A Sudden Case of Christmas is a feelgood festive film with Danny DeVito heading up the cast. Set in the middle of summer, Danny plays hotelier and doting grandfather Lawrence Armanetti who each year hosts his extended family for Christmas in his grand hotel in the Italian Dolomites.

However, it seems this year will be far from the picture-perfect get-together he loves as, in the summer, he learns his daughter and her husband are splitting up. His granddaughter Claire (Antonella Rose) suspects that this year’s festive trip may be canceled and insists on having one last family Christmas together. In the midst of the chaos, Claire and her grandfather hatch a plan to get her warring parents back together.

Here's everything you need to know about the festive flick A Sudden Case of Christmas…

A Sudden Case of Christmas release date

A Sudden Case of Christmas will premiere in the UK on Sky Cinema Premiere and NOW on Sunday December 8 2024. The movie has been available in the US on digital platforms since November 7 2024.

Is there a trailer? 

Yes the trailer for A Sudden Case of Christmas shows granddaughter Claire saying, ‘as long as there’s love, there’s Christmas’. But it appears that may not be the case this year. We see her parents at war and her granddad Lawrence determined to make Claire’s wish come true, by giving her one last Christmas as a family, in the middle of August.

A Sudden Case of Christmas plot

Every Christmas, Lawrence (Danny DeVito) hosts his extended family at his hotel in the Italian mountains. So, he’s surprised when his daughter and son-in-law turn up in the middle of summer. They announce that they are splitting up so their devastated 10-year-old daughter Claire (Antonella Rose) asks if they can have one last Christmas at the hotel as a family. She hopes to persuade her parents to reconcile but can she really create enough Christmas magic in the middle of August?

A Sudden Case of Christmas cast — Danny DeVito as Lawrence Armanetti

Danny DeVito plays the kindly grandfather and hotel owner Lawrence Armanetti. Danny previously found fame as grumpy cab dispatcher Louie De Palma in the hit US comedy series Taxi which ran from 1978 to 1983. He appeared in hit movies like One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, Romancing the Stone, Terms of Endearment, Twins and The War of the Roses. He’s also starred as the Penguin in Batman Returns, plus Matilda, Get Shorty, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Beetlejuice.

Who else is starring?

A Sudden Case of Christmas also stars Andie MacDowell plays Rose, Claire’s paternal grandmother while Clare is played by Antonella Rose. Lucy DeVito (Danny’s daughter) plays Abbie, Valeria Cavalli is Claudia. while Line of Duty’s Adrian Dunbar, Francesco Salvi, Roderick Hill and Tommaso Sacco also star.

The Great Escaper sees two-time Oscar winners Sir Michael Caine and the late Glenda Jackson reuniting top portray the real-life story of Bernard Jordan who in 2014 escaped from his care home in Hove, East Sussex, to attend the 70th anniversary commemoration of the D-Day Landings in France. 

British acting legends Sir Michael Caine and Glenda Jackson first acted together in The Romantic Englishwoman back in 1976, and now Michael will play plucky Bernard, aka Bernie, who staged his “big escape” to honour his fallen comrades in Normandy, while Glenda is his wife, Rene. Bernard’s time on the run lasted a mere 48 hours but it captured the hearts of the British public. 

Writer William Ivory wants the audience to feel they’ve been on an emotional journey when they leave the cinema: "They’ve laughed, they’ve cried, but ultimately they should leave feeling that life is worth living."

Director Oliver Parker says: "There are so many extraordinary stories which are still coming out because, like Bernie, they didn't talk about it. A lot of these things are still being unearthed."

Here’s everything you need to know about The Great Escaper…

The Great Escaper release date

The Great Escaper had its cinematic premiere in London on September 19 2023 and opened in UK cinemas from Friday October 6. 

The Great Escaper will be shown on Sky Cinema in the UK in June 2024. At the moment it’s unclear if it will also be shown on a streaming service such as Netflix or Prime Video but we’ll update you on that. 

Running time is 96 minutes and in the UK it's certificate 12A. Below is a clip of Sir Michael Caine and the rest of the cast at the London premiere...

Is there a trailer for The Great Escaper?

Yes a trailer for The Great Escaper has now been released which shows the wonderful chemistry between Sir Michael Caine and the late Glenda Jackson in her last ever role. Do take a look below, plus another recently released clip below it...

The Great Escaper plot 

The Great Escaper follows the adventures of D-Day veteran, former Royal Navy Lieutenant Bernie Jordan (Michael Caine), who in 2014 sneaked out of his East Sussex care home to travel to Normandy to pay his respects on the 70th anniversary of the D-Day Landings. He told his carers he was “popping to the shops” but instead walked to Brighton railway station, travelled to Portsmouth and bought a one-way ferry ticket to Caen, sparking a police search for him. 

Back in 2014, Bernie said, “In the months leading up to the anniversary I was trying to get an official trip to Normandy but I didn’t have the necessary passes. Then, the day before D-Day I saw all the TV coverage and thought, “I have to go and be part of it.” I was naughty and secretive.” He died a year later, aged 90, and his wife Irene, or Rene (Glenda Jackson) died just a week later.

Bernard's adventure, spanning 48 hours, also marked the culmination of his 60-year marriage to Rene, celebrating their enduring love but always with an eye to the lessons we might learn from the Greatest Generation. 

The Great Escaper cast — Michael Caine on playing Bernard 'Bernie' Jordan

In The Great Escaper, Michael Caine plays pensioner Bernard who secretly journeyed to France, despite his health concerns, to commemorate his fellow World War Two soldiers. 

"Mentally Glenda and I hadn't aged," explained Michael shortly after filming. "To us we were still young and having fun and ready for a laugh.’"

Cockney actor Michael Caine made his name in the 1960s, starring in films such as Zulu, The Italian Job, Alfie, and The Ipcress File. He won Oscars for his roles in The Cider House Rules and Hannah and her Sisters and has also starred in The Muppet Christmas Carol, Little Voice, The Quiet American, Educating Rita, Jaws 4: The Revenge, Kingsman: The Secret Service, Miss Congeniality and The Dark Knight trilogy. 

The late Glenda Jackson as Irene Jordan, aka Rene

Stage and screen legend Glenda Jackson, who sadly passed away after a short illness in June 2023, plays Bernie’s wife Rene in what was her last screen role before her death earlier in 2023. 

When asked why she agreed to play the part of Rene, Glenda said: ‘I thought it was an excellent screenplay. The story is more important in a way than their love for each other. I think it has a wider relevance because their concern and their care extend beyond just themselves.’ 

After Glenda's death, the following statement was issued by the film’s director, Oliver Parker, on behalf of the filmmakers:  

“We are shocked and deeply saddened by the news of Glenda’s passing.  It was the privilege of a lifetime to work with her. She had such fierce intelligence, such passion, and fearlessness.  It is hard to believe that it was less than a month ago that we screened the finished film for her and Michael – she was as feisty and vibrant as ever and we will treasure the memory of that emotional and happy day.” 

In a separate statement, Michael Caine said:

“Glenda was one of our greatest movie actresses.  It was a privilege to work with her on The Great Escaper recently, our second film together.  It was as wonderful an experience this time as it was 50 years ago.  I shall miss her.”

