Keith Allen

Based on the true story of an unapologetic underdog who never won anything, this British comedy is a shameless crowd-pleaser. Eddie Edwards won the hearts of fans worldwide by coming in dead last at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, and the cast and crew follow his journey with buckets of humour and emotion, plus some seriously exhilarating ski jumping. And like its central character, the film is awkward, good-hearted and impossible not to love.

Eddie (Taron Egerton) grew up obsessed with becoming an Olympian even though he has no talent for sport. He manages to become a regional downhill skiing champion, but is so annoying that the head of the British Olympics Team (Tim McInnerny) changes the rules to disqualify him. So at 22 he instead decides to become Britain's only ski jumper. He moves to Germany to train on his own, meeting the jaded ex-jumper Bronson (Hugh Jackman) and persistently convincing him to offer some coaching tips. And as the Olympics officials keep raising the bar for membership on the team, Eddie improves just enough to qualify. His father (Keith Allen) thinks he should give up, but his mother (Jo Hartley) quietly offers support. And it's Eddie's sheer tenacity that gets him to Calgary.

Director Dexter Fletcher (Wild Bill) tells this story as a high-energy comedy centred on a dorky young man who simply won't take no for an answer. Egerton plays Eddie with perhaps too many physical tics, but exudes so much goofy charm that it's easy to see how he won over the people around him, and the global audience watching the Olympics. His interaction with everyone he meets on this journey is barbed and hilarious, and his joy at each small achievement is infections. Egerton also generates terrific chemistry with Jackman in one of his most enjoyable roles yet. It's hugely entertaining to watch this grouchy loser be begrudgingly coaxed out of his shell by Eddie's boundless enthusiasm.

Continue reading: Eddie The Eagle Review

Last year's kiddie secret-agent comedy "Agent Cody Banks" was a stupid movie that got by on clever charm. It starred Frankie Muniz (from "Malcolm in the Middle") as a junior-high James Bond who had to get over his fear of talking to girls in order to complete his mission and save the world from some contrived evil.

The picture got a enough mileage out of Muniz's amusing believability as a secret agent on training wheels and out of its tongue-in-cheek twists (to keep his parents in the dark, the CIA did his homework and housework while he was on assignment) to balance out a lot of slapdash screenwriting -- so all in all, it squeaked by as good family fun.

But the rushed-into-production sequel "Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London" is twice as stupid and without even an infinitesimal hint of the cleverness that kept the original afloat.

Continue reading: Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London Review

"This is one of those avant-garde things, is it?" says a droll, dubious and dying Cole Porter (Kevin Kline) as he sits in an empty theater at the beginning of "De-Lovely," watching his life pass before his eyes on the stage, in a production conducted by an enigmatic, ironic, ethereal director named Gabe (Jonathan Pryce).

The answer to his question is a delighted "yes." This film is an imaginative, deconstructionist, celebratory musical biography woven together from elements of theater, meta-cinema, chamber drama and Porter's own MGM musicals with gratifying -- if deliberately glossy -- results.

Kline opens the picture as a frail but feisty old man (the age makeup is remarkable) who, as he watches his own story unfold, is alternatively tickled ("Oh, look, it's an opening number!"), critical ("He'd never wear that! Change it."), fondly reminiscent and pained by regret. And the actor also plays the younger Porter in the bulk of the picture, which has a merry, dreamlike quality to its stop-and-start interactions with the elderly Porter and his theatrical spirit guide.

Continue reading: De-Lovely Review