TWO TICKETS TO GREECE TBC

★★★★★ OUT 17 MAY CINEMAS

Written and directed by French filmmaker Marc Fitoussi, this comedy of middle-aged female friendship is set in the summer of 2019. Recently divorced and uptight Blandine (Olivia Côte) reunites with her best friend from school, the free-spirited and extrovert Magalie (Laure Calamy), and the temperamentally opposed duo head off together on holiday to the sun-drenched island of Amorgos. Engaging performances from the leads offset a formulaic screenplay, and a bandanasporting Kristin Scott Thomas amuses as a hippie jewellerymaker on Mykonos.

GODZILLA XKONG: THE NEW EMPIRE 12A

Sexy beasts…

★★★★★ OUT NOW CINEMAS

The uneasy alliance forged in 2021’s Godzilla vs Kong is tapped again in returning director Adam Wingard’s gleeful smackdown. GxK is loaded with more colossal beasties, nods to the Showa-era Godzilla films and lots of goo. Just don’t expect the humans to match the monsters’ expressiveness.

Wingard’s film picks up after the destruction of Mechagodzilla and Kong’s departure to the subterranean Hollow Earth, leaving Godzilla battling beasts on the surface. Trouble is, it takes an hour to explain how we’re going to get to the atomic-blasting fisticuffs we came for.

Saddled with exposition-heavy dialogue that can only intentionally be this flat, the plot follows Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall), Bernie (Brian Tyree Henry) and Trapper (Dan Stevens) to Hollow Earth after Andrews’ adopted daughter Jia (Kaylee Hottle) experiences visions.

Alongside parallel stories of parenthood and an Avatar-esque commentary on colonialism, GxK majors in disposable fun, vivid colours, Guardians-style needle drops and impressive global fights. Its big bad, the Skar King, is a decently nasty piece of work in a world of XXL personalities, some of which shimmer with a CG iridescence that is at times truly beautiful. The humans are merely ciphers and a means to further plot, but if you’re buying a ticket for the behemoth battles, you’ll get your money’s worth.

THE VERDICT Sluggish set-up aside, GxK’s jungle rumble is fun while it lasts, easily forgotten when it’s over.

HUNT HER, KILL HER 15

★★★★★ OUT 26 APRIL CINEMAS

Natalie Terrazzino and a vast warehouse are the MVPs in this mixed-bag survival thriller from directors Greg Swinson and Ryan Thiessen. Terrazzino’s Karen is a just-divorced mum working the night-shift in a factory. When masked thugs bust in, she uses the labyrinthine environment and various tools to fight back. Over a naggingly laggy 89 minutes, Karen’s sufferings make for tough viewing and the b-word is drearily overused. What fun there is lies in seeing Karen turn the tables, resourcefully: one raw scrap lends new meaning to the phrase ‘toilet plunger’.

BLACKBIRD BLACKBIRD BLACKBERRY TBC

★★★★★ OUT 3 MAY CINEMAS

Wry, sensuous and surprisingly subversive, this gentle romance from Georgian director Elene Naveriani finds stoical rural spinster Etero (Eka Chavleishvili) plunging into an illicit affair with married delivery driver Murman (Temiko Chichinadze). A sharp, no-shit-taken performance from Chavleishvili highlights Etero’s fierce hunger for freedom. The film’s meandering pace gives Naveriani ample room to explore Etero’s self-willed transformation, alongside a pointed take on the tough lives of Georgian women.

TIGER STRIPES TBC

★★★★★ OUT 17 MAY CINEMAS

Mixing body horror with comingof-age tension, Amanda Nell Eu’s unique debut plays like a Malaysian answer to Ginger Snaps (2000). Drawing upon regional myths and culture, Eu’s folktaleleaning drama centres on 12-year-old Zaffan (Zafreen Zairizal), a rebellious schoolgirl who is the first in her class to hit puberty. As her body changes, she becomes isolated from her peers and undergoes a striking metamorphosis. While the symbolism can be heavy-handed, homespun visual effects and intriguing currents of mysticism lend Tiger Stripes a distinctive and ambitious vibe.