Empire Slough

• 2017
• US
• 1h 51min
• 18

• Directed by: Michael Cuesta
• Cast: Dylan O'Brien, Michael Keaton, Taylor Kitsch, Shiva Negar

Mitch Rapp (O’Brien) is an orphan whose fiancée is murdered by terrorists; he’s then recruited as a CIA killer. The first in a planned franchise manages to make one of the freshest political thrillers in years, with inventive production design, strong set pieces and a great supporting cast (Keaton, Lathan, Suchet, Kitsch).

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• 2017
• UK
• 2h

Music doc chronicling the heavy metal legend's final ever live show.

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• 2017
• 1h 45min
• PG

• Directed by: Jonathan Teplitzky
• Written by: Alex von Tunzelmann
• Cast: Brian Cox, Miranda Richardson, John Slattery

The story of how Churchill (Cox) was vehemently opposed to the Normandy landings of 1944. Intelligent, sometimes moving drama with an exceptional cast (especially Purefoy as a touching George VI) but not notably cinematic, stringing together a series of confrontations with shots of Churchill being driven from one place to another.

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• 2017
• US
• 1h 26min
• PG

• Directed by: Tony Leondis
• Cast: T. J. Miller, James Corden, Anna Faris, Maya Rudolph, Steven Wright, Jennifer Coolidge, Jake T. Austin, Christina Aguilera, Sofia Vergara, Patrick Stewart

Gene (Miller) is a ‘meh’ emoji living in Textopolis who can’t help displaying mixed emotions. Targeted for deletion, he goes on the run with perky Hi-5 (Corden) and hacker Jailbreak (Faris). A combination of product placement, ingratiating voice work and barrel-scraping studio desperation, it’s a witless and blandly generic journey of self-discovery.

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• 2017
• US
• 2h 15min
• 15

• Directed by: Andrés Muschietti
• Cast: Jaeden Lieberher, Bill Skarsgård, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Wyatt Oleff, Chosen Jacobs, Jack Dylan Grazer

A group of kids discovers that their town is haunted by an evil shape-shifting clown (Skarsgård). Well-crafted and properly creepy, with a sinister turn from Skarsgård as the dribbling Pennywise and Lillis superb as the gang’s only female member, it lays down solid groundwork for the planned second instalment.

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• 2017
• France
• 1h 37min
• U

• Directed by: David Alaux
• Cast: Paul Borne, Philippe Bozo, Pascal Casanova

Maurice (Bozo) is a penguin who’s been raised by Natacha, a tigress (Darah). He leads his own team of crime-fighting creatures against evil koala Igor (Darbois) and his baboons. Lush animation and a brisk, unpretentious story make for a cheap but cheerful rumble in the jungle for pre-teens.

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• 2017
• UK

• Directed by: Matthew Vaughn
• Written by: Jane Goldman, Matthew Vaughn
• Cast: Taron Egerton, Colin Firth, Mark Strong

After the Kingsman HQ is destroyed, street kid-turned-superspy Eggsy (Egerton) and gadget man Merlin (Strong) team up with their US equivalents to defeat drug baroness Poppy (Moore). Vaughan and Goldman turn up the preposterous comic book shenanigans at the expense of charm and basic plausibility, but fans will like it.

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• 2017
• US
• 1h 55min
• 18

• Directed by: Darren Aronofsky
• Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Ed Harris

The wife (Lawrence) of a poet (Bardem) live in a vast house in the middle of nowhere, until their life is interrupted by a surgeon (Harris), his wife (Pfeiffer) and their violent sons. Lawrence is astonishing, but other than that it’s an infuriating exercise in noisy style over substance.

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• 2017
• UK/US
• 1h 51min
• PG

• Directed by: Stephen Frears
• Cast: Judi Dench, Ali Fazal, Eddie Izzard, Adeel Akhtar, Michael Gambon

When Queen Victoria (Dench) is introduced to a young man from India, Abdul Karim (Fazal), she is charmed when he prostrates himself and kisses her foot: unlikely cross-cultural friendship and Urdu lessons duly ensue. Fazal and Dench are excellent and there’s a surprisingly effective political subtext.

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