Skip to main content
Games Radar
  • Newsarama
  • Total Film
  • Edge
  • Retro Gamer
  • SFX
Total Film The smarter take on movies
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
flag of UK
UK
flag of US
US
flag of Canada
Canada
flag of Australia
Australia
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Features
  • More
    • PS5
    • Xbox Series X
    • Nintendo Switch
    • Nintendo Switch 2
    • PC
    • Platforms
    • Tabletop Gaming
    • Comics
    • Toys & Collectibles
    • SFX
    • Newsarama
    • Retro Gamer
    • Newsletters
    • About us
    • Features
Gaming Magazines
Gaming Magazines
Why subscribe?
  • Subscribe from just £3
  • Takes you closer to the games, movies and TV you love
  • Try a single issue or save on a subscription
  • Issues delivered straight to your door or device
From$12
View
Trending
  • Best Netflix Movies
  • Best movies on Disney Plus
  • Movie Release Dates
  • Best Netflix Shows
Recommended reading
Natasha Lyonne as Charlie Cale in Poker Face.
Streaming Services The best new shows and movies streaming this week on Netflix, Prime Video, Disney Plus, and more
Tom Hardy as Walker in Havoc.
Streaming Services The best new shows and movies streaming this week on Netflix, Prime Video, Disney Plus and more
Anna Kendrick in Another Simple Favor
Streaming Services 6 new movies and shows to watch this weekend on Netflix, Prime, Disney Plus, and more (May 2 - 4)
Daisy Ridley in Cleaner
Streaming Services 6 new movies and shows to watch this weekend on Netflix, Prime, Disney Plus, and more (June 13 - 15)
Anthony Mackie as Captain America Sam Wilson, in a dark room holding his famous shield, in Captain America: Brave New World.
Streaming Services The best new shows and movies streaming this week on Netflix, Prime Video, Disney Plus, HBO Max, and more
Lost in Starlight
Streaming Services 6 new movies and shows to watch this weekend on Netflix, Prime, Disney Plus, and more (May 30 - June 1)
Holt McCallany as Harlan Buckley and Maria Bello as Belle Buckley in The Waterfront.
Streaming Services The best new shows and movies streaming this week on Netflix, Prime Video, Disney Plus, and more
  1. Entertainment
  2. Movies
  3. Action Movies
  4. James Bond Movies
  5. spectre

Movies to watch this week at the cinema: Spectre, Under Milk Wood, more...

Features
By Total Film Staff published 26 October 2015

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Out on Friday 30 October

Out on Friday 30 October

Daniel Craigs back as Bond, with brand new foes will Christoph Waltz sing the theme tune? Rhys Ifans takes charge of a Dylan Thomas adaptation. Still banned from filmmaking, Jafar Panahi now drives a taxi, but happens to have a camera on the dashboard. Yes, heres this weeks new releases. Click on for our reviews of Spectre, Under Milk Wood, The Vatican Tapes, Taxi Tehran, Do I Sound Gay? and Fresh Dressed. For the best movie reviews, subscribe to Total Film.

