Movie of the Week

• The Fantastic Four: First Steps

Cinemas

• The Bad Guys 2
• Bring Her Back
• Dying
• Zero
• Gazer
• What Does That Nature Say to You

Streaming/On-Demand

• Happy Gilmore 2
• Tin Soldier
• Saint Clare

Re-Releases

• Amadeus
• The Goonies

CAST: Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Ralph Ineson, Julia Garner, Paul Walter Hauser, Matthew Wood, Mark Gatiss, Sarah Niles, Natasha Lyonne

CREW: Matt Shakman (director), Josh Friedman and Eric Pearson (writers), Kevin Feige (producer), Michael Giacchino (composer), Jess Hall (cinematographer), Nona Khodai and Tim Roche (editors)

PLOT: On a parallel retro-futuristic Earth, Reed Richards (Pascal), Sue Storm (Kirby), Johnny Storm (Quinn) and Ben Grimm (Moss-Bachrach) have become renowned heroes and intergalactic explorers after an accident in space caused them to develop developed unusual powers, transforming them into the Fantastic Four. But when their world is threatened by the planet-eating Galactus (Ineson) and his mysterious herald Shalla-Bal/Silver Surfer (Garner), the team must go far beyond what they are capable of to save it – especially when the stakes become personal…

FIVE REASONS TO BE EXCITED:

• The third time’s the charm for Marvel’s First Family on the big screen, but now that the iconic quartet is finally back under Marvel Studios’ umbrella, this could well be the best iteration yet (low bar, but still!)
• Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss-Bachrach form a truly galvanising team who bring to life some of comic book history’s most adored characters with plenty of charisma and heart
• Director Matt Shakman, previously of WandaVision, creates a fascinating world inspired by the hopeful imagination of 60s-era sci-fi, making it a more unique setting than anything we’ve yet seen in the MCU
• Expect plenty of exciting new additions pulled straight from the comics, least of all the terrifying villain Galactus – and no, he’s not a big cloud this time round!
• With the Fantastic Four confirmed to appear in Avengers: Doomsday, it’ll be exciting to see how they’ll fit into the wider MCU – especially as we’ve yet to meet their arch-nemesis, who’s also set to terrorise the multiverse as the next big bad!

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is showing in cinemas from Thursday 24 July 2025

CAST: Sam Rockwell, Marc Maron, Craig Robinson, Awkwafina, Anthony Ramos, Danielle Brooks, Natasha Lyonne, Maria Bakalova, Zazie Beetz, Richard Ayoade, Lilly Singh, Alex Borstein, Omid Djalili, Jorge R. Gutierrez

CREW: Pierre Perifel (director), Kevin Asbury (writer), Damon Ross (producer), Daniel Pemberton (composer), Jesse Averna (editor)

PLOT: After foregoing their criminal ways, the Bad Guys – Mr. Wolf (Rockwell), Mr. Snake (Maron), Mr. Shark (Robinson), Ms. Tarantula (Awkwafina) and Mr. Piranha (Ramos) – are struggling to convince everyone that they are now good. But when they are approached by a new all-female gang known as the Bad Girls – snow leopard Kitty Kat (Brooks), raven Doom (Lyonne) and wild boar Pigtail (Bakalova) – and forced to accompany them on a heist, the Bad Guys resolve to deliberately sabotage the mission and prove once and for all that they’re truly reformed…

FIVE REASONS TO BE EXCITED:

• The stylish animated caper from DreamWorks gets an equally enjoyable follow-up that retains everything you loved about the original
• Joining the returning voice cast, among them Sam Rockwell and Awkwafina, are the likes of Oscar-nominees Danielle Brooks and Maria Bakalova who voice fun new characters in this universe of humans and anthropomorphic animals
• For this entry, DreamWorks collaborated with fellow animation studio Sony Pictures Imageworks to create a mixed production model, with each outlet handling half of the production
• This had led to the intricate animation popping more than ever, with plenty of colourful backdrops and sleek character designs that only two collaborate animation studios could provide
• Families looking for a bright and funny adventure to kick off the summer holidays, and who might be a bit too young for The Fantastic Four: First Steps, will definitely be down bad for this movie!

