There's action in The Equalizer 2, a sweet treat in Christopher Robin and a tribute to one of the greats in The Eyes of Orson Welles opening in cinemas this weekend.
The Equalizer 2 ****
Denzel Washington is noted for never doing a sequel, so it's a pretty big deal that he's been convinced to go around again as Robert McCall, the vigilante killer haunted by his past.
This time around it's not just business as usual, because things get pretty personal very quickly.
If you like action with a bit more bite, this is for you. Once again, Richard Wenk supplied the script, and he's managed to add another layer to McCall, while piecing together an enjoyable urban western. Read our full review here.
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Christopher Robin ****1/2
Disney's live-action film based on AA Milne's classic is far from a steaming pile of Pooh, but sugary moments will make adults want to stick their heads in a pot of honey.
The drama of reconciliation follows unsurprising roads, but there is sufficient sweetness in the 104-minute running time to make your little ones smile, and enough nostalgia offered to take adults on a bewitching trip.
Pooh continues to pull at the heartstrings with his sweet-nature and sentimental words - "I always get to where I'm going by walking away from where I've been" - while director Marc Forster impeccably depicts the tone of Milne's characters. Read our full review here.
The Eyes of Orson Welles ****
Northern Irish film-maker Mark Cousins' fan letter to Orson Welles can be watched as a standalone portrait of the artist. Prior knowledge of the great auteur's work is not necessary. Marvel at the talents of a true Renaissance man of the 20th Century who didn't waste a minute, it seems.
Somehow or other, Cousins gained access to a valuable box of memorabilia, which forms the basis for his documentary, narrated in Cousins' all-immersive and unfailingly devotional voiceover.
Within that box are sketches, letters, type-scripts or scripts relating to Welles' films and projects, pieces of artwork, personal belongings, the whole shebang. Read our full review here.
Still Showing:
Pope Francis: A Man of His Word ***
Pope Francis: A Man of His Word makes for an opportune release on Irish shores - it premiered in the US in May - but Wim Wenders' new documentary won't win over many new converts.
Wenders, who was approached by the Vatican in late 2013 to lead the project, doesn't make any attempt to hide his reverence for His Holiness, and as the title suggests, the German filmmaker wants us to hear the words of the Supreme Pontiff.
The majority of the docu-portrait is dedicated to Pope Francis speaking directly to the camera with conviction, sharing his views on the state of the world, while vehemently condemning consumerism and denouncing corporate greed. Read our full review here.
The Meg ****
Legend has it that when Lee Marvin was sounded out about the role of Quint in Jaws, he replied: "I eat fish, fish don't eat me." Robert Shaw had no such nautical notions and 43 years later some of us are still searching out blackboards in his honour.
Like Shaw, Jason Statham is another man who knew better than to look a gift shark in the mouth with The Meg - a film that goes all out to challenge for the title of The Second Best Shark Movie Ever Made. The cellist isn't on double pay here, but all the $150m budget has been well spent elsewhere.
Director Jon Turteltaub (Cool Runnings, the National Treasure movies) has done the popcorn industry a serious service with this carnivorous charmer - bizarrely a pass-the-parcel project in Hollywood for the guts of two decades. Read our full review here.
The Image You Missed ****
Donal Foreman's film is a poetic, Godard-like exploration of his fragmented relationship with his father, the American photographer and documentary-maker Arthur MacCaig.
Foreman boldly eschews any attempt at a chronological A-to-B-style film, perhaps for the very reason that the story he wishes to tell is not one that involves an A-to-B type of relationship. Father and son had contact, but it was intermittent, as his father lived in Paris, while covering the Northern Troubles and, indeed, the ensuing Peace Process. Meanwhile, Donal lived with his mother in Dublin.
Avoiding the mawkish and sentimental, The Image You Missed is a highly-skilled work of art, with a reflective, uncompromising approach to biography. Read our full review here.
Sgt Stubby: An Unlikely Hero ****
The classic Mark Twain quote about how it's not the size of the dog in the fight reaches the big screen in this true tale of the terrier who served in 17 battles and four campaigns in WWI. Stubby attained the honorary rank of sergeant and became the most decorated dog in the US military.
While Logan Lerman, Gérard Depardieu and Helena Bonham Carter are the A-listers lending their voices, their co-star steals the show - saying so much, without saying anything.
As one soldier puts it: "He's got real character." Read our full review here.
Under the Tree ***1/2
This suburban black comedy trundles along for quite some time - for all the world like a 1970s British sitcom. But in its own time it turns very Scandi-dark indeed. Noir as black Icelandic lava.
The evidence that thirty-something Atli (Steinþór Hróar Steinþórsson) has cheated on his wife Agnes (Lára Jóhanna Jónsdóttir) comes to light in incontestably embarrassing circumstances when she catches him reviewing some sultry footage on his computer late at night.
Did the playing away pre-date their own romance, as seems to be suggested by Atli later on in the movie? Read our full review here.
Unfriended: Dark Web ***1/2
Dwight Schrute said in The Office that the reason he joined Second Life was because his first life was so great he wanted another one...
If that's not enough to put you off spending more time on the web, then maybe this keystroke-driven chiller from the Blumhouse shingle will do the trick - a standalone sequel to 2015's paranoia primer. Some of the producers of Get Out are behind ...Dark Web and while not in the same league as that landmark, Unfriended is shaping up as a decent anthology franchise.
Six pals (five screens) get together for Game Night online - banter, bravado and 'a bit of news' all follow. One of their number hasn't been entirely straight with the rest of them, however, and soon enough they're all wishing they'd gone to the cinema instead. Read our full review here.
The Darkest Minds **
After a barrage of young adult franchises, The Darkest Minds is here in all its painfully derivative 'glory', with little originality or spark and a cast that just aren't given the goods to work with.
The hot topic in this particular dystopian universe is a pandemic that has killed the majority of the world's children, with those that are left alive developing superpowers. Sounds kind of cool, right? It gets points for premise alone.
When all of this happens, the government steps in to try to find a cure, but when none is found they decide it's best to categorise everybody by their new powers and put them to work in their colour-coded groups, in prison camps... Read our full review here.
