Review search
218 results found.
An Inspector Calls
Time has been good to J.B. Priestley’s magnificent piece of socialist polemic, in the sense that not only is it absolutely on topic for the social issues of today, with the government ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 20 May, 2013
Les Misérables [12A]
Definitely a five-Kleenex weepie - you're uncomfortably aware that your heartstrings are about to be well and truly twanged upon. Full marks to Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean,with his haunted, ravaged face ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 12 February, 2013
Warm Bodies [12A]
Unexpectedly delightful and heart-warming for a zombie movie. I won't say that it had the rejuvenating feel-good properties of It's a Wonderful Life, but we certainly left the cinema feeling lighter of ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 11 February, 2013
Life of Pi [PG]
Surpassingly beautiful to look at, and a profoundly faithful rendering of the novel. Life of Pi has all the ingenious imaginative and emotional depth of the book while gifting you with unforgettably ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 11 February, 2013
Lincoln [12A]
Make no mistake, this is a superb movie in the classic Hollywood tradition. It's more of a courtroom drama than a bio-pic, engaging us as it does with the thrilling and moving ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 11 February, 2013
Cosi Fan Tutte
Clever, sharp, funny, warm-hearted – this brilliantly produced Cosi from the WNO was truly a delight from start to finish. It was set in a nameless British seaside town in the early ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 25 October, 2012
Sinister [15]
Some frightening scenes and effective writing distinguish this from the run of the mill house-where-something-horrible-has-happened movies, and it maintained a decent level of suspense until about the final twenty minutes - as ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 10 October, 2012
The House At The End Of The Street [15]
This is not a supernatural, Amityville-type horror movie, but a suspenseful, there-are-no-monsters-worse-than-human-beings type horror movie, and as such it is not at all bad. Anyone who has watched too many episodes of ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 25 September, 2012
The Bourne Legacy [12A]
Seriously good, though not perfect, attempt at extending the shelf-life of the Bourne franchise. It’s kind of like reading The Tenant of Wildfell Hall – you would think it was brilliant, passionate, ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 24 August, 2012
Hamlet
A remarkably cheery outing for the Gloomy Dane, one that teeters on the brink of turning tragedy into comedy. The production celebrates the makeshift, temporary physicality and close comradeship of the theatre ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 17 July, 2012
Chernobyl Diaries [15]
Pripyat is the purpose-built residential city for the workers of Chernobyl and their community; c. 50,000 people were evacuated over two days in 1986 and now the ugly blocks of flats are ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 6 July, 2012
Prometheus [15]
This movie is mind-blowing, if your mind is open to being blown. It’s a flawed masterpiece, but it is a masterpiece nonetheless. It’s hard for a movie that comes bearing such a ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 8 June, 2012
Snow White and the Huntsman [12A]
There are plenty of enjoyable moments in this movie but it doesn't quite come off. Rejecting the tongue in cheek approach of Mirror Mirror, it takes itself very seriously, and invites us ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 4 June, 2012
Dark Shadows [12A]
Looks ravishing, but it quickly becomes apparent that production values are no substitute for a great script. This one is weak and rather dull - I'm afraid they put every single funny ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 16 May, 2012
Avengers Assemble [12A]
A post-script - what is it about Jeremy Renner? He's 41, not specially tall, not particularly good-looking, with a sort of rumpled, lived-in face, but he is effortlessly charismatic and compelling in ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 16 May, 2012
La Traviata
This was not the first time I’ve observed that opera can hurtle the viewer’s emotions into meltdown quicker than eighteen vodkas, but it was my first Traviata, and it was truly awesome. ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 4 May, 2012
Avengers Assemble [12A]
Quite simply the best action adventure movie based on comic books ever made. I still haven't stopped geeking out about it and I'm almost ready to start work on the D.Phil, so ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 30 April, 2012
21 Jump Street [15]
Moderately funny movie based on popular eighties tv show in which cops with an apparently youthful appearance have to go undercover as high school kids to expose the dealers of a dangerous ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 27 April, 2012
The Cabin in the Woods [15]
Genre-busting horror movie, of the sort where it's virtually impossible to say anything about it without revealing crucial plot surprises. From the very start of the movie the audience is aware that ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 17 April, 2012
The Hunger Games [12A]
Eminently lovable and successful screen adaptation of the awesome young adult dystopian fantasy novel about the ultimate reality TV show. This is a terrific example of how we drink in information from images ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 28 March, 2012
Prince Of Denmark
How deliciously irresistible to see this presented in Oxford in the same week as the ‘real’ Hamlet (currently playing at Blackwell’s Bookshop), since this is an audacious ‘pre-quel’ - set ten years ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 16 March, 2012
This Means War [12A]
Pure pink fluffy escapism and as long as you have no wish for more meaty fare you will likely find it very amusing. Reese Witherspoon is more beautiful now than she was ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 14 March, 2012
Hamlet
Two startling innovations were utilized by The Factory last night in order to woo audiences away from Hamlet’s reputation as ‘The Gloomy Dane’*. One was to have a woman play Hamlet; the ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 14 March, 2012
OUDS New Writing Festival 2012
A very interesting peek into the early life of Enoch Powell, following the now well-established dramatic interest in characters who are intellectually brilliant but socially handicapped (e.g. the new BBC Sherlock, House, ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 1 March, 2012
Barefaced Night
A successful piece of genre-busting theatre that creatively fuses different (very different) dance and musical styles to re-enact the story, neatly summarized in the program as follows:
Bear meets girl. Girl elopes with ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 22 February, 2012
The Woman In Black [12A]
Some reviewers have noted that this does not exactly represent a huge step forward for young Daniel Radcliffe in his post-Potter future career, and indeed cinema-goers are likely to be beset by ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 20 February, 2012
Chronicle [12A]
A surprisingly meaty film about social alienation and violence masquerading as a teen fantasy about boys suddenly developing superpowers after an encounter with a big weird alien glowy thing. Rather a Lord ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 16 February, 2012