Glenda won two Oscars, for Women in Love in 1969 and A Touch of Class in 1973. She’s also starred acclaimed movies such as Sunday Bloody Sunday, Mary, Queen of Scots, Hedda Gabler, and more recently in the BBC1 drama Elizabeth is Missing. On TV she starred in the BBC's 1971 miniseries Elizabeth R and was the Labour MP for Hampstead and Highgate from 1992 to 2017 during which time she took a break from acting. Her only son is the political journalist Dan Hodges.

Who else is starring in The Great Escaper?

Other cast for The Great Escaper includes Will Fletcher and Laura Marcus as the younger Bernie and Rene, Victor Oshin as Scott Selwood, plus John Standing.

Danielle Vitalis, who plays Rene's carer Adele, says: ‘Glenda Jackson brought a lot of love to her role. Her portrayal of Rene is both soft and caring but also because of her wealth of experience as an actor, performer, and activist in real life, you could sense that here was a life fully lived. And I think those two aspects – character and actor - amalgamated and created such a beautiful, multi-dimensional character performance. It’s beautiful for me as an actor to be able to respond to that.’ 

Below is a clip of Laura Marcus, who plays young Rene, talking about filming The Great Escaper...

Behind the scenes and more about The Great Escaper

The Great Escaper is produced by BAFTA-nominees Robert Bernstein and Douglas Rae (Nowhere Boy) and is an Ecosse Films production for Pathé and BBC Film. Executive Producers are Cameron McCracken for Pathé and Eve Yates for BBC Film.

The creative team includes BAFTA-nominated Cinematographer Christopher Ross (The Swimmers, Room), BAFTA-winner Editor Paul Tothill (Blithe Spirit, Atonement), Production Designer Nick Palmer (Das Boot), BAFTA-nominated Costume Designer Emma Fryer (The Great), Hair and Make-Up by Jacqueline Fowler (War & Peace) and a score by the Academy Award nominated composer George Fenton (The Duke, Allelujah). Pathé will distribute the film in the UK, France and Switzerland and will handle sales throughout the rest of the world.

Chadwick Boseman is charismatic as Thurgood Marshall, the crusading lawyer who in 1967 became the first African-American Supreme Court Justice

Chadwick Boseman is charismatic as Thurgood Marshall, the crusading lawyer who in 1967 became the first African-American Supreme Court Justice.

This film doesn't focus on that achievement, and neither does it highlight one of Marshall's landmark legal victories in the fight against segregation.

Instead, it revolves around a lesser-known case from far earlier in his career when he arrived in Connecticut in 1941 to defend a black chauffeur (Sterling K Brown) charged with raping and attempting to murder his white socialite employer (Kate Hudson).

As it happens, the presiding judge (James Cromwell) is so blatantly biased that Marshall isn’t allowed to speak in court but can only guide and prompt the inexperienced white lawyer, Sam Friedman (Josh Gad), who finds himself reluctantly taking the case.

The ensuing drama is an engaging blend of mismatched buddy movie and legal thriller, as Marshall and Friedman contend with prejudice in and out of the courtroom, not to mention the wiles of the prosecuting attorney, played with snooty disdain by Dan Stevens.

In cinematic terms, Marshall is thoroughly conventional, but it's undeniably stirring stuff all the same, with Boseman making the most of some resonant lines of dialogue - ‘The only way to get through a bigot's door is to break it down' - and giving his character an utterly magnetic swagger.

This quirky road movie comedy stars Dakota Fanning as a vulnerable autistic woman

This quirky road movie comedy stars Dakota Fanning as a vulnerable autistic woman.

She gives carer Toni Collette the slip and boldly goes from San Francisco to LA in an effort to hand-deliver her 427-page Star Trek script to a $100,000 writing contest in Hollywood.

The film is far-fetched and whimsical, but it won’t only be Trekkies who are won over when Patton Oswalt’s kind-hearted cop turns up and starts speaking Klingon.

It's 1887, and Queen Victoria (a typically superb Judi Dench) is lonely and bored

It's 1887, and Queen Victoria (a typically superb Judi Dench) is lonely and bored.

Then handsome 24-year-old Abdul Karim (Bollywood star Ali Fazal) catches her eye at a stuffy banquet.

His sparkling presence inspires her to bestow upon him greater and greater favour, which naturally does not go down well with her snobbish household or her son, Bertie (the future Edward VII), played with prickly peevishness by Eddie Izzard.

When Abdul goes on to become the Queen's secretary and teach her Urdu, his enemies conspire to bring him down.

This is a fascinating story. Unfortunately, director Stephen Frears and screenwriter Lee Hall, adapting Shrabani Basu's revelatory book, tackle it in a broadly comic, largely unsubtle manner that fails to give the subject its due.

A rock band, fronted by Andy Biersack, rockets to stardom in this exuberant movie

A rock band, fronted by Andy Biersack, rockets to stardom in this exuberant movie.

Co-written and directed by Ash Avildsen (son of Rocky director John G Avildsen), this spirited heavy metal movie charts the dizzying rise of The Relentless, with just a little help from Malcolm McDowell's devilish tempter.

As Biersack’s high-cheekboned frontman Johnny Faust and his band mates rise to dizzying heights, Avildsen turns the dial up to 11, depicting scenes of decadence and debauchery that would make even the most hard-partying rock stars blush.

He throws music biz satire and heavy metal bombast into the mix, as well, while shaping a cautionary tale about the cost of stardom that retains its playful spirit even when things turn dark.

Ryan Gosling is marvellous in this magnificent sequel to Ridley Scott's iconic 1982 sci-fi masterpiece, Blade Runner

Ryan Gosling is marvellous in this magnificent sequel to Ridley Scott's iconic 1982 sci-fi masterpiece, Blade Runner.

It was always going to be a tall order to follow that groundbreaking classic, but Canadian director Denis Villeneuve proves more than up to the task.

Set 30 years after the action of the original, Villeneuve's film depicts a still-bleak LA but has Gosling’s new Blade Runner, K, as its hero. Unlike Harrison Ford's enigmatically ambivalent Deckard, however, K is indisputably a replicant, although his mission for the police is the same as his predecessor's: hunting down rogue replicants and 'retiring' them.

However, a puzzling discovery at the site of a bruising showdown with his latest synthetic human prey sends him on a cryptic quest that has profound existential implications for humanity - and himself.

Like K, you will need patience and attention. Villeneuve takes his time laying out the story, but there are abundant rewards for staying the course.

The future world the film conjures up is stunning and haunting, as Roger Deakins' Oscar-winning photography captures the dystopian beauty of rain-drenched streets and smog-suffocated sky.

The characters are compelling, too. Ana de Armas as K's holographic companion, Robin Wright as his police lieutenant boss and Sylvia Hoeks as his scarily ruthless nemesis all give striking support to Gosling's yearning hero, while Ford, reprising his original role, conveys a suitably grizzled weariness.

And, on top of all this, there are cunningly planted references to the first film, which will enthrall fans as well as keeping them on their toes.

Not to be missed.

Lois Smith reprises her stage role as an ailing, 85-year-old widow given the chance to reminisce with her dead husband (Jon Hamm)

Lois Smith reprises her stage role as an ailing, 85-year-old widow given the chance to reminisce with her dead husband (Jon Hamm).

