FILM OF THE WEEK
DRAGON RIDER (Cert PG, 92 mins, Sky, Animation/Fantasy/Adventure, available now on Sky Cinema, available from May 17 on Amazon Prime Video/BT TV Store/iTunes/Sky Store/TalkTalk TV Store and other download and streaming services, available from May 24 on DVD £9.99)
Featuring the voices of: Thomas Brodie Sangster, Felicity Jones, Freddie Highmore, Sir Patrick Stewart, David Brooks, Glenn Wrage, Peter Marinker, Meera Syal, Sanjeev Bhaskar.
BOTTLENECK (voiced by Glenn Wrage) presides over the last remaining herd of dragons in a valley, which is also home to furry creatures called brownies. When deforestation threatens the verdant sanctuary, outcast silver dragon Firedrake (Thomas Brodie Sangster) and brownie best friend Sorrel (Felicity Jones) plot a daring course of action.
Before the next full moon, they intend to locate the fabled Rim of Heaven, which wise elder Slatebeard (Peter Marinker) rhapsodises as "a paradise for dragons where the moon flowers shine".
Taking flight to a nearby city under cover of darkness, Firedrake and Sorrel encounter an orphan named Ben (Freddie Highmore) and mistake the teenage thief for a mystical dragon rider.
Meanwhile, dragon-hunting behemoth Nettlebrand (Sir Patrick Stewart) learns of the globe-trotting odyssey and gives chase.
Based on German author Cornelia Funke's best-selling 1997 children's book, Dragon Rider is a sleek computer-animated adventure, which glides in the slipstream of the vastly superior How To Train Your Dragon.
Judged on its own modest merits, director Tomer Eshed's fantastical odyssey boasts impressive visuals and Stewart roars through his supporting performance with a generous serving of theatrical ham.
A protracted narrative interlude in India, which welcomes lively vocal sparring between husband and wife Meera Syal and Sanjeev Bhaskar, unabashedly promotes lazy cultural stereotypes for easy laughs.
However, there is a big heart beating furiously beneath the film's digitally rendered scales. The execution may be a tad clumsy but director Eshed and legions of animators successfully claw their way to a crowd-pleasing resolution that earns a satisfied grin and maybe even a tear-filled eye.
Rating: 3/5
ALSO RELEASED
UNDERGODS (Cert 15, 92 mins, Lightbulb Film Distribution, Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Thriller, available from May 17 on Amazon Prime Video/BT TV Store/iTunes/Sky Store/TalkTalk TV Store and other download and streaming services)
Starring: Johann Myers, Geza Rohrig, Michael Gould, Hayley Carmichael, Ned Dennehy, Kate Dickie, Khalid Abdalla.
IN A dystopian, post-apocalyptic Europe, two men, K (Johann Meyers) and Z (Geza Rohrig), roam the streets in a van, looking for corpses and something more valuable – fresh meat.
Writer-director Chino Moya's debut feature is a collection of short stories which sets its stall out early. It's atmospheric and very bleak but for those fearing they'll have to watch 90-plus minutes of decaying brutalist architecture, we eventually cut to a couple living in an apartment block. When they 'invite' a stranger into their home, it marks the beginning of serious problems.
Later, a father tells his daughter a bedtime story; one of the strangest tales a parent could relate to their sleepy offspring. "This is a boring story," she sighs. Sad to say, she's not completely wrong.
K and Z eventually return and a man with apparent PTSD goes home to his estranged partner after years away, mirroring the opening tale.
The art direction is splendid in places with echoes of Terry Gilliam's Brazil and Enki Bilal's graphic novels. The cast, including Kate Dickie, Burn Gorman, Tanya Reynolds and Ned Dennehy, are excellent and odd moments of Wojciech Golczewski's score are reminiscent of Vangelis's cues for Blade Runner; Jake and Luke Scott, sons of Ridley, are among the many producers.
It's a shame Undergods is more style than substance. Stronger stories with more satisfying endings and it would at least be a cult success.
