Star Wars: The Mandalorian And Grogu review: The Force isn’t with this Star Wars sequel… but Baby Yoda saves the day

Star KA.rs: The Mandalorian and Grogu (12A, 132 minutes)

Verdict: This is not the way

Rating: 3/5

Charlie the Wonder Dog (PG, 95 minutes)

Verdict: Half-term fun for puppies

Rating: 2/5

Tom and Jerry: The Forbidden Compass (PG, 104 minutes)

Verdict: Animated abomination.

Rating: 1/5

We haven’t seen a major new Star Wars movie in seven years, and after watching Star Wars: The Mandalorian And Grogu, which is actually a TV special upgraded to IMAX, you can sense we’re still waiting.

‘The evil galactic empire has collapsed’ here – and with the fate of the galaxy no longer in the balance, we’re left with a rickety sidebar adventure.

The issue is as follows, so far. Mercenary bounty hunter The Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal, wasted under the helmet) and his tiny, adorable stepchild Grogu (a mini-version of Yoda) accept a job from the New Republic’s Colonel Ward (Sigourney Weaver – apparently one of the last women left in the galaxy).

Their mission? Rescue Jabba the Hutt’s son Rotta, a muscular slug voiced by Jeremy Allen White.

To this end, the duo travels to a Blade Runner-like planet where Rotta competes in a gladiator death tournament.

Watch the ferocious cage-fighting CGI creatures onslaught of teeth, claws and tentacles, which sees director Jon Favreau gleefully throwing all his toys into the pram.

Do you want action? This more than delivers, with endless fights filled with chases, shoot-em-ups, big clanking AT-ATs firing lasers, and more monsters than a Warhammer bargain bin.

What it’s not so strong at is good, old-fashioned, epic storytelling, the kind that makes Star Wars, well, Star Wars.

There’s almost no whiff of tension, and unless you’ve seen the Mandalorian television series, the significant emotional connection between Mando and Grogu remains a mystery.

But the movie has a not-so-secret weapon: Baby Yoda’s cuteness. When in doubt, the movie has Grogu grimace and make an adorable noise as if he’s on the potty. Resistance is futile.

The best half-term bet for young children is Charlie The Wonderdog. In this bouncy, by-the-numbers animation, we see sweet old beagle Charlie (voiced by Owen Wilson) get a new shake in the tail when aliens turn him into a superhero — while the neighbor’s fat cat (Ruairi MacDonald) turns into a super-bad cat.

It’s both disappointing and, for most parents, comforting that the story ultimately contains all sorts of mild lessons about pet deaths.

Public health warning: Tom and Jerry: The Forbidden Compass is unforgivably awful.

Filmed in China as a Hollywood co-production with the Chinese government, this crazy, incomprehensible adventure follows poor old Tom and Jerry as they crash into a fantasy kingdom – where they are cast aside by a surprising cast of characters, most likely drawn from Chinese religion and folklore, who are not even one-dimensional.

My head hurts when I remember it. Avoid.

The best British romantic comedy since Rye Lane.

Finding Emily (12A, 111 minutes)

Verdict: Romcom of the Year

Rating: 4/5

Once upon a time, Working Title were the people who gave us British romantic comedies like Four Weddings, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Notting Hill and Love Actually.

Then they were the people who gave us The Rocking Boat and Grimsby.

Now, 23 years after Love Actually, something interesting is coming.

Finding Emily is set not in posh London but in student Manchester. Consider bucket hats rather than floppy fringes.

Owen (a star-making turn from Spike Fearn), a hopeless romantic, falls for a girl named Emily he meets at a club.

He’s so in love that, even though he’s been misnumbered by his mysterious lady (on purpose? Accidentally?), he vows to find her.

The unlikely wingwoman is another Emily (Angourie Rice, with Fearn, below), a romance-denying American student who secretly uses her as a psychology thesis case study.

Attractive leads, a funny and eccentric cast (including Minnie Driver), non-sarcastic sweetness, and a killer score – Finding Emily has everything you want from a romantic comedy.

What brings the film a breath of fresh air is its authentic Gen Z smarts who tackle today’s dating anxieties without trying too hard or seeming painfully woke – making this the best British rom-com since Rye Lane.

Spike Fearne as Owen and Angourie Rice as Emily Raine in the British romantic comedy Finding Emily

The feature debut from TV director Alicia MacDonald (Lena Dunham’s Too Much), from a script by Rachel Hirons (A Guide To Second Date Sex), it’s blessed with dialogue that feels natural rather than Richard Curtis-worthy one-liners.

And if the far-fetched plot occasionally loses its way, there’s always something fascinating around the corner.

It may not be perfect. But Finding Emily is a keeper.

Scarlett’s relationship with the Russian mafia doesn’t make much sense

Brian Viner in Cannes

Writer-director James Gray, who received sustained applause after the premiere screening of his period crime thriller Paper Tiger (115 minutes, HHHII) at the Cannes Film Festival last Saturday night, made a flamboyant attempt to FaceTime with his female lead, Scarlett Johansson, who could not make it to Cannes.

Unfortunately, he could not reach his phone. Gray’s call went straight to Johansson’s voicemail and, embarrassingly, she had to give up with all eyes on her.

Conveniently, the film itself doesn’t quite connect either. Johansson and her co-stars Adam Driver and Miles Teller deliver great acting. And sometimes he’s so nervous that he can chew his fists. However, there are very important aspects of the story that I do not believe.

Johansson and Teller star as Hester and Irwin Pearl, a decent, hard-working, mildly abused Jewish couple raising their two teenage boys in the suburbs of New York in 1986.

The most important name in the family is Irwin’s charismatic older brother Gary (Chauffeur), a former police officer who has achieved great success in private security. One night, a white-collar engineer comes to Irwin with a job opportunity. A section of the dirty canal is being cleaned ahead of a major real estate project. If siblings set up counseling, they can also do the cleaning.

Unfortunately, this means dealing with the scary Russian gangsters who run the channel. Gary isn’t afraid of them – ‘I was the NYPD, remember, they can’t touch me’ – but he should be. Anyway, while parts of the narrative don’t come together, they at least fail to come together in a repulsively entertaining way.

In the seductive style of The Sopranos, Gray’s film blends the domestic and the criminal to powerful effect.

Paper Tiger is expected to be released in the fall.