In the near future, the wonders of artificial intelligence can summon up the dear departed as holograms of their past selves.

So Smith’s Marjorie is able to talk to a fortysomething version of husband Hamm, which has been programmed by her daughter (Geena Davis) and son-in-law (Tim Robbins) to offer aid and consolation.

However, even when recalled by a computer the past is never fixed, especially when it involves pain and loss.

Adapted from Jordan Harrison's Pulitzer-nominated play, writer-director Michael Almeyreda's elegantly restrained, superbly acted, thought-provoking film offers plenty of stimulating ideas about grief, memory and the solace of forgetting.

In a New England small town, evil, shape-shifting clown Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) lurks, ready to pull unsuspecting kids into his lair

In a New England small town, evil, shape-shifting clown Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) lurks, ready to pull unsuspecting kids into his lair.

However, a bunch of misfit teens strive to defeat him. The self-described Losers' Club includes plucky, stuttering Bill (Jaeden Lieberher), tubby, bookish Ben (Jeremy Ray Taylor), hypochondriac Eddie (Jack Dylan Grazer) and tomboy Beverly (Sophia Lillis).

They gradually work out why so many children have vanished – including Bill’s younger brother – and that Pennywise reappears every 27 years, snatching children and spreading terror while taking forms that embody his victims' deepest fears.

This supernatural horror thriller is based on Stephen King's novel, previously filmed as a TV miniseries in 1990. Director Andy Muschietti's new adaptation relocates the action from the 1950s to the 1980s and confines itself to the flashback portions of King's book, cleverly setting things up for a sequel (due in September next year) to tackle the other half of the tale dealing with the characters in adulthood.

Skarsgård is delightfully creepy and the young cast is faultless. Muschietti expertly depicts their troubled backgrounds, while also doling out plenty of jumpy shocks.

The chilling opening sequence, in which sewer-dwelling Pennywise entices Bill's innocent younger brother Georgie towards the perilous opening of a storm drain, is guaranteed to spook even the hardiest of horror fans.

Daniel Radcliffe plays real-life adventurer Yossi Ghinsberg, an Israeli backpacker who survived a terrifying ordeal in the Bolivian jungle in 1981

Daniel Radcliffe plays real-life adventurer Yossi Ghinsberg, an Israeli backpacker who survived a terrifying ordeal in the Bolivian jungle in 1981.

His plight really is the stuff of nightmares.

Trekking around South America after national service, Yossi and two friends he has made along the way find themselves talked into undertaking an expedition in search of a lost Indian village by a blustering Austrian stranger (Thomas Kretschmann).

Unsurprisingly, the venture goes awry and Yossi ends up stranded alone, without supplies, in the jungle.

Director Greg McLean, creator of Australian horror thriller Wolf Creek, makes us squirm and flinch as Yossi undergoes a string of gruesome perils, including rapids, bogs, fire ants, snakes, a jaguar and, most gruesome of all, a wriggling parasitic worm.

Some hallucinogenic episodes and fantasy sequences don't really work, but Radcliffe's wild-eyed grit keeps us glued.

Tom Cruise's trademark cockiness and cheese-eating grin takes on an appropriately disreputable edge in this breezy, fact-based action comedy

Tom Cruise's trademark cockiness and cheese-eating grin takes on an appropriately disreputable edge in this breezy, fact-based action comedy.

He plays Barry Seal, a skilled but jaded pilot with a profitable sideline in smuggling Cuban cigars into the US. He starts making serious money, however, after the CIA covertly recruits him in the late-1970s to take reconnaissance photography of communist insurgents in Central America.

His clandestine activities rapidly escalate. Before long, he's not only acting as a go-between for the CIA with General Noriega in Panama and the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, but also running drugs and guns on the side for Colombia's Medellin cartel as well. However, as personified by Domhnall Gleeson's shifty, blind-eye-turning handler, it seems that the CIA itself is Barry’s most treacherous threat.

Dragging his dazed wife (Sarah Wright) and their kids along for the ride, Barry is flying by the seat of his pants. But he can't stay aloft forever...

There's a shaggy-dog feel to Barry's escapades, giving the film a larky spirit even when things get scuzzy and the familiar Cruise charm curdles into sweaty desperation.

Fans of the 1960s Batman TV series will have a blast with this lovingly crafted animated adventure featuring the voices of original stars Adam West, Burt Ward and Julie Newmar

Fans of the 1960s Batman TV series will have a blast with this lovingly crafted animated adventure featuring the voices of original stars Adam West, Burt Ward and Julie Newmar.

Every bit as camp, colourful and cheerfully hokey as the original, the film pits Gotham City's doughty crimefighters Batman (West) and Robin (Ward) against their most iconic adversaries, the Joker, Penguin, Riddler and, of course, Newmar's purring Catwoman.

The plot is reliably silly (it revolves around the theft of a replica ray), a peg on which to hang all those tongue-in-cheek delights devotees of the TV show will remember: the alliterative dialogue; terrible puns; bafflingly cryptic clues that Batman solves in an instant; the ridiculous Bat-gizmos and gadgets and the priggish moral lessons (Batman pauses at one point to give Robin a ticking off for jaywalking).

West's Batman temporarily goes over to the dark side after exposure to Catwoman's personality-altering Batnip, but we're a world away from Christian Bale and Ben Affleck's dour incarnations of the Caped Crusader, with the copious fight scenes peppered with every comic-book ZAP! BAM! POW! you could possibly want.

This film premieres on 28 May from 10.30am.

This gritty prison drama charts the transformation of a white-collar family man (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) into a ruthless criminal after he lands up behind bars

This gritty prison drama charts the transformation of a white-collar family man (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) into a ruthless criminal after he lands up behind bars.

Rehabilitation doesn't get a look in when Coster-Waldau's successful financier goes to prison after inadvertently causing a fatal traffic accident while driving under the influence.

The only way to survive, he quickly learns, is to join a prison gang and, once in, there's no turning back.

Writer-director Ric Roman Waugh keeps up the mood of grim fatalism from first to last, cutting back and forth between parallel narratives showing the events leading to Coster-Waldau's incarceration, his brutal rise through the prison ranks and his actions following his release.

Things get more than a little contrived as the now tattooed gangster, 'Money', sets up an intricate criminal scheme designed to secure his family's safety, while pushing away his dismayed wife (Lake Bell) and son (Jonathon McClendon) and dodging the police. But the film's portrayal of prison life - down to its rituals and slang ('Who has the keys to the yard?') - rings true.

This film premieres on Sunday 20 May.

The relaunched Planet of the Apes trilogy reaches a rousing conclusion with a blockbuster adventure that combines epic spectacle, moral complexity and surprising emotional depth

The relaunched Planet of the Apes trilogy reaches a rousing conclusion with a blockbuster adventure that combines epic spectacle, moral complexity and surprising emotional depth.

It is 15 years after the so-called Simian Flu virus started making humans sick and apes smart. And with the struggle for mastery between the two species nearing its final stage, we find Andy Serkis' rebel ape leader Caesar locked in mortal enmity with Woody Harrelson's sadistic military commander.

