an occasionally glimpsed bleak potential future our heroes have been working hard to avoid) and suddenly we are learning more than we ever cared to know about John Connor's dreary war against the machines - it is more Transformers with Mad Max stylings than Terminator - and muddying the Terminator formula even more than this is a lead Wolverine character whose uninteresting journey into the future delays the movie we actually wanted to watch which starts twenty minutes before the end.

★★☆☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

The King's Speech (2010)

Forget the DCEU and MCU: grandly staged historical dramas like this one about King George VI, the father of Queen Elizabeth II and stammering deliverer of rousing wartime speeches, form a rich and sprawling KGVIU - King George VI Universe - with Dunkirk and Darkest Hour and other recent big budget historical releases helping to turn boring WWII high school history classes into a rich cinematic tapestry that you feel you could watch stop-start, one movie in conjunction with the others and learn m9re than you ever did from your school books.

★★★★☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Dark Shadows (2012)

For those like me who watch this unaware of the gothic tv soap opera "Dark Shadows" that was popular in the 70s, Tim Burton's big screen adaptation with Johnny Depp yet again sporting a deathly pallor as vampire Barnaby Collins is an elaborately produced, occasionally funny but ultimately bemusing oddity; and now, having googled and read up about the tv series "Dark Shadows", I can in full knowledge confirm this tribute is an elaborately produced, occasionally funny but ultimately bemusing oddity.

★★★☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)

Once again, Depp sports a deathly pallor in a Tim Burton fable, appearing here as Roald Dahl's Willy Wonka but in a daring departure from the source material, Wonka is centre stage with an embellished backstory that explains, cleverly and with fitting wicked humour, the chocolatier's desire for an heir.

★★★★☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEW

Fight Club (1999)

This is a subversive drama about a lot more than just a club of men that secretly meets in a basement so that members can beat each other senseless.

★★★★☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS