ALSO SHOWING

THE LION KING (PG) ★★★ ★★

DIRECTOR Jon Favreau employs the same photorealistic computer wizardry which served him well for The Jungle Book to transport us to the sun-baked savanna for a virtually word-for-word remake of The Lion King, which trades heavily on technical excellence to justify its existence.

Screenwriter Jeff Nathanson appropriates most of the original dialogue and tempers the animated film’s more extravagant flourishes.

Consequently, scheming uncle Scar is no longer a scene-stealing pantomime villain, his Machiavellian call to arms Be Prepared loses the goose-stepping hyenas, and the Busby Berkeley-style fantasia of I Just Can’t Wait To Be King is now a scamper around a watering hole.

Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen riff to hilarious effect as meerkat Timon and flatulent warthog Pumbaa, tucking into a banquet of bugs with gusto (“That’s what I call umami!”).

Audiences unfamiliar with the 1994 animation may consider Favreau’s picture to be king of the cinematic jungle. For me, the beautifully imperfect original reigns supreme.

THE DEAD DON’T DIE (15) ★★★ ★★

A STARRY cast can’t save this uneven zom-com by writerdirector Jim Jarmusch.

Environmental damage wrought by fracking at the magnetic poles shifts the Earth off its axis. Centerville police chief Cliff Robertson (Bill Murray) and officers Ronald Peterson (Adam Driver, above) and Minerva Morrison (Chloe Sevigny) respond to a gruesome attack at the local diner and calls about disappearing livestock.

When night falls, corpses reanimate. Hermit Bob (Tom Waits) witnesses the devastation through binoculars while residents including Hank Thompson (Danny Glover), Bobby Wiggins (Caleb Landry Jones) and farmer Frank Miller (Steve Buscemi) arm themselves against the slavering predators.

STUBER (15) ★★ ★★★

A MILD-MANNERED driver becomes an unwitting accomplice in a police investigation in this unsatisfying action comedy.

Nice guy Stu (Kumail Nanjiani) juggles full-time work at a sporting goods store with weekend and late-night shifts as an Uber driver. He is stretching himself financially to invest in a women-only spin class run by his best friend Becca (Betty Gilpin), who he secretly loves.

Stu accepts a fare from a passenger called Vic Manning (Dave Bautista, pictured), who turns out to be a detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. Vic needs Stu to ferry him around the city in an effort ort to capture drug dealer Oka Tedjo.

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