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows [12A]
OK but in no way an improvement on the first one. Some ingenious interweaving of actual Conan Doyle details, but mostly a rather wearisome succession of slo-mo fights and chases and a ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 1 January, 2012
New Year's Eve [12A]
I confess myself to be one of those cinematic morons complained of by the august Mark Kermode who have been brainwashed into enjoying this movie when they couldn't really have liked it ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 1 January, 2012
Puss In Boots [U]
Oh dear. Best avoided - even moppets find it disappointingly thin. ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 1 January, 2012
Jubilate! Choir
A delicious and perfectly formed short concert of seasonally themed choral works, mostly sung by the wonderful Jubilate! Choir. Keble College Chapel, in all its vastness and gloriousness, looked particularly lovely lit only ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 13 December, 2011
Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn: Part One [12A]
For the most part, this is a well-produced movie version of the first half of Stephenie Meyer's increasingly bizarre final Twilight book, up to the point of Bella's 'turning'. Only the scene ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 2 December, 2011
The Help [12A]
Hugely enjoyable, beautifully written, powerfully acted, very engaging version of the best-selling book. The film is slightly less touched by the terrifying racial violence at the core of the story and comes ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 2 November, 2011
Contagion [12A]
Definitely well worth seeing, and seemed for a while as if it could have been one of the most terrifying movies ever in the genre of there-is-no-monster-so-horrible-as-human-beings, but it somehow pulled its ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 2 November, 2011
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy [15]
I can't believe that people found this film dull or fell asleep in it. For me it was two hours of knuckle-chewing, bottom-denting tension, tempered by huge admiration for all the bold ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 14 October, 2011
The Three Musketeers [12A]
Unspeakably dire and a shocking waste of some very talented actors. My fourteen year old daughter loved it, principally because of the large amounts of screen-time showcasing the personable young Logan Lerman, but ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 13 October, 2011
Abduction [12A]
A disappointing clanger. Slack, implausible writing, a workaday thriller plot that does no more than pick up and make use of the customary clichés of the genre. It's a vehicle movie that ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 6 October, 2011
Jane Eyre [PG]
Not so - it is worth stirring out of your house for; though it isn't perfect, it's pretty good. The script is literate and thoughtful, the acting first rate - though my ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 6 October, 2011
Friends with Benefits [15]
Enjoyable and - it should be said - educational romcom with engaging, attractive, likeable leads. All teenage boys should be made to watch this and tested on their techniques afterwards. ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 6 October, 2011
Crazy, Stupid, Love [12A]
Steve Carell is always worth watching, a past master at combining funny and touching. Though this is a rather strange, reactionary movie, it does have charm and much to recommend it. My ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 6 October, 2011
Fright Night [15]
Deliciously, wickedly entertaining, and the best thing Colin Farrell has done by far since In Bruges. This is a whole, richly imagined world, and not just a tired re-tread of the moderately ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 14 September, 2011
Horrible Bosses [15]
A very, very funny film, an absolute delight from start to finish. Wonderful (and very different) cameos of horribleness from Kevin Spacey as the mean bullying boss, Colin Farrell with a truly ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 12 August, 2011
Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon [12A]
Well, my fourteen year old daughter enjoyed this hugely, and would like everyone to know that it's AWESOME. Folk often say that life is too short to do such and such - ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 22 July, 2011
As You Like It
O wonderful, wonderful, and most wonderfulwonderful! and yet again wonderful, and after that,out of all whooping! (Celia, Act III Sc ii)If you only go to one outdoor Shakespeare all summer, make it ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 20 July, 2011
A Midsummer Night's Dream
I had high expectations of Tomahawk Theatre, having seen their absolutely excellent production of Much Ado a couple of years ago; and I was not disappointed. This is a gutsy and witty ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 8 July, 2011
Bridesmaids [15]
A very much more interesting and well-written movie than the trailer would lead you to suppose. The trailer clearly wants you to think of Bridesmaids as a hilarious gross-out comedy, the female ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 5 July, 2011
War Poetry by Candlelight
A very beautifully put-together programme of poems, journal extracts, letters, newspaper articles and speeches – it was not so much a poetry-reading as a performance, with boys dressed as WWI soldiers in ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 1 July, 2011
The Green Lantern [12A]
I confess I only wanted to see this because it contains very large amounts of close-up screen time with the scrumptious Ryan Reynolds, but it was rewarding in other ways as well ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 28 June, 2011
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides [12A]
Could have been worse, in the sense that it's not as awful as Pirates 3, but not really good enough to tempt you away from all the much more fun things you ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 15 June, 2011
X-Men: First Class [12A]
Totally awesome. If you have to make movies based on comic books, this is how to do it: excellent actors, luscious retro design with fabulous period detail, witty and literate script, brilliant ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 9 June, 2011
Much Ado About Nothing
The question with student productions is always, can charm, talent, or sheer enthusiasm compensate the audience for frightful production values, no budget and weak actors in minor roles? The answer in this case is ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 9 June, 2011
Priest [12A]
This movie has been absolutely panned in the nationals, but really it’s not as bad as all that. Nowhere near as awful as Van Helsing, for example, with which some critics have ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 11 May, 2011
Thor [12A]
This movie has so much going for it: stunning set design, witty script, gorgeous hero, even more gorgeous villain, pretty spiffy FX, some top-quality kick-ass combat sequences, quite a few laugh-out-loud funny ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 7 May, 2011
Your Highness [15]
Very funny, but startlingly rude - quite surprised that they got away with a 15 certificate. ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 25 April, 2011
Beastly [12A]