Caesar undertakes a vengeance-fuelled quest with a handful of comrades, including big-hearted orangutan Maurice (Karin Konoval), and picks up two new companions along the way, mute child Nova (Amiah Miller) and former zoo chimp Bad Ape (Steve Zahn).

As before, the apes occupy the moral high ground and once again Serkis and his fellow ape-actors perform motion-capture marvels in their roles, adding pathos and poignancy to the often thrilling action.

Annabelle is the creepy porcelain doll with blonde pigtails and rouged cheeks from 2013's The Conjuring

Annabelle is the creepy porcelain doll with blonde pigtails and rouged cheeks from 2013's The Conjuring.

She has already had her own spin-off movie with the eponymous Annabelle and now she gets an origins tale.

Director David F Sandberg doubles down on the horror by setting the tale in a remote and eerie 1950s rural house that has dodgy electricity, doors that open and shut by themselves and a creaky dumb waiter.

But it's Annabelle herself you really need to look out for when a nun (Stephanie Sigman) and six orphan girls come to stay in the home of a retired dollmaker (Anthony LaPaglia) and his invalid wife (Miranda Otto), still grieving the loss of their daughter in a car accident 12 years earlier.

The set-up is hardly fresh, but Sandberg keeps us nicely on edge, using shadowy suggestion rather than big jump scares to deliver some artfully sustained shivers.

A callow 14-year-old city boy (Josh Wiggins) joins his reclusive estranged father (Matt Bomer) for a hunting trip in the snowy wilds of Montana

A callow 14-year-old city boy (Josh Wiggins) joins his reclusive estranged father (Matt Bomer) for a hunting trip in the snowy wilds of Montana.

However, what starts as a rite of passage turns into a grim ordeal when disaster strikes.

Based on a short story by David Quammen, this outdoors adventure by twin directors Alex and Andrew Smith is an engaging combination of coming-of-age tale and rugged survival drama.

As the stakes mount, the duo's prickly bonding proves more and more affecting, with the relationship gaining extra depth from flashbacks showing Bomer’s awkward rapport with his own father (Bill Pullman).

The locations look stunning, too.

A glossy version of Daphne du Maurier's romantic Gothic mystery, set in 19th-century Cornwall, starring Sam Claflin and Rachel Weisz

A glossy version of Daphne du Maurier's romantic Gothic mystery, set in 19th-century Cornwall, starring Sam Claflin and Rachel Weisz.

Claflin plays the tale's callow young hero, orphan Philip Ashley, who suspects foul play after his beloved guardian dies abroad following his marriage to the eponymous Rachel (Rachel Weisz).

When she arrives at the large estate he is due to inherit on his 25th birthday, he resolves to expose her guilt - but finds himself falling under her spell instead.

Writer-director Roger Michell keeps us in a state of uncertainty as the melodrama, previously filmed in 1952 with Olivia de Havilland and a young Richard Burton, unfolds.

Is Weisz's enigmatic femme fatale a scheming vixen or simply an unprotected, penniless widow? What exactly are the ingredients of those herbal tisanes she likes to prepare? And why does drinking them give you a headache?

Michell leaves us guessing as Claflin's impulsive protagonist wavers peevishly back and forth in a drama that, despite Weisz's subtle actorly wiles, is surprisingly underpowered, with its simmering passions never fully coming to the boil.

If you’re anxious about the death of privacy in the internet age, this sci-fi thriller starring Clive Owen and Amanda Seyfried will give you nightmares

If you’re anxious about the death of privacy in the internet age, this sci-fi thriller starring Clive Owen and Amanda Seyfried will give you nightmares.

In a near-future New York, surveillance is total and privacy has vanished.

Walk down the street and the life records of everyone you encounter is visible on your own retina, thanks to a biosynthetic computer implant called The Mind's Eye and a vast grid known as The Ether.

This makes solving crime a breeze. Until, that is, Owen's jaded police detective discovers that someone has worked out how to hack into The Ether and edit the data.

He'd like to point the finger at Seyfried's enigmatic stranger. But she is a ghost in the system, an anonymous cypher who doesn’t appear on his Mind's Eye, or anywhere else.

And, as if this isn't bad enough, a string of bodies are turning up in her invisible wake...

The plot here is certainly futuristic, but writer-director Andrew Niccol gives it the patina of old-school film noir. Appropriately enough, Owen's world-weary detective is a throwback to the vintage gumshoes of the past, while Seyfried's aura of mystery makes her an ideal femme fatale.

Not everything works, however. The film's look is moody enough, but it makes the drama rather airless. And the surprisingly raunchy sex scenes are rather jarring, as well.

Still, Niccol gets one important thing absolutely right. Just as film noir tapped into the social anxieties of the 1940s and 50s, Anon is spot on when it comes to our own growing angst about snooping and sharing.

Bookish 12-year-old Bird (Jade Pettyjohn) is sent into a spin when she experiences her first period in embarrassingly public circumstances

Bookish 12-year-old Bird (Jade Pettyjohn) is sent into a spin when she experiences her first period in embarrassingly public circumstances.

Matters aren’t helped by her scatty single mother Jenny (Katee Sackhoff), who is next to useless at putting her at ease.

A comedy about menstruation might not sound the most beguiling prospect, but this coming-of-age indie movie from actress-turned-first-time writer-director Dorie Barton proves utterly charming.

Pettyjohn is a delight as the precocious Bird, constantly exasperated by her mother's fecklessness and fed up that she has to be the grown-up in their relationship.

Sackhoff, meanwhile, makes the irresponsible Jenny funny as well as annoying and always ensures that we never lose sight of her essential good nature.

Vince Vaughn is cleverly cast against type as the shaven-headed, tattoo-sporting protagonist of this brutally gripping prison drama

Vince Vaughn is cleverly cast against type as the shaven-headed, tattoo-sporting protagonist of this brutally gripping prison drama.

Maker of the ferocious horror western Bone Tomahawk, writer-director S Craig Zahler ensures there is more eye-watering violence in store here, as Vaughn's stoical working stiff-turned-convict goes through a series of hellish ordeals to protect his heavily pregnant wife (Jennifer Carpenter).

The film's slow-burn build-up means it's quite some time before Vaughn's anti-hero comes out swinging, but when he does you may find yourself ducking for cover. This is the kind of pulp fiction where the baddies really do get beaten to a pulp.

Vaughn is terrific, and terrifically convincing, as the film's surprisingly principled brawler, and there's a nicely sleazy turn from Don Johnson as a corrupt prison warden.

Fionn Whitehead, Mark Rylance and Kenneth Branagh head the cast of Christopher Nolan's overwhelmingly immersive epic about the Dunkirk evacuation

Fionn Whitehead, Mark Rylance and Kenneth Branagh head the cast of Christopher Nolan's overwhelmingly immersive epic about the Dunkirk evacuation.

This is a far from conventional war movie, though. Don't expect to see any Hollywood heroics, or traditional scene setting, for that matter.

Instead, we are plunged directly into the thick of things, thrust into the midst of the race against time to rescue hundreds of thousands of Allied troops from the beaches of northern France in the early summer of 1940.

From the start, Nolan gives the action a terrifying immediacy, pummelling us with the intensity of his images and the throbbing power of Hans Zimmer's score.

