Film review: Prisoners (15)

FILM
Prisoners
(15) 153mins
★★★★✩

IN A NUTSHELL
Superior story-telling, smart direction and powerhouse performances ensure Prisoners sidesteps the usual child-kidnapping cliches.

TV preview: Father Figure (BBC)

If you put the expression “Mrs Brown’s Boys” into Babelfish.com and bat it back and forth around the continents, it comes back as “male infant covered in sticky chocolate”.

Which must have given comedian Jason Byrne an idea. Just the one, mind, but, if he played his cards right, told it with an Irish accent (mainly because he’s Irish) and threw in a toilet gag he could spin the skit into a six-part sitcom.

Stage review: The Secret Agent, Young Vic

STAGE
The Secret Agent
Maria at Young Vic
★★✩✩✩

IN A NUTSHELL
Theatre O take the prescient themes of Joseph Conrad's classic and present them with intriguing, if disjointed, visual flair.

Film review: Rush (15)

FILM
Rush
(15) 122mins
★★★★★

IN A NUTSHELL
The combination of palm-sweating race sequences and moving human drama ensures this story of the 1976 F1 Championship takes the chequered flag.

Film review: Ain't Them Bodies Saints (15)

FILM
Ain't Them Bodies Saints
(15) 97mins
★★★★✩

IN A NUTSHELL
Sundance alumni David Lowery has created a doom-laden Bonnie and Clyde mood-piece with some fine central performances.

13 things we've learnt since the Syria debate

1. Tony Blair has profoundly devalued the office of prime minister and the Dodgy Dossier should be placed on the Fourth Plinth to mark his dishonour.

2. “Something must be done” and “never again” are understandable human reactions, not policy positions.

3. No.10 is no longer the natural home of the national interest. The natural interest resides in about 14 different places across the country at any one time.

Film review: Elysium (15)

FILM
Elysium
(15) 109mins
★★★★✩

IN A NUTSHELL
Neill Blomkamp follows District 9 with another gritty socialist sci-fi saga with Matt Damon suited up to nobble the nobs.

Film review: Kick-Ass 2 (15)

FILM
Kick-Ass 2
(15) 103mins
★★✩✩✩

IN A NUTSHELL
Laboured sequel lacks the confidence and verve of the original but there are still some nuggets of delicious pleasure.

Film review: Lone Ranger (12A)

FILM
Lone Ranger
(12A) 149mins
★★★★✩

IN A NUTSHELL
Johnny Depp dons Tonto warpaint and Armie Hammer adopts the mask in this right rollicking, roller coaster of a re-imagined Western.

Technology: The shape of the future - in 3D

"We have an incredibly strong science base in the UK, second only to America. We have a very strong technology base - manufacturing is not dead - and we have a strong design base but they don't work together as much as they can."