I keep hoping to see Alex Pettyfer in a decent movie so that I can admire his tousled blond good looks without having to squirm in embarrassment, but - sadly - this ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 25 April, 2011
Cave of Forgotten Dreams [U]
This is a lovingly detailed documentary by veteran German film director Werner Herzog about the mind-blowingly awesome Chauvet caves: discovered in 1997 to contain incredibly beautiful and mysterious cave paintings dating back ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 12 April, 2011
The Eagle [12A]
Everything about this movie is perfect and I loved every second of it. Cannot recommend it highly enough, but go see it quick before it disappears as it can't be described as ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 5 April, 2011
Limitless [15]
You... but on a REALLY good day - this is the tantalizing premise of this excellent thriller. Bradley Cooper is perfectly cast as hopeless loser Eddie Morra, a writer who spends his time sleeping ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 4 April, 2011
Source Code [12A]
Thankfully, a thriller where they do not reveal pretty much everything in the trailer. Prepare, therefore, to be surprised and see a rather different movie from the one the trailer presents. Quite ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 4 April, 2011
I Am Number Four [12A]
As noted by Mrs C, this is pretty much Smallville only not quite so plausible or realistic. But despair not, those of you who are grown-up and facing the prospect of being ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 1 March, 2011
Restrictions May Apply
The audience was markedly short of parents yesterday evening (the traditional cannon fodder of student opening nights), as this is definitely not the sort of thing an aspiring thesp is going to ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 9 February, 2011
The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader [PG]
A rare and unusual case where the film is shedloads better than the trailer would lead you to believe. The trailer was so bad that I almost didn't go to see ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 23 December, 2010
Burlesque [12A]
My teenage daughter absolutely adored this latter-day Cinderella movie, and indeed it had many points of interest. Cher - isn't she about ninety now? - looked amazing and still has the ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 23 December, 2010
Advent By Candlelight
What an amazing and magical start to a Saturday evening this was. I’ve never previously had occasion to visit Keble College Chapel, that splendid Victorian Gothic extravaganza, and it can rarely have ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 13 December, 2010
Rapunzel or The Magic Pig
This looks like being another triumph for Creation – a delightful, beautifully adapted, gorgeously performed show in a spectacular venue accompanied by delicious crêpes and yummy drinks. I looked around at the ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 3 December, 2010
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 [12A]
This was a very hard task for a film-maker - to film half a book in which not very much happens, lots of things go horribly wrong, and the heroes become very ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 2 December, 2010
Unstoppable [12A]
This is a perfect cinematic example of outstandingly good plain cooking as opposed to divinely esoteric haute cuisine. It's not unique, original, or even that creative, but oh-my-god it's breathtakingly good. Director ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 1 December, 2010
The Lesson
This is an early short play by Ionesco, which he himself described as an "anti-play" – as good a way as any to indicate that anything approaching boring old bourgeois commonplaces such ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 20 October, 2010
Despicable Me [U]
Superior casting and stunning animation (definitely worth the extra three quid for the 3D version) do compensate for a somewhat predictable and teensy tad derivative story, but this is on the whole ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 19 October, 2010
Vampires Suck [12A]
Has the occasional funny line e.g. 'You're pale white and ice-cold - you don't have sex - you're a Jonas brother!' but mostly pretty dire and will be virtually meaningless in ten ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 19 October, 2010
The Red Shoes
The Red Shoes, just so you know, is nothing to do with the wonderful Powell and Pressburger movie of 1948, except that both were ‘based on’ one of Hans Christian Andersen’s most ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 13 October, 2010
Letters to Juliet [PG]
Sweet, elegiac and inconsequential romantic film, only really of interest because of the cinematic reunion of Vanessa Redgrave and Franco Nero, but really starring Tuscany. Amanda Seyfried sympathetic and appealing as ever ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 11 October, 2010
The Hole [12A]
A remarkably creepy film for only a 12 certificate, maintaining the suspense right up until about twenty minutes from the end, which benefits from a quirky script and a top-notch cast. It ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 10 October, 2010
The Tempest
This was marvellous, a gleeful romp of a production that successfully brings out the humour as well as the darker motifs in Shakespeare’s late, great Romance. The OSC clearly operates on a ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 5 August, 2010
Garsington Opera 2010
“…the joy which this music causes is so far removed from all sensuality that one cannot speak of it. Where could words be found that are worthy to describe such joy?" So ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 3 June, 2010
Avatar [12A]
Just bought the dvd, and whaddya know, it's still awesome and wonderful even on the small screen. Hurrah. ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 4 May, 2010
Iron Man 2 [12A]
Hugely enjoyable action movie in which the hero is a) not endowed with any super-powers b) has exposed his identity and c) has a perverse self-destructive tendency that drives even those who ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 4 May, 2010
Oxfringe 2010
The Jam Factory, if anyone hasn’t been there, is a great venue – a bar and restaurant combined with a gallery and performance space that is really friendly, relaxed, chilled, pleasant. As ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 9 April, 2010
Oxfringe 2010
An intriguing concept, the adult puppet show, or rather I should say, a puppet show for adults. The world has effectively ended and mankind is no more. Two demons are discussing their ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 8 April, 2010
Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang [U]
Delicious, funny, sweet, moving - thoroughly recommended for moppets and their parents alike. Maggie Gyllenhaal is adorable as harassed mum Mrs Green, trying to cope with the family farm and her three ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 31 March, 2010
Antigone
This is a complex, provoking and profoundly ambivalent play – supposedly a clear critique of tyranny, the play was first performed – by permission – in Nazi-occupied Paris in February 1944. In ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 24 March, 2010
Yawn
This is a brand-new play by Oliver Rowse, the writer of the much-acclaimed Udder, which is simultaneously hugely bold and bafflingly weird. It’s bold because, as the title indicates, it sets out quite ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 26 February, 2010