The Bad Guys 2 is showing in cinemas from Friday 25 July 2025

CAST: Billy Barratt, Sora Wong, Jonah Wren Phillips, Sally Hawkins, Sally-Anne Upton, Stephen Phillips, Mischa Heywood

CREW: Danny Philippou (director, writer), Michael Philippou (director), Bill Hinzman (writer), Kristina Ceyton and Samantha Jennings (producers), Cornel Wilczek (composer), Aaron McLisky (cinematographer), Geoff Lamb (editor)

PLOT: After the death of their faither, Andy (Barratt) and his blind half-sister Piper (Wong) are sent to live with Laura (Hawkins), a seemingly kindly foster mother who’s already looking after a mute young boy named Oliver (Phillips). However, the siblings soon become entangled in a sinister occult ritual driven by Laura’s uncontrollable grief…

FIVE REASONS TO BE EXCITED:

• The creators of 2023’s breakout horror hit Talk to Me are back with another terrifying supernatural tale that will leave you frozen in fright
• Danny and Michael Philippou, collectively known as YouTube sensation RackaRacka, reassert themselves as modern horror titans with an original tale (co-written by Danny) that plays on some unnerving themes
• Much of the horror is driven by Sally Hawkins’s beautifully unhinged central performance, which some are saying could be up for awards consideration if it weren’t for unfortunate genre bias
• There is imagery in this movie that you likely will never have seen done so effortlessly in any movie, regardless of genre, and the majority of it will stay in your head for a good long while afterwards
• As with Talk to Me, you’re in for a truly scary ride that’s equal parts nasty, upsetting, and all-around disturbing in the best ways that horror can be

Bring Her Back is showing in cinemas from Saturday 26 July 2025

CAST: Lars Eidinger, Lilith Stangenberg, Corinna Harfouch, Hans-Uwe Bauer, Robert Gwisdek, Ronald Zehrfeld, Saskia Rosendahl, Anna Bederke, Saerom Park

CREW: Matthias Glasner (director, writer, producer), Ulf Israel and Jan Krüger (producers), Lorenz Dangel (composer), Jakub Bejnarowicz (cinematographer), Heike Gnida (editor)

PLOT: Tom Lunies (Eidinger), a famous conductor overseeing a new orchestral piece, and his sister Ellen (Stangenberg), an alcoholic dental assistant, are too wrapped up in their own problems to care for their elderly estranged parents Lissy (Harfouch) and Gerd (Bauer), who are rapidly declining in both health and spirit…

FIVE REASONS TO BE EXCITED:

• This darkly funny German comedy-drama shows to what extent its central family is broken beyond repair
• Filmmaker Matthias Glasner’s film is an unexpected epic, clocking in at three hours and spread across five distinct but equally dramatic chapters
• Like Cate Blanchett and Bradley Cooper before him, actor Lars Eidinger learned how to conduct specifically for this film, and based his performance on noted Greek conductor Teodor Currentzis
• It was nominated for the coveted Golden Bear at the 2024 Berlin Film Festival, and also picked up the prize for Best Screenplay
• If you ever thought your family was dysfunctional, you might come away from Dying with a slight tinge of regret!

Dying is showing in cinemas from Friday 25 July 2025

CAST: Hus Miller, Cam McHarg, Gary Dourdan, Roger Sallah, Moran Rosenblatt, Willem Dafoe

CREW: Jean Luc Herbulot (director, writer), Hus Miller (writer, producer), Steven Adams, Pamela Diop and Gary Dourdan (producers), Grégory Turbellier (cinematographer), Raphael Lubczanski (editor)

PLOT: Two American strangers (Miller and McHarg), both searching for purpose in Senegal, suddenly wake up to find bombs strapped to their chests, with a mysterious voice over the phone (Dafoe) guiding their actions during the ten hours before they are due to explode…

