UK FILM TOP 10

1. The Greatest Showman (PG)

Razzle smooches dazzle in every choreographed frame of Michael gracey’s rags-to-riches fairy tale based on the life of circus impresario Phineas taylor Barnum (hugh Jackman), set to an infectious score.

2. Early Man (PG)

aardman animations turns back the clock thousands of years for a charming comedy of errors that traces the history of football to our club-wielding prehistoric ancestors. the beautiful game turns ugly in a knockabout script co-written by Mark Burton and James higginson, as caveman Dug (Eddie Redmayne) challenges a team of Bronze age superstars to a match. Nick Park’s hand-crafted romp should score big in the run-up to the World cup.

3. Maze Runner: The Death Cure (12A)

good things come to those fans who have waited two and a half years for the conclusion to the Maze Runner saga, after lead actor Dylan O’brien was seriously injured on the set of the final chapter. Director Wes Ball, at the helm for all three instalments, neatly ties up narrative threads.

4. Coco (PG)

family values resonate far beyond the land of the living in Disney Pixar’s uplifting computer-animated story scripted by alfred Molina and Matthew aldrich. It is a valentine to Mexican culture as seen through the eyes of a 12-year-old boy (voiced by anthony gonzalez).

5. Darkest Hour (PG)

the 27 days which led to Winston churchill’s cry for us to fight on the beaches in 1940, is dramatised in Joe Wright’s film and distinguished by gary Oldman’s performance.

6. Den of Thieves (15)

according to the opening sequence of writer-director christian gude-gast’s retread of the superior 1995 thriller heat, los angeles is the bank-theft capital of the world, notching up a robbery every 48 minutes. But it takes considerably longer than 96 minutes to carry out the two explosive heists that bookend Den Of thieves, a bullet-riddled yarn of rule-bending cops and taunting criminals.

7. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (12A)

More than 20 years after the original, Jake Kasdan directs an action-packed new instalment. Nerd spencer gilpin (alex Wolff) and three fellow students stumble upon an old Jumanji video game.

8. Padmaavat

this Bollywood production is set in medieval Rajasthan, with Queen Padmavati married to a noble king. they live in a fortress with their subjects until an ambitious sultan hears of Padmavati’s beauty and forms an obsessive love.

9. Downsizing (15)

small is beautiful in director alexander Payne’s quirky comedy drama set in the near future, when socially conscious citizens undergo cellular reduction to live in microcommunities, which are less of a drain on the Earth’s resources.

10. The Post (12A)

steven spielberg’s dramatisation of events leading up to the legal wrangling between the New York times and president Richard Nixon is a timely depiction of gender inequality and lionises the achievements of Katharine graham, publisher of the Washington Post.