Force is with us - for a final time?
STAR WARS EPISODE IX: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER (12A) HHHH Director JJ Abrams preached to the converted in 2015 with The Force Awakens and, in this ninth and final chapter of the saga, he provides generations of expectant Padawans and Sith apprentices with the nostalgic swansong they desperately crave.
Loose plot threads are tied neatly and heartstrings plucked as friendships and gently simmering romances threaten to become collateral damage of a bloodthirsty war against the First Order.
Abrams delivers rousing action sequences, including one of the series’ most stunning lightsabre duels, and he engineers a fitting farewell to Carrie Fisher.
CATS (U) HHH Tom Hooper’s ambitious film version of Cats employs digital trickery to add coats of soft, wind-tousled fur to a starry human cast including Dame Judi Dench, who was supposed to play Grizabella in 1981 until Elaine Paige replaced her through injury.
The character’s belting ballad, Memory, is the show’s standout number and Jennifer Hudson sinks her claws into each tremulous word on screen.
Hooper’s strangely sensual extravaganza revels in the sight of cast members rubbing themselves up against each other in purring rhapsody or arching backs to the choreography of Andy Blankenbuehler, who won a Tony Award for Hamilton.
THE COURIER (18) HHH Olga Kurylenko puts the pedal to the metal in a high-octane thriller by Zackary Adler.
FBI special agent Roberts (Dermot Mulroney) and his team arrest sadistic crime lord Ezekiel Mannings (Gary Oldman) in New York and prepare to put him behind bars for life with testimony from witness Nick Murch (Amit Shah). He is the sole witness to Mannings’ heinous indiscretions.
An unsuspecting motorcycle courier (Kurylenko) is hired to deliver a package to Nick, which supposedly contains the keys to his freedom. In fact, it contains a bomb.
LITTLE WOMEN (U) HHH Writer-director Greta Gerwig, who was nominated for two Oscars for the comedy drama Lady Bird, follows that triumph with an adaptation of Louisa May Allcott’s beloved 1868 novel.
Marmee March (Laura Dern) presides warmly over the family home while her husband (Bob Odenkirk) is away, fighting in Civil War.
Her four daughters pursue their dreams: Jo (Saoirse Ronan) wishes to become a writer, Meg (Emma Watson) hopes to become a famous actress, Amy (Florence Pugh) yearns to step out of Jo’s shadow so that handsome next-door neighbour Laurie (Timothee Chalamet) might look her way, and Beth (Eliza Scanlen) loves to play the piano.
SPIES IN DISGUISE (PG) HHH Troy Quane and Nick Bruno make their directorial debuts with an animated comedy which imagines the repercussions of a malfunctioning spy gizmo.
Lance Sterling (Will Smith) is the most famous operative at a spy agency overseen by Joy Jenkins (Reba McEntire).
He is assigned to capture cybernetic criminal mastermind Killian (Ben Mendelsohn), who has repeatedly evaded capture.
To give himself an edge, Lance drinks an experimental “biodynamics concealment” serum created by tech genius Walter Beckett (Tom Holland).
Instead of making Lance invisible, the concoction morphs him into a pigeon.