The Wolfman [15]
Everything about this movie is superb, top notch, first class, except for the script, which has moments of disastrous clunkiness (I don't think I'm doing a huge spoiler if I tell you ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 17 February, 2010
Avatar [12A]
Possibly the most beautiful film I have ever seen - like spending time in your most ravishing imaginary world that you can only recall in tantalizing fragments from your childhood, but here ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 16 February, 2010
Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief [PG]
This is a pleasant, enjoyable action-packed kids' fantasy - much better than The Golden Compass, not quite approaching the level of Time Bandits. About as good as Inkheart, I'd say. It will ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 16 February, 2010
Valentine's Day [12A]
Was it really a good idea to pack the cast with people who look like Ashton Kutcher and Jessica Alba in this movie? Part of the reason why Love Actually and (more ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 16 February, 2010
Daybreakers [15]
A really clever, witty and enjoyable vampire movie, which you might possibly still catch at the Ultimate or the Phoenix. It looks ravishing, with a doom-laden noirish ambience - saturated colours deepening ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 16 February, 2010
Snow White On Ice
Awesome, thrilling, spectacular, and very very beautiful. This was my first ice-dance and I didn’t quite know what to expect, but I think I was expecting something lower-budget in all respects than ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 29 January, 2010
St Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold [PG]
Not as cool or as funny or as clever as the first one. I'm sorry, because I enjoyed the first one and I was hoping that this would be as good. But ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 15 January, 2010
The Twilight Saga: New Moon [12A]
An interesting question. It's not that one would have any difficulty understanding the plot - it aint Tolstoy. Most of the essential background details can be swiftly picked up by reading a ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 8 December, 2009
Jennifer's Body [15]
A cut above the average teen slasher pic. If taken at face value, it's an entertaining tale of the madness and mayhem that follows after a naughty satanist rock-band make the unpardonably ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 26 November, 2009
The Twilight Saga: New Moon [12A]
This is by and large a very well-produced, well-written and splendidly performed movie, given that it's based on an incredibly silly story - a girl torn between her feelings for a vampire ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 25 November, 2009
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant [12A]
One of life's little ironies: really brilliant books often don't translate well to the screen, but it seems that badly written mediocre rubbish can actually make pleasing and entertaining films. This is ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 29 October, 2009
Michael Jackson's This Is It [PG]
I was hoping that this would explain the mystery of why Jackson's fans continue to adore him, and especially why he continues to be an inspiration to black people. Was he really ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 29 October, 2009
Outlander [15]
This isn't at all bad, if you can get your head round the idea that the true story of Beowulf was that he crashed his space-ship into a lake and inadvertently brought ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 10 October, 2009
Zombieland [15]
I can't really understand why anyone would want to see this frightful movie (or indeed why I did - some friends invited me and I went in a spirit of experiment). The ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 10 October, 2009
The Invention of Lying [12A]
There's a sub-genre of rom-com in which an average looking, not particularly nice, hapless sort of man pursues the affections of a gorgeous and highly intelligent woman - think of Gervais's previous ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 9 October, 2009
Words Spoken And Sung
Unmissably wonderful. This was the way of it: a semi-circle of chairs on the stage, occupied by eight men and two women. One at a time they came forward to the front ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 28 September, 2009
Surrogates [12A]
A pleasingly intelligent contribution to the Evil Corporate Conspiracy/Techno-Sci-Fi genre, which owes much to those that have gone before it - most notably to I, Robot (with which it also shares the ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 28 September, 2009
Fame [PG]
Inferior in every way to the 1980 movie of the same name. This means: less gritty, less realistic, less adult, more Disneyfied, more bland, more dumbed-down, more shiny, less dramatic, and much, ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 28 September, 2009
Useful Knowledge To Know
This is a quirky short piece of theatre, only 50 minutes long, in which a French lady named Chloé Déchery delivers a sort of lecture to the audience in which the ambivalence ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 8 September, 2009
William Shakespeare's Henry V
Parts of this were very good indeed - the scene following the death of Falstaff, the scene where Henry is in disguise talking to the common soldiers, Henry's tortured prayer that God ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 28 August, 2009
G-Force [PG]
I just love these new 3D movies and I really hope it works out as a worthwhile investment for the cinemas that have coughed up thousands to install the new screens. The ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 11 August, 2009
The Proposal [12A]
Well, this is rather fun. Instead of La Bullock presenting her familiar brand of winsome and adorable, she charges in as a first-rate, grade-A, big-city bitch and we have the enormous pleasure ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 11 August, 2009
Moon [15]
Why isn’t this movie on at the mainstream cinemas? If you like intelligent, well-crafted, beautifully-acted human drama, whether sci-fi or not, do yourself a favour and catch this movie before it disappears. ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 4 August, 2009
Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs [U]
Truly an exception to the rule of diminishing returns in sequels. Ice Age 1 made me cry, Ice Age 2 was a teensy bit dull, but this is absolutely wonderful - warm, ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 8 July, 2009
Love's Labour's Lost
I can sort of see the rationale for this production. Imagine it as a movie pitch: Shakespeare meets P.G. Wodehouse – it’s about four callow young men falling in love with the ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 22 June, 2009
Transformers 2 [12A]
Tolerably good FX and fight scenes, nonsensical plot, minimal acting. Nowhere near as good as Transformers 1. Pretty much as expected. Boys of all ages (and genders) will probably enjoy it but ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 22 June, 2009
Garsington Opera 2009
Mirandolina is a bright, sparkling, funny comic-opera adaptation of Carlo Goldoni’s La Locandiera, to which it owes many of the elements that make this production a delight. It has an irresistibly naughty ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 19 June, 2009