FIVE REASONS TO BE EXCITED:

• A real time-bomb of a thriller, this nail-biting experience comes with everything you want out of a premise such as this
• It comes from acclaimed Congolese filmmaker Jean Luc Herbulot, who previously received attention for his stylish crime horror Saloum
• Although Hus Miller and Cam McHarg are compelling whilst on-screen at almost all times, it is Willem Dafoe’s recognisably sinister voice that leaves the biggest impression
• There are some striking shots of the Senegalese environments where our bomb-strapped heroes find themselves wandering around, creating a tense but somehow alluring environment
• Its stern pressure-cooker pacing will leave you sweating bullets right up to the moment that the clocks eventually reach, well, zero

Zero is showing in cinemas from Friday 25 July 2025

CAST: Ariella Mastroianni, Marcia Debonis, Renee Gagner, Jack Alberts, Tommy Kang

CREW: Ryan J. Sloan (director, writer, producer, editor), Ariella Mastroianni (writer, producer), Mason Dwinell (producer), Steve Matthew Carter (composer), Matheus Bastos (cinematographer), Jordan Toussaint (editor)

PLOT: Frankie Rhodes (Mastroianni) is a young mother with dyschronometria, meaning that she struggles to perceive time. Unable to find steady work and thus support her family as a result, she ends up taking a seemingly simple job from Paige (Gagner), a mysterious woman with a dark past, but ends up being caught in a more complex web of deceit and murder…

FIVE REASONS TO BE EXCITED:

• The spirit of Memento is kept alive in this unpredictable yet fascinating psychological thriller with a neurological twist
• It is the brainchild of filmmaking couple Ryan J. Sloan and Ariella Mastroianni, who both write the script while Sloan, a former electrician, makes his feature directorial debut
• Mastroianni also stars in the film as the neurologically troubled protagonist, and the actor gives a remarkable performance that constantly plays with viewers’ expectations
• The film first made waves at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, where it made its world premiere within the Directors’ Fortnight section
• You seriously won’t be able to tell what is going to happen next, and not just because the main character is almost as confused as we are!

Gazer is showing in cinemas from Friday 25 July 2025

CAST: Ha Seong-guk, Kwon Hae-hyo, Cho Yun-hee, Kang So-yi, Park Mi-so

CREW: Hong Sang-soo (director, writer, producer, composer, cinematographer, editor)

PLOT: Donghwa (Seong-guk), a young poet, drops his girlfriend Junhee (So-yi) at her parents’ house outside of Seoul, but upon meeting her family, they all spend the day together…

FIVE REASONS TO BE EXCITED:

• This touching slice-of-life South Korean drama is experimental in nature, yet filled with vibrant poetic soul
• Prolific filmmaker Hong Sang-soo is effectively a one-man army when it comes to directing, writing, producing etc his latest feature, the 33rd overall in his eclectic filmography
• Its simple premise allows plenty of room for natural conversation between its lived-in protagonists without worrying too hard about meeting certain dramatic beats
• The film competed for the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, where it received healthy feedback from critics and audiences
• Though it may not be a film filled with exciting plot points, it’s a solid reminder that sometimes film can also be a nice, pleasant and relaxing time with gentle, sweet-natured characters

What Does That Nature Say to You is showing in cinemas from Friday 25 July 2025

CAST: Adam Sandler, Julie Bowen, Dennis Dugan, Christopher McDonald, Kevin Nealon, Ben Stiller, Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, Sunny Sandler, Kym Whitley, Ethan Cutkosky, Maxwell Jacob Friedman, Philip Fine Schneider, Conor Sherry, Lavell Crawford, Blake Clark, Eric André, Jim Downey, John Farley, Marcello Hernandez, Oliver Hudson, Scott Mescudi, Haley Joel Osment, Margaret Qualley, Benny Safdie, Nick Swardson

CREW: Kyle Newacheck (director), Tim Herlihy and Adam Sandler (writers, producers), Jack Giarraputo and Robert Simonds (producers), Rupert Gregson-Williams (composer), Zak Mulligan and Patrick Capone (cinematographers), Brian Robinson (editor)

