Damon Smith
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Articles by Damon Smith
THE HUNT FOR UK'S NEXT STAR CHEF STARTS HERE
Derby Telegraph | October 30, 2026 Marcus Wareing and Monica Galetti are back with MasterChef: The Professionals. DAMON SMITH finds out what's in store The cream of the crop of the country’s top chefs will be hoping they are dish of the day when Marcus Wareing and Monica Galetti return as hosts of the annual nationwide search for the next culinary superstar. Over the next seven, fiercely contested weeks, 24 professional chefs will battle it out for the coveted MasterChef: The Professionals trophy.
THE HUNT FOR UK'S NEXT STAR CHEF STARTS HERE
Marcus Wareing and Monica Galetti are back with MasterChef: The Professionals.
Film Review of the Week
Ali G: Who Iz I? (15) Review: More than 20 years after Sacha Baron Cohen’s problematic rude boy asked his final inappropriate question on the TV series Da Ali G Show, the streetwise slacker from Staines returns for a mockumentary sequel to Ali G Indahouse, which cajoles unsuspecting victims to defy common sense, bend the law and commit unconscionable acts under the auspices of making America great again. Screening for one weekend only, Ali G: Who Iz I?
Top 3 Films of the Week
Clayface (18) Tom Rhys Harries as Matt Hagen and Naomi Ackie as Caitlyn Corr in Clayface, directed by James Watkins. Copyright: Warner Bros. Ent. All Rights Reserved. Matt Hagen receives his first Oscar nomination as best actor. He celebrates at a nightclub with best friend Corey and casually ignores warnings about flirting with fellow actor Mia. She is the girlfriend of feared Gotham City kingpin Markos Szabo and he slashes Matt’s face beyond repair as punishment for petting his property.
Derby Telegraph - newspaper - Read this story on Magzter.com
Derby Telegraph | October 23, 2026 Botched experimental facial reconstruction sees actor's face and sanity collapse in queasy horror A FEW stomach-churning scenes in James Watkins’ fantastical body horror, based on the DC Comics character of the same name, are a dizzying blur to me. I glimpsed them through fingers pressed across my eyes as a primitive shielding mechanism from the graphic depictions of mutilation and self-harm that herald the birth of one of Batman's most eye-catching adversaries.
Film Review of the Week
Forgotten Island (PG) Review: Memories fade over time but if you could willingly trade your most precious recollections for money or rewards, what price tag would you put on those cherished chapters from your life? That’s the thorny dilemma facing the two chaotic heroines of an animated coming-of-age fantasy written and directed by Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado.
Top 3 Films of the Week
Whalefall (15) Jay Gardiner is estranged from his terminally ill father, Mitt, and refuses to visit the old man before he passes. The grief-stricken Gardiners mark Mitt’s passing and Jay reunites with his mother Zara and sisters Eva and Nan. “I’m gonna find him. That’s what I came back for,” the son quietly reminds himself and he prepares to dive for his father’s remains in a nearby bay.
Film Review of the Week
The Social Reckoning (15) Review: In 2010, director David Fincher and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin explored the formative years of Facebook in Oscar-winning drama The Social Network.
Top 3 Films of the Week
The Social Reckoning (15) Civic integrity team data engineer Frances Haugen grows increasingly concerned about how Facebook’s algorithmic recommendations are responsible for 64% of users who join extremist groups on the social networking platform. She voices her fears internally to no avail. Following her first face-to-face encounter with chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg, Frances reaches out secretly to the Wall Street Journal’s new investigative reporter Jeff Horwitz.
THE FACEBOOK STOPS HERE
Derby Telegraph | October 09, 2026 Belated sequel tells the story of one whistleblower's struggle to raise concerns about social media giant IN 2010, director David Fincher and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin explored the formative years of Facebook in Oscar-winning drama The Social Network.
Five things to know about Netflix's Below starring Josh Hartnett
Fantasy thriller Below , starring Josh Hartnett, is now available to stream. Created by Jesse McKeown, one of the writers of The Umbrella Academy , the show follows a small Newfoundland town terrorised by a mysterious sea creature. Fisherman Calvin Penney (Hartnett) has never fully recovered from his father's mysterious death, but when a hulking monster targets his community from beneath the waves, he risks everything to protect his son Wade – played by Charlie Heaton – and the rest of his family.
Five things to know about Netflix’s Below starring Josh Hartnett
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Film Review of the Week
Digger (15) Review: The most treasured possession of self-aggrandising business mogul Digger Rockwell, played with scenery-chewing gusto by a prosthetics-encased Tom Cruise, is a shovel handed down by generations of deluded Rockwell men. If we’re calling a spade a spade then Alejandro G Inarritu’s visually dazzling satire is a bloated and bewildering mess that repeatedly swings big and hits itself squarely in the face with that shovel.