Garsington Opera 2009
This was a triumphant opening night for Garsington’s Fidelio – at the end of it the audience (largely composed of sedate and beautifully dressed elderly persons) yelled, hooted, and stamped their feet ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 4 June, 2009
Night at the Museum 2 [PG]
Disappointing. It serves me right for going to see a movie whose creators were so lazy that they just called it No 2. It's only good for making me realise that No ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 27 May, 2009
Much Ado About Nothing
OK, this is a truly novel and amusing way to do Shakespeare. Weird, quirky, brilliant. The actors have learned all the lines, but nothing else is certain. They are to use props ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 14 May, 2009
Star Trek [12A]
This is an outstanding movie – bursting with great ideas, edge-of-the-seat excitement, top quality style and FX, and (praise the Roddenberry) a literate, inventive, witty script that confidently combines humour with drama ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 11 May, 2009
Hannah Montana [U]
Could be a blue-print for Falls-between-two-stools. The Disney tv show from which this film was spawned is tightly focussed on gags, by means of a combination of most un-Disneyesque 'gross' humour - ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 11 May, 2009
Flhip Flhop
Two mates are painting a friend’s flat. They are your worst nightmare in terms of decorators – easily distracted, constantly tinkering with (and breaking) their friend’s stuff, and crap at painting – ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 8 May, 2009
X-Men Origins - Wolverine [12A]
An unbelievably silly and disappointing film. Not quite as bad as Van Helsing, but way below the other X-Men movies (yes, even the ghastly mess that was X-Men 3) in every way ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 4 May, 2009
Aida
Aida is perhaps the grandest of the Grand Operas - an invitation to lavish spectacle and ruinous excess in staging. Consider the Met's 1984 production with dear old Pavarotti, when the conquered Ethiopians ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 18 April, 2009
Dolce Via
By Siobhan NicholasTake the Space Theatre CompanyThis new play combines ‘mentalist’ tricks, ventriloquism, fire-eating, uni-cycling and some pretty funny stand-up with an emotional disclosure of the hero’s attempts to recover from a ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 17 April, 2009
17 Again [12A]
Also with overtones of Back to the Future, Big, and Freaky Friday. This is quite funny, thanks to an excellent cast, though not startlingly original, and they seem puzzlingly to have adopted ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 14 April, 2009
Cloverfield [15]
I've just watched this on dvd. Does anyone know why it is called 'Cloverfield?' ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 11 March, 2009
Coppelia
Coppelia is famously a brilliant ballet for beginners – it has a family friendly story-line, complete with happy ending, and it’s not a full-on three hour event (three half hour Acts and ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 9 March, 2009
Never Have I Ever
Never Have I Ever, in case you don’t know, is a party game in which one person makes a statement, for example, ‘Never have I ever read the seventh Harry Potter book’ ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 25 February, 2009
The Tale of Despereaux [U]
This is quite simply the most beautiful animated film that has ever been created. It is also, in equal measure, adorable, dramatic, scary, and uplifting, and it has a truly astonishing cast ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 23 February, 2009
Confessions of a Shopaholic [12A]
This is a very poor offering, dull, clunky, and obvious. It could have been smart and sassy and funny alongside its moral (materialism, consumerism and especially escalating debt are wrong. Well, duh!) ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 20 February, 2009
He's Just Not That Into You [12A]
This is a romantic comedy in the sense that its subject matter is romance and it has a happy ending, but don't expect to be rolling in the aisles. For a movie ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 20 February, 2009
Slumdog Millionaire [15]
Dudes, you are so not getting the point of the ending! It is a convention of the genre. You are not supposed to find it realistic. You don't criticize Twelfth Night or ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 17 February, 2009
Inkheart [PG]
I suspect this is about to disappear from the cinemas so I urge you to go and see it on the big screen before it's too late. Eliza Bennett is a splendid ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 16 February, 2009
Black Comedy by Peter Shaffer
An entertaining if undemanding 1965 vintage comedy from Peter Shaffer, nicely produced and pleasingly acted. The gimmick of the play is that the characters, supposedly plunged into darkness by a mains fuse ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 11 February, 2009
Twilight [12A]
Robert Pattinson (recently enjoyed as the prematurely deceased Cedric Diggory in HPIV) is making rather a specialty of playing dead chaps, or in this case, undead. He is a very beautiful creature, ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 22 December, 2008
Romeo and Juliet
This is a bold, intense, powerful, shocking version of Romeo and Juliet. See it at once, but leave all your expectations of what going to the theatre is all about at home. ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 19 November, 2008
HIgh School Musical 3 [U]
The cinema was full when I was forced to take my daughter to see this movie on its opening night last Wednesday, full of over-excited little girls, some in costume with cheerleading ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 31 October, 2008
Shaolin Kung Fu Masters
This is a very unusual show, performed (we are assured) by real monks, who have trained themselves to be lethal fighting machines since they were tiny moppets – and indeed, some of ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 28 October, 2008
The House Bunny [12A]
The plot of this movie bears a very strong resemblance to Legally Blonde, and there’s a reason for that – it was written by the same people, Kirsten Smith and Karen McCullah Lutz. ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 17 October, 2008
Status Quo
The New Theatre was bursting at the seams for this concert on Saturday night, and this is what it was like. The supporting band was justly humble and expressed themselves grateful to ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 6 October, 2008
How To Be Well Dressed And Famous
This is intended to be the cutting edge of creative theatre – to make performances that are not static, and always the same night after night, but have the explosive potential to ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 30 September, 2008
The Women [12A]
A very uneven film. One or two good jokes - one delightful visual one where the Meg Ryan character is trying to locate her mother in the post-op lounge of a plastic ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 26 September, 2008
'Allo 'Allo
A rare opportunity to see a British cultural phenomenon on stage. ‘Allo ‘Allo recently gained a kind of spurious stardom with the young because it was mentioned in Catherine Tate’s celebrated confrontation ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 22 September, 2008