Page 1 of 7
Page 1 of 7
SPECTRE

SPECTRE

From the gun barrel opening to the gadgets in Qs workshop, everything is back where it belongs in Spectre, an everything or nothing, kitchen-sink Bond that goes to epic lengths to deliver all you could conceivably want from this invincible and indefatigable franchise. Buoyed and emboldened by the worldwide success of Skyfall, the tireless Sam Mendes and the fearless Daniel Craig go hell for leather in a film that practically fizzes with brio, even at points when its circuitous plot comes perilously close to unravelling. If, as many suspect, it will be the last Bond for both of them, they can at least depart confident they have left it all on the field and are leaving the series stronger than how they found it. Mendes sets his stall out early on with a stunning Touch Of Evil-style tracking shot that begins high above the heads of a gargantuan Mexico City Day of the Dead parade before zeroing in on a skull-masked 007. Weaving in and out of the legions of ghoulishly made-up revellers, incoming DoP Hoyte Van Hoytema follows Craig up stairs, down hallways and out on a ledge in a sequence so fluid you can barely spot the joins. Then the fun really starts: a deluge of falling masonry sends Bond and his quarry back onto the streets and into the air in a loop-the-looping chopper. As pre-titles sequences go, its the equal of any that has gone before it and that includes the ski-jump gotcha from The Spy Who Loved Me. Back in London, Bonds rogue mission has set the cat among the pigeons. Ms MI6 is at risk of being subsumed by an umbrella outfit run by the oily C (Andrew Scott) and can ill afford to let its chief assassin go AWOL. Bond, however, has other ideas, not to mention a Tolkien-esque ring whose octopus engraving points to some seriously sinister shenanigans. So off to Rome he pops, there to seduce a widow (Monica Bellucci, age-appropriate yet criminally underused) with information to impart on a certain acronymic syndicate Mendes film is at its most atmospheric here. A clandestine gathering of Spectre bigwigs in a gothic Roman palazzo exuding all the brooding menace of an Eyes Wide Shut sex orgy. Oddly, though, the nocturnal car chase that follows fails to stir the blood, hampered as it is by an incongruously jaunty tone and the sneaking suspicion that, even with man-mountain Dave Bautista at the wheel of the Jaguar chasing Craigs Aston Martin along Romes cobbled thoroughfares, there isnt much at stake. Things quickly improve when the action moves to Austria, where Bond has a chilly encounter with old adversary Mr White (Jesper Christensen, finally making good on the promise of his all too fleeting cameos in Casino Royale and Quantum Of Solace). From this point on theres nary a let-up. A dust-up on the slopes involving one wingless plane and three 4x4s leads seamlessly to train-based fisticuffs straight out of From Russia With Love, an explosive desert confrontation, and a denouement involving a familiar place in unfamiliar shape. Ok, so sparks dont exactly fly between Craig and eventual leading lady Lea Seydoux or, for that matter, between Craig and Christoph Waltz, dismayingly bland as an overly genteel adversary whose primary beef, once revealed, verges on the petulant. (It does lead to a doozy of a torture scene, though.) Dovetailing Spectres plot with those of Craigs previous Bonds is a dubious move, while the edifice that houses Scotts Centre of National Security resembles nothing so much as Stark Tower. The influence of Marvel is felt elsewhere too: a plan to combine the worlds intelligence capabilities into one all-seeing, all-knowing supersnoop bears striking similarities to Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Only Bautista makes the crossover unscathed, this Guardian Of The Galaxy projecting the kind of brutish physical threat that like the Rolls Royce Phantom that pops up in one scene brings back happy memories of Goldfingers Oddjob. Craig, for his part, tempers his customary steely determination with a welcome lightness of touch (a scene in which he interrogates a mouse the idea, one suspects, of co-writer Jez Butterworth would have been unimaginable back in the doleful days of Quantum), while Ralph Fiennes M has some ace bants with Scott over their respective code names. The real delight, though, is Ben Whishaw, whose donnish Q is given much more to do this time around and inflects his scenes with a deliciously offbeat energy. THE VERDICT: Though not as dramatically rich or emotionally compelling as Skyfall, Spectre still ranks as a sleek, pulse-pounding if slightly overlong entertainment that should have little trouble emulating its predecessors box office. Director: Sam Mendes Starring: Daniel Craig, La Seydoux, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Ben Whishaw, Monica Bellucci, Christoph Waltz Theatrical release: 26 October 2015 Neil Smith

Page 2 of 7
Page 2 of 7
UNDER MILK WOOD

UNDER MILK WOOD

In Kevin Allens adaptation of Dylan Thomas 1954 radio play, Under Milk Wood, the fantasies of dwellers in the Welsh village of Llareggub (Bugger all backwards) provide a bawdy 50s-set buffet for the eyes and ears. To unpeel it from Richard Burtons richly-voiced radio version (and the clunky 1972 film he starred in), Allen has to create moving images as potent as Thomas poetic ones, for a vast cast of characters. But he and co-writer poet Murray Lachlan Young succeed only with the sturdiest of their gamey vignettes Mr Pugh (Boyd Clack) the tangoing wife-poisoner, the hopeless letter-borne love of draper for confectioner, or Mrs Ogmore Pritchards S&M memories of torturing her husbands. Alongside these slyly enjoyable Carry On Cymru interludes, though, theres a fair amount of sub-ken Russell tits-and-landscape surrealism thrown in, all to keep your peepers occupied during rolling orations about the sloeblack, slow black, crowblack, fishingboat-bobbing sea. however, the cheerful gloss of sex on everything from Dai Bakers breast-shaped bread to Sinbad the publicans satyr fantasies doesnt solve all the films problems and, an hour in, it can get a little tedious, more seaside postcard than sensual symbolism. The problem is, the play is a looping mass of lusty private longings, and Allen struggles to translate that into a solid cinematic story. Yet its full of engaging details, as oddball sequences parade in popping colours through striking Pembrokeshire scenery. Allen also makes smart use of Charlotte Churchs star wattage as village good-time girl Polly Garter, shoehorning in a Hollywood-style ballad to add glamour to the eccentric gaiety. Worth the seat price alone, however, is Rhys Ifans, veteran of Allens long-ago Trainspotting-lite comedy Twin Town. Ifans mellifluous, unshowy narration and restrained performance as blind dreamer Captain Cat make the ripe language leap suddenly to life. THE VERDICT: Kevin Allen and Rhys Ifans colourful, carnal but careful reboot ensures that Thomas richly-written dreamscape doesnt go for a Burton. And welsh warbler Charlotte Church finds herself in good company Director: Kevin Allen Starring: Rhys Ifans, Charlotte Church, William Thomas, Julian Lewis Jones Theatrical release: 30 October 2015 Kate Stables