This puts us right there in the shoes of Whitehead's teenage soldier on the beach, at the helm of Rylance's small boat as it crosses the Channel to help the rescue effort and in the cockpit of pilot Tom Hardy's Spitfire. Nolan interweaves these narrative strands brilliantly, giving us a series of incredibly suspenseful micro-dramas to convey the panic, terror, endurance and resolve of the people involved.

No one gets a traditional narrative arc, a back-story or a loved one waiting anxiously at home. And no one gets to make a heroic speech, not even Branagh's stoic Naval officer in charge of the evacuation. There is so little dialogue that Dunkirk almost works as a silent film, which may jar with viewers anticipating a more orthodox war movie.

The film does, however, find room for Harry Styles, who acquits himself credibly as one of the troops, while reminding us just how young these scared, stricken, resilient soldiers were.

Mischievous eight-year-old pranksters George (voiced by Kevin Hart) and Harold (Thomas Middleditch) decide to get their own back on killjoy headteacher Mr Krupp (Ed Helms)

Mischievous eight-year-old pranksters George (voiced by Kevin Hart) and Harold (Thomas Middleditch) decide to get their own back on  killjoy headteacher Mr Krupp (Ed Helms).

They hypnotise him into believing he is the exuberantly idiotic superhero of the comic-book they have created, Captain Underpants.

Now, whenever they snap their fingers, he springs into ludicrous action with a hearty 'Tra-la-laaaaaaaa!' As gleefully imagined by George and Harold, he is faster than a speeding waistband! More powerful than boxer shorts! Able to leap tall buildings without getting a wedgie!

But is he a match for the school's suspicious-looking, Teutonic-sounding new science teacher, Professor Poopypants (Nick Kroll), whose not so secret agenda is to rid the world of laughter?

Stuffed full of potty humour and whoopee-cushion gags, this movie is unashamedly puerile and irredeemably silly. Its heroes would heartily approve.

This first screen outing of the bestselling kids’ books - Captain Underpants - was a long time coming

This first screen outing of the bestselling kids’ books - Captain Underpants - was a long time coming.

DreamWorks wanted the rights when the original instalment was published in 1997, but author Dav Pilkey could not be swayed.

He finally agreed in 2011, and the film hit cinemas last year.

Was it worth the wait? If you’re not a fan of toilet humour, the answer’s no, but this tale of two kids who hypnotise their headmaster into believing he’s a superhero is very silly and very likeable (think Ferris Bueller’s Day Off).

Kevin Hart and Ed Helms provide two of the voices.

Sugar Lyn Beard and Jackson Davis play a young married couple in this indie comedy drama exploring the ups and downs of swinging

Sugar Lyn Beard and Jackson Davis play a young married couple in this indie comedy drama exploring the ups and downs of swinging.

The couple move to the desert town of Palm Springs, but never expect things will get so hot. But they have barely unpacked before their flirtatiously friendly new neighbours - played by Diane Farr and Chaka Forman - have invited them to dip their toes into the polyamorous lifestyle.

Against expectations, it's Davis’ philosophy professor husband, Mark, who gets cold feet, while Beard's photographer wife, Allison, enthusiastically takes the plunge.

Beard's look of squeaky-voiced innocence makes her sexual adventures all the more surprising, but the film's narrative takes a more conventional and conservative turn later on.

Teenage Iranian refugee Ali (George Kosturos) encounters anti-immigrant hostility when he enrols at a California high school in 1980

Teenage Iranian refugee Ali (George Kosturos) encounters anti-immigrant hostility when he enrols at a California high school in 1980.

It’s around the time of the Tehran hostage crisis, but he gradually wins acceptance after grappling his way to success on the school's no-hope wrestling team.

Loosely inspired by actual events, this underdog drama is a tad formulaic, but Kosturos' charismatic performance, plus solid support from the likes of Jon Voight as the strict school principal and William Fichtner as the Vietnam-vet team coach, helps make it stirring all the same.

This film premieres on Monday 23 April.

Chris Evans plays a stubbly blue-collar hunk who fixes boats for a living and has raised his niece (Mckenna Grace) on his own

Chris Evans plays a stubbly blue-collar hunk who fixes boats for a living and has raised his niece (Mckenna Grace) on his own.

Now seven, she is a mathematical genius with a mind 'rarer than radium'.

Evans wants her to have a normal childhood, unlike his hot-housed sister, another maths prodigy who killed herself when his niece was six months old.

However, this puts him at odds with his estranged, wealthy and snooty British mother (Lindsay Duncan). When she turns up on the scene, the stage is set for a mighty custody battle.

To Duncan, Evans’ easy-going care of Grace amounts to negligence, while he fears his niece will spend her childhood discussing non-trivial zeros with a bunch of old Russian guys if left in his mother’s charge.

But what outcome is best for the child?

In solving the question, this film is undeniably contrived and manipulative. However, the fine cast put things together with such charm and humour that you’ll be quite happy having your heartstrings gently tugged.

On the eve of his 30th birthday, a socially awkward virgin (Danny Morgan) and his laddish best mate (Michael Socha) go clubbing

On the eve of his 30th birthday, a socially awkward virgin (Danny Morgan) and his laddish best mate (Michael Socha) go clubbing.

They hook up with two alluring sisters (Kelly Wenham and Georgia Groome and it seems Morgan’s luck's finally in when they are invited to the girls' grand country home.

However, their hosts turn out to have an occult secret agenda…

Written by Morgan and directed by feature first-timer Benjamin Barfoot, this British horror comedy comes across as Dennis Wheatley meets Mike Leigh.

The mix of laughs and scares don't always come off, but there's much to enjoy here all the same.

Some suitably Satanic-sounding music from Swedish psychedelic rock band Goat adds a delightfully chilly frisson, while a bloody, bruising fight scene upends expectations and conventions.

Josh Hartnett stars in this gripping survival tale as former professional ice hockey player-turned-wayward crystal meth addict Eric LeMarque

Josh Hartnett stars in this gripping survival tale as former professional ice hockey player-turned-wayward crystal meth addict Eric LeMarque.

He heads into the Sierra Nevada mountains for a spot of snowboarding and ends up stranded in the wild for eight days after getting caught in a snowstorm.

Despite some cheesy flashbacks, this true-story adventure remains a compelling tale of doughty endurance, with a gritty Hartnett digging deep as the resilient, odds-defying hero.

This film premieres on Easter Monday at 10.20pm.

Though not on the podium with the best of Pixar's films, this third adventure with champion racing car Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson) is still a winner

Though not on the podium with the best of Pixar's films, this third adventure with champion racing car Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson) is still a winner.

This time, he is being overtaken by a new generation of hi-tech machines led by the swaggering Jackson Storm (Armie Hammer).

Can Latina trainer Cruz Ramirez (comedian Cristela Alonzo) - once an aspirant racer herself - get him in shape to compete with these sleek rivals? Or is it time for him to retire?

This sequel remains entertaining - and it's a distinct improvement on instalment number two.

Amid the comic antics and racetrack thrills and spills, you will find some surprisingly mature musings here on ageing and acceptance.

This latest outing for the web-slinging superhero, with Tom Holland in the Spidey suit, gets everything just right

This latest outing for the web-slinging superhero, with Tom Holland in the Spidey suit, gets everything just right.

