ALSO SHOWING
Creed II (15)
Using the same canny mix of corny nostalgia and gritty revisionism, this sequel to Ryan Coogler’s surprisingly effective Rocky spin-off Creed uses Rocky IV as the fan-servicing jumping off-point for a grudge match between Adonis Creed (Michael B Jordan) and the son of the man who killed his father. That’s right, Dolph Lundgren is back as Ivan Drago, the Russian fighter who pummelled Apollo Creed to death 33 years earlier – only now, in keeping with the more realistic vibe of the new series, all of that film’s fondly remembered ridiculousness has been excised, replaced with a more downbeat exploration of Drago’s changed fortunes following his humiliating defeat by Rocky (Stallone) in his homeland. This sets up a juicily melodramatic dilemma for Adonis, who’s goaded into fighting Drago’s man-mountain son (Florian Munteanu) as a way of laying to rest the ghost of his late father. But while it all fits together neatly enough, there’s something a little schematic about it too and as the plot turns soapy the film doesn’t land its emotional punches. That said, the fight scenes are decent and Stallone’s still appealing – but please, no more.
Ralph Breaks the Internet (PG)
In this sequel to Disney hit Wreck-it Ralph, the titular hero (John C Reilly) and glitchy best friend Vanellope (Sarah Silverman) escape the arcade via a new-fangled device called wi-fi and enter the information superhighway — a limitless place where they’re confronted with every corporate tech giant and Disneyowned property imaginable. The film pulls some ingenious moves in figuring out how to represent the inner working of the internet visually, but that doesn’t stop the onslaught of self-referential humour grating like a Shrek movie. Still, it redeems itself with a darker plot twist that ends up turning this feel-good family film into a surprisingly forthright take down of misogynistic online trolling, so another win, but only just.
Anna and the Apocalypse (12A)
This Scottish zombie-themed Christmas high school musical operates rather like an end-of-term festive show made by spirited amateurs blissfully unaware of its general naffness. Director John Mcphail has admitted in interviews he didn’t really like musicals before signing on to make it and that shows in the lifeless choreography, which is more filler than Thriller .As for the horror elements, the use of zombies as a coming-of-age metaphor is promising but poorly executed, and the gore is about as effective at disguising the film’s over-all dullness as a tacky bit of tinsel on a fake Christmas tree.
Happy New Year, Colin Burstead (15)
Ben Wheatley’s latest is a nightmarish vision of familial disharmony in the age of Brexit. Kill List’s Neil Maskell plays the eponymous host of a New Year’s Eve get-together that starts going pear-shaped before his bickering extended family even get through the door.
Three Identical Strangers (12A)
An incredible true story about identical triplets separated at birth and reunited by chance is only the starting point for Brit director Tim Wardle’s gripping documentary, which gradually zooms out to reveal a much darker story behind the joyous reunion headlines. The devastation wrought upon their lives is both heartbreaking and chilling.
Disobedience (15)
Adapted from Naomi Alderman’s 2006 London-set novel about a forbidden love affair in an Orthodox Jewish community, this Englishlanguage debut from A Fantastic Woman’s Sebastian Lelio is a pretty dreary and disappointing affair about a forbidden love, in which Rachel Weisz and Rachel Mcadams fail to generate much passion. ■