QUEEN AND COUNTRY (15, 115 mins)

Director: John Boorman

2 stars

Hope and Glory, John Boorman's semi-autobiographical wartime tale, was a much-loved success in 1987, a family story seen through the eyes of a young boy named Billy as the blitz raged.

Now it's 1952 in this belated sequel and Billy (Callum Turner) has been conscripted for National Service, with the likely outcome following his training being a commission to fight in Korea.

At first it's all learning to march in time and being terrorised by yelling sergeant majors, but it's not exactly Full Metal Jacket. As well as being set in the 1950s this often feels like it was made then, with such an old fashioned approach to the comedy that if Charles Hawtrey turned up it wouldn't be too much of a surprise. Unfortunately it simply isn't very funny.

But instead of being sent to war, Billy ends up teaching the typing pool and most of what follows is escapades and hijinks as Billy and his mate Percy (Caleb Landry Jones) wind up their superiors and chase the local girls.

In particular it's their run-ins with a punctilious sergeant (David Thewlis) which are the supposed source of much mirth and conflict. Except the problem is it's all incredibly tame and underfed, with feebly drawn characters and no hint of compelling situations. Stealing a beloved clock is about as daring as it gets, yet this becomes the key point around which most of the plot turns.

Moreover as a military satire it's toothless, and nor does it have any mileage as an anti-war film. We're supposed to believe that the recruits are going through hell, yet we're only ever told this not shown it, and for the most part they seem to be having a jolly time.

Turner is bland and the actors playing the commanding officers, like Thewlis and Richard E. Grant, panto it up hopelessly, while the casting of Jones is a misstep. His cheeky chappy type was crying out for a Jack O'Connell rather than the jittery Texan that Jones is, albeit with a clipped and overdone English accent.

Concessions in speech for American audiences aren't hard to come by either, so there's no hiding who this was intended for. There's maybe a small and loyal audience out there looking for something a little more restrained during blockbuster season, but in the end the hugely uninspired Queen and Country is not so much Hope and Glory as Carry on Sergeant.

See it if you liked: Hope and Glory, A Royal Night Out, Private's Progress

THE LOOK OF SILENCE (15, 103 mins)

Director: Joshua Oppenheimer

4 stars

Director Joshua Oppenheimer follows up his astonishing 2012 documentary The Act of Killing with this companion piece that continues to cast an unflinching eye into the atrocities committed by Indonesian death squads in the 1960s and their mass slaughter of perceived communists.

Going deeper to look at the lies and propaganda still being peddled to schoolchildren, the focal point is Adi, whose brother was murdered before he was born, and who is seeking some sort of admission of regret or responsibility.

But this is either a country that can't face up to its past, and the level of denial on display borders on staggering. Oppenheimer's great skill is to let those involved speak for themselves without making a song and dance out of it, meaning they're often left to dig themselves into ever deeper holes.

Added to that are the accomplished filming and editing, which combined with what is being said means it plays like a brilliantly written drama except, tragically, you couldn't make it up.

LONDON ROAD (15, 92 mins)

Director: Rufus Norris

3 stars

It's fair to say there's nothing else out there quite like London Road, which comes to the screen after starting life as a stage show based on a real series of murders which rocked the town of Ipswich in 2006.

Like The Arbor from a few years back it uses the actual transcripts of locals who were interviewed in the aftermath of the murders and subsequent trial, with actors re-enacting exactly the words said.

Olivia Colman, and Tom Hardy in a miniscule role, provide the star power, and on top of that it's also a musical!

It's a clever idea and there are some powerful moments, but once the novelty wears off the repetitive nature of the use of dialogue can become a chore, although imaginative staging keeps it fresh for the most part. Just don't go in expecting particularly tuneful, although it's still better than Sondheim.

WEST (15, 102 mins)

Director: Christian Schwochow

3 stars

In 1970s Germany a woman and her son move more or less legitimately from East to West Berlin, albeit after a little border difficulty.

It's an interesting start that feels like it would normally come at the end of many similar films, where someone has made the break to freedom. But what's strong about this unassuming drama is that when Nelly gets to the West, where she and her son are housed in a refugee centre, things are from over.

There's a lot of bureaucracy to wade through before she can become a citizen and the authorities (including the Americans) want to ask her a lot of questions about the husband she thought was dead.

A fresh perspective on an often seen historical period is hard to come by, while striking characters imbued with complex emotions carry us through the sometimes dour nature of the drama.