Holland's Peter Parker/Spider-Man made quite a splash with his peppy cameo in 2016's Captain America: Civil War and he's just as giddily entertaining in his first solo adventure.

This rapid reboot - coming a mere three years after predecessor Andrew Garfield's last outing in the role - has no need to run through the comic-book character's mutant-spider-bite origins yet again.

Instead, it gets right down to showing us the enthusiastically nerdy young hero's first stabs at low-level crime-busting on the streets of Queens, and his comically inept attempts to impress weary mentor Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr). 'Can't you just be your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man?’ suggests Stark, rebuffing Peter's pleas to become a fully-fledged member of the Avengers team and ensuring that the flashy new suit he provides him abides by its training wheels protocol.

However, Peter gets a chance to step up a gear when his path crosses that of a new supervillain, an excellent Michael Keaton as Adrian Toomes, aka The Vulture, a working-class salvage man-turned black market trafficker in super weaponry.

This cues up some breathless episodes of derring-do and peril, including a couple of hair-raising scenes atop the Washington Monument and the Staten Island Ferry. Yet for much of the movie, director Jon Watts - making a leap worthy of his young hero from 2015's low-budget thriller Cop Car to the world of blockbuster moviemaking - is avowedly channelling the spirit of 1980s John Hughes teen movies.

As Peter competes in an academic decathlon and tries to get a date with high-school crush Liz (Laura Harrier), it is this strand that sets the movie's enjoyably breezy tone and gives Holland's puppyish charm the chance to shine.

An atmospheric remake of the 1970 Clint Eastwood melodrama about a wounded Union soldier (Colin Farrell) who finds refuge in Nicole Kidman's girls' boarding school during the Civil War

An atmospheric remake of the 1970 Clint Eastwood melodrama about a wounded Union soldier (Colin Farrell) who finds refuge in Nicole Kidman's girls' boarding school during the Civil War.

Nursed back to health by Kidman's headmistress, Farrell's Yankee is soon stirring up rivalries and jealousies, and sexual and romantic longings, among the women.

Throughout, director Sofia Coppola – bringing a distinctly female perspective to the proceedings – keeps the film's pressure-cooker tensions on the boil, introducing elements of suspense, sensuality and sometimes near-camp humour as Farrell seesaws between wheedling charm and howling rage.

Meanwhile, Kirsten Dunst's spinster teacher yearns for escape, Elle Fanning's schoolgirl flirts coquettishly and even Kidman's steely belle finds her resolve wavering.

Displaying oodles of grouchy charm, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Alan Arkin team up as three very senior citizens who decide to rob a bank

Displaying oodles of grouchy charm, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Alan Arkin team up as three very senior citizens who decide to rob a bank.

In this remake of the genial 1979 comedy starring George Burns, Lee Strasberg and Art Carney, the trio, former steel workers and lifelong pals, have been royally ripped off by the system and cheated out of their pensions by corporate chicanery.

So they resolve to get even by robbing the Brooklyn bank that has helped swindle them.

As heist movies go, this will hardly set anyone's heart racing: actor-turned-director Zach Braff's pacing is too leisurely for that.

Yet despite the absence of edge-of-the-seat suspense, the old codgers' elaborate robbery (and even more elaborate alibi) provides more than enough good-natured, escapist fun.

The trio's sprightly chemistry delivers the most pleasure, however, testament that these screen veterans remain at the top of their game at 84 (Caine), 83 (Arkin) and 79 (Freeman). And it's good, too, to see Arkin strike up a spry rapport with Ann-Margret, still radiantly flirty at 75.

Joel Edgerton stars in this intelligent, gripping thriller, set in a post-apocalyptic near-future America

Joel Edgerton stars in this intelligent, gripping thriller, set in a post-apocalyptic near-future America.

Giving us an end-of-the-world narrative unlike most other movies in the genre, this lean indie movie generates its edge-of-seat suspense by simply having two families uneasily holed up together in a remote forest house.

Writer-director Trey Edwards Shults creates slow-burning tension and menace as husband and wife Edgerton and Carmen Ejogo and their teenage son (Kelvin Harrison Jr) share their refuge with strangers Christopher Abbott and Riley Keough and their young son.

Outside is a mysterious epidemic (we never learn the details), but inside paranoia and suspicion turn out to be just as dangerous…

Mark Wahlberg returns for Michael Bay’s ludicrous fifth Transfomers movie

Mark Wahlberg returns for Michael Bay’s ludicrous fifth Transfomers movie.

Jumbling up Arthurian legend, interplanetary quests and shape-changing robots, this is the most relentlessly daft, but fan-pleasing, instalment yet.

Wahlberg's widowed amateur inventor Cade Yeager gamely takes on everything the film throws at him, Anthony Hopkins pops up as an exposition-spouting English aristocrat, complete with a fussy C3PO-like robot butler voiced by Jim Carter and, in the silliest role of all, Laura Haddock plays a polo-playing, cleavage-displaying, skinny dress-wearing Oxford history professor, which gives the camera something to linger on when it isn't pointing at explosions and somersaulting stuntmen.

As its title suggests, this gory horror thriller, starring Ashley Bell, is not for the faint-hearted

As its title suggests, this gory horror thriller, starring Ashley Bell, is not for the faint-hearted.

Set in 1978 California, the film sees Bell taken hostage by a pair of blundering bank robbers.

She proves gutsier than the average horror damsel in distress, but still does an awful lot of screaming after her captors unwittingly take her into the desert realm of Pat Healy's sharp-shooting war-vet psycho.

Writer-director Mickey Keating appears to take as much relish as his killer in the gruesome violence, and his tricksy time-frame juggling is more irritating than clever. But he certainly knows how to deliver grindhouse shocks, as well as edge-of-seat suspense.

Gal Gadot's feisty Wonder Woman was all conquering at the global box office, emphatically showing that female superheroes could be more than a match for their male counterparts

Gal Gadot's feisty Wonder Woman was all conquering at the global box office, emphatically showing that female superheroes could be more than a match for their male counterparts.

Director Patty Jenkins' movie is an origins tale, so we see Gadot's Amazon heroine, Diana, growing up on her idyllic all-women island home before leaving it for the first time with Chris Pine's First World War American spy.

There's time for some adroit fish-out-of-water comedy in London, with Diana getting to grips with the idiosyncrasies of a male-centred world, before she gets down to the mission of foiling sadistic German general Ludendorff (Danny Huston) and his facially scarred scientist sidekick Dr Maru (Elena Anaya).

Gadot does a great job of conveying Diana's anguish and idealism and she's equally impressive when springing into action armed with her trusty sword, shield and golden lasso of truth, deflecting bullets with her bracelets and biffing baddies left and right.

To be honest, though, the fight scenes go on too long and the CGI is laid on a bit thick – really, Gadot's magnificent heroine is enough of a wonder not to need it.

Tom Cruise heads the cast of this action-horror-fantasy, but his A-list presence doesn't stop this monster-movie reboot being a hokey B-movie through and through

Tom Cruise heads the cast of this action-horror-fantasy, but his A-list presence doesn't stop this monster-movie reboot being a hokey B-movie through and through.

