Horrid Henry: The Movie (3D) (U)
HH
Dir: Nick Moore
With: Theo Stevenson, Anjelica Huston
FRANCESCA Simon’s literary creation makes it to the big screen with mixed results. Theo Stevenson plays the titular Henry, who makes his classmates laugh, his parents despair and his teachers want to retrain as lion tamers. Among the tutors who have cause to loathe the boy is Miss Battleaxe, played by Anjelica Huston channelling Miss Jean Brodie to fairly convincing effect. Nick Moore’s 3D film is perfectly pleasant once it gets the fart jokes out of its system, but the trouble with this horrid Henry is that he’s not nearly horrid enough. A nice turn from Stevenson, but it’s the adults, Huston especially, who look like they’re having the most fun.
Arrietty (U)
HHHH
Dir: Hiromasa Yonebayashi
Voices: Saoirse Ronan, Mark Strong
FROM Japan’s Studio Ghibli, creators of Spirited Away and a rival to Pixar when it comes to animation as art, comes this exquisitely rendered adaptation of The Borrowers. Saoirse Ronan (Hanna) gives voice to the tiny Arrietty of the title.
With her mum and dad, Arrietty (inset) “borrows” such treasures as sugar lumps from the humans who live nearby. When one of those giants, an ailing boy named Pod, wants to be her friend, Arrietty is terrified and fascinated at the same time.
Director Hiromasa Yonebayashi strikes just the right balance between painterly visuals and a warm, funny, story that will delight all ages and provide a few delicious scares besides –especially when that darn cat is about.
Glasgow: Cineworld Renfrew Street. Edinburgh: Cameo, Cineworld, and Vue Edinburgh Ocean. Aberdeen:Cineworld Union Square and Belmont.
Whisky Galore! R/I (U)
HHHHH
Dir: Alexander Mackendrick
With: Basil Radford, Gordon Jackson
WARTIME Scotland, 1943, and the SS Politician, carrying 50,000 cases of whisky, runs aground off the island of Todday. Locals rush to rescue the cargo, handing back every last bottle of the demon drink to the authorities before going on with their teetotal ways.
Aye, right. This restored print of Alexander Mackendrick’s Ealing comedy classic, first released in 1949, is showing again in selected cinemas prior to a DVD release on August 8.
Some wear and tear remains evident, but that only adds to the period charm as anarchy breaks out in the Outer Hebrides. A timeless delight.
Filmhouse, Edinburgh, till August 4.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (PG)
HHHHH
Dir: Steven Spielberg
With: Richard Dreyfuss, Teri Garr
STARTER for ten: can you reproduce the five-note sequence used by characters in this movie to communicate with alien life? Chances are you can, such is the impact Spielberg’s classic has had on everyone who has seen it since the film was released in 1977. Among a cast of many, Richard Dreyfuss leads the way as Roy Neary, the ordinary Joe driven demented after seeing a UFO. Spielberg plays with a universe of themes, mixing spectacle with laughs to create a brilliant big screen treat.
Glasgow film Theatre, tomorrow only, 11pm.
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