Helen O'Hara

A return to form for the MCU and for the Guardians, this is tear-jerking and heart-warming in equal measure, keeping its characters in focus despite all the chaos and colour swirling around them.

If you’re going to take a hugely familiar premise and rely on easy star chemistry to sell it, you really need the right stars in the right roles and a killer script for all the killing. Sadly this ain’t quite it.

The long and devastating fallout from a senseless act of violence affects almost everyone in this compelling reality-inspired account, which lingers in the mind in a way that few crime stories do.

A so-so animated adventure that can’t ever find a compelling story to tell despite a few catchy songs and some colourful design. Maybe some dead things should stay buried.

It’s bleak and understated, but strong performances and a thorny moral maze give this considerable power despite the gloomy skies.

Revelling in its own ridiculousness but finding an emotional core too, this is a wildly entertaining high-fantasy-meets-low comedy. It will leave you prancing your way out of the cinema, lute or no.

Unfortunately, writer-director Rhys Frake-Waterfield’s has made just another sadistic slasher movie, notably only for its inexpressive animal masks.

A likeable cast and colourful depiction of Pakistani (and Pakistani-British) culture makes this look warm and inviting, but the central romance can’t hold our attention as it should.

An understated but compelling look at coercive control, toxic relationships and healing friendships, with perhaps a career-best performance from Kendrick.

In this fun action-thriller, David Harbour’s Santa is less Saint Nick and more John Wick.

A sugar-fuelled thrill, this boasts a fine young cast and pleasantly pantomime adult roles. It may be too long for younger kids, but tweens are going to love it.

Big, dumb and only mostly fun, this doesn’t always find the right tone to marry action and charm, but Johnson’s remote and ruthless superhero is a welcome change from the norm.

However slight the recorded romantic history of a well-known female author is, you can be sure it will become a key part of her biopic. Joining the trend now is this account of the life of Emily Brontë, which spends a chunk of its time on a romance that may not have happened. It’s well played and well written, but it’s an odd addition to a story that is remarkable even without invention: studios need to start letting spinsters be spinsters.

This is just as unevenly plotted as the original, lacks even the element of surprise, and is not by any reasonable standard “good”. Between gooey and ghoulish, there must be better options.

Proof that Netflix doesn’t just do Kissing Booth movies: given the right talent, they can produce a genuinely compelling high school comedy. And you thought they didn’t make ‘em like this anymore.

Pugh is superb, while Wilde confidently steps up to a bigger subject and budget to deliver a slick, beautiful film. It doesn’t quite stick the landing, but its flight to that point is fascinating.

Kormákur creates some effective jump scares and considerable suspense as the lion stalks its prey with blood-chilling growls one minute and deadly silence the next. The CGI budget can’t always quite match his ambition, however, and perhaps as a result, his timing sometimes seems off.

The people of Downton Abbey have never been relatable, but they’re really pushing it this time.

A well-intentioned biopic about a little-discussed but pivotal moment for both artists. If it’s never transcendent, it at least offers charming child performances, and Hawes is a particularly good fit as Neal.

It's cheerfully nonsensical, of course, shot in a sun-drenched luxury compound straight from the big book of action movie clichés, yet lacking the flourishes of a John Woo or a Michael Bay.

Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum make a sweet and spiky couple in this likeable caper. It’s never going to challenge The African Queen for quality, but it offers 
a consistently good time.

Amiably silly and impressively gory, this lives up to both its low-budget inspirations and its rocker stars.

There still hasn’t been a truly great film based directly on a video game, and the characterisations here are more likely to annoy than delight the hardcore fans, but the jetsetting and sunshine here is a welcome break from more serious action movies, and Holland will just about hold the interest.

It’s a fun premise, one that this treats seriously, but it never quite reaches the highest levels of the genre.

It's an impressive performance from Chastain and a fascinating subject, but the film doesn’t delve deep enough into Bakker’s inner life.

The chases, fights and fun bits of spy craft are brightly and pacily shot, but the 'twists' are barely surprising. These women, and these characters, deserve more.

Peter Parker’s second Spider-verse adventure suggests that the concept just works – brilliantly.

There are a few genuine surprises as this goes, but many more predictable twists. When the film engages with the real World War I, it feels pat, a ‘1066 and All That’ trip through the ‘best bits’ of history