PLOT: Happy Gilmore (A. Sandler), a retired golfer who won his first Tour Championship thirty years prior, decides to return to the sport in order to help his daughter Vienna (S. Sandler) attend ballet school…

FIVE REASONS TO BE EXCITED:

• Adam Sandler re-embodies one of his most iconic roles in the long-awaited sequel to the beloved sports comedy classic
• Sandler also co-writes the script with original writer Tim Herlihy, and together they retain the heartwarming chaos that made the original so popular
• There are plenty of familiar faces, from Christopher McDonald’s sneering former villain to Ben Stiller as the hilariously evil orderly, as well as celebrity cameos too numerous to mention
• Of course, there’s also some solid golfing activity, complete with the unorthodox immaturity that Happy Gilmore is known to bring to the game
• Even in revisiting one of his earliest roles, it’s a sign that a new dawn is on the horizon for the Sandman himself!

Happy Gilmore 2 is streaming exclusively on Netflix from Friday 25 July 2025

CAST: Scott Eastwood, Jamie Foxx, Robert De Niro, John Leguizamo, Shamier Anderson, Rita Ora, Nora Arnezedar, Saïd Taghmaoui, Joey Bicicchi, Laurence Mason

CREW: Brad Furman (director, writer, producer), Pablo Fenjves and Jess Fuerst (writers), Steven Chasman, Brad Feinstein, Jess Fuerst, Keith Kjarval and Jim Seibel (producers), Chris Hajian (composer), Tim Maurice-Jones (cinematographer), Jarrett Fijal (editor)

PLOT: When the rise of a military-trained cult and its enigmatic lead, known as The Bokushi (Foxx), causes alarm within the US Government, operative Emmanuel Ashburn (De Niro) recruits Nash Cavanaugh (Eastwood), an ex-special forces soldier and a former disciple of The Bokushi, for a covert mission to take him down…

FIVE REASONS TO BE EXCITED:

• You’ll be spellbound by this captivating and action-packed thriller that draws a lot of eerie parallels to modern-day America
• The cast is stacked with A-list talent, including Scott Eastwood, John Leguizamo and even Rita Ora, as well as Oscar-winning legends Jamie Foxx and Robert De Niro
• Director and co-writer Brad Furman, previously of The Lincoln Lawyer and The Infiltrator, brings severe grit and nuance to a story that evokes the likes of The Manchurian Candidate and other cult-centric narratives
• One can make numerous parallels between the in-movie cult that is rapidly gaining influence across America and the real-life sect of a certain current President and their army of hopelessly devoted sycophants
• Whatever your politics, though, this is a lean and mean thriller that you’ll be drawn into until the very end

Tin Soldier is streaming exclusively on Prime Video from Wednesday 23 July 2025

CAST: Bella Thorne, Ryan Phillippe, Rebecca De Mornay, Frank Whaley, Bart Johnson, Erica Dasher, Jan Luis Castellanos, Joel Michaely, Joy Rovaris, Dylan Flashner, Juliet Sterner

CREW: Mitzi Peirone (director, writer), Guinevere Turner (writer), Thor Bradwell, David Chackler, Arielle Elwes and Joel Michaely (producers), Zola Jesus and Philip Klein (composers), Luka Bazeli (cinematographer), Patrick Sanchez Smith (editor)

PLOT: Clare (Thorne), a troubled young woman in a small town, is plagued by voices in her head that drive her to kill a number of bad people, but soon she finds herself in the middle of a disturbing crime wave…

FIVE REASONS TO BE EXCITED:

• Bella Thorne gives a sublime lead performance in a psychological horror that is grimy and stylish in all the best ways
• The former Disney Channel star shows off a much darker side than usual in a film wherein she also acts opposite Ryan Phillippe and Rebecca De Mornay in seedy supporting roles
• She is under the direction of Italian filmmaker Mitzi Peirone, who also co-wrote the script with Guinevere Turner, best known for penning the script for American Psycho
• The unsettling and occasionally neon-lit cinematography gives it the feel of a modern-day giallo film (basically an Italian horror), which will no doubt excite fans of the genre
• It’s a thrilling and unpredictable ride where you won’t be able to guess where things are headed next, all as Thorne establishes herself as an unsung horror icon