A Man Like Any Other – The Priest’s Tale
I was looking forward with keen interest to the next novel by Mary Cavanagh (click here for the review of The Crowded Bed) and A Man Like Any Other does not disappoint. She ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 22 September, 2008
Frideswide - An Oxford Story
Alas, the interminable bloody rain necessitated the move of Frideswide from the bucolic delights of Wytham orchard to All Saints Church last night, where the brave actors, their bare feet blue on ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 13 September, 2008
Hellboy 2 [12A]
I would never have thought of going to see this movie if it hadn't been for Brendon Connelly's review below, and thus would have been deprived of two hours or so of ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 10 September, 2008
The Duchess [12A]
This is a gorgeous film, with a fine, intelligent script, brilliantly adapted from Amanda Foreman’s unwieldy biography, and rendered well above average by an outstanding performance from Ralph Fiennes as the Duke. ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 9 September, 2008
Get Smart [12A]
This is a rather pedestrian comedy spy thriller that is rescued from the Don't Bother category by the excellent performances of its two leads. Steve Carell is very touching as the geeky ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 28 August, 2008
High School Musical
This is a musical that grown-ups take their moppets to, probably without any huge expectations of enjoying it themselves – but this was such a blast, I think I enjoyed it more ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 27 August, 2008
High School Musical
This is a musical that grown-ups take their moppets to, probably without any huge expectations of enjoying it themselves – but this was such a blast, I think I enjoyed it more ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 26 August, 2008
The Dark Knight [12A]
The Dark Night lifts movies based on comic strips to a whole new level and makes the previous bunch of Batman movies seem laughably inept. The script is superb, the movie building ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 30 July, 2008
Early Music by Candlelight Summer Festival 2008
Choral music, by its very nature, is about restraint, balance, harmony. This concert exemplified these qualities both in the dexterous and sonorous organ playing of Kah-Ming Ng and the perfectly-rehearsed and exquisitely ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 28 July, 2008
k.d. lang
We are constantly reminded by the ghastly profusion of programmes like The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent that an enormous number of people think they can sing; and quite a large ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 24 July, 2008
Mamma Mia [PG]
This movie is so beautiful to look at, you just want to chuck your job, leap on a plane and get yourself into that brilliant turquoise mediterranean sea as fast as possible. ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 21 July, 2008
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian [PG]
This film is absolutely superb; as with Harry Potter II, they have really hit their stride and produced a much better movie than the first one. I am so glad that it ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 29 June, 2008
Abbamania
A really wonderful evening’s entertainment by a proper tribute band, who dress up as and pretend to be the celebrated 70s supergroup. Authenticity is clearly their watchword; they opened the show wearing ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 23 June, 2008
The Incredible Hulk [12A]
This is a "reboot" and not a sequel to the 2003 Hulk starring Eric Bana and directed by Ang Lee. It has a very much higher percentage of screen time dedicated to ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 17 June, 2008
The Importance of Being Earnest
This was a suitably light-hearted production of perhaps the perfect play for a June evening in a beautiful garden. It’s simply no good going to see this play in the hope of ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 12 June, 2008
Cosi Fan Tutte
Last night’s opening performance of Cosi fan tutte left you wondering why anybody bothers to stage operas that aren’t by Mozart – he is just so much better at it than anyone ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 9 June, 2008
What Happens in Vegas [12A]
This movie was universally panned in the press, but actually I quite enjoyed it. Naturally one is not looking for either depth or realism in a rom-com; it is frothy and frilly, ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 9 June, 2008
L’Incoronazione Di Dario
I was very excited about this, as last night was the first time this opera by (Four Seasons) Vivaldi had ever been performed in our own dear country. I had never been ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 5 June, 2008
The Innocents [12A]
This is a brilliant, moving, frightening, disturbing movie based on Henry James's horrible novella The Turn of the Screw. The point of the Henry James story is that the governess is going ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 2 June, 2008
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull [12A]
Pamplemousse is perhaps a bit harsh about this movie, but doesn’t mention the thing I found most disappointing about it: namely, its blatant ripping-off of bits from other successful action adventure movies. For example ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 30 May, 2008
London Assurance by Dion Boucicault
For connoisseurs of costume drama and drawing-room comedy, this is a tasty treat served up in a very pretty wrapping. I have to confess that as a reviewer it makes a very ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 21 May, 2008
The Clandestine Marriage
I was pleasantly surprised by this thoroughly delicious confection. Mid-eighteenth-century comedy can be a bit of an acquired taste, but thanks to the excellence of director Helen McCabe’s adaptation – judicious deletions ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 14 May, 2008
Thriller: Live
Many superlatives have been heaped upon Michael Jackson in his time, and this show demonstrates very clearly what an amazing creative force he has been in popular music. The wonderful songs he ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 12 May, 2008
Dirty Linen
For those who (like me) prefer early Stoppard, before he became all tortured and complicated and much less funny, Dirty Linen is a little gem, light, sparkling and brilliant. It’s only an ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 7 May, 2008
Fiddler on The Roof
This is one of the great musicals, much beloved and with good reason. On the face of it, the daily life of a poor Jewish family about to be persecuted and ultimately ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 30 April, 2008
27 Dresses [12A]
An absolutely delicious rom-com confection, right down to the ending (if Shakespeare can do manifestly artificial happy endings, why not Hollywood?). Katherine Heigl as Jane is an almost uniquely sympathetic heroine - she's ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 2 April, 2008
Measure for Measure
Measure for Measure is one of Shakespeare’s famously difficult plays, which is why it isn’t often staged. It doesn’t so much refuse to give the audience the compulsory happy ending as plonk ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 26 March, 2008
Step Up 2 [PG]
