Precious is a new-style weepie but one that is much more bracing than depressing
Precious
Theatre
Ian McKellen is captivating throughout. He delights in the play’s gallows humour, yet is also maudlin and poignant
Waiting for Godot
Theatre
Slight quibbles notwithstanding, this will set the West End’s stock riding high
Enron
Utterly, utterly brilliant. You really are in for a treat
Though 'Trilogy' has won rave reviews, I personally found myself exasperated after about an hour
We went on a quiet sunday evening and the food was excellent, but the experience let down by the service and ambiance
London,
Charlotte O'Sullivan's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Jonathan Liebesman.
Cast: Diora Baird, Matthew Bomer, Jordana Brewster, Taylor Handley
Description: Been-here-before bloodbath that's difficult to distinguish from the recent remake of the first TCM.
Country: US. 2006. 90mins
Jordana Brewster stars in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
Three years ago, viewers flocked to a brazenly non-ironic re-make of Tobe Hooper's 1974 cannibal classic.
In the prequel we watch a man being tortured and - as the clock ticks - director Jonathan Liebesman all but sprays the screen with cartilage. Not so much scream as squirm.
The meat of the film is how - back in 1969 - Thomas "Leatherface" Hewitt got his name. Attacked with equal gusto is the question of how Tom's uncle Hoyt (R Lee Ermey) - aka the town sheriff - lost his teeth. Here, as an ex-GI constantly invoking Korea, the brilliant actor is chilling.
The film throws two sexy brothers (and their girlfriends) in his path. One of the youths is returning to fight in Vietnam, the other, in defiance of his dad's wishes, is about to dodge the draft. Hoyt's position is clear: the family that slays together stays together.
Without doubt, this is a cruder work - dumber, nastier - than the Hooper original. But, via the war-dancing Hoyt, it's got something very right. Does the film's institutionalised, white-trash sadist represent the dark side of the military or the norm?
Whatever your views, connections between the slaughters on screen and real-life horrors are hard to avoid. The Iraq conflict overshadows every frame of this Beginning. The one comfort: in the cinema, at least, there's an end in sight.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
Morning:
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