ShangLuda Admirable film.

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Humbersi The first must-see film of the year.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

bob the moo Without any Wallace & Gromit and robbed of "big" movies by virtue of everyone seeing them already, the BBC continue to put all their festive spirit on the back of reality dancing shows and the annual outing for Doctor Who. This is not the place for people such as myself that watches Doctor Who for the occasional darkness and engaging plots and just puts up with the kiddie-friendly silliness that it will always have; no, the Christmas special is usually full of colourful, noisy nonsense and Bernard Cribbins in a Santa hat. So there was a certain amount of "strapping in for the ride" when I heard the plot of this years special (which it took me till now to watch – happy Christmas!).The plot is essentially that Amy and Rory are on a spaceship crashing onto a planet but trapped in a thick cloud layer which is controlled by one man on the ground. Kazran Sardick is a real sour dick though and decides to just let the ship crash and kill everyone. Unable to do it without his help, the Doctor decides to travel back in time and show Sardick the miracle of Christmas, thus changing him into a good person and getting him to allow the ship to land. Meanwhile though, the Doctor cannot help but also be mystified by the cloud layer, in which fish freely swim and live. So it is a version of A Christmas Carol with flying sharks basically – sounds like a recipe for silly spectacle and easy sentiment right? Well, a little, but far less than I expected.The viewer does have to deal with the image of a shark harnessed like a reindeer flying through the sky, but otherwise the special is actually very engaging and smartly done. The Christmas Carol aspect is actually pretty good and it even held my interest even though I'm not one for the whole "what a special day Christmas is" thing. Gambon plays his scrooge really well and I thought he gave the special a lot of heart. I had assumed that Jenkins would be a novelty but, while not brilliant, she was reasonably OK. Smith worked the thing as well as one would expect while neither Gillan nor Darvill (who really should not be in it in my opinion) didn't have much to do other than be the plot device – but weirdly the special was better for their absence.Overall this was a really enjoyable Christmas special which (unlike the Poseidon in Space one the other year) actually feels festive due to its content rather than its trimmings. Engaging, quite clever, quite touching while also having the silliness that kids need – much better than I expected it would be.

remembrapril I'm sorry, it had all you needed to make a great Dr Who episode, except that it broke THE cardinal rule when it comes to the Dr and time travel; YOU CAN'T GO BACK ON SOMEONE ELSE'S TIME LINE!!! This is known as First Law of Time. Not only did he go back on the time line, but the old man actually hung out with his older self. Whoever was the script editor for this should be fired. I am not usually a stickler for precise detail, but come on, this is ridiculous. The whole premise of the TV show going back all the way to the beginning (and I'm talking about William Hartnell, not Christopher Eccleston) was that the Dr had to solve the problems then and there, and could not go back and 'try again'. I know people will give examples like "The Three Doctors" and "The Five Doctors", however, these episodes were influenced by the Time Lords, and though the Dr is the last Time Lord, I feel by breaking the First Law of Time, it goes against the spirit of the show and sets a bad precedent for future episodes.

Tweekums Having had a season to get used to Matt's Smith's incarnation as The Doctor and Karen Gillan as is beautiful assistant Amy Pond it is time for their first Christmas special; would it turn out to be rather twee or would it be a classic? It was a classic! As the episode opens a space liner is in trouble, heading towards a planets where it appears to be doomed to crash; that is until one of the passengers, Amy Pond who is on honeymoon with Rory, summons her friend The Doctor to help. Unfortunately he can't help directly but a man called Kazran Sardick on the planet can, unfortunately that man shows no desire to help so The Doctor is forced to persuade him using Dicken's 'A Christmas Carol' for his inspiration. Going back in time he changes the bitter old man's boyhood self. In the past the young Kazran meets a pretty woman who his father has frozen in his basement, they let her out because they need her freezer then on subsequent Christmas Eves the three of them go out together until on day Kazran announces that he wants the tradition to end leaving the woman frozen. The Doctor is not told the reason although the viewers know so can sympathise with Kazran. The old Kazran's memories may have changed but now he just has different reasons to be bitter, the Doctor; and a hologram of Amy, must convince him to help them and the only way left will mean a great sacrifice on his part.I thought this was a great variation on the theme of 'A Christmas Carol' it used science fiction rather than spectres to visit the past and show it to the elder Kazran and surprisingly didn't find an easy route to avoid a sad ending. The two stars were great but after the previous series I expected that; Michael Gambon brought suitable gravitas to the role of the elder Kazran and I'd never have guessed that this was singer Katherine Jenkin's first acting role. I liked the idea of fish swimming in the fog and the little fish did indeed look great; unfortunately the shark CGI looked obvious, even so I laughed when the Doctor flew in a carriage pulled by the shark in what is one of the strangest variations on Father Christmas and his reindeer that I've seen. Fans of Karen Gillan may be upset that Amy doesn't get as much screen time as usual this episode but the should be happy that she is wearing her 'sexy policewoman' costume again… clearly her and Rory were playing dress-up in the honeymoon suite when disaster struck! In summary this was another great episode from the pen of Steven Moffat and starring a top notch cast that had plenty of thrills, heart-warming moments and a bitter-sweet ending that had me smiling and crying simultaneously.

iancampbell72 Have just finished watching, and it was a touching, sometimes funny, but at no time was it cloying or overly sentimental. It whipped along at a good pace, and the performance were all good from Gambon, which was only to expected, to Katherine Jenkins, who for someone who had never really acted before was a very pleasant surprise, even if she did have to sing to a shark, but that is not as silly as it sounds when you see why in the last ten minutes. The ending is sad, but in a way uplifting, and you try not to have a lump in your throat, or a slight tear in your eye. .Enjoy