SECONDSCREEN

Edge Of Tomorrow

Cert: 12A Time: 1hr 53mins A Million Ways To Die In The West

Cert: 16 Time: 1hr 55mins

Jimmy’s Hall

Cert: 15A Time: 1hr 49mins

Omar

Cert: 15A Time: 1hr 39mins

When it comes to Edge Of Tomorrow, I’m with Emily Blunt. ‘Ten minutes,’ she says, looking Tom Cruise square in the eye, ‘then I’m going to kill you.’

Given we’ve already been around the same time-loop plenty of times and still have a long way to run, I knew how she felt. People kept killing Tom… the problem was, he kept waking up again.

It’s Groundhog Day for sci-fi fans. Earth has been invaded by tentacled aliens, dubbed ‘Mimics’, despite their obvious lack of impersonation skills. They rush around like high-speed metallic tumbleweeds dispensing death and mayhem. And some of them can reset time.

I preferred it when it was all about getting Andie MacDowell to fall in love with Bill Murray.

The very funny trailer for Seth MacFarlane’s new film, A Million Ways To Die In The West, promised so much, and yet the film doesn’t quite deliver, hampered by MacFarlane’s decision not just to direct, produce and co-write the Wild West comedy, but to star in it.

He doesn’t really have what it takes as a leading actor. The result is a film that perks up when those who do – Charlize Theron and Liam Neeson, in particular – ride into town. Those of a certain age will remember Mel Brooks’s Western spoof Blazing Saddles and this follows a similarly zany creative path, albeit one that sees the explicit sexual banter brought almost eye-wateringly up to date.

Set in the Irish Free State after the Civil War, Ken Loach’s Jimmy’s Hall is a compelling

and powerfully humane story inspired by the true story of Jimmy Gralton, an activist and socialist who built a hall where villagers could study, learn to paint, discuss literature and dance. But he getsinto trouble with wealthy landowners and the IRA and flees to America.

Ten years later, in 1932, he’s back, although the dance hall is now derelict and his sweetheart, Oonagh, married. But his fervour still burns bright and the hall can be restored.

Barry Ward is terrific as Jimmy, Simone Kirby touching as Oonagh, and Jim Norton makes a splendidly unbending local priest.

If this is the 77-year-old director’s swansong, it’s a good one.

Hany Abu-Assad’s Oscar-nominated Palestinian feature Omar is a romantic thriller that focuses on young love, betrayal, sacrifice and heart-rending loss of innocence, making its inescapably tragic socio-political points without hammering them home.

It’s fresh and gripping, with a terrific young cast including Adam Bakri and Leem Lubany.