Heading to the cinema this weekend? Here's a round-up of the best of what's on show movie-wise around the country.
Kong: Skull Island ***
Director: Jordan Vogt-Roberts
Starring: Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, John Goodman, Toby Kebbell, John C.Reilly, Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, Jing Tian
Do we really need another Kong movie is probably the question you're asking yourself right now, but for a big-screen reboot, Jordan Vogt Roberts has managed to do the impossible – make it seem fresh and relevant to today.
With Hiddleston, Jackson, Oscar winner Brie Larson, as well as the titular iconic silver screen monster himself, the film is packed with plenty of star power. Vogt-Roberts, has reimagined the Kong myth, transporting him back to his home of Skull Island - an unexplored domain where monsters lurk under the surface.
The action is wound back to 1973 as the US war with Vietnam is coming to an end, Washington is in turmoil (sound familiar?) and NASA's Landsat programme has started mapping the Earth from space.
For a full review, click here
Trespass Against Us ***
Director: Adam Smith
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Brendan Gleeson, Lyndsey Marshall, Georgie Smith, Rory Kinnear, Killian Scott, Sean Harris, Barry Keoghan
Michael Fassbender and Brendan Gleeson go to war with each other and the law in a family drama about the shackles of freedom.
Director Adam Smith combines a near Biblical tale of inter-generational conflict with a very enjoyable cops `n’ robbers flick. It whizzes by with nifty action sequences (mostly seat of your pants car chases) but also lingers lovingly on the magnificent countryside that serves as a backdrop to very bad things in prosperous England.
Based loosely on a real life travelling clan in the UK, this is a pretty gripping movie. Fassbender's quiet rage sends it hurtling along like the crock of a hatchback he guns across the fabled land and the supporting cast of urchins and bad 'uns, including Barry Keoghan and Killian Scott, are good fun and also threatening
For the full review, click here
Elle ****
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Laurent Lafitte, Anne Consigny, Charles Berling
Elle is a wildly unpredictable thriller that dances between being an unflinchingly absurd, sadistically sensationalised and exploitative satire. Based on the novel Oh by Philippe Djian, Verhoeven’s French-language debut feels less like a film and more like a violation.
It digs into a heart of darkness and aims to be contentious by testing the parameters of a rape victim who resists society’s responses to sexual abuse.
We follow Michele (Isabelle Huppert), the founder of a heavily eroticised video-game company, is savagely raped on the floor of her home by a masked intruder. Instead of reporting the incident to the police, she methodically plots revenge on her attacker and wields power over the men in her life to achieve her goals. If you're looking for something hard-hitting this weekend, look no further.
For the full review, click here
Fist Fight **
Director: Richie Keen
Starring: Ice Cube, Charlie Day, Tracy Morgan, Christina Hendricks, Jillian Bell, Dean Norris
Ice Cube and Charlie Day play two high school teachers with very different approaches to their classes and at some stage during the last day of school they butt heads, Ice Cube's character loses his job and he ends up challenging Day's English teacher to an after school fight – naturally.
For the full review, click here
Logan ****
Director: James Mangold
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Dafne Keen
Hugh Jackman's final time out as Wolverine has been receiving critical acclaim across the board, being touted as not just the finest Wolverine film, but one of the best in the extended Marvel Universe.
Based loosely on the Old Man Logan comics, this film is set in a near future where mutants are few in number and keeping a low profile.
Logan's super-hero gig is history and is now 9-5ing as a limo driver, and hiding out with fellow mutant Caliban (Stephen Merchant), caring for Patrick Stewart's ailing Professor X, who's now 90 years old. If you have not seen it yet, do; It's fantastic.
For the full review, click here
Still not enough there? Then head to our Movie Review page for a round up of all the best that's in the cinema at the moment.
