Movie Review Round-Up: The New Releases

The true story thriller Maze is the big film this weekend, with sporting biopic Borg vs McEnroe and action-adventure sequel Kingsman: The Golden Circle also opening in cinemas.

Maze ****
Gritty, taut and compelling, Maze is based on the true story of the 1983 escape of 38 IRA prisoners from the notorious HMP Maze, also known as Long Kesh or the H Blocks. Tom Vaughan-Lawlor is mesmerising as the steely Larry Marley.

As the story begins, Republican prisoners are sharing a wing at Long Kesh with Loyalist inmates. Running the gauntlet of sectarian abuse as best he can, Marley keeps his powder dry and quietly begins to plot the sketchy details of an escape plan. Read our full review here.

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Borg vs McEnroe ***1/2
With dialogue in Swedish and English, this pacey tennis biopic recalls the tense 1980 Wimbledon Championship, when the icy Swede Björn Borg met his impetuous American opponent, John McEnroe.

It's a matter of record but, for those who do not recall, after a lengthy tie-break in the course of an extremely tense showdown, Borg (played in this instance by Sverrir Gudnason) finally won his fifth consecutive Wimbledon Championship against John McEnroe (Shia LaBeouf). Read our full review here.

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Kingsman: The Golden Circle ***
Despite retaining the loveable characters, cheeky script and stunning action sequences, Kingsman: The Golden Circle has lost a lot of the magic that made the first film such a surprise hit.

This time around, Eggsy and Merlin must save the world again after the Kingsman headquarters are destroyed and all active agents killed in their homes. Luckily, both were out at the time of the simultaneous attacks on the agency. Read our full review here.

Still Showing:

Mother! ***1/2
In every decade there are those 'when dates go wrong' movies that have ended up putting the kibosh on many a budding relationship - think Night of the Living Dead in the Sixties, The Exorcist in the Seventies, Blue Velvet in the Eighties, Man Bites Dog in the Nineties and Antichrist in the Noughties. Heck, this particular 'rogues' gallery' has so many exhibits there's bound to be a former couple out there who parted company after a trip to see Howard the Duck - and with good reason.

The latest addition to the headwreck hierarchy is Darren Aronofsky's Mother!, which is guaranteed to see many a suitor getting the elbow and is arguably the most out-there thing you're ever going to see released by a major studio in this day and age. It has an 18s cert aka Now That's What We Call Edgy. Read our full review here.

Victoria and Abdul ***
Stephen Frears' lively account of how a lowly Indian servant became Queen Victoria's favourite features another superb turn by Judi Dench as the Widow of Windsor in her twilight years.

Twenty years after Judi Dench played Queen Victoria in Mrs Brown - the touching true story of how the imperious monarch befriended her manservant and bit of rough, John Brown - she returns as Victoria in this lively account of her controversial friendship with Indian footman Abdul Karim. Read our full review here.

American Assassin **
Like the Jason Bourne and Jack Reacher faithful, fans of avenging hero Mitch Rapp have been waiting a long time to see late author Vince Flynn's best-selling creation on the big screen.

After watching American Assassin, they would have been happy to hang on another 18 years. Read our full review here.

Movie Review Round-Up: The New Releases

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