Hijack; Sounds Like the 80s; Dispatches

“Not a moment, not a drinks carton, not an in-flight entertainment system is wasted. Narrative seeds are sown, allowed to ripen and harvested at just the right moment. It works like clockwork without the (plentiful) larger twists being predictable.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“Unless there’s a major twist coming up, they’re pretty useless terrorists, whom Sam is able to manipulate and order around from the beginning. This kills the tension somewhat. The sheer force of Idris Elba’s charisma means that Sam only has to stand up or utter a sentence and the bad guys fall to pieces. Sharing a flight to Ibiza with a drunken hen party is more terrifying than this. But not half as much fun.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph

“When we’re in the enclosed, claustrophobic space of the plane, the tension builds as the passengers find ways to communicate, begin to hatch plots and try to discover whether the hijackers’ guns are loaded with blanks. However, when we go to the storylines on the ground, pfffft – all that tension dissipates, like a balloon deflating. You might find that this somewhat bumpy flight feels a lot longer than seven hours.”
Neil Armstrong, The i

“Is it time for a moratorium on 1980s pop-music nostalgia? We’re in the 2020s yet it can sometimes feel as if David Bowie’s Let’s Dance is played more than it was in 1983. Some of the insights were not the most discerning; others were illuminating. But nobody wants these songs to become so overplayed you feel the need to walk around with noise-cancelling headphones on to avoid them.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“This was little more than an excuse to play clips from favourite songs and music videos, and make dramatic pronouncements. ‘In 100 years’ time,’ Toyah declared, ‘people will still love Fade To Grey.’ She’s talking about the 1980 number by Visage and Steve Strange that reached No 8 in the UK charts. It was a dirge 40 years ago, and it isn’t improving with age.”
Christoher Stevens, Daily Mail

“There was nothing funny at all about a troubling film detailing the creep of Russian influence in high places. The Lebedevs and Johnson would say the programme is a hatchet job full of Russophobic bias (Boris-phobic bias too). And maybe they have a point. But it wouldn’t answer why the whole situation stinks like a rancid sturgeon.”
Carol Midgley, The Times