:00:00. > :00:00.in 2016 and we will be in Belfast ahead of the BBC sports personality
:00:00. > :00:00.of the year award at the weekend. Now on BBC News, it is time for the
:00:00. > :00:23.film review. Welcome to the Film Review on BBC
:00:24. > :00:30.News. To take us through this week's
:00:31. > :00:43.cinema releases is Mark Kermode. Surprisingly there is a new Star
:00:44. > :00:50.Wars film reopening everywhere. We also have sharper, which is an
:00:51. > :01:00.interesting film. And Snoopy, the peanut film. Star Wars is a must
:01:01. > :01:05.see? Everybody is worried about the plot spoiler. Let's just say this is
:01:06. > :01:12.taking place sometime after the return of the Jedi. There is a
:01:13. > :01:22.battle between good and evil. All I will say is it involves a scavenger
:01:23. > :01:26.played by Daisy Ridley. It reunites friends old and new. We have a
:01:27. > :01:28.montage of stuff available from the trailers. Even this will not spoil
:01:29. > :02:00.it. Who are you? I am no one. I was
:02:01. > :02:13.raised to do one thing. But I've got nothing to fight for. Nothing will
:02:14. > :02:31.stand in our way. I will finish what you started. Those stories about
:02:32. > :02:38.what happened? It is true. All of it. Come along way since George
:02:39. > :02:46.Lucas. I never click with the original. I was into the idea of
:02:47. > :02:51.darkness science-fiction, Silent running to some extent. When the
:02:52. > :02:56.prequels came out, I was old enough to think, they are nothing like as
:02:57. > :03:00.good as the originals, they have a weightless, digital quality. Even
:03:01. > :03:05.the original Star Wars fans were disappointed. I went into this as
:03:06. > :03:10.someone who wasn't a Star Wars aficionado. It made me feel like a
:03:11. > :03:14.12-year-old watching the Star Wars movie. I thought it was really
:03:15. > :03:22.exciting and engaging, dramatic and tragic. One of the things I like
:03:23. > :03:28.about it is it has a feeling of physical heft. It is shot on 65
:03:29. > :03:33.millimetre. Desert scenes, you get a sense of the Lawrence of Arabia
:03:34. > :03:39.grandeur, which was so absent from the Lucas prequels. You have
:03:40. > :03:44.characters, you are interested in the story. They ride the fine line
:03:45. > :03:48.between number one pond, it interstellar adventure and humour.
:03:49. > :03:52.There are jokes in this movie that are funny. In no way so many
:03:53. > :03:57.comedies don't manage to have. What surprised me was, I watched it in a
:03:58. > :04:02.pack cinema with people who were Star Wars aficionados. You could
:04:03. > :04:07.feel the anticipation. Everybody was really excited when it opened. But
:04:08. > :04:12.there was a sense they didn't want to be disappointed. Not only did it
:04:13. > :04:16.not disappoint them, it really captured my imagination. I found I
:04:17. > :04:20.was surrounded by crowds of people who were laughing, cheering and
:04:21. > :04:25.gasping. I suddenly realised I was one of them. It was a strange
:04:26. > :04:30.experience and it comes down to JJ Abrams. He is a fine director. He
:04:31. > :04:35.does hear what he did with the Star Trek movies, taking it back to the
:04:36. > :04:39.original, but also going back to the future, using it as a way of looking
:04:40. > :04:47.forward. The two stars were terrific, good at holding attention.
:04:48. > :04:53.As you engage with. As I said, it was like finally going, I see, I get
:04:54. > :05:01.this. I confess, I have seen it twice. Twice in 24 hours. The second
:05:02. > :05:07.time round, it was thoroughly immersive. But both times round I
:05:08. > :05:16.bought this is satisfying, it has the JJ Ember Inns -- JJ Abrams sense
:05:17. > :05:25.of heft. You feel there is some physicality which was lacking from
:05:26. > :05:28.the digitised prequels. You wouldn't be surprised, $57 million on the
:05:29. > :05:34.opening night. People talking about three billion dollars, including the
:05:35. > :05:39.merchandising, which George Lucas very cleverly made sure he got. It
:05:40. > :05:44.is easy to assume something like this is going to be a massive hit.