Rating: 3/5
Roger Crow
TOM & JERRY THE MOVIE (Cert PG, 101 mins, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, Comedy/Action/Adventure, available now via Premium Video On Demand rental for 48 hours, available from May 17 on Amazon Prime Video/BT TV Store/iTunes/Sky Store/TalkTalk TV Store and other download and streaming services, available from May 24 on DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £26.99)
Starring: Chloe Grace Moretz, Michael Pena, Rob Delaney, Ken Jeong, Colin Jost, Pallavi Sharda.
ENTERPRISING chancer Kayla (Chloe Grace Moretz) successfully passes off someone else's CV to land a job working with event manager Terence Mendoza (Michael Pena) at the Royal Gate Hotel in New York.
She arrives in the middle of lavish preparations for the nuptials of social media darlings Ben (Colin Jost) and Preeta (Pallavi Sharda), who have incorporated elephants and prancing peacocks into their ceremony.
Tensions run high when Jerry moves into the hotel and steals food from the kitchen of Michelin star-tipped chef Jackie (Ken Jeong). Despairing hotel owner Mr Dubros (Rob Delaney) turns to Kayla to save the day.
"I will catch that little mouse and I will be discreet about it," she promises. Kayla then foolishly hires Tom to hunt the pernicious rodent.
Tom & Jerry The Movie invites Hanna-Barbera's feuding critters Thomas D Cat and Jerome A Mouse to gate-crash our live-action world a la Who Framed Roger Rabbit?.
Tim Story's film presents every animal as a cartoon creation including a trio of singing pigeons, who open proceedings with a cooing rendition of Can I Kick It?
Alas, Kevin Costello's script repeatedly kicks itself by failing to flesh out characters and the destruction wrought by the eponymous double-act becomes repetitive well before Ben and Preeta's outlandish wedding march.
The eponymous duo are sidelined for brief stretches to engineer lacklustre human conflict before the obligatory grandstand rush to the altar.
Stretched out to a (cat's) whisker over 100 minutes, Story's picture takes its time stumbling up the aisle.
Rating: 2/5
Damon Smith
BOX SETS / SERIES
THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD (10 episodes, streaming from May 14 exclusively on Amazon Prime Video, Drama/Romance)
BARRY Jenkins, Oscar-winning writer-director of Moonlight, which famously usurped La La Land for Best Picture after an envelope mix-up, draws inspiration from Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel for a 10-part drama emboldened by two long-time creative collaborators: cinematographer James Laxton and composer Nicholas Britell.
Cora Randall (Thuso Mbedu) wriggles free of enslavement on a Georgia plantation to seek out a secret network of tunnels and tracks beneath the Southern soil known as the underground railroad.
She is pursued by sadistic bounty hunter Ridgeway (Joel Edgerton), who has a history of returning slaves to plantations.
Cora's mother Mabel was the only escapee to evade Ridgeway's clutches so his obsession with capturing her daughter is all-consuming.
As Cora travels from state to state, she encounters enemies and allies, who are deeply embedded in the antebellum South.
DOMINA (8 episodes, streaming from May 14 exclusively on NOW TV, Drama/Romance)
ONE woman sends shockwaves through the foundations of Rome in a lavish period drama filmed in Italy, which canters onto Sky Atlantic this week and streams exclusively on NOW TV.
In the aftermath of Julius Caesar's assassination, new alliances are forged and Gaius Julius (Matthew McNulty) and Marcus Antonius (Liam Garrigan) forcibly seize power to mould the Roman republic in their image.
Naive girl Livia (Nadia Parkes) is powerless to stop a marriage to her cousin Tiberius Claudius Nero (Enzo Cilenti) and she delivers him a son, Tiberius.
As she blossoms into a woman, Livia (now played by Kasia Smutniak) performs her own skilful social climbing.
She sets her sights on Gaius Julius, who will become the first Roman emperor Caesar Augustus.
To rise above her station, Livia will make powerful enemies including brothel owner Balbina (Isabella Rossellini).
