Fionnuala Halligan

It’s not hard to figure out the recipe that resulted in Netflix’s Persuasion arriving half-baked from the streamer’s busy oven. Take one measure from Clueless. Cast an American actor as the lead (Dakota Johnson). Turn Jane Austen’s most mature heroine into a Bridget Jones, slugging red wine from the bottle and winking at the camera. Filter it all through a Regency Britain that comes straight from Bridgerton. Shake, too hard, and try not to cringe as the cake collapses.

It’s an understatement to say that The King’s Man has a weird, unsettling, tone.

This is an earnest, half-baked fairy story drenched in a thick soup of CGI. It’s awkwardly staged, with turgid, expository dialogue that is appreciably tricky for a palpably ill-at-ease young cast to deliver

Obvious good intentions are drowned in a hot wash of showboating stars and flooded by self-indulgence.

While it’s important to have seen Canto Uno in order to savour Intermezzo, this film in itself doesn’t seem remotely essential.

Sometimes a bad film is just a bad film, but Depp is most likely to pay the price.

Goodbye Christopher Robin doesn’t just lack authenticity, it appears to scorn it.