Film review: San Andreas May 29, 2015 Cert 15 | ★★☆☆☆ KABOOM. Was that the sound of tectonic plates ripping, or was it a giant penny dropping in the mind of a Hollywood producer: destroy some buildings, throw Dwayne Johnson into the wreckage and voila, no need to shell out for a screenwriter. Who needs a script, seems to be [...]
Film review: In Danny Collins Al Pacino learns how to grow old gracefully May 29, 2015 Cert 15 | ★★★★☆ Watching Al Pacino and Robert De Niro slog it out in 2008’s Righteous Kill, you’d be forgiven for thinking Pacino was finished. Gone. Destined to live out his days impotently raging at the dying of the light, playing wrinkled, rattly-boned versions of the live-wires he once infused with febrile intensity. [...]
Theatre review: Merry hijinks lacking passion in The Beaux’ Stratagem May 28, 2015 Olivier Theatre | ★★★☆☆ George Farquhar’s The Beaux’ Stratagem is not quite your typical Restoration comedy. While his contemporary William Congreve took the genre to a new level of metropolitan licentiousness, Farquhar headed to the provinces. Though still based around amorous adventures, his later works check their horseplay with a tragicomic seriousness. The Beaux’ Stratagem [...]
Something for the weekend May 28, 2015 DANCE! BENJI B Internationally renowned DJ Benji B continues his residency at XOYO. If you’ve ever tuned in to his Radio 1 show – and if you haven’t, you should – you’ll recognise the eclectic mix of the best electronic sounds. Saturday, £13.50, visit xoyo.co.uk. SHOP! CLERKENWELL VINTAGE FAIR Need to revamp your wardrobe in [...]
Why there’s some rot you don’t want to stop May 26, 2015 Rarely is the term “rot” a good thing when it comes to food. Cheese is the obvious exception, while dry-aged beef and fermented foods such as miso and sauerkraut also prove that mould can be tasty. Similarly, rotten grapes are typically discarded in the vineyard or removed on a sorting table rather than given the [...]
Mix it up: Forget the old wives’ tales and mix the grape and grain May 26, 2015 @philip_salter Spirits and cocktails get a bad rap. After you’ve knocked back half a dozen pints and a bottle of wine, it’s that final shot of tequila that gets all the blame for your stinking hangover the next morning. I’ve even heard claims that the mixed spirits used in cocktails cause hangovers – that’s nonsense [...]
Car review: Audi’s technology-filled Q7 is near perfect if you’ve got kids in tow May 25, 2015 Verbier in Switzerland is an entirely appropriate place to launch the new Audi Q7. It has narrow streets, tortuous winding mountain roads and a touch of motorway for the car to stretch its legs. A private jet flew me to Sion where the Q7 was waiting for me in a hanger. Audi’s massive SUV [...]
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Film review: Poltergeist reboot is bereft of inspiration May 22, 2015 Cert 12a | ★☆☆☆☆ Since its release in 1982, countless films have borrowed from Poltergeist’s slow-burning scares. Who knew that carefully stacked kitchen furniture could be so frightening? Or television static? In this Sam Raimi produced reboot, the franchise seeks to redress the balance by appropriating imagery from every horror movie between then and [...]
Theatre review: World Factory May 22, 2015 Young Vic | ★★★★☆ If you’re wary of audience interactivity in theatre, cast your doubts aside for World Factory, an innovative and thoroughly well-researched exploration of the global textile industry, which remains not only comprehensive and coherent, but genuinely enthralling from start to finish. We take our seats around communal tables, upon [...]