Richard III

...the revelation of this Richard III is that updating Shakespeare may be even more ideally suited to the movies than to the stage.

Opening deliberately in the style of a Die Hard action yarn, this Richard introduces its bitter, twisted protagonist as the military genius victorious in a civil war that has rent a fictitious England in the 30s.

...McKellen is a grizzled old soldier: a brutal survivor, like a sergeant major who has somehow breezed into the officers’ mess.

...a film with a dread fascination.

...what we are offered instead is Sir Ian McKellen as Richard of York: in fine form and assuredly ripping his way through each scene in the brisk 104-minute running time.