The Screen Critic: A truly wicked musical, a rip-roaring return to the Colosseum and two veterans in a fun crime comedy

Finally, the wait is over. Having thrilled audiences for 20 years on stage, the film version of the smash hit musical extravaganza Wicked hits our screens – and it’s fabulous stuff, full of catchy songs, eye-popping sets, a great story and two strong lead performances set to make Wicked a smash hit musical movie as well.

Wisely, the makers haven’t assumed that everybody knows the Wicked story and so take the time to set it all up.

Taking place before the events in The Wizard of Oz (now 85 years old, would you believe), Wicked provides the origin story of the iconic Wicked Witch of the West, who we meet as Elphaba Thropp (Cynthia Erivo), a girl bullied because of her green skin.

She meets the beautiful, vain Galinda (Ariana Grande) at Shiz University where sorcery is taught, and the two become close friends via a series of elaborate and catchy musical numbers.

The sumptuous production values are gasp-inducing yet what really sells the film is Elphaba’s character story and the magnetic lead performances, with pop singer Grande acquitting herself very well in a largely comic role.

At 160 minutes it’s a film some will not be able to get through without a quick run to the rest room – bring back the intermission, please! – so watch your soft drink intake and enjoy.

Oh, and this is merely Part One of the Wicked opus, with Part Two set to grace us around this time next year. It’ll be worth the wait given the grand entertainment served up here.

Just like Wicked, another movie we’ve been waiting aeons to see is Gladiator II, the sequel to the epic, historical action drama from 2000 that earned Russell Crowe an Oscar.

And what a smashing, crowd-pleasing sword-and-sandals spectacle it is, with director Ridley Scott returning to deliver a worthy follow-up that is even more visually impressive, though lead star Paul Mescal can’t quite match Rusty’s intensity.

Set 16 years after the first film, Mescal plays Lucius (son of Rusty’s Maximus) who is captured during a sprawling opening reel battle and is forced to train as a gladiator, the promise being freedom should he survive the perils of the arena.

Story wise, there’s heaps going on: Lucius wants to avenge his wife’s death; General Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal) plots to overthrow Rome’s two corrupt emperors; gladiator trainer Macrinus (an extra-fruity Denzel Washington) has his own political agenda.

But let’s be honest: it’s the gritty action and close- quarters fighting we want and Scott serves it up in spades, aided no end by superb visual effects that make the battles seem even more realistic than the first film.

Highlights include a wrestling match with a giant rhinoceros and a sea battle staged inside the Colosseum, including man-eating sharks.

Some sorry souls have complained that the presence of sharks strain believability, to which one can only say – Gladiator II is not a documentary, it’s a movie. And a terrific, super-sized one at that.

Amidst all this cinematic grandiosity, over on the arthouse circuit and released with scant fanfare is Goodrich, a lovely, bittersweet little comedy-drama that reminds us how there’s a lot more to Michael Keaton than Beetlejuice and Batman.

Set in present day Los Angeles, Keaton plays Andy Goodrich, a man in the midst of a crushing mid-life crisis.

He’s got a wife in rehab who refuses to speak with him, twin school-age kids, a pregnant adult daughter (Mila Kunis) and a cherished art gallery that is struggling to survive.

Life is cruel, hitting him hard every time he comes close to getting a break. Try as he might to keep his spirits up, he has to see that his life’s work, both professionally and personally, appears to be breaking down before him.

Produced by Keaton and Kunis, Goodrich is a touching, thoughtful portrait of a man under pressure forced to recognise what truly matters. A very good film.

Now, a quick heads up for fans of Hugh Grant, who are going to love him in Heretic.

Turning his bumbling nice guy persona on its head, Grant goes nasty as Mr Reed, an initially charming gent who invites two sweet Mormon girls into his home to talk about religion.

With the rain pelting down outside, they slowly realise Mr Reed has a lot more on his mind than God and being a good host.

The tension and sense of fear builds nice and slowly, with Grant offering up a captivating central performance. Not for the squeamish. Opens 28 November.

In the fun crime comedy Wolfs Brad Pitt and George Clooney bounce off each other the way they did in the Ocean ’s Eleven films as competing underworld figures whose job it is to clean up crime scenes before anybody notices anything is wrong.

They are brought together when a sex-loving district attorney (Amy Ryan) has a mishap in a luxury hotel room with a teenage drug courier (Austin Abrams), who falls and passes out on the bedroom floor.

To their disappointment they discover he’s not dead and use him to complete a drug deal. Realising he’s a largely innocent idiot from high school, they then have to decide whether to keep him alive.

Happily leaning into their ages, Clooney and Pitt (63 and 60, respectively) generate a fair amount of laughs amidst some pretty nifty action, with Abrams holding his own sandwiched between the two vintage megastars.

Catch it on AppleTV.

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