He's playing another one of his cocky scoundrels, a rogue US army sergeant-turned-looter who becomes possessed by an evil spirit after unearthing the tomb of an ancient Egyptian princess (Sofia Boutella).

Amid the supernatural shenanigans that ensue, Annabelle Wallis is on hand to supply archaeological expertise - and a love interest for Cruise.

Along the way, Russell Crowe pops up in a shadowy, sinister role, his initially enigmatic appearance a sign that The Mummy has been designed to launch a Dark Universe franchise out of classic Universal Studios monsters (a string of films ranging from The Creature of the Black Lagoon to The Phantom of the Opera is apparently in the works).

This effort strives to mix action, laughs and scares, but it's mostly a murky mess, lacking the sense of fun of 1999's adventure and the atmospheric chills of the original 1932 Boris Karloff classic and the 1959 Christopher Lee remake.

This movie premieres on Saturday 24 February.

This Canadian sci-fi horror fantasy, starring Aden Young, makes for strange but intriguing viewing

This Canadian sci-fi horror fantasy, starring Aden Young, makes for strange but intriguing viewing.

Young is suitably grim as the film's solitary protagonist, Bob, a former professional hockey player-turned-sawmill worker who has cut himself off from society to hide the secret that he is slowly turning invisible.

However, he feels compelled to reconnect with the family he abandoned eight years earlier after his troubled teenage daughter (Julia Sarah Stone) goes missing.

An expert in special make-up effects, first-time director Geoff Redknap gives us grisly glimpses of Bob's condition. When not safely swaddled, Bob's missing flesh exposes bloody internal organs.

Yet it is not the gruesome effects, nor a half-hearted crime subplot involving drug dealing and Chinese medicine, but Bob's emotional plight that makes the biggest impact.

In this loopy animated comedy, Dracula (voiced by Jason Isaacs) falls for a harassed bookstore owner and mum, Emma (Emily Watson)

In this loopy animated comedy, Dracula (voiced by Jason Isaacs) falls for a harassed bookstore owner and mum, Emma (Emily Watson).

Smitten by Emma's voice after a phone mix up, the bloodsucking Count dispatches ancient witch Baba Yaga (Catherine Tate) to transform her into a vampire.

But Baba ends up accidentally turning the rest of the bickering family into monsters, too, with Dad (Nick Frost) becoming a flatulent Frankenstein's monster, daughter Fay (Jessica Brown Findlay) a shroud-wrapped Mummy and son Max (Ethan Rouse) a werewolf.

Can Emma's brood work together, break the curse and return to normal?

Monster Family is in cinemas and on Sky Cinema from 2 March.

This film marks the launch of Sky Cinema Original Films, one of a slate of forthcoming movies that viewers will be able to catch on Sky Cinema the same day they come out in UK cinemas. Future titles include disaster movie The Hurricane Heist in April, sci-fi thriller Anon starring Clive Owen and Amanda Seyfried in May and Final Score with Dave Bautista and Pierce Brosnan.

In one of his final roles, Bill Paxton - usually cast as an affable character - is chillingly convincing as a corrupt sheriff and abusive single father in this rural crime thriller

In one of his final roles, Bill Paxton - usually cast as an affable character - is chillingly convincing as a corrupt sheriff and abusive single father in this rural crime thriller.

Newly arrived in a remote farming community but already up to no good, his evil lawman stands in the way of the blossoming young love of the story's protagonists, his 15-year-old daughter (Sophie Nélisse) and local farmboy (Josh Wiggins).

Gallant and rash, Wiggins resolves to save Nélisse and impulsively steals a bag of drug money from her dad. The pair go on the run, hiding out in the woods and in cheap motels, with Paxton in vindictive pursuit.

Making striking use of his autumnal locations (the film was handsomely shot in Canada), director Nathan Morlando cranks up the suspense, while Paxton's gripping performance ensures we're on the edge of our seats.

The Vin Diesel petrolhead action-movie franchise rolls on, as ludicrously entertaining and OTT as ever

The Vin Diesel petrolhead action-movie franchise rolls on, as ludicrously entertaining and OTT as ever.

In this latest trip, Diesel's carjacker hero Dominic Toretto and his outlaw band picking up new allies and new enemies.

Chief among the latter is Charlize Theron's ice-blonde cyber terrorist ('the very definition of hi-tech terrorism'), who blackmails Dom into betraying his gang and helping her nefarious missile-stealing, world-threatening plans.

Fortunately, a number of old foes - principally Dwayne Johnson's hulky cop Luke Hobbs and Jason Statham's reformed bad guy Deckard Shaw - are now on board to ensure things work out fine.

New director F Gary Gray jacks up the action and the humour, with Helen Mirren as Statham's gorblimey cockney mum proving a scene-stealing hoot.

With his unnerving gaze and hulking frame, Michael Shannon always gives off a sense of danger

With his unnerving gaze and hulking frame, Michael Shannon always gives off a sense of danger.

Cast him as a romantic lead and it's a good bet there will be something combustible about the character he is playing and that's certainly the case in this dark love story.

Shannon's volatile Las Vegas chef, Frank, falls hard for Imogen Poots' aspiring fashion designer Lola. At first, theirs is a deliriously swoony affair, but it isn't long before the green-eyed monster rears its ugly head.

When Frank learns of Lola's troubled past, and her damaging involvement with a rich European swinger (Michael Nyqvist), his sexual jealousy erupts.

A throwback to the febrile world of 1940s and 50s film noir, writer-director Matthew Ross' film is undeniably overwrought, but Shannon and Poots' rapport carries a prickly charge, while Nyqvist oozes sleaze.

It takes all of Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron’s buoyant charm to keep this reboot of the 1980s-90s TV show afloat

It takes all of Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron’s buoyant charm to keep this reboot of the 1980s-90s TV show afloat.

They keep up a good line in insulting repartee as Johnson's veteran lifeguard tries to put cocky new recruit Efron, a disgraced Olympic swimmer, in his place, and there are cameos from the show’s original stars, David Hasselhoff and Pamela Anderson.

However, the film’s crime-busting plot – which involves stopping the schemes of Bollywood star Priyanka Chopra’s vampy drug-dealing villain – is lame and co-stars Alexandra Daddario, Kelly Rohrbach and Ilfenesh Hadera have very little to do.

Still, everyone involved has cheerfully silly fun with the TV show’s formula of sun, sea and slow-mo beach running in skimpy spandex.

Director Guy Ritchie's take on Arthurian myth, starring Charlie Hunnam, is a mash-up of sword-and-sorcery action fantasy and geezers-on-a-mission caper

Director Guy Ritchie's take on Arthurian myth, starring Charlie Hunnam, is a mash-up of sword-and-sorcery action fantasy and geezers-on-a-mission caper.

Hunnam's Arthur is a Mockney badass, a brothel-reared chancer ducking and diving in multicultural 5th-century Londinium, until he finally gets around to embracing his destiny as the son of noble king Uther Pendragon (Eric Bana).

A strutting, preening Jude Law plays Arthur's treacherous uncle, Voritgern, the man who has usurped the throne, while Astrid Bergès-Frisbey is wide-eyed, witchy sorceress, The Mage.

The film veers between laddish capers, overblown battles and supernatural goings-on.

