Cert – 15, Run-time – 1 hour 34 minutes, Director – Zoe Lister-Jones

Four aspiring witches (Cailee Spaeny, Zoey Luna, Gideon Adlon, Lovie Simone) discover the consequences of their newly increased powers after manipulating someone in their school.

You’d be forgiven, from the posters and trailers, for thinking that The Craft: Legacy – the sort of sequel-reboot of 1996’s The Craft, courtesy of Blumhouse – was a full-on horror film. It’s dealings with witchcraft, manipulation and general dark and mystical themes would give this impression. However, sitting down to watch it it’s quite a pleasant surprise to discover that this isn’t really a horror film at all. It certainly has some themes of the genre, but more than anything else this is a teen movie about a group of friends, who just happen to be witches.

Lily (Cailee Spaeny) finds herself moving in with her Mum’s (Michelle Monaghan) partner, Adam (David Duchovny), and his three sons. It’s not long until she starts at school, and after a series of events including being mocked in class for a sudden heavy flow period she finds herself making friends with Lourdes (Zoey Luna), Tabby (Lovie Simone) and Frankie (Gideon Adlon). It’s made clear that they three are the outsiders, their own group aside from everyone else in the school. Their common ground being that they’ve all been mocked and ridiculed by class bully Timmy (Nicholas Galitzine), plus the fact that they deal in witchcraft – although that’s kept quiet. When they feel a stronger power around them, after calling for a fourth witch to come to them to complete their circle – they discover strong, undiscovered powers within Lily. The four soon form an even closer bond experimenting with their higher abilities, working their way through an expansive spell-book.

We witness montages of them developing their skills, from levitation to mind manipulation spells. It’s all rather enjoyable to watch happen, because all of it centres around the friendship of the central quartet of witches. The feeling present throughout is that of a standard teen movie, especially when the characters attend parties or are receiving glares and almost disgusted stares from everyone else in the cafeteria. It all comes together rather well, you feel engaged and connected with this clearly closely-bonded friendship, and yet the magical practices are never forgotten about. They’re always centre-stage.

The whole thing is relatively young-teenage friendly (despite a 15 rating) and it’s fairly void of darkness. There is some seriousness brought in just before the final stages as the girls begin to face the consequences of their actions, particularly manipulating Timmy for what they see as the better of everyone at school. To everyone else it appears that overnight he’s completely changed. He’s a calmer, more respectful, much, much kinder person. However, this causes conflictions within one or two of the girls, particularly Lily who begins to form a closer relationship with him over the course of the film. It’s all handled fairly well, if with a fair helping of convention, but, again, there’s no denying that it still just about clicks and flows well enough over the course of the short, and mostly concise, run-time.

Even with all of this going on the film still feels a need to properly introduce a villain, or at least make them a more present force. While you’ve likely guessed by the point of the reveal who it is the final stages seem rushed and almost pointless, a bit too easy. As if added simply to just push the film a minute or two more over the 90 minute mark. The character does feel somewhat wasted, and barely much of a threat at any stage of the piece. However, the moment does still have some ideas that can be enjoyed, and the bond between the central four remains. It’s what keeps you in the film throughout, even during some of the more seemingly by-the-books moments, and often the tone and style of the film is a real relief. It takes something from the 90’s, keeps some elements but slightly updates it with the modern teen feeling to make it something slightly different to what we’ve seen over the last few years within this genre. It clicks and works because of this style, which writer-director Zoe Lister-Jones seems to have aimed for instead of horror – a good choice to make – and overall the film works rather well. It’s not your standard horror or witchcraft film, and it’s perhaps better for that fact.

Not exactly a horror film, more a teen movie about a group of close friends who just happen to be witches, and perhaps The Craft: Legacy is better for that. There are some rather conventional moments, and a little-used antagonist, but as long as that central friendship is there it’s usually enough to help pass things by.

Cert – 12, Run-time – 1 hour 32 minutes, Director – Charles Martin Smith

Street busker James (Luke Treadaway) finds himself at risk of having his beloved cat, Bob, taken from him as his financial situation worsens around Christmas.

The true story of A Street Cat Named Bob was a bestselling hit, and when it was adapted to the big screen in 2016 the film was a relative success. Following on from those events we now find ourselves with a rather twee festive follow-up. Not quite in the vein of A Christmas Carol – although initially central figure James Bown (Luke Treadaway) does find himself being called “Grinch-face” by close friend Bea (Kristina Tonteri-Young). However, James’ closest relationship is still with his pet cat Bob, almost always by his side. At the start of the film we see the two attending a Christmas party for writers, after the success of his first novel based on his experiences recovering from heroin addiction and surviving through caring for Bob, life seems good but he’s unsure about what to do for his already announced second novel. As James leaves the party and offers to buy a homeless busker some food we’re taken back to a previous Christmas – James’ last in a situation of poverty. When the words “a Christmas past” appear on-screen you would be forgiven for thinking that this is going to be something rather cliché and cheesy.

