MOVIE: Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon

EVERYONE loves 'Shaun the Sheep'. The furry farm animal spin off from the Wallace and Gromit series has attracted a loyal band of fans both young and old during his time on the big and small screens.

And after the success of the first Shaun movie back in 2015, animation studio Aardman are ready to go again with a second offering, this time featuring a strange extraterrestrial creature who crash lands near Mossy Bottom farm and upsets the status quo.

Shaun, of course, makes friends with the animated alien and helps it to not only avoid capture from an evil organisation, but also to try and return home.

Meanwhile, Mr Farmer is less than happy with the havoc wreaked by his uninvited guest, but soon turns the situation to his advantage by setting up an alien theme park and arranging a grand opening in what is the movie’s best sequence. 

The by now familiar manual stop motion animation is slow to shoot, but probably gives the filmmakers plenty of time to work on the script and one liners. And the good news is that there are plenty of jokes to keep you amused during the short but perfectly formed 90-minute runtime, with amusing situations and clever visuals that are often absent in bigger budget animated features. This is great family fun which we award a review score of four fabulous stars. If only more movies for adults were as clever.

And now for something completely different. 'The Last Black Man in San Francisco' tells the story of Jimmy who has fallen on hard times and his ambitious attempts to reclaim the house his grandfather built in a now affluent city suburb.

Starring relatively unknown actor Jimmy Fails as himself, and helmed by first time director, Joe Talbot, both are ones to watch for the future. This is a poetic and meditative arthouse film that is easy to admire for its construction and acting, but which many may find slow moving and uneventful. If you like your movies metaphorical and thoughtful, this might just be the one for you.

Paul O'Rourke