While reporting a burglary to the police, Hope discovers a jar full of money, labelled “Christmas Jar”.

Roald Dahl’s eponymous 1983 novel, first brought to the big screen in a 1990 film helmed by Nicolas Roeg, gets a spirited second adaptation with The Witches.

In place of Rodgers’ mother-and-daughter duo, Freaky features a vicious serial killer known as The Butcher (Vince Vaughn) and misfit high school student Millie Kessler (Kathryn Newton).

As demonstrated by the popularity of his long-running TV series The West Wing, Aaron Sorkin has a knack for making politics interesting.

Far-fetched and ham-fisted, the grim fantasy Antebellum (Lionsgate) is marked by an outlook on timely racial issues that lacks both balance and a humane spirit.

The early medieval Ballad of Mulan tells of the exploits of a heroine who, disguised as a man, distinguished herself as a warrior.

Sixty years ago, Rod Taylor hopped on a fancy sled for a loopy journey into the future in The Time Machine. Twenty-five years later, Michael J Fox went in the opposite chronological direction – with a DeLorean and much more comedy – in Back to the Future.

Billed as the 13th and final instalment of the X-Men film series, The New Mutants (20th Century) slams the lid on the coffin of a once-mighty franchise with a resounding thud.

Fatima (Picturehouse), a fact-based drama from director and co-writer Marco Pontecorvo, recounts what may rank as the most remarkable series of religious events of modern times.
Namely, the 1917 apparitions of the Virgin Mother Mary (Joana Ribeiro) to three shepherd children near the Portuguese city of the title.

Those chafing under the travel restrictions imposed by the current pandemic may take comfort from The Rental (IFC), the story of an oceanside getaway gone fatally wrong.