Page 3 of 7
Page 3 of 7
THE VATICAN TAPES

THE VATICAN TAPES

Mark Neveldine breaks away from Crank collaborator Brian Taylor for his first solo directorial effort, and it lacks the creativity of the filmmaking partnership that made his name. In fact, this bland, run-of-the-mill horror, in which Michael Peas priest engages two Vatican exorcists to help save a young woman possessed with an evil spirit, is remarkable only for somehow being the latest in a long line of generic horror films still following the exact template and tropes laid down by The Exorcist 40 years ago. As such, the power of Christ is the only thing compelling here. Director: Mark Neveldine Starring: Michael Pena, Dougray Scott, Kathleen Robertson, Djimon HounsouTheatrical release: 30 October 2015 Matt Looker

Page 4 of 7
Page 4 of 7
TAXI TEHRAN

TAXI TEHRAN

Banned in 2010 from filmmaking by the Iranian regime for anti-Islamic propaganda, director Jafar Panahi has since devised ingenious ways of circumventing the ayatollahs prohibition. In the latest, he adopts the profession of taxi driver and, with a dash-mounted camera, uses his various passengers a conservative loudmouth, an injured workman and his hysterical wife, two superstitious women and their precious goldfish as devices to comment on his situation, and that of Iran. He leaves us to guess whether these encounters are staged, while masking his own anger with subversive humour. Director: Jafar Panahi Starring: Jafar Panahi Theatrical release: 30 October 2015 Philip Kemp

Page 5 of 7
Page 5 of 7
DO I SOUND GAY?

DO I SOUND GAY?

A newly single gay man sets out to sound less like a stereotype in a provocative documentary that asks where the so-called gay voice came from and whether it can ever be gotten rid of. Drawing on everything from Truman Capote and Liberace to Disneys parade of supercilious villains, journalist David Thorpe juxtaposes testimony from George Takei, David Sedaris and others with his own half-hearted attempts to straighten out his larynx. The result is an engaging yet self-conscious film that spends so much time tiptoeing around its subject that it ends up forgetting what it originally wanted to say. Director: David Thorpe Starring: David Thorpe, David Sedaris, Dan Savage, Margaret Cho, Tim Gunn, George Takei Theatrical release: 30 October 2015 Neil Smith

Page 6 of 7
Page 6 of 7
FRESH DRESSED

FRESH DRESSED

Classic hip-hop fashion wasnt just about my Adidas, although as this fascinating and quirky documentary about raps threads stresses, being fresh taking a pride and swagger in your appearance started from the feet up. (In an era where Bronx-dwellers could be killed for their sneakers, the opening question Whats your size? was to be avoided at all costs.) Here, the likes of Nas and Kanye reminisce, while legendary Harlem designer Dapper Dan explains how hed illegally customise his clothes with established brands like Louis Vuitton: I blackenised it I made it look good on us. Director: Sacha Jenkins Starring: Nas, Kanye West, Jay Z Theatrical release: 30 October 2015 Ali Catterall

Page 7 of 7
Page 7 of 7
Total Film Staff

The Total Film team are made up of the finest minds in all of film journalism. They are: Editor Jane Crowther, Deputy Editor Matt Maytum, Reviews Ed Matthew Leyland, News Editor Jordan Farley, and Online Editor Emily Murray. Expect exclusive news, reviews, features, and more from the team behind the smarter movie magazine. 

