Any film linking the names of writer-director Quentin Tarantino and infamous cult leader Charles Manson is unlikely to be a peaceable affair – and this eventually proves true for the auteur’s ruefully affectionate look back at 1969 Tinseltown, Once Upon a Time in … Hollywood (Columbia).
In keeping with a tested formula, barbs are traded, vehicles are raced and both fists and bullets fly in Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (Universal), director David Leitch’s stand-alone addition to the popular action franchise that started in 2001.
Advances in moviemaking technology allow a story that could only previously be told as a cartoon to be enacted, so to speak, by animals – and so, we get The Lion King (Disney).
By turns lyrical and moving, Tolkien (Fox Searchlight) is a sophisticated profile of the future novelist’s youth that succeeds on a number of levels.
Fans of the lads from Liverpool will rejoice over the mostly amiable Beatles-themed comedy Yesterday (Universal). Parents of teens anxious to patronise the film, however, will have mixed feelings, given the lapses in behaviour and language it includes.
Spider-Man: Far From Home (Columbia) is the much anticipated and first Marvel action feature that follows the blockbuster Avengers: Endgame.
Lessons about overcoming fear and helping those in need are featured in The Secret Life of Pets 2 (Universal).
Just how good are the hotshots behind Toy Story 4 (Disney)? So good that, by the time the closing credits roll, moviegoers will likely feel more emotional connection to an animated spork than they have to the vast majority of live-action human characters they’ve ever seen on screen.
Filled with a powerful mix of faith, a twist of humour and a ton of heart, the Kendrick Brothers return to cinemas with Overcomer, their newest feature following Facing the Giants, Fireproof, Courageous, and the number one US Box office hit War Room.
Though sombre in tone, the Marvel Comics-based sci-fi adventure X-Men: Dark Phoenix (Fox) has a fundamentally moral outlook and features a more relationship-driven story than many similar films.