Wonka (Paul King, 2023)

The director of the rather marvellous first two Paddington films takes on a bigger task in competing with the fondly remembered Gene Wilder-led original and Tim Burton's competent remake. Yes, it is a prequel which does not bother to explain how the titular chocolatier became the deranged misanthrope of the previous films, Willy Wonka being thoroughly nice and full of dreams, but Timothée Chalamet, who proves to be highly adept at both singing and dancing, drives the musical on, supported by the ubiquitous Olivia Colman as one of the villains and Hugh Grant as a haughty Oompa Loompa, of all things, as well as a huge cast of British comic stalwarts.

Wonka arrives in town intending to set up his own chocolate shop and soon, through his naivety, ends up in serfdom in a launderette alongside a host of other unfortunates. Undeterred, he puts his mind to escaping and never gives up despite numerous setbacks caused by the malicious chocolate cartel running the town.

The musical numbers are endless and the production design is as garishly over the top as Wonka's confections, but it does all click, at least on a cute level for kids young and old.

6/10

Wicked Little Letters (Thea Sharrock, 2023)

In the wake of the First World War, a single Irish woman with a daughter arrives in the small town of Littlehampton and unsettles the local Christian community with her raucous behaviour and profuse swearing. Her particularly devout neighbours are most upset, and when local residents start getting scabrously abusive, anonymous letters, the immigrant is seen as the natural culprit.

The film is based on a true story, but also puts a blackly comic slant on it, while also not neglecting the poisonously sexist and conservative environment of the time. The mystery element of uncovering the real perpetrator of the hate mail isn't especially complex, but there are a fair few guffaws to be had and the interplay between Jessie Buckley as the single mother Rose, Olivia Colman as her religious neighbour Edith and Timothy Spall as Edith's tyrannical father is as compelling as you could wish for from such a cast. The F-word and C-word count is through the roof within minutes and continues at such an excessive rate that it actually serves to drive the film on relentlessly by steamrolling through all constrictive social mores. Better to ridicule such a society than to just remain aghast at it.

7/10

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (Guy Ritchie, 2024)

Guy Ritchie's films do have a Ronseal quality to them, so whatever the topic, cheeky chappies, cross-referential quipping and lashings of extreme violence are guaranteed. This time, the formula is applied to a loose retelling of the British Operation Postmaster during the Second World War, with Henry Cavill leading a regtag band to sink a cargo ship integral to the U-boat menace in an African port. Scene by scene, it resembles Inglourious Basterds so heavily that Ritchie really should be paying Tarantino royalties. The Germans are caricatures, there's a cat-and-mouse game between Til Schweiger's head Nazi and the sole Jew in the marauding party and interludes with an ahistorical Churchill, who orders the mission.

It starts promisingly enough, like a comic Boys' Own escapade, but the wilful disregard for historicity soon becomes grating, and then it descends into nothing but endless shooting and explosions. Any tension evaporates as it does so, and so does interest in the outcome. Perhaps time to take the director's toys away now.

5/10