See more Movies Features
Read more
Natasha Lyonne as Charlie Cale in Poker Face.
The best new shows and movies streaming this week on Netflix, Prime Video, Disney Plus, and more
Tom Hardy as Walker in Havoc.
The best new shows and movies streaming this week on Netflix, Prime Video, Disney Plus and more
Anna Kendrick in Another Simple Favor
6 new movies and shows to watch this weekend on Netflix, Prime, Disney Plus, and more (May 2 - 4)
Daisy Ridley in Cleaner
6 new movies and shows to watch this weekend on Netflix, Prime, Disney Plus, and more (June 13 - 15)
Anthony Mackie as Captain America Sam Wilson, in a dark room holding his famous shield, in Captain America: Brave New World.
The best new shows and movies streaming this week on Netflix, Prime Video, Disney Plus, HBO Max, and more
Lost in Starlight
6 new movies and shows to watch this weekend on Netflix, Prime, Disney Plus, and more (May 30 - June 1)
Latest in James Bond Movies
Denis Villeneuve at a screening of Dune
New James Bond report claims Denis Villeneuve won't have final cut and that the next 007 won't be picked until the script is written
Jacob Elordi as Nate Jacobs in Euphoria
Tom Holland and Jacob Elordi are reportedly being considered for Denis Villeneuve's Amazon James Bond movie
Denis Villeneuve at a screening of Dune
It's official: the next James Bond movie will be directed by Dune helmer Denis Villeneuve, who says 007 is "sacred territory" for him
Daniel Craig in Skyfall standing next to a car.
The reported shortlist for the next James Bond director has me excited and terrified about the future of 007
Aaron Taylor-Johnson in Kraven the Hunter
Bond fans are convinced that Marvel star Aaron Taylor-Johnson has been cast as the next 007, and it's all because of a watch
Pierce Brosnan as James Bond
Pierce Brosnan's first day as James Bond was affected by an unfortunate injury, but he had an ingenious fix: "I shouldn't be even telling you this"
Latest in Features
María Gabriela de Faría as The Engineer
James Gunn's Superman may be setting up The Authority movie with its enigmatic villain The Engineer
Sam sits in a bike looking across at a city in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
70 hours in, Death Stranding 2 is one of few open world games that justifies having such a huge map
Nintendo Switch 2
I can't use the Switch 2's handheld mode, so I'm hoping a Lite is on the horizon
Guy Gardner, Hawkgirl, and Mister Miracle as the Justice Gang in Superman
The Justice Gang explained - The non-Justice League in James Gunn's Superman may be influenced by team of classic DC supervillains
Team Fortress 2 characters looking at a map
I have 464 games on my Steam wishlist, 23 games in my Steam Summer Sale shopping cart, and I can feel my already overstuffed library giving me the side-eye
Heavy Metal Death Can demo screenshot
I got a nicotine rush and set zombies on fire in this PS1-style survival horror demo, and it's basically Resident Evil on a submarine
  1. Sam fires at the ghost mech squid boss in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
    1
    Death Stranding 2: On the Beach review: "This tarpunk delivery epic is more Metal Gear Solid than ever, for better and worse"
  2. 2
    Rematch review: "As with Rocket League, the just-one-more-game pull is magnetic"
  3. 3
    Tron: Catalyst review: "Disc slinging is a thrill in this gorgeous rendition of the series, but I'm let down by a time-loop story that falls flat"
  4. 4
    FBC: Firebreak review: "A disappointingly bland multiplayer FPS that's missing far too much of what made Control special"
  5. 5
    Dune: Awakening review: "Both extremely compelling and extraordinarily boring, sometimes at the same time – yet still a true Dune love letter"
  1. A T-rex in Jurassic World Rebirth
    1
    Jurassic World Rebirth Review: "An unscary sequel that needed a little more time in amber"
  2. 2
    M3GAN 2.0 review: "A bold sequel with a slightly underwhelming conclusion"
  3. 3
    28 Years Later Review: "Enough terror, splatter and suspense to satisfy”
  4. 4
    Predator: Killer of Killers review: "Great characters, thrilling action, and gorgeous Arcane-esque animation"
  5. 5
    From the World of John Wick: Ballerina review: "Brilliant action, even if the plot gives you a sense of déjà vu"
  1. Lee Jung-jae as Gi-hun in Squid Game season 3
    1
    Squid Game season 3 review: "A staggeringly excellent final season wraps up one of the greatest Netflix shows ever"
  2. 2
    Ironheart review: "A relic of Marvel's content-at-all-costs era"
  3. 3
    Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 review: "The show's most assured run of episodes to date"
  4. 4
    Doctor Who season 2, episode 8 spoiler review: 'The Reality War' is "a mix of the good, the bad, and the truly baffling"
  5. 5
    Doctor Who season 2, episode 7 spoiler review: 'Wish World' is "an exciting and ambitious" start to the season finale, with hints of WandaVision

GamesRadar+ is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Review guidelines
  • Write for us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...