One moment Arthur is exchanging bants with the guys ('You haven't had enough porridge this morning to talk like that'), the next he's going mano a mano with giant rats.

David Beckham pops up in a cameo, as one of Vortigern's troops, but there's no sign, of Merlin, Guinevere or Lancelot. They were probably being saved for the sequels, but on the basis of this film's disappointing box-office performance perhaps they are unlikely to see the light of day.

Christopher Walken and Amber Heard bring a prickly charge to this low-key comedy drama about a dysfunctional father-daughter relationship

Christopher Walken and Amber Heard bring a prickly charge to this low-key comedy drama about a dysfunctional father-daughter relationship.

Walken's much-married Sinatra-style crooner is such a self-absorbed windbag that it's hardly a surprise that Heard's post-punk wannabe, his eldest daughter, is so mixed up.

A self-loathing slacker, she sings jingles for a living, sleeps with inappropriate men and sabotages her career at every opportunity.

They reunite at his luxury house in the Hamptons, where she resumes her bristling sibling rivalry with her successful straight-arrow sister (Kelli Garner), while he spends his time spinning anecdotes, editing his Wikipedia page and planning a comeback.

With its maddening, hard-to-like leading characters, writer-director Robert Edwards' movie probably won't grab you right away, but its well-observed characters will slowly work their way under your skin if you give them a chance.

It's also worth hanging around for the droll montage of album covers that plays over the closing credits and chronicles Walken's character's hit-and-miss efforts to surf a series of musical waves throughout his career from swing to psychedelic, reggae to rap.

This historical focuses on the events leading to the Partition of India in 1947, with Hugh Bonneville starring as Lord Louis Mountbatten

This historical focuses on the events leading to the Partition of India in 1947, with Hugh Bonneville starring as Lord Louis Mountbatten.

With his wife Edwina (Gillian Anderson), Mountbatten, Britain's last imperial viceroy, arrives in New Delhi to oversee the transition from British rule to Indian independence.

As the political elite - including Tanveer Ghani's Nehru and Denzil Smith's Jinnah - wrangle and scheme over the future state of the country, director Gurinder Chadha also gives us a star-crossed romance between two of the servants in the palatial Viceroy's House, Hindu valet Jeet (Manish Dayal) and Muslim secretary Aalia (Huma Qureshi).

The Upstairs Downstairs view of events is a tad soapy, although there are some striking scenes that bring the film's history vividly into focus, such as the episode showing servants divvying up the contents of the Viceroy's House between India and newly created Pakistan, 80/20, right down to the spoons.

Bonneville has a tad too much of Downton Abbey's good-natured Earl and not enough of the patrician leader who could reputedly 'charm the vultures off a corpse'. However, Anderson, sporting an impeccably pukka upper-class English accent, is excellent as the imperious but socially conscious Edwina.

It's a handsome looking film and the closing credits - which supply details of the experiences of Chadha's own family - do pack a considerable emotional punch.

This movie premieres on Sunday 28 January.

Thomas Haden Church delivers a haunting performance in this indie drama as a homeless man scuffling to live day to day on the streets of LA

Thomas Haden Church delivers a haunting performance in this indie drama as a homeless man scuffling to live day to day on the streets of LA.

Church's heartbreakingly lonely Willie is cajoled by a loathsome preppy (Rhys Wakefield) into fighting other unfortunate homeless people for $50 a bout, but finds a fragile solace in his friendship with legless Iraq War veteran Pinky (Boyd Holbrook) and in his imaginary correspondence with an unknown young girl whose fire-damaged diary he has found.

Things get a tad mawkish and contrived towards the end, but Church's character's sad, battered dignity holds the film together.

Scarlett Johansson cuts a striking figure as a human-cyborg hybrid who dives off skyscrapers and scraps with bad guys in this sleek sci-fi thriller

Scarlett Johansson cuts a striking figure as a human-cyborg hybrid who dives off skyscrapers and scraps with bad guys in this sleek sci-fi thriller.

After a terrible accident, she’s revived by a robotics corporation, Hanka, her human brain ('ghost') kitted out with an enhanced synthetic body ('shell').

Now she's a warrior for the government's anti-terror unit, but when she goes into action against the mysterious hacker who is killing Hanka scientists, she comes to question her own memories and identity.

Director Rupert Sanders borrows considerably from the 1995 Japanese anime original (based on a cult Manga series), copying some scenes shot for shot. He also owes a big debt to Blade Runner for the look of his film's dystopian metropolis setting, with the giant floating holograms that drift between the city's towers clearly inspired by the flying screens in Ridley Scott's sci-fi classic.

Sanders' movie may not quite be in that league, its quasi-philosophical musings on what it means to be human more show than substance, but the action is a blast.

Johansson is fabulous, too, and she gets great support from Pilou Asbæk, Juliette Binoche and Japanese icon 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano.

Wall Street executive Dane DeHaan is sent to retrieve his CEO from a mountaintop sanatorium in the Swiss Alps

Wall Street executive Dane DeHaan is sent to retrieve his CEO from a mountaintop sanatorium in the Swiss Alps.

However, his absent boss doesn't want to leave the bizarre clinic – nor, it seems, do any other of its plutocratic clientele. Why are these white-robed, filthy-rich patients so content with a soporific regime of tai chi and croquet?

DeHaan finds the questions multiplying further when he ends up stranded unwillingly among them by an accident. Who is the ethereal teenage waif (Mia Goth) wafting about the place and why is she the only young person around? What is the connection between the clinic's curious wellness cure and the scandalous, reportedly incestuous baron who lived there 200 years ago? What, ultimately, is the clinic's director, Jason Isaacs' sinister doctor, up to?

Director Gore Verbinski takes his time before solving these mysteries. Far too much time, some will feel.

However, the view from the top of the Swiss mountain is spectacular and, although the movie is undeniably overstyled and overlong, it is also intriguing and genuinely creepy, with plenty of shiver and shudder-inducing scenes involving subterranean vaults, writhing eels and some very grisly dental surgery.

James Franco directs and stars in this earnest, only partially successful adaptation of John Steinbeck’s 1936 novel about a fruit pickers' strike in Depression-era California

James Franco directs and stars in this earnest, only partially successful adaptation of John Steinbeck’s 1936 novel about a fruit pickers' strike in Depression-era California.

Franco plays the coldly calculating communist agitator behind the walkout, who puts his political cause ahead of the people he is purportedly aiding and is not beyond giving a 'serendipitous tug' to events to get things going.

He is fine on the nitty-gritty details of the strike, as he and his callow young protégé (Nat Wolff) stir the migrant workers up and cannily nudge Vincent D'Onofrio's guileless family man into becoming their figurehead.

When it comes to charting the moral and emotional journeys the characters take, however, the movie is more clumsy. However, it always very watchable, thanks in part to vivid turns from the likes of Robert Duvall (the unbending landowner determined to crush the strike), Sam Shepard (the crusty but grudgingly sympathetic farmer who lets the strikers camp on his land), Ed Harris (a volatile veteran radical, befuddled from too many police beatings) and Bryan Cranston (the hard-nosed local sheriff).

Elsewhere in the star-packed cast, former Disney starlet Selena Gomez and The Hunger Games' Josh Hutcherson also take significant supporting roles.

The film premieres on Monday 15 January.