If you like street dancing, then you will like this. The script is sharp and sassy, the heroine attractive and likeable, the story predictably standard Hollywood but competently executed - but the ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 25 March, 2008
Meet The Spartans [12A]
I cannot imagine an afternoon so rainy that I couldn't find anything better to do than watch this movie. I must admit that 300 was simply crying out to be sent up, ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 25 March, 2008
10,000 BC [12A]
Well, this was rather fun. It has had some awful reviews in the nationals, but for most people it’s going to beg comparison with the iconic 60s blockbuster 1,000,000 Years BC and ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 16 March, 2008
Hanging Hooke
This is an enthralling piece of theatre for two reasons. One, the subject matter is absolutely riveting – it tells the story of (almost) forgotten genius Robert Hooke, a polymath who included ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 14 March, 2008
Dancin' Oxford Festival 2008
In essence this was rather similar to the Dance Box performed in February at the Pegasus Theatre – a collection of dance improvisations devised and performed by local children and teenagers. The ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 10 March, 2008
The Other Boleyn Girl [12A]
Well, this just goes to show that you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. The Other Boleyn Girl is a truly awful novel, and even when you throw ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 10 March, 2008
Vantage Point [12A]
This was an ingenious idea for a movie and it should have been a lot better. Sadly, however, it is contrived, derivative and weak. Its plotting was teeth-grindingly obvious, so that the ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 9 March, 2008
The Game Plan [U]
This is a movie in the time-honoured tradition of pairing a bulging hard-man (Arnie, Vin Diesel) with an adorable little moppet. It's not a bad variation on this theme, allowing Dwayne (The ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 9 March, 2008
Tenebrae Factae Sunt
Sung by the Marian Consort directed by Jeremy SummerlyWith music for lute by Simone Molinaro This was a single performance so you can’t go to it, but it’s worth reviewing in case ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 29 February, 2008
Miss Potter [PG]
Are these people mad? This movie is not charming, sweet and funny. It is a five-kleenex weepie. The most brilliant and tremendously moving part of Renee Zellweger's performance is the section after ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 28 February, 2008
Dancin' Oxford Festival 2008
This is a collection of dance performances, inspired by art, created and performed by groups of children from age 3+, teenagers and adults. The Pegasus Theatre is a community dance theatre where ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 21 February, 2008
Dancin' Oxford Festival 2008
James Son of James is the third in a trilogy. The hero returns home to a small community in the middle of Ireland half way through his father’s funeral. He hasn’t been ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 18 February, 2008
P.S. I Love You [12A]
Do not go to see this movie if you have recently lost someone you love, otherwise you will end up weeping all the way through it and your small daughter will pretend ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 31 January, 2008
I Am Legend [15]
This is one of the scariest films I've ever seen, but I must qualify that by confessing that the last scary film I saw in the cinema was Aliens. I only went to ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 7 January, 2008
St Trinians [12A]
This movie is just tremendous fun - my daughter has been to see it three times already - it has terrific music and several laugh out loud funny bits. It doesn't quite ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 7 January, 2008
Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium [U]
Oh dear, oh dear. I'm afraid this is easily the worst of the Christmas bunch of Family Movies (though I haven't seen Alvin and the Chipmunks yet - that might be worse). ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 7 January, 2008
Enchanted [PG]
This is tremendous fun, though they did put seven out of ten of the funniest moments into the trailer. But it is well-written, and the first half hour is full of delicious ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 18 December, 2007
Noughts and Crosses
This is superb and a must-see; move over Shakespeare! It is a hugely successful adaptation of the celebrated teen novel by Malorie Blackman. It tells the Romeo-and-Juliet-like story of the developing relationship between ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 13 December, 2007
Much Ado About Nothing
This is an outstanding production of one of Shakespeare’s best–loved comedies. It was completely sold out last night, so rush along and get tickets if you can. Tomahawk Productions is a company ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 12 December, 2007
Nabucco & Carmen
Carmen, Friday 7th December 2007You can’t help enjoying Carmen because of the wonderful, exhilarating music, with its dazzling energy, blood-stirring rhythms, and gloriously hummable melodies. It really makes you want to leap ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 9 December, 2007
Beowulf [12A]
I was pleasantly surprised by how good this movie is; it's immensely rich and dramatic as well as having stunning fight scenes. It follows in the footsteps of Kingdom of Heaven in ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 3 December, 2007
Mindgame by Anthony Horowitz
Anthony Horowitz has put his (and our) frank interest in deranged killers in the spotlight in this intriguing and amusing play. What makes sadistic serial murderers different from the rest of us, ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 15 November, 2007
King John
The director of this production, Helen McCabe, went to some trouble to inform us how very seldom King John has been performed over the centuries. Before the celebrated revival by the RSC ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 24 October, 2007
Ratatouille [U]
First of all, this movie is ravishing to look at. Every bedraggled whisker on every little rat is as lovingly rendered as the rain-drenched roof-tiles, silvered sewers, and grandly tasseled interiors of ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 15 October, 2007
South Pacific
A must-see at the New Theatre This is a musical that isn’t often produced nowadays, and I wonder why not, because it is truly one of the great, great musicals. So many ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 10 October, 2007
Visiting Mr Green
Warren Mitchell’s performance as Mr Green is a quiet tour de force. If you didn’t know this was the same actor who so famously personated loud, ignorant, foul-mouthed, universally prejudiced Alf Garnett ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 2 October, 2007
Run Fat Boy Run [12A]
This is a bit fluffy, but it is extremely funny, and once you've got over the fundamental implausibility of Simon Pegg's hopeless and not particularly attractive loser of a character ever getting ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 17 September, 2007
The Bourne Ultimatum [12A]
It's true that the hand-held camera shots of the fight scenes are confusing and annoying, but do not let this put you off going to see the film - it is absolutely ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 28 August, 2007
Scooby-Doo Live on Stage!
