Westside is a great place for family attractions – from Legoland Discovery to National Sea Life and Rock Up. But nothing beats a great new movie.
Our two luxury 12-screen multiplex cinemas Cineworld Broad Street and Odeon Luxe Broadway Plaza are both launching DreamWorks’ new animation The Wild Robot (U) this weekend. When booking, don’t forget that both cinemas have ‘adults pay kids’ prices’ deals to save you money.
The Wild Robot (U, 102 mins). Don’t be afraid! A robot crash lands on a wildlife island where it ‘doesn’t have the programming to be a mother’. But with themes of love and loss as well as kinship and personal identity, its journey will be magical.

Verdict: ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Blessed with an Iron Giant’s emotional strength, this is writer-director Chris Sanders’ best yet, after hits including Lilo & Stitch (2002), How to Train Your Dragon (2010) and The Croods (2013).
Already Oscar-nominated three times, Sanders will surely be pushing hard at next year’s Academy Awards, especially as The Wild Robot is screening in premium formats like IMAX (Cineworld) and iSense at Odeon Luxe.
Smile 2 (18, 127 mins). In a supernatural horror sequel to Smile (2022) promising ‘This is the last thing you’ll see’, a comeback pop singer needs to move on from her boyfriend’s death. Never mind being fatally smiled at by anyone harbouring the killer within.

The verdict: ☆ ☆ ☆
Caught between hallucinations and reality as well as pop-star fame, British actress Naomi Scott shines as Skye Riley. And Rosemarie DeWitt as her mother Elizabeth is a bizarre Rachel Reeves lookalike amid unfolding horror!
Smile 2’s detached ‘six days later’ opening alone merits the rare 18-certificate en route to a denouement you can later see coming a mile off.
Although different to the first film, recent viewers of Joker 2, Terrifier 3 and Demi Moore’s superior The Substance might already be suffering from ‘traumatic lip fatigue’.
Smile 2’s unexpected familiarity is further tested by two more recent releases – Alien: Romulus and M Night Shyamalan’s recent concert-based thriller, Trap, as well as the Japanese thriller The Ring (1998).
Once again, horror feels in need of a radically different heartbeat. Enter…
The Apprentice (15, 122 mins). Billed as ‘An American horror story’, see how Donald Trump rose up real estate’s greasy pole en route to the Oval Office. (Although his powers were insufficient to prevent this film depicting him raping his first wife, Ivana).
Like a Gremlins-trained lawyer, Roy Cohn offers the eager young Trumpster three rules – to consistently attack, to never admit any wrongdoing and to claim victory in every defeat. Sounds familiar?
“Play the man, not the ball,” Cohn advises. “[This] is a construct… nothing matters except winning.”

The verdict: ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
A sex and drugs combo laced with tall buildings and taller political ambition, The Apprentice is so atmospheric you feel like you are on Trump’s shoulder.
Iranian-Danish director Ali Abbasi offers beautifully-lit indoor scenes, classic cars galore, buildings under construction, period clothes, dated music and, of course, the younger Trump’s thinning barnet.
Feeling even more authentic than last year’s Nike training shoe story Air (2023) with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, The Apprentice features standout performances from Jeremy Strong as Cohn and particularly Sebastian Stan as Trump.
The Apprentice marks Stan out as a characterful star to truly watch, a la Richard Crowe in The Insider, Philip Seymour Hoffman in Capote and Jesse Plemons in Game Night.
Sacha Baron Cohen – who made such a real-life fool of the future Trump’s personal attorney Rudi Guiliani in the Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (2020) – will surely appreciate the filmmakers’ all-round bravery and vision, never mind the sheer fun of Trump’s ‘And what do you do?’ interaction with legendary artist Andy Warhol.
● Your reviewer: Graham Young has been reviewing films for the media in Birmingham for the last 35 years, serving the Birmingham Mail, Birmingham Post, Sunday Mercury, BirminghamLive and BBC WM. He was the 1996 Regional Film Journalist of the Year, and runner-up 1997-99.
ENDS