Top 3 Films of the Week
Digger (15) Ross Hatt as Dr Berg, Tom Cruise as Rockwell and Maggie The Cat in Digger, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu. Copyright: Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved. Following an avoidable disaster at his Greenland drilling operation, which produces around six million barrels of oil a day, tycoon Digger Rockwell faces the greatest environmental catastrophe in mankind’s history.
Film Review of the Week
Heart Of The Beast (12A) Review: Owning a pet is a special kind of love story, every bit as intense as matters of the human heart. Director David Ayer’s slow-burning survival thriller cherishes the deep bond between a retired US army special forces operative and a German Shepherd, who served alongside him, as they navigate a treacherous snow-laden wilderness to find their way back to humanity.
Top 3 Films of the Week
Heart Of The Beast (12A) Special Forces officer James Belmont and his combat dog Odin are involved in a terrifying plane crash. Miraculously, both emerge from the wreckage relatively unscathed, stranded deep in the Alaskan wilderness. James and Odin join draw on their combat experience to complete a 58-mile trek over treacherous terrain to find their way back to civilisation.
Derby Telegraph - newspaper - Read this story on Magzter.com
Derby Telegraph | October 02, 2026 TOM CRUISE DELIVERS A MOCKING SWIPE AT THE OIL INDUSTRY IN THIS TRULY BIZARRE ROMP THE most treasured possession of self-aggrandising business mogul Digger Rockwell, played with scenery-chewing gusto by a prosthetics-encased Tom Cruise, is a shovel that was handed down by his equally deluded forebears.
Critics react to new Ted Kaczynski film Unabomber
Critics have reacted to Janus Metz' tense new thriller Unabomber, inspired by the story of domestic terrorist Ted Kaczynski, and streaming exclusively on Netflix from 25 September. Jacob Tremblay stars as Harvard prodigy Ted Kaczynski, while Russell Crowe plays Professor Henry Murray and Shailene Woodley joins as FBI agent Joanne Miller, who leads the manhunt to bring the Unabomber to justice.
Critics react to new Ted Kaczynski film Unabomber
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Austen romcom too much of a plain Jane...
Derby Telegraph | September 25, 2026 NEW ADAPTATION OF CLASSIC FAILS TO MATCH UP TO BELOVED OSCAR-WINNING NINETIES VERSION FROM ANG LEE DIRECTOR Georgia Oakley goes back to nature for an unsentimental and sincere spin on Jane Austen’s first novel, working from a script written by Diana Reid which will be invariably measured against Emma Thompson’s Oscar-winning screenplay from more than 30 years ago.
Film Review of the Week
Bad Apples (15) Review: One bad apple can rot the crop but in director Jonatan Etzler’s warped black comedy, adapted by screenwriter Jess O’Kane from Rasmus Lindgren’s novel De Oonskade, it’s unclear whether any of the characters are good apples. On the surface, the schoolteachers who roam the corridors and classrooms of Bad Apples are hard-working pillars of the community. But dark, uncharitable thoughts percolate behind placative smiles.
Top 3 Films of the Week
Resident Evil (15) Aimless 30-something Bryan works for Lightfoot Medical Transportation and couriers transplant organs against the clock to surgical teams around his local area. He accepts double money to complete a Category A delivery to Raccoon City General Hospital during a blinding snowstorm. As he battles against the elements, Bryan discovers a deadly contagion has swept through Raccoon City and its snow-laden outskirts, transforming residents into hideous and deadly mutations.
Film Review of the Week
Fall 2 (12A) Review: Don’t look down. High-altitude thrills and spills stay in the family in a nimble sequel to the 2022 action thriller, which replaces Scott Mann in the director’s chair with brothers Peter and Michael Spierig. Filmed on location in Thailand from a script co-written by Mann and Jonathan Frank, Fall 2 contrives another knife-edge battle for survival at death-defying heights that expands the backstory of characters from the original film.
Top 3 Films of the Week
Practical Magic 2 (12A) Sisterly white witches Sally and Gillian Owens have accepted the family curse, which kills any man they dare to openly love. Living in an enchanting – and enchanted – Victorian house with eccentric aunts Bridget and Frances, Sally has turned her back on magic and erased the memories of daughters Kylie and Antonia in the forlorn hope her girls might enjoy normal lives. Alas, Kylie falls in love with boyfriend Gideon and within hours, Gideon is involved in a traffic accident.