At this point James is still selling The Big Issue outside Angel station, seemingly with rivals jealous of his cat that attracts extra customers, and busking in Covent Garden, barely raising funds to get him through the month, let alone worry about Christmas. Throw in Animal Welfare officers who are monitoring him, with the risk of Bob being taken away, and you have a mixture of everything going wrong at Christmas. There certainly isn’t anything as ‘dark’ as in the first film – which turns out to have been more memorable than perhaps initially given credit for, the scenes of James going cold turkey particularly coming to mind – but, that’s perhaps not a downfall for the film. There’s something about its mostly family-friendly nature that helps to capture a kind of warm festive feeling amongst the relative calm of the film, despite one or two of the more serious themes held throughout.

This is a film where people come together to support one another simply because they want to do good. It’s a traditional view of Christmas, and an especially harmless one, but it makes for something rather likable. This certainly isn’t the greatest Christmas film ever, and it might have a few clichés and conventions thrown in but somehow because of the general air and kind-hearted nature of the piece it doesn’t really matter. It’s easy to be brought into it for a conventionally warm and traditionally festively fuzzy, quaint Christmas flick. Something that people can simply sit down watch and appreciate that they had a decent time watching it. Especially during a scene where Christmas songs are performed with a Bob twist – Jingle Bells becomes Jingle Bob – it’s difficult not to have an amused smile slapped onto your face. You might not quite know why it’s there, but, of course, you haven’t any issue with it. Leaving with a good feeling inside themselves, maybe things will seem brighter, even if for a little bit, after viewing. Who care about those potential minor flaws anyway? It’s a Christmas film. It gives hope that things could actually be alright, and overall isn’t too bad in itself.

A Christmas Gift From Bob might be fairly conventional, yet despite its flaws there’s something rather kind and generous at the centre of it, providing a warm and likable festive feeling.

Cert – U, Run-time – 1 hour 31 minutes, Director – Tim Hill

Spongebob (Tom Kenny) and Patrick (Bill Fagerbakke) venture to Atlantic City to retrieve pet snail Gary (Kenny) from King Poseidon (Matt Berry)

2004’s The Spongebob Squarepants Movie has perhaps become something of a slight cult classic over the years since its release. Not just amongst younger viewers and those who saw it when it was first released but with adults too, to this day around 25% of Spongebob’s TV audience are adults with no kids. 11 years later the world was introduced to Sponge Out Of Water which, for about 20 minutes, brought Spongebob, in 3D animated form, to the real world. But, the majority of both films are made up of the traditional 2D animated form that the TV show that started it all still takes the form of. However, now, in Sponge On The Run, things look; and feel, different. Spongebob and all his ocean dwelling friends now take the form of 3D computer animation, which while there’s no problem with this the style does at times seem somewhat odd. Nothing new seems to be done with the style, instead it feels like what would be done with 2D animation in a 3D world – at times almost feeling like a form of stop-motion animation just without the fingerprints.

And yet fingerprints do seem to lie throughout the film’s screenplay, written by director Tim Hill. For a number of TV comedies it’s apparently common to have writers rooms where groups of writers get together to throw jokes around and come up with the best ones; it works well for 22-30 minutes episodes where you need to still try to get as many jokes in as possible. Although apparently never so much with films. Hill’s screenplay seems to try to throw in as many gags and asides as possible into the film’s already quite jumpy and all-over-the-place nature. Never quite giving the audience time to breathe as it flicks to something new in the hope of raising even a mild smirk. It feels as if a number of these attempted jokes have been either taken from the more recent series of the show, where apparently the quality has begun to decline, or have just been rejected.

The film itself almost feels like three loose episodes strung together to create a plot. We find Spongebob (Tom Kenny) enjoying his life working as a fry cook at The Krusty Krab restaurant, but when his pet snail Gary (also Kenny) goes missing he heads off to The Lost City Of Atlantic City – the underwater answer to Vegas – with his best friend Patrick (Bill Fagerbakke) to retrieve him from King Poseidon (Matt Berry). The reason for Gary being missing being that Plankton (Mr. Lawrence) notices that if he gets rid of Gary he gets rid of Spongebob and can take the Krabby Patty secret formula for his own unsuccessful rival the Chum Bucket. Thus King Poseidon – who uses snail slime to retain his young looks and avoid facial blemishes such as wrinkles, having run out of snails and issuing a royal decree for people to give their own up – is in possession of the sea snail that sounds like a cat. It all sounds rather busy and convoluted, and it is; and yet none of it ever really becomes engaging or that amusing at any point. Even with all of this going on the film still somehow finds time for Snoop Dogg to rap about being a pirate-zombie-cowboy before Danny Trejo turns up – something which sums up the whole film rather well.

