Kevin Maher

The action is non-stop in Sam Mendes’s wartime masterpiece, which stars George MacKayUNIVERSAL PICTURES

★★★★★
Sam Mendes delivers the film of his career by mashing up the survivalist thrills of The Revenant with the helter-skelter mayhem of a shoot’em’up video game, and setting it during the Great War. The resulting two hours of amphetamine-rush cinema is both a monumental technical achievement and, instantly, an Oscar-night frontrunner.

The relatively unknown George MacKay (Pride) and Dean-Charles Chapman (Breathe) take centre stage as two luckless British soldiers who, on April 6, 1917, (the film is based on the recollections of Mendes’s grandfather Alfred, and dedicated to his memory) are sent on a dangerous mission that involves crossing from frontline France into German-held territory, and warning two British battalions about a devious enemy trap that could cost the lives of 1,600 men.

Benedict Cumberbatch makes a cameo, as do Andrew Scott and Richard MaddenUNIVERSAL PICTURES

It’s recounted…