Having read glowing reviews and taken Kermode's word for it that

[Burney]

the script was at least plausible, I shelled out a small fortune to go and see The Last Jedi actually in a real cinema. I expected to be entranced as I was with The Empire Strikes Back but was disappointed.

Plot was banging around all over the place like a pinball machine and there seemed to be a surfeit of menopausal ladies running the show and delivering tepid lines with very little conviction. The english bird's accent was somewhat grating in the way Helen Baxendale's was when she fouled up a whole season of Friends.

One small bonus though. The old soak they thought would be a code cracker but betrayed them. If that ain't a young Sir C then I'm my chinese uncle's pet duck.

I've got to the stage where I'm afraid I no longer trust Kermode. I've had too many bad steers from him. Shīte like 'Beasts of the Southern Wild' and 'The Falling' that he's raved about have turned out to be the most appalling drivel.

I'm afraid I've also come to the conclusion that he and Mayo are too easily swayed by the really big genre releases like James Bond and Star Wars. Faced with such massive films, their critical faculties seem to shut down and these films seem to get huge plaudits virtually on the nod.

I'm also increasingly fed up with the way he allows his political bias to influence his reviews. He simply gushes at stuff like 'I Am Daniel Blake' and 'Pride' for no other reason than their political standpoint.