Other celebrity roles and cameos include Tiffany Haddish, Awkwafina, Reggie Watts and Keanu Reeves as a wise tumbleweed – almost seemingly playing himself, which there is nothing wrong with – let’s not forget the majesty of David Hasselhoff in the first Spongebob movie. But the film seems so pre-occupied with celebrities, and random intervals that the plot, despite having multiple elements, occasionally feels thin. Maybe as a feature length TV special this would work better but certainly not as a proper film. It all seems to fall rather flat as the jokes never properly land and instead of focusing on the events of the film you almost focus on the sometimes rather odd soundtrack choices, Livin’ La Vida Loca plays as if it’s a catchy modern song that fits perfectly with the film.

Eventually the film, with about 20 minutes to go enters into a musical number and various flashbacks to how the various characters met Spongebob – the initial pitch for the film when it was first announced in 2015 under the title It’s A Wonderful Sponge – it feels as if, once again, this is a separate idea for TV (it’s already been announced that Kamp Koral adventures are to be a spin-off show). Everything simply feels extremely random and somewhat disorganised. In need of tightening up to create something that provides more than just one or two small exhales of mild amusement over the course of its 91 minute run-time. Through it’s various tangents, flashbacks, songs and general randomness this very much feels like something better suited for younger TV audiences than anyone else.

Unfortunately this nautical nonsense is not something you wish.

Cert – PG, Run-time – 1 hour 45 minutes, Director – Robert Zemeckis

A young boy (Jahzir Bruno) and his grandmother (Octavia Spencer) escape to a hotel after finding out there are witches who turn children into mice in the area, only to discover that a gathering of witches is taking place there, with the Grand High Witch (Anne Hathaway) in attendance

Throughout the 105 minute run-time of Robert Zemeckis’ take on Roald Dahl’s The Witches I had no clue what Anne Hathaway was doing, but she was clearly having a great time doing it. Her seemingly German accent, occasionally slipping into something that sounds like Russian, as the Grand High Witch almost matches the state of the film itself. It isn’t good but it’s certainly enjoyable.

We follow a protagonist simply credited as Hero Boy (Jahzir Bruno), living with his grandma (Octavia Spencer), who has recently had his eyes opened to the existence of witches. After a discussion between the two – Spencer’s character having witnessed the effects of witchcraft as a child – they escape to an expensive hotel to avoid any risk of Bruno’s character being turned into a mouse, witches take delight in turning children into mice and then stamping on them. However, what the pair are unaware of is the fact that a collective of witches have congregated at the very same hotel, under the guise of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

While appearing to the rest of the world as normal people, although with long scars on either side of their mouths, with brightly coloured hats, dresses and accessories, fitting in with the aesthetic of the hotel, the witches are far different creatures when by themselves. Their mouths open almost across the width of their faces to reveal sharp jaws, they have a singular claw for their feet, three for their hands, and their neat hairstyles are all just wigs. And a fair deal of the witches appearance as witches does seem to be somewhat CGI heavy, as are a number of details of the film. In recent years Robert Zemeckis seems to have regularly used CGI to help tell his stories and bring them to life, such as in Welcome To Marwen and The Walk, not to mention his motion-capture animation work throughout the early 2000’s. And yet you feel as if some of the effects could be more convincing and effective if they were practical, the CGI almost seems to be wasted – Angelica Huston was, for many kids, terrifying thanks to her prosthetics in the 1993 adaptation of the story, whereas this film may provide younger viewers with some creepy moments but potentially not much else. The use of CGI throughout seems to just remove something from the film, especially during some of the longer scenes of the film.

There are a number of lengthy sequences over the course of the piece. The meeting of the witches themselves almost seems to go on for 20 minutes. While it seems to want to take its time to gradually reveal its elements for the suspense and development of the characters. However, the effect is one that simply makes the scene seem slow itself. Almost bringing in a feeling of repetition as the gathering of magical beings discuss, and to some extent act out, their plans. Bearing this in mind, and with what the scene tries to pack in it still seems to take a while to actually get to it. The spectacle that some of the ideas and shots seem to want to capture isn’t quite there and therefore the scene feels longer and more drawn out. You just find yourself wondering that if the witches really wanted to squash the mice that they’ve just created, surely they wouldn’t wear heels, or would find something bigger to do the job with – this is unless they’re trying to challenge themselves?

