Cannes looks beyond Hollywood as US film-makers mostly fail to make the grade

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The 79th edition of the influential festival boasts an auteur-heavy lineup – with one, very big, country conspicuous by its almost total absence Gillian Anderson and Cara Delevingne to hit Cannes as auteur heavyweights dominate festival lineup Has Europe fallen out of love with the US? Has Cannes fallen out of love with Hollywood? Will the festival, like Nato, become a non-American institution? Either way, the annual announcement of the Cannes selection has revealed a list that skews away from Hollywood towards a renewed dominance of world-cinema auteurs and heavy hitters, including Pedro Almodovar, Cristian Mungiu and Asghar Farhadi. There’s certainly nothing to compare with last year’s Tom Cruise Mission: Impossible extravaganza, although there are directorial debuts out of competition for Andy Garcia (also starring) with his crime drama Diamond, and John Travolta directs Propeller One-Way Night Coach, expressing his love of aviation, based on his own novel. There are no Britis...
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The Bad Guys 2 review – gang of cuddly animal criminals get pulled back in for one last heist

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Snappier, funnier and more relaxed than the first film, this caper sees the crew dragged back to villainy by a ‘MacGuffinite’ plot

Here’s one of the few animated kids’ sequels you can approach without strapping into a hazmat suit for protection. DreamWorks’s franchise hits its stride with this minor upgrade – a snappier, funnier and more relaxed movie than the original. It begins like a Bond or Bourne with a death-defying car chase around Cairo after the gang of criminal predators pull off yet another a splashy heist. Behind the wheel of the getaway car is ringleader Mr Wolf (voiced by Sam Rockwell, and doing such a decent Clooney impersonation that George should shake him down for royalties).

Actually, the chase is a flashback to five years ago. Right now, in the present, Mr Wolf, Mr Snake, Mr Shark and the gang have gone straight. But their fresh start as good guys is scuppered by a snow leopard and a frame-up for a series of daring heists involving a precious metal called MacGuffinite (a silly gag for film-buff adults). The best character from the first movie, super-villainous guinea pig Professor Marmalade (voiced by Richard Ayoade) is also back. Locked up in a maximum security prison, he’s prison fit and covered with tattoos, his newfound physical menace let down only slightly by a nasally whine.

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