Film reviews: McCullin | Parental Guidance | Playing for Keeps

Siobhan Synnot reviews the rest of the week’s film releases

McCullin (15)

* * * *

War photographer Don McCullin is one of our best and bravest. Now 77, he still heads to war zones and has been known to venture into a hail of bullets to take a light reading for his camera. There’s not much here that isn’t covered in his autobiography, but it’s still an absorbing portrait of a committed shutterbug who never became inured to the brutality and pathos of his images.

Glasgow Film Theatre, Wednesday until 10 January

Parental Guidance (U)

*

Billy Crystal and Bette Midler star as grandparents who parachute in to babysit their three grandchildren for a few days. Cue too many gags about poo and getting hit in the crotch with a baseball bat.

General release

Playing For Keeps (12A)

*

Gerard Butler plays a washed-up former football star, who now coaches a children’s team to reconnect with his son and hang around his ex-wife (Jessica Biel). She seems unimpressed, but his habit of taking his shirt off is enough to attract three desperate soccer moms. Watching Uma Thurman, Judy Greer and Catherine Zeta-Jones compete for such a smarmy prize is like watching Bradley Wiggins and Chris Hoy fight over a tricycle.

General release