WRECK-IT RALPH

No-one knows what it’s like to be the bad guy.
Unless you’re Wreck-it Ralph that is. In which case, baby, you were just 8-bit programmed that way. After 30 years as the wreck-em, smash-em villain of arcade game Fix-It Felix, Ralph is tired of being hated for just doing
his job.
Abandoning his post, Ralph decides to shake up the gaming world by going rogue and visiting other games. With no extra lives and no ‘Start agains’, Ralph has one shot to be a hero.
Wreck-It Ralph is a sweet blend of humour, sophistication, sentimentality and nerdgasmic gaming references. Ralph attends Bad-Anon meetings with fellow villains Bowser, Doctor Eggman, M. Bison and Neff and the video-game references come thick and fast. This will delight gamers, from those who strived to reach Pac-Man’s Bomb Screen on the 256th level, to those whose introduction to gaming was Angry Birds on their parents’ iPad.
John C. Reilly imbues Ralph with an oafish, melancholic charm, while Sarah Silverman is all high-pitched hyperactivity as cute sidekick Vanellope – a tomboy racer who vehemently denies that she’s a Glitch. “I just have pixlexia,” she squeals. Jane Lynch is deliciously acerbic as a Hero’s Duty army captain, while 30 Rock’s Jack McBeynor is a camp delight as the flawless Fix-It Felix.
Director Rich Moore trusts young audiences to absorb multiple storylines. The result is fast-paced and engaging.
A love letter to underdogs, self-discovery and nostalgia all wrapped up in a pixel-loving package of retro gaming goodness, Wreck-It Ralph sees Disney finally take off their Pixar training wheels. Look Ma! No hands! (But a hell of a lot of heart.)

FLIGHT

Directed by Robert Zemeckis. Starring Denzel Washington, Kelly Reilly, Don Cheadle, John Goodman, Melissa Leo. 138 mins
Rating: ••••••••••
In cinemas February 1

DENZEL WASHINGTON SHINES IN INTERESTING, MORALLY COMPLEX DRAMA
In a month where we watched Lance Armstrong not-really-explain and not-really-apologise, Flight couldn’t be more timely. Robert Zemeckis’ film is about addiction and substance abuse – but more than that, it’s about our need to see people redeem themselves, for public apologies and epiphanies.
More than anything, though, Flight is about our unquenchable thirst for heroes.
Denzel Washington plays alcoholic pilot Whip Whitaker, who chooses the wrong day to fly while jacked up on coke and booze. In a plane sequence even more frightening than that in Zemeckis’ Cast Away, a technical malfunction sends the plane plummeting towards the ground. Through some unbelievable manoeuvres, Whip manages to land the plane, saving 96 lives and losing six. Though his skill was unquestionable, investigators are bearing down. Before long, America’s new sweetheart is put under intense scrutiny, as the threat of both relapse and a life sentence loom.
Known for playing the flawed hero with the winning smile – or the bad-ass villain with a similar grin – Washington has rarely given a performance as nuanced and complex as this. Whip is stuck in a spiral of denial and self-destruction. However there’s a tragic humanity to his failings. Washington’s double-edged performance beautifully plays on the moral ambiguity of the film, as the audience grapples with whether he can really be forgiven if he goes unpunished.
It’s this complexity that elevates Flight from an otherwise bog-standard substance abuse drama, and Don Cheadle’s role as the conflicted devil’s advocate lawyer trying to defend Whip adds another interesting layer.
Kelly Reilly is stunning as a heroin-addicted love interest, who ironically becomes a healthy foil to Whip. However their intriguing relationship is infuriatingly abandoned in favour of by-the-book courtroom dramatics. Grrrr...

ZERO DARK THIRTY

Directed by Kathryn Bigelow. Starring Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Jennifer Ehle, Joel Edgerton, Kyle Chandler, Mark Strong,  Chris Pratt, Harold Perrineau. 157 mins
Rating: ••••••••••
In cinemas now

GRIPPING, MASTERFULLY CRAFTED THRILLER THAT’S THOUGHT-PROVOKING AND COMPLEX
Does Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty endorse torture? The answer can only be ‘no’. From a devastating opening that plays an audio track of the anguished phone-calls of people caught in the World Trade Center on September 11, to scenes of American interrogators waterboarding prisoners, she merely presents uncomfortable truths.
Jessica Chastain is incredible as Maya, a CIA field operative, who becomes the driving force behind the hunt for Osama bin Laden, a search that eventually consumes her. Watching her transformation, from reluctant newcomer to isolated obsessive, is harrowing.
“You’re gonna kill him for me,” she snarls at a SEAL raider. Maya has made the terrorist’s capture her personal mission and her only chance for salvation, for peace of mind.
The SEAL team’s assault on the compound that housed bin Laden is masterfully handled. Bigelow is aware of space and geography even under the cover of darkness.
Zero Dark Thirty explores the murky places we are prepared to go in pursuit of the greater good – and asks if it is worth losing our collective – or individual – soul in the process.