:05:45. > :05:49.What it is all so really, really difficult to make a movie that will
:05:50. > :05:52.play with the fans and also played to the audience who aren't
:05:53. > :05:58.completely invested in it. If it does end up doing Titanic business,
:05:59. > :06:03.no pun intended, it will be because of repeated viewing and both groups
:06:04. > :06:09.of people really like it. And for me, somebody who wasn't on the side
:06:10. > :06:15.of Star Wars before, I thought it was a distraction. I was sold on it.
:06:16. > :06:22.Completely sold. Sherpa? Totally different. We had Everest, seem
:06:23. > :06:25.largely through the eyes of the tourists and the tour guides. This
:06:26. > :06:33.is a documentary about the guides who take the most risks and at the
:06:34. > :06:38.least reward. The film-makers set up to follow a Sherpa on an historic
:06:39. > :06:46.22nd summit of Everest. What happens in 2014 is a terrible disaster. As a
:06:47. > :06:51.result of this disaster, the Sherpas decided they would go on strike.
:06:52. > :06:56.They would say, with the conditions, this is a terrible thing that has
:06:57. > :07:00.happened. It became almost an industrial dispute. What is very
:07:01. > :07:07.gripping is, on the one hand, breathtaking visuals, but it is a
:07:08. > :07:09.story about workers taking charge of the workplace, the tensions that
:07:10. > :07:17.ensue between them and the tourists. Some of them, the attitude towards
:07:18. > :07:24.the indigenous Sherpas, is terrible, it is being. I found it very
:07:25. > :07:30.compassionate, told its story very intelligently, not with any sense of
:07:31. > :07:41.bias, but it gave you a sense of a workplace changing before your eyes.
:07:42. > :07:46.Snoopy? Are you a fan? They are OK, small-town America, quite innocent.
:07:47. > :07:55.That phrase, small-town America, innocent. It is a digital animation.
:07:56. > :07:56.It is an attempt to update with that in animation but keep exactly the
:07:57. > :08:19.thing you'd just moments like this when you need your
:08:20. > :08:55.faithful friend. Yes, Hello. Hello. She said, hello. It is
:08:56. > :09:04.visually very nice? Very nice! It is not to do with big laughs, it is wry
:09:05. > :09:09.smiling. CPM margins going off and fighting with the red Baron which
:09:10. > :09:17.justifies the digital animation. But there is a tension between very old
:09:18. > :09:22.school America and the modern visuals. It was OK. Cute and some of
:09:23. > :09:31.the pop songs are a grating. I wonder if it will hold the attention
:09:32. > :09:38.of younger viewers? Frozen is a grating, but that went down well.
:09:39. > :09:44.Now, Grandma? I really like it, Lily Tomlin plays a Grandma trying to
:09:45. > :09:48.help her teenage granddaughter to raise the money for an abortion. In
:09:49. > :09:54.doing this she meets old friends and acquaintances. It doesn't fall into
:09:55. > :09:58.the cliches of a bad grandmother, she has more tatties and her
:09:59. > :10:05.granddaughter. It is more intelligent than that. I thought
:10:06. > :10:13.Lily Tomlin was terrific. Your DVD of the week is about Wilco Johnson?
:10:14. > :10:19.This is a story about somebody facing up to their own mortality and
:10:20. > :10:23.realising it makes them feel more alive than ever. As we know, the
:10:24. > :10:29.story of Wilco Johnson is extraordinary. Everybody thought he
:10:30. > :10:35.was going to die, including him. He's still here and as hard as he
:10:36. > :10:39.did. Julien Temple is a really good film-maker and understands how to
:10:40. > :10:40.make metaphysics out of a documentary.
:10:41. > :10:43.A quick reminder before we go that you'll find more film news
:10:44. > :10:45.and reviews from across the BBC online, including
:10:46. > :11:06.There was a rare treat for a lucky few today will stop the sunshine
:11:07. > :11:07.came out, albeit