FILM OF THE WEEK
SPIES IN DISGUISE (Cert U, 101 mins, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Animation/Action/Adventure/Comedy, available from April 20 on Amazon Prime Video/BT TV Store/iTunes/Sky Store/TalkTalk TV Store and other download and streaming services, available from April 27 on DVD £15.99/Blu-ray £21.99) Featuring the voices of: Will Smith, Tom Holland, Ben Mendelsohn, Rashida Jones, DJ Khaled, Karen Gillan, Rachel Brosnahan, Reba McEntire.
ORPHAN Walter Beckett (voiced by Tom Holland) finds his calling as a gadget geek at a US government-funded spy agency overseen by Joy Jenkins (Reba McEntire).
Tuxedo-clad operative Lance Sterling (Will Smith) relies on the agency's ingenious gizmos to carry out his daredevil missions.
Unfortunately, boo-hiss bionic criminal Killian (Ben Mendelsohn) outwits Lance and the spy is wrongly accused of treason.
Lance becomes a fugitive and inadvertently drinks Walter's experimental biodynamics concealment potion, which morphs the suave agent into a pigeon.
A "rat with wings" might be the perfect disguise to sneak up on Killian.
Spies In Disguise is a madcap computer-animated comedy that won't surprise anyone old enough to have witnessed Daniel Craig's bruising forays as Bond.
The script proudly promotes Walter's individuality as a badge of honour and indulges in heavy-handed emotional manipulation to resolve the young man's deep-rooted feelings about the loss of his mother (Rachel Brosnahan).
Scriptwriters Brad Copeland and Lloyd Taylor trade predominantly in family-friendly sweetness even when they resort to toilet humour to explain the multi-functional wonders of a pigeon's cloaca.
Pyrotechnic-laden action set pieces are executed with assurance and Smith and Holland deliver energetic vocal performances as the impossibly lithe spy and dorky dreamer, who team up in unusual circumstances.
Mendelsohn is short-changed as the film's deranged arch-villain – he's all bark and no bite – so the stakes never feel unsettlingly high, even when the script borrows a move out of the How To Train Your Dragon handbook in search of a tear-jerking crescendo.
Rating: 7/10
GANGS OF LONDON (10 episodes, streaming from April 23 exclusively on NOW TV, Drama/Thriller/Romance)
MEN of violence only understand one primitive language in blood-soaked 10-part drama Gangs Of London created by Gareth Evans and Matt Flannery, which screens on Sky Atlantic and streams exclusively on NOW TV.
Finn Wallace (Colm Meaney) is the most powerful criminal in the capital, presiding over a multi-billion-pound empire for 20 glorious years.
He is assassinated and dangerous rivals jockey for position to fill the power vacuum.
Finn's son Sean (Joe Cole) expects to take up the reins, supported by his mother Marian (Michelle Fairley) and close ally Ed (Lucian Msamati), head of the Dumani clan.
However, time is fleeting and Sean must emulate his father's ruthlessness to stave off challenges to his authority.
A lowlife chancer called Elliot Finch (Sope Dirisu), who has a peculiar interest in the grief-stricken Wallace family, could hold crucial information to turn the tide in Sean's favour.
BOSCH – SEASON 6 (10 episodes, streaming from April 17 exclusively on Amazon Prime Video, Thriller/Drama)
LOS Angeles Police Detective Harry Bosch (Titus Welliver) turns to trusty pooch Coltrane for emotional support to keep his demons at bay in the sixth helping of hour-long investigations based on the best-selling novels of Michael Connelly.
At the end of the fifth series, Harry vowed to solve the murder of Daisy Clayton and provide the girl's mother, Elizabeth (Jamie Anne Allman), with the closure she craves.
In these 10 episodes, Harry searches for answers with partner Detective Jerry Edgar (Jamie Hector) under the watchful eye of his superiors, Deputy Chief Irvin Irving (Lance Reddick) and Lieutenant Grace Billets (Amy Aquino).
Bridges continue to be built between Bosch and his teenage daughter Maddie (Madison Lintz) while the department devotes resources to thwarting a terrorist plot with a dirty bomb.
THE WILLOUGHBYS (Cert PG, 92 mins, streaming and available to download from April 22 exclusively on Netflix, Animation/Comedy/Drama)
BASED on the book by Lois Lowry, The Willoughbys is a computer-animated adventure written and directed by Kris Pearn (Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 2).
Timothy Willoughby (voiced by Will Forte), his little sister Jane (Alessia Cara) and the twins Barnaby A and Barnaby B are abandoned by their selfish parents (Martin Short, Jane Krakowski).
Left in the care of a thoroughly odious nanny (Maya Rudolph), the resourceful tykes discover their quaint, old-fashioned values are out of step with the contemporary world.
Tim, Jane and the twins must adapt at speed to find a place they can truly call home.
MR. ROBOT - SEASON 4.0: THE FINAL SEASON (Cert 15, 615 mins, Universal Pictures (UK) Ltd, available now on Amazon Prime Video/iTunes and other download and streaming services, available from April 20 on DVD £21.99/Blu-ray £27.99, Thriller/Drama)
BRILLIANT cybersecurity engineer Elliot Alderson (Rami Malek) attempts to wriggle free from the grasp of E Corp in the concluding series of the Golden Globe award-winning drama from the producers of True Detective.
At the end of the third series, Elliot gained access to the FBI and his childhood friend Angela (Portia Doubleday) discovered that E Corp's CEO Phillip Price (Michael Cristofer) was her father.
In these concluding episodes, Elliot joins forces with Mr Robot (Christian Slater), figurehead of an underground collective called F-Society, to bring down Whiterose (BD Wong), head of the the Dark Army cyberterrorist network.
Elliot's younger sister Darlene (Carly Chaikin) sides with her sibling in the ensuring war, which claims many innocent lives.
The four-disc DVD and Blu-ray box sets include all 13 episodes.
