Films in English from Friday 11 March

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

Cyrano (2022)

Showing daily at Rivoli...16.30

Showing on Thursday at Ocimax (Minorca) ... 20.15

Plot summary: There are two real-world couples at the heart of this newest iteration of Edmond Rostand’s 1897 play. Director Joe Wright (Atonement, Darkest Hour), directs his partner Haley Bennett in this wildly inventive new musical.The title character’s proboscis (i.e. huge nose!) is no longer the prosthetic that cast a shadow on such famous Cyrano interpreters as José Ferrer (who won an Oscar in the role), Gérard Depardieu and Steve Martin. Instead, playwright and theatre director Erica Schmidt has reworked Rostand’s romantic hero as an unrequited lover of short stature, an ideal role for her husband Peter Dinklage, who first played the role in a 2018 stage musical. In doing so, she has rekindled the tragedy of the tale. The nuts and bolts of the plot are unchanged. Cyrano (Dinklage), a man possessed of wit, wiles and mad sword skills, has yearned for the clever, charming Roxanne (Bennett) since his youth. She, however, has fallen in love with a handsome young soldier named Christian (Kelvin Harrison Jr). The tongue-tied Christian enlists the articulate Cyrano’s help in writing love letters, an arrangement that allows for Cyrano to express his true feelings while another man seduces the object of his affections. If you thought Peter Dinklage a strange choice of lead actor, then think again, he is quite brilliant in the role as Cyrano.

Starring: Peter Dinklage, Haley Bennett and Kelvin Harrison Jr.

Director: Joe Wright.
Duration: 2 hrs & 3 mins
Rated: 12

The Batman (2022)

Showing daily at Augusta ...16.15...17.45...19.45

Plot summary: Director and co-writer Matt Reeves has created a new Batman film phase, in which Robert Pattinson reinvents billionaire Bruce Wayne as an elegantly wasted rock star recluse, willowy and dandyish in his black suit with tendrils of dark hair falling over his face. However, Wayne magically trebles in bulk when he reappears in costume and mask as the Dark Knight, with his whole body transformed into a slab-like impassivity. And this of course is happening in the dark vastness of Gotham City, the brutal and murky world which Christopher Nolan originally pioneered with his Dark Knight trilogy. Intriguingly at first, The Batman feels like a serial killer, chiller, movie. For a time it promises a mystery plot relating to the theme of municipal corruption which is so important to the Batman franchise, and holds out hope of an unmasking with a satisfying narrative resolution. It is tremendously well designed, visually spectacular with great set pieces and juddering, body-shattering impacts coming at you in all directions out of the darkness. There are really good performances from Jeffrey Wright and John Turturro, and Zoë Kravitz is charisma personified. Nevertheless, to non Batman fans