There’s a new Hollywood heartthrob in town

MOVE over Brad Pitt; make some room, Ryan Gosling, because Hollywood has a new A-lister after Hit Man (15, 115 mins, HHHH✩ ). Previously best known as the cocky one in Top Gun: Maverick and ho-hum romcom Anyone But You (which became a sensation thanks to TikTok — apparently), handsome 30-something Texan Glen Powell here displays the easy charisma of (dare we say it) a young Cary Grant.

A sort of Breaking Bad set-up casts Powell as Gary, a mild-mannered suburban college lecturer who supplements his income by working undercover, posing as a hard-boiled hitman to entrap baddies.

However, his split identity is tested when he falls for a beautiful woman (Adria Arjona, right, with Powell) who wants Gary to bump off her abusive husband.

Co-written by Powell himself with American auteur Richard Linklater (Boyhood, Before Sunrise), Hit Man combines technical precision with laid- back charm. A sizzling romance, a hilarious dark comedy and a tense action flick all rolled into one, with a light sprinkle of philosophy on top, if you don’t find this one in cinemas, be sure to catch it on Netflix come June 7.

I WAS hopeful The Garfield Movie (U, 101 mins, HH✩✩✩ ) might provide some helpful half-term respite. Alas not. This forgettable feline animation starts as an origin story, with Garfield (voiced by Chris Pratt) abandoned by his daddy cat (Samuel L. Jackson) when he was just a cute little fluffball kitten (cue ‘aw!’s from audience), then adopted by his put-upon human owner Jon (Nicholas Hoult).

Yet a life of lasagne, laziness and Mondayhating that defined Jim Davis’s original comic strips is cast aside as the ginger whinger gets swept up in a criminal plot (masterminded by Hannah Waddingham’s enjoyable evil Persian cat, Jinx) to raid a corporate dairy, steal a truckload of milk and liberate a cow.

Garfield’s bizarrely off-brand caper provides a few chuckles, but it won’t convince a new generation to lap him up.