WHAT’S ON IN JULY
■ Enjoy Twelfth Night in the Abbey Gardens in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, as part of a Shakespeare in the Park programme. From July 20-24. All you need is a chair and a picnic. Visit-burystedmunds. co.uk/whats-on/
■ Campo Sancho, an independent festival, runs from July 23-25 at Walkern
Hall, pictured, in Stevenage, Hertfordshire. It’s one for all the family with great music and locally-sourced food and drink. Bell tents are available. sanchopanza.org/camposancho/
■ Lincoln is famous for its Cathedral Imp stone carving, and you can spot 30 sculptures of it from now until September along the Lincoln Imp Trail. The Imps, right, will gather for a final goodbye at Lincoln Cathedral on October 1 before being auctioned to raise funds for the St Barnabas Lincolnshire Hospice. See visitlincoln.com
In 2013, writer-director James Demonaco gave birth to a dystopian horror franchise when he conceived a strictly controlled 12-hour period once a year – The Purge – to allow American citizens to kill without legal reprisals.
Two sequels and one prequel later, this fifth instalment breaks the rules, with a band of marauders deciding that The Purge shouldn’t stop at daybreak.
On the morning after the killing is supposed to end, one group attacks the Texas ranch of Caleb Tucker (Will Patton), pregnant wife Cassie (Cassidy Freeman), and children Dylan (Josh Lucas) and Harper (Leven Rambin). Overwhelmed and outnumbered, the Tuckers rely on support and firepower from Mexican ranch hand Juan (Tenoch Huerta) and his wife Adela (Ana de la Reguera), who illegally crossed the border. ■ In cinemas from Friday
CUT from the same mammoth-pelt loincloth as its 2013 predecessor, this energetic computer-animated sequel forms a protective kill circle around its central theme of female empowerment and turns its back on emotionally layered storytelling and character development.
Plotlines from the original thaw out in The Croods 2: A New Age, disguised by breathtaking visuals in retina-searing colour, including a thunderous opening set-piece of stampeding kangadillos underscored, amusingly, by The Partridge Family’s I Think I Love You.
A crudely cleaved class divide between the eponymous cave family and refined rivals, who believe privacy promotes individuality, establishes a flimsy narrative framework to explore inter-generational conflict and the reluctance of parents to let offspring fly the nest.
Anachronistic gags about tablets and man-caves warrant appreciative smiles but belly laughs are few and far between, even with Ryan Reynolds working overtime among a starry voice cast. His character’s tragic back story gently plucks heartstrings in defiance of the Crood matriarch when she quips: “If no one’s died before breakfast it’s a win.”
Grug (voiced by Nicolas Cage) continues to lead his prehistoric brood of wife Ugga (Catherine Keener), son Thunk (Clark Duke), daughters Eep (Emma Stone) and Sandy (Kailey Crawford), and Gran (Cloris Leachman).
The sanctity of the clan is threatened by Eep’s boyfriend Guy (Reynolds), who floats the idea of establishing a separate tribe with his beloved.
“The pack is stronger together. Eve would never leave us,” Grug assures his unconvinced wife.
Before the young lovebirds formalise plans to blaze their own trail, Grug stumbles upon a food-rich haven cultivated by Phil (Peter Dinklage) and his wife Hope (Leslie Mann), who abide by one rule: Don’t eat the bananas.
“We’re the Bettermans... with an emphasis on the better,” chirrups Hope, who condescends to the Croods on their lower rung of the evolutionary food chain. Phil and Hope are closely connected to Guy’s past and they plot to prise him away from Eep so he can pair up with their daughter Dawn (Kelly Marie Tran).
The Croods 2: A New Age mocks its title by revisiting scenarios from the first film with additional visual lustre. When the Bettermans fall short as a threat to the Croods’ happiness, director Joel Crawford’s picture introduces a pack of punch monkeys and a gargantuan Spiny Mandrilla to facilitate inevitable reconciliations.
The sequel goes bananas but we follow the Bettermans’ example and resist tucking in. ■