A slick, professional "Scooby-Doo!" at the New Theatre delivers absolutely everything you would expect to get from a musical stage adaptation of a children's cartoon. It's action-packed, highly coloured, well-choreographed fun, with ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 9 August, 2007
Transformers [12A]
There is only one word for this movie, and that word is AWESOME (pronounced aaahsome). It's a movie that must be seen on a big, wide screen to have full impact. The ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 9 August, 2007
High School Musical
It has been remarked by jaundiced, grumpy old things that the phenominally successful High School Musical is a blatant result of "dumbing down". It's West Side Story meets Grease, set rather bizarrely ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 3 August, 2007
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer [PG]
Exciting, visually stunning, compelling, funny, touching - this is an excellent kids' movie. It's excellent in many ways considering it's a movie based on a comic strip; so OK, it aint Shakespeare ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 19 June, 2007
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End [12A]
There is indeed much that is funny and spectacular and enjoyable in this film, but for me it is fatally marred by having a completely incomprehensible plot. Perhaps modern audiences no longer ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 4 June, 2007
Six Characters Looking for An Author
It’s a little hard to imagine yourself back into the minds of the 1921 first night audience of this celebrated “experimental” play, who were so horrified by it that they wanted to ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 24 May, 2007
The Crowded Bed by Mary Cavanagh
This is a first novel by Oxford author Mary Cavanagh, and it is excellent. It opens – arrestingly – with the hero, Joe, murdering his father-in-law, and the rest of the novel ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 13 February, 2007
The Weir
This is short and pretty sweet (despite all the swearing). Somewhere in rural Ireland, curmudgeonly old Jack and his nervous friend Jim meet for a drink in their local pub and a ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 7 February, 2007
Dreamgirls [12A]
Danger! *Spoilers* within
Wow! This is a spectacularly wonderful musical, a must-see tour-de-force that sweeps all criticism before it. It brilliantly does away with the need for narrative or context by a ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 29 January, 2007
A Night at The Museum [PG]
This was such a great premise for a story, and it's such a shame that the story delivered by the film's writers and director is lame and lets it down. If you've seen ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 29 January, 2007
The Holiday [12A]
The trailer for this movie is so tempting, as a high-class chick flick, that I'm sure loads of people will be putting it on their Christmas treat list. I'm afraid this ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 19 December, 2006
Madama Butterfly
Chisinau is the capital city of Moldova, which is about the size of Wales, tucked away between Romania and the Ukraine, and is officially the poorest country in Europe in terms of ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 11 December, 2006
Flushed Away [U]
I took my daughter and friends to see this for a 10th birthday treat and wasn't expecting much out of it myself - but it was absolutely hilarious. Easily the funniest ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 5 December, 2006
Casino Royale [12A]
Hmm. Much as I love these review dialogues, it's time we girlies had an input into this intellectual discussion. To be sure, Daniel Craig is not as tall or as ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 5 December, 2006
Arabian Nights
Curiously, some of the Creation Theatre Company rented a house next door to me last summer. They were truly awful neighbours, but they sure can put on a show. The ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 30 November, 2006
An Inspector Calls
J.B. Priestly’s moral mystery play has not worn well over time. The brutal exposure of the dark secrets of a complacent middle-class family was daring in 1946, but now seems tame, and ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 2 November, 2006
The Merchant Of Venice
This is an excellent production: fierce, direct, sharp, funny. It has been judiciously stripped of all the tedious “comic” scenes. It transcends the usual limitations of student drama – poor ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 25 October, 2006
The Barber of Seville
This frivolous confection – the original play by Beaumarchais, not the opera - is not often performed nowadays. I had never seen it and was curious how it would stand up ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 18 October, 2006
The Sixpenny Debt and Other Oxford Stories
This is a quite amusing, moderately ingenious, reasonably pleasing collection of fifteen short stories set in Oxford. There’s nothing here to set the world on fire or stir the soul, but there ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 27 September, 2006
Pride and Prejudice (2005) [U]
This hugely enjoyable Pride & Prejudice is different. It's Austen meets Bronte. Mr Darcy could easily pass for Heathcliff, with his artfully tousled hair, imperfectly barbered chin and open shirt. ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 8 August, 2006
Stormbreaker [PG]
This movie was pitched as a junior James Bond, and it doesn’t disappoint; it’s a light-hearted, often very funny, action romp, featuring newcomer Alex Pettyfer as Alex Rider, a reluctant teenage spy ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 8 August, 2006
Re.form
What is the visual equivalent of a sound-bite? It ought to be eye-candy. The O3 Gallery is decidedly bijou and eye-candy is what it will be offering to people who ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 19 May, 2006
Crazy For You
Oh, for the energy and enthusiasm of the Musical Youth Company of Oxford! I can only imagine the enormous effort and hours of rehearsal it took to perfect the dance routines ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 6 April, 2006
The Sleeping Beauty
This is an outstanding production by the Birmingham Royal Ballet. You have to see this. It is astonishing. It made one gasp and stretch one's eyes. I speak as a person ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 29 March, 2006
The Wizard of Oz
This isn't a Christmas Panto, it's a good old-fashioned Show, with songs and dances. If you're taking children to it they will probably love it (mine did) but your chief entertainment is ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 20 December, 2005
The Snow Queen
This is a production of immense energy, good-humour and charm. Hans Christian Andersen it ain't, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, since the cruelty and terror at the heart of the ...
Andrea Hopkins (DI Reviewer) - 30 November, 2005