Saint Clare is available to rent/buy on digital platforms from Monday 21 July 2025

CAST: F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth Berridge, Roy Dotrice, Simon Callow, Christine Ebersole, Jeffrey Jones, Charles Kay, Kenneth McMillan, Kenny Baker, Lisabeth Bartlett, Barbara Bryne, Roderick Cook, Milan Demjanenko, Peter DiGesu, Marta Jarolímková, Michele Esposito, Richard Frank, Patrick Hines, Nicholas Kepros, Philip Lenkowsky, Herman Meckler, Jonathan Moore, Cynthia Nixon, Brian Pettifer, Vincent Schiavelli, Douglas Seale, John Strauss, Martin Cavani, Miroslav Sekera

CREW: Miloš Forman (director), Peter Shaffer (writer), Saul Zaentz (producer), Miroslav Ondricek (cinematographer), Michael Chandler and Nena Danevic (editors)

PLOT: In 18th century Vienna, composer Antonio Salieri (Abraham) becomes perplexed by the talents of rival composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Hulce), a much more immature and obscener figure. Driven to jealousy, Salieri resolves to destroy Mozart and his inexplicable success…

FIVE REASONS TO BE EXCITED:

• The operatic story of two warring composers, one of whom happens to be among the greatest to ever life, is back on the big screen with an all-new 4K restoration
• Adapted from Peter Shaffer’s stage play of the same name, director Miloš Forman composes a truly spellbinding tale of rivalry, jealousy and pathos that could well have formed the plot of one of Mozart’s many operas
• Murray Abraham brings composed menace to the role of Salieri, while Tom Hulce is delightfully obnoxious as the more famous composer, in a pair of career-best performances that defined their careers
• In addition to becoming a major box office success, the film went on to win a whopping eight Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor for Abraham (who beat out Hulce in the same category)
• It’s a timeless masterpiece with humour, drama and so much more that will make you believe in the magic of movie storytelling once again

Amadeus is showing in cinemas from Friday 25 July 2025

CAST: Sean Astin, Josh Brolin, Jeff Cohen, Corey Feldman, Ke Huy Quan, Kerri Green, Martha Plimpton, John Matuszak, Robert Davi, Joe Pantoliano, Anne Ramsey, Mary Ellen Trainor, Keith Walker, Lupe Ontiveros, Curt Hanson, Steve Hanton, Paul Tuerpe, George Robotham, Michael Paul Chan

CREW: Richard Donner (director, producer), Chris Columbus (writer), Hervey Bernhard (producer), Dave Grusin (composer), Nick McLean (cinematographer), Michael Kahn (editor)

PLOT: In the “Goon Docks” neighbourhood of Astoria, Oregon, a group of kids known as The Goonies gather for one last weekend together before their family houses are foreclosed. However, when they come across an ancient map towards the treasure of a legendary pirate, they set out on a perilous adventure to find it…

FIVE REASONS TO BE EXCITED:

• Just in time for its 40th anniversary comes an all-new re-release of the timeless family classic
• Numerous then-young actors saw their careers take off after this film, including Sean Astin, Josh Brolin, Corey Feldman, and Oscar-winner Ke Huy Quan
• The project originated from an idea by Steven Spielberg, who also executive produced the film (and did some uncredited editing) for Superman director Richard Donner and Gremlins writer Chris Columbus
• It’s a film that’s filled with iconic moments, from the Truffle Shuffle to the first appearance of fan-favourite Sloth, as well as instantly quotable dialogue that some still quote to this day
• Whether you’re old or young, it’s a film that’s sure to bring your inner adventure-hungry child back to life!

The Goonies is showing in cinemas from Friday 25 July 2025