SEIZE THE D-DAY | Derby Telegraph - newspaper - Read this story on Magzter.com
Derby Telegraph | September 11, 2026 WARTIME THRILLER EXPLORES TENSE BATTLE OF NERVES AHEAD OF PIVOTAL ALLIED INVASION OF NORMANDY “THE weather controls our daily life. It can destroy us.” Those words, softly spoken by Scottish meteorologist James Stagg (Andrew Scott) as the clock ticks down to the D-Day landings in Anthony Maras’s nerve-racking wartime thriller, resonate just as powerfully today with devastating global headlines about wildfires and flash floods.
Film Review of the Week
The Death Of Robin Hood (15) Review: The last two major motion pictures dedicated to the English folk hero galloped through well-trodden pastures.
Top 3 Films of the Week
The Death Of Robin Hood (15) Jodie Comer as Sister Brigid in The Death Of Robin Hood, directed by Michael Sarnoski. Photo: Aidan Monaghan. Copyright: DORH Holding Co LLC. All Rights Reserved. Robin Hood is a shaggy-haired and straggly-bearded shadow of the man once venerated in folklore, living in solitude in mid-13th-century England. He reunites briefly with Little John, who has taken an assumed name, to help his friend reclaim property and pride using the language of violence.
The Hood old days
Derby Telegraph | September 04, 2026 HUGH JACKMAN BRINGS FAMOUS OUTLAW BACK FOR ONE LAST GRIM RIDE INTO THE SUNSET THE last two major motion pictures dedicated to the English folk hero galloped through well-trodden pastures.
Film Review of the Week
Coyote Vs ACME (PG) Review: Humans and Looney Tunes cartoon characters live side by side in (almost) perfect harmony in Dave Green’s knockabout comedy, which melts down the live action and animation alloy of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? to fashion a David and Goliath legal tussle between Road Runner’s luckless nemesis and the biggest corporation in the world.
Top 3 Films of the Week
The Dog Stars (15) Jacob Elordi as Hig and Jasper in The Dog Stars, directed by Ridley Scott. Photo: Fabio Lovino. Copyright: 2026 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved. A deadly virus has almost wiped homo sapiens off the surface of Earth. The few survivors of the devastation huddle together, protecting resources and each other from marauding bandits called Reapers. Young pilot Hig has found a new home with military survivalist Bangley at an abandoned airport with protections from Reaper attacks.
IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT
Derby Telegraph | August 28, 2026 DOES CALLUM TURNER AND MONICA BARBARO'S LUSTY ROMCOM CATCH FIRE? MOST romantic comedies pose a simple question: will or won’t they get together? We already know the answer. Go one step further and ask, should or shouldn't they get together?
Spa for the course
Derby Telegraph | August 21, 2026 Gal pal comedy from writers of The Hangover offers filthy-minded fun and celebrates female friendship ALL comedy is subjective and writer-directors Jon Lucas and Scott Moore’s potty-mouthed comedy subjects us to a heady conflation of two of their previous scripts, The Hangover and Bad Moms.
Film Review of the Week
Mutiny (15) Review: Jason Statham is all at sea in his latest action-packed caper, which pits the former diver and model turned big screen hard man against a ruthless people-trafficking ring that uses shipping containers to transport unsuspecting refugees to their miserable fates.
Top 3 Films of the Week
Insidious: Out Of The Further (15) Lin Shaye as Elise Rainier and Amelia Eve and Gemma in Insidious: Out Of The Further, directed by Jacob Chase. Photo: Narelle Portanier. Copyright: Screen Gems/CTMG, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Young mother Gemma unknowingly possesses great power. She can travel into the Further, the otherworldly realm located somewhere between heaven and hell, and most importantly can bring demonic forces back with her in to our reality.
Film Review of the Week
The End Of Oak Street (12A) Review: If weird science suddenly transported you into the heart of Jurassic Park, how long do you think you would survive before a rampaging Spinosaurus or swooping Pterosaur used your femur as a rudimentary toothpick?
Top 3 Films of the Week
The End Of Oak Street (12A) Ewan McGregor as Greg Platt and Anne Hathaway as Denise Platt in The End Of Oak Street, directed by David Robert Mitchell. Photo: Daniel McFadden. Copyright: Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved. Denise Platt, her husband Greg and their two children Audrey and Brian are residents of Oak Street – a nondescript slice of American suburban where nothing remarkable happens.
Derby Telegraph - newspaper - Read this story on Magzter.com
Derby Telegraph | August 07, 2026 An unsuspecting Paw Patrol find themselves in a land that time forgot in their best outing yet NO dino is too big, no pup is too small in a super-sized feature film extension of the hugely popular children’s TV series, which goes for a fast-paced gallivant in the Jurassic park by uncovering a hidden island populated by living, breathing prehistoric creatures.
