Film: Identity Thief

Jason Bateman was great in Arrested Development. Melissa McCarthy was brilliant in Bridesmaids.

Throw them together and you should have comedy pyrotechnics, but what you get is more comedy bronze than gold.

Bateman is mild-mannered accountant Sandy (cue: loads too many jokes about his ‘unisex’ name) who has a wife and two daughters. He’s the type who plays by the rules and is always overlooked.

When McCarthy’s party girl Diana steals his identity, clocking up debts and a criminal record as Sandy, he’s forced (via some narrative contrivances) to motor cross-country to bring her in and clear his name.

Starring: Jason Bateman, Melissa McCarthy | 15 | 111mins | Out March 22 

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Film: Jack The Giant Slayer

Brit actor Hoult leads the starry cast of this fantasy rethink, in which Jack, his beanstalk-climbing adventures and a shedload of giants clash over who gets to run the earth.

X-Men and Superman Returns helmer Bryan Singer directs this mega-budget (£131m) effects-laden event movie spectacle. 

Starring: Nicholas Hoult, Ewan McGregor, Stanley Tucci | 12A | 113mins | on general release March 22

 

Film: Stolen

Man of a million flamboyant hairstyles Nic Cage re-teams with his Con Air director, Brit Simon West, for this action-thriller in which he plays a thief who has to steal $10million for a former partner who’s holding his daughter ransom.

It’s a throwaway concept – and one that sounds much like Cage’s Gone In 60 Seconds – but they’ve made class before, so fingers crossed.

On general release March 22

 

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Theatre: The Audience

Prime ministers come and go – 12 in the past 60 years – and the Queen’s held confidential, un-recorded weekly meetings with them all.

After his cinema hit with The Queen, writer Peter Morgan imagines these exchanges with Dame Helen Mirren superb again as the monarch in Stephen Daldry’s entertaining production. 

Gielgud Theatre W1D 6AR.
Until Jun 15. £10+  
Tube | Piccadilly Circus  
theaudienceplay.com  

 

Theatre: The Living Room

Though best known as a novelist, Graham Greene also wrote a handful of plays.

He achieved considerable success with this well worth seeing religion-and-sin drama about a forbidden relationship.

It’s packed with symbolism and the writing can be laboured, but Tom Littler’s revival holds your interest. 

Jermyn Street Theatre SW1Y 6ST. 
Until Mar 30. £20+ 
Tube | Piccadilly Circus  
jermynstreettheatre.co.uk

 

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Comedy: Harry Hill – Sausage Time

The former TV Burp presenter has hung up his presenting job for a while, and is taking his first stand-up tour for six years out on to the London stage.

Featuring the sort of cartoonish and surreal madness you don’t normally associate with a registered doctor, this is a welcome return you’d be sick to miss.

Hammersmith Apollo W6 9QH.
Mar 26 & Apr 11. £30  
Tube | Hammersmith  
hammersmithapollo.net 

 

Exhibition: 19 Princelet Street Open Days

19 Princelet Street, or the Museum of Immigration and Diversity, is a Grade II listed building and a former Huguenot silk merchant’s home.

It opens its doors rarely, just a couple of times a month, so seize this opportunity to take a peek at its exhibitions about the immigrant experience in London. 

Museum of Immigration and Diversity
 E1 6QH. Sun 27, 2-4pm.
Mar 21, 5-8pm. Mar 24, 2-4pm. Free  
Tube | Liv St  
19princeletstreet.org.uk 

 

Photos: Johan Persson