And yet, despite such scenes and some weird dialogue choices in the screenplay – this might be the 1960’s but would a young British boy, Bruno (Codie-Lei Eastick) really exclaim “crikey!” ever few minutes, or describe themselves as “portly” – the film somehow has some mild entertainment value. There are some chuckles to be found, although perhaps not always for the right reasons. Stanley Tucci (thank God for him!) seems to be having a nice time gently making his way through the role of thick Southern States accented hotel manager Mr Stringer, his screams at one point as the hotel is revealed to have a mouse problem do provide some amusement. And a specific sequence towards the end of the film also provides some chuckles, most likely intentional. There is so much in The Witches that makes up for a rather lacklustre and not best feature. And yet some of the individual elements do admittedly provide some amusement, although maybe not always for the right reasons. This new, even if it does feel like it was made a number of years ago, take on The Witches isn’t dreadful, but it certainly isn’t great either.

Anne Hathaway’s accent throughout this CGI filled take on Roald Dahl’s The Witches matches the film rather well. It’s not good and you don’t always know what’s going on, but it certainly provides some amusement, and she seems to be having a great time in the role.

Cert – 12, Run-time – 2 hours 1 minute, Director – Ben Wheatley

After meeting on the French Riviera a young woman (Lily James) falls in love with a wealthy man (Armie Hammer) who is still plagued by the memory of his late first wife

Daphne du Maurier’s novel Rebecca is regarded as a true classic gothic thriller. Many have brought it to the screen, perhaps most notably Alfred Hitchcock, whose take on the film won 1941 Oscar for Best Picture. Now sees a new take on the story of a young woman (Lily James) who falls in love with a wealthy man, Maxim de Winter (Armie Hammer), after meeting on the French Riviera, gradually learning of the dark past of her new husband and the tragedy of his late wife, Rebecca. When Netflix announced that Ben Wheatley would be bringing his take on du Maurier’s classic novel to their service, and cinemas, the choice seemed highly fitting – especially with Wheatley’s past of working with dark and gothic themes, particularly in his early films. Yet, this new take on Rebecca almost seems to be without an overly gothic tone.

The first 20 minutes of the film, as the young couple come together and get to know each other within the grounds of a lavish French hotel, where James’ unnamed protagonist (only really going by the new Mrs. de Winter) is acting as the low-paid companion for an elderly and wealthy lady (Ann Dowd) who looks down on and sneers at her employee, are highly romanticised. Everything plays at as an idyllic romance drama. Two unlikely people coming together and then running off to be married, ignoring those who say it won’t work. How could it not work? Well, it seems that everyone else knows why while our central figure is left out of the ring. Mr. de Winter is rumoured to have a dark past, mostly in relation to his first, now deceased, wife. Comparisons between wives old and new are made, although quietly in the eyes of the other figures throughout the film. Doubts begin to emerge about James as she notices the odd stares she receives, eventually being told “He can’t love you because you’re not her”. Much mystery lies around Rebecca. One certainty is that she’s undeniably highly missed by both the de Winter family and the antagonistic housekeeper of Maxim’s Manderley estate, Mrs Danvers (Kristen Scott Thomas).

All the elements of the film work rather well together. The performances are good and the general design helps to emphasise the lavish nature of the lives that the characters lead. And yet there’s one major contrast that gets in the way of the piece being properly investing. While every element is in agreement for the tone that they are aiming for the film itself feels as if it’s aiming for something different. The two tones conflict and mean that the film never feels like it properly settles. Even with slight shifts in tone during the film as a new element is introduced, a new act begins; or characters simply dramatically change their behaviour and attitudes in a split second with no gradual development, the tone the film seems to want doesn’t match that of the elements within it – not to say that this is the fault of Wheatley’s direction, this certainly isn’t the case. It almost seems to be something that happened in the editing room when the film was being pieced together and the pacing confirmed.

There’s a scene during Rebecca where Lily James is at a party. Her character feels out of place and unsure of her surroundings. Thoughts are rushing through her head in a state of confusion and upset. The camera slowly pans downward to gaze up at her as she looks around the room unsure as to where to go. It was at this point that I realised I wasn’t connected with her character, or the film. You’re not in the world that the cast and crew have been trying to create and have simply, for most of the run-time, been watching a screen. A lot of this seems to come down to the tonal conflictions between the film and its various different elements. It seems no major fault of any of the cast and crew, who all put in a good turn. It simply seems to not be quite as gothic or dark as it potentially wants to be and therefore conflicts with itself and leaves the viewer outside of its world in doing so.

Each of the individual elements of Rebecca work well together to try and create a mysterious tone and feel to the thriller. Yet it seems that the film loses itself somewhere, perhaps in the editing room, feeling as if it aims for something else and therefore disallowing the viewer from engaging with, or feeling a part of, it.