Film Review of the Week
PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie (U) Review: No dino is too big, no pup is too small in a supersized feature film extension of the hugely popular PAW Patrol children’s TV series, which goes for a fast-paced gallivant in the Jurassic park by uncovering a hidden island populated by living, breathing prehistoric creatures.
Top 3 Films of the Week
PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie (U) Ryder and PAW Patrol pups Chase, Marshall, Rocky, Rubble, Skye and Zuma are caught in a mysterious storm and their ship crash-lands on a tropical island filled with prehistoric beasts. A dino-expert pup named Rex befriends the stricken team and helps them to navigate this lost world. Mayor Humdinger seizes the opportunity to mine the island for its natural resources and his greedy actions cause a dormant volcano to erupt, endangering all life.
The dark web(slinger)
Derby Telegraph | July 31, 2026 Forgotten by the world, Peter Parker fights his new, less heroic impulses WITH great responsibility comes great sadness and aching regret. Tom Holland's fourth foray as New York’s friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man begins with a special effects-laden bang and ends with a whimper of anguish. That narrative trajectory feels right for a tortured hero, who has given up everything to protect the people he loves.
Film Review of the Week
Spider-Man: Brand New Day (12A) Review: With great responsibility comes great sadness and aching regret. Tom Holland’s fourth headline foray as New York’s friendly neighbourhood webslinger begins with a special effects-laden bang and ends with a whimper of anguish. That narrative trajectory feels right for a tortured hero, who has given up everything to protect the people he loves.
Top 3 Films of the Week
Spider-Man: Brand New Day (12A) Zendaya as MJ watches Spider-Man work in Spider-Man: Brand New Man, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton. Photo: Jay Maidment. Copyright: 2026 CTMG. All Rights Reserved. Marvel and all related character names: Copyright 2026 Marvel. Thanks to the spellcasting of Doctor Strange, the world has forgotten Peter Parker leads a double life as Spider-Man, including his sweetheart Michelle Jones aka MJ and best friend Ned.
Film Review of the Week
Chickenhare And The Secret Of The Groundhog (PG) Review: The opening visual gag in director Benjamin Mousquet’s sprightly sequel to his 2022 animated fantasy Chickenhare And The Hamster Of Darkness is a resourceful skunk turning her back on a swarm of angry bees and neutralising the winged throng with a toxic outburst from her anal glands. Fart jokes are alive, well and wafted more than once in Chickenhare And The Secret Of The Groundhog so take a big whiff.
Top 3 Films of the Week
Chickenhare And The Secret Of The Groundhog (PG) Chickenhare, acrobatic skunk Meg and Galapagos tortoise Abe return to the kingdom of Featherbeard to celebrate their latest escapade with King Peter. Triumph turns to despair when one of the archivists, Gina, reveals that she is Chickenhare’s long-lost sister and a tree of life that sustains their bloodline’s island home is under threat.
HERE WE GO AGAIN
Derby Telegraph | July 24, 2026 COMPUTER-ANIMATED SEQUEL IS A LIVELY ADVENTURE FULL OF FAMILY-FRIENDLY HUMOUR THE opening visual gag in director Benjamin Mousquet's sprightly sequel to his 2022 animated fantasy Chickenhare and the Hamster of Darkness is a resourceful skunk turning her back on a swarm of angry bees and neutralising them with a toxic outburst from her anal glands.
This is truly EPIC!
Derby Telegraph | July 17, 2026 Christopher Nolan takes Homer's classic tale to the absolute IMAX CHRISTOPHER Nolan’s devotion to immersive cinematic experience peaks with a visually stunning adaptation of Homer's epic poem. Odysseus (Matt Damon), king of Ithaca, heads into battle at the behest of Agamemnon (Benny Safdie). He leaves behind his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) and young son Telemachus (Tom Holland), while brother-in-law Eurylochus (Himesh Patel) acts as his second-in-command.
Film Review of the Week
The Odyssey (15) Review: Bigger had always meant better to Oscar-winning writer-director Christopher Nolan, a passionate advocate of the large screen IMAX format since he began shooting with high-resolution cameras almost 20 years ago on The Dark Knight. That steadfast devotion to the most immersive cinematic experience crescendos with a visually stunning adaptation of Homer’s epic poem dating back more than 2,500 years.
Top 3 Films of the Week
The Odyssey (15) Christopher Nolan’s epic adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey is the first film shot entirely on IMAX cameras, underlining the Oscar-winning director’s commitment to the large screen format. Odysseus, king of Ithaca, heads into battle at the behest of Agamemnon to fight in the Trojan War. He leaves behind this wife Penelope and son Telemachus. Many years pass and Odysseus is presumed dead so rivals for the crown including Antinous vie forcefully for Penelope’s affections.
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