Your weekend cinema guide at a glance
NEW RELEASES
(7) BALLERINA: Computer-animated musical fantasy adventure film about an orphan girl, who dreams of becoming a ballerina. She flees her rural Brittany for Paris, where she passes for someone else and accedes to the position of pupil at the Grand Opera house. Voiced by Elle Fanning and Maddie Ziegler. (Walmer Park, Bridge, Baywest, Hemingways)
ALSO SHOWING:
(7) PASSENGERS: You wake up on a giant spaceship heading towards an off-world colony with 4 999 fellow travellers still in cryosleep. Your pod has malfunctioned and you’re entirely alone, save for an android bartender bearing a creepy resemblance to a never-more-dapper Michael Sheen. TR (Boardwalk, Walmer Park, Hemingways, Baywest)
(NO RATING YET) MIDDLE SCHOOL: THE WORST YEARS OF MY LIFE: Rafe Khatchadorian has an epic imagination – and a slight problem with authority. They both collide when he transfers to an oppressive, rule-crazy school. There he must use his wits to battle bullies, hormones and the tyrannical, test-obsessed Principal Dwight. (Boardwalk)
(8) ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY: From Lucasfilm comes the first of the Star Wars standalone films, an all-new epic adventure. A group of unlikely heroes band together to steal the plans to the Death Star, the Empire’s ultimate weapon of destruction. (Boardwalk, Walmer Park, Bridge, Baywest, Baywest IMAX)
(9) HACKSAW RIDGE: Fantastically moving and bruising war film about conscientious objector Desmond T Doss, who saved 75 men in Okinawa without firing a single shot. Directed by Mel Gibson. RC (Walmer Park, Bridge)
(NO RATING AVAILABLE) JOU ROMEO: When the budget for Romeo and Juliet gets cut for upgrades to the cricket clubhouse, the disappointed drama brigade, Yvette and Tyler, devise a plan to save the performance. But the plan has unforeseen consequences for the new hero of the show, heartthrob Marko Marais. (Walmer Park, Bridge)
(6) OFFICE CHRISTMAS PARTY: Seasonal comedy with Jason Bateman as a newly single tech executive just trying to get through the holidays, while Jennifer Aniston strides about in dark suits as his ball-busting chief executive, looking to fire everyone and cancel Christmas. TR (Hemingways)
(6) ASSASSIN’S CREED: Through a revolutionary technology that unlocks his genetic memories, Callum Lynch experiences the adventures of his ancestor, Aguilar, in 15th century Spain in this sci-fi fantasy starring Michael Fassbender. (Boardwalk, Hemingways, Walmer Park, Bridge, Baywest)
(7) SING: Set in a world like ours but entirely inhabited by animals, Sing stars Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey), a dapper koala who presides over a once-grand theatre that has fallen on hard times. Buster loves his theatre above all and will do anything to preserve it. (Boardwalk, Walmer Park, Hemingways, Bridge, Baywest)
(8) MOANA: Moana is the distant descendant of Oceanic navigators who feels wanderlust washing over her as she hits her mid-teens. An ecological disaster forces her to set off for far-flung shores. RC (Boardwalk, Walmer Park, Bridge, Baywest)
(8) FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM: Eddie Redmayne is writer Newt Scamander on a series of adventures in New York’s secret community of witches and wizards 70 years before Harry Potter read his book at school. (Bridge)
(8) VIR DIE VOËLS: Irma Humpel, a stubborn tomboy, finds herself in a wedding dress at the altar, but isn’t sure how she ended up next to Sampie de Klerk, a rugby player with a heart of gold. (Walmer Park, Bridge)
(Ratings are out of 10) Reviewers: RC – Robbie Collin; TR – Tim Robey