Films in English until Tuesday 4 January

To check for further information click on the locations here. Ocimax, Rivoli, Festival Park and CineCiutat. Also showing in Minorca.

The King's Man (2021)

Now showing: Ocimax.....Daily: 15.30... 18.10...
Daily morning showings until Sunday Jan. 9: 12.10...

Now showing: Festival Park.....12.20 (Sun)... 20.30 (Tue)...

Showing on Ocimax Mahon... 20.50 (Thursday Jan. 6)

Plot summary: Any film that lists “Rasputin’s dance choreographer” in the credits deserves at least a look. And, to be fair, “The King’s Man” — a prequel to Matthew Vaughn’s films about elite British spies headquartered in Savile Row doesn’t let anyone down in terms of enjoyment. Mainly, it has the ever reliable Ralph Fiennes at its centre to ensure that the film holds together. As Orlando, Duke of Oxford and the spy agency’s founder, Fiennes lends a surprising gravitas to this slightly other-worldly feature. Set during World War I, as Orlando and his allies race to prevent a nefarious cabal from erasing Europe’s ruling class, “The King’s Man” leads us through a dense thicket of violence to present the origin story of an agency whose raison d’être, we are told, is world peace (A mission apparently concealed from the characters in the two previous films!). As you can imagine, International skulduggery fills the main frame of the film and the engagingly convoluted screenplay (by Vaughn and Karl Gajdusek) swerves from one exciting but unlikely action scene, to an impressive battlefield rescue, apparently realised without digital assistance. With that being said, it is an enjoyable action led romp - which carries off its slightly tongue-in-cheek appeal with a great deal of amused aplomb.

Starring: Harris Dickinson, Ralph Fiennes and Aaron Taylor-Johnson

Directed: Directed Matthew Vaughn

Rated: 16

Times: 2 hrs & 10 mins

Silent Night (2021)

Now showing: CineCiutat... 16.50 (Mon, Wed, Sun)... 17.00 (Tue, Thu)... 20.50 (Sat)... 21.55 (Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Sun)... 22.00 (Sat)

Plot summary: l Everyone in Silent Night is slightly off-key, though always to different degrees and with different effects – and the film revels in that fact, at first. In the opening scene, we all get to watch them suffer as they’re forced to listen to Michael Bublé’s The Christmas Sweater. The closest we get to a kind of empathetic protagonist is Lily-Rose Depp’s Sophie, the American girlfriend of James, the nominal outsider. But these humorous dynamics can only last so long. There’s an early mention of a “pact” that strikes as quite odd. Someone says something about the Queen being in a place and it really doesn’t seem like she should be. With Sophie choking back tears, the truth is eventually spat out, sentence by sentence. And it’s an ambitious premise to kick off with, as the film slips from comedy into absolute fear. The film moves from sunny to grim. And grim in ways that are only accentuated by how innocently the whole thing seems to begin. This film literally creeps up on you - be prepared to be alarmed.

Starring: Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode and Roman Griffin Davis

Director: Camille Griffin

Duration: 1 hour and 32 minutes

Rated: 16

West Side Story (2021)

Now showing: Ocimax...Daily: 17.00

Now showing: CineCiutat...16.25 (Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Sun)... 19.10 (Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Sat, Sun)... 20.40 (Tue, Thu)... 21.15 (Mon, Wed, Sat, Sun)

Now showing: Festival Park... 21.15 (Tues)

Plot summary: l Director Steven Spielberg’s much awaited re-make of West Side Story is quite brilliant. Most remakes aren’t usually up to the standard of the original - but this is a revelation. Like its 1961 former self, it is set in a derelict part of New York City with the teen gangs - the Jets and the Sharks up against each other. This being said, West Side Story was, and always has been, a love story - full stop. Spielberg catches the exuberance of the original and adds a little local reality to the storyline. In fact, this cinematic version of Romeo & Juliet reflects William Shakespeare’s pen in its romantic drive that often has audience members fiddling with hankies at certain times as the ‘star-crossed’ lovers’ embark on their doomed relationship. If the music is sing-along great, the dancing is bold and colourful with high colour intensity and swooping cameras making the best out some sensational choreography. It’s possibly wrong to pick out one star performance amongst many - but, Rachel Zeglar as the lovelorn Maria, does have a lovely voice to go with her latino beauty. Enjoy!

Starring: Ansel Elgort, Rachel Zegler and Ariana DeBose

Director: Steven Spielberg

Duration: 2 hours and 36 minutes

Rated: 12

The Matrix Resurrections (2021)

Now showing: Augusta Cinema.....Daily: 17.15

Showing on Ocimax Mahon... 20.50 (Thur Dec 30)

Now showing: Festival Park: 20.20 (Tues)

Plot summary: For a good while, The Matrix Resurrections is fabulously batty. It’s cheeky and sly, comprising endless onion-layers, it’s funny and weird and witty and mad and even, at points, quite moving. Certainly we’ve never seen anything like it, not on this scale, not in a Hollywood blockbuster, not like this. The action scenes are fine — occasionally inspired, sometimes familiar; if you’re hoping for Resurrections to change the genre game again, you might want to temper your expectations. Some of the overtly CG stuff, feel like video-game cut-scenes. And, alas, some of the pomposity of those earlier limp sequels is resurrected too. Which is a shame, when it’s front-loaded with so much delightful good fun - It is also romantic and sentimental and sometimes touching. As they say nowadays, there is joy here, and a couple of gobsmacking ideas (one of them outstandingly morbid). So In all, ‘Resurrection’ is the best of the ‘follow-ons’ and well worth a visit.

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II

Director: Lana Wachowski

Duration: 2 hours and 28 minutes

Rated: 16

Spider-man: No Way Home (2021)

Now showing: Ocimax.....Daily: 15.40...18.40...20.45
Daily morning showings until Sunday Jan. 9: 12.10...

Now showing: Festival Park....21.30 (Thur)... 12.15 (Sun)... 21.30 (Sat, Sun, Mon, Tues)

Plot summary: The best of “Spider-Man: No Way Home” reminded me why we all used to love comic books, especially the ones about a boy named Peter Parker. There was a playful unpredictability to them that has often felt was lacking from modern superhero movies in the way they feel so precisely calculated. Yes, of course, “No Way Home” is incredibly calculated, a way to make more headlines after killing off so many of its event characters in Phase 3, but it’s also a film that’s often bursting with creative joy. Director Jon Watts and his team have delivered a true event movie, a double-sized crossover issue of a comic book that the young me would have waited in line to read first, excitedly turning every page with breathless anticipation of the next twist and turn.

Starring: Zendaya, Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Holland

Director: Jon Watts

Duration: 2 hours and 30 minutes

Rated: 7

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Showing: CineCiutat... 21.00 (Thursday)

Plot summary: “2001” is a story of evolution. Sometime in the distant past, someone or something nudged evolution by placing a monolith on Earth (presumably elsewhere throughout the universe as well). Evolution then enabled humankind to reach the moon’s surface, where yet another monolith is found, one that signals the monolith placers that humankind has evolved that far. Now a race begins between computers (HAL) and human (Bowman) to reach the monolith placers. The winner will achieve the next step in evolution, whatever that may be.

Starring: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood and William Sylvester

Directed: Directed Stanley Kubrick

Duration: 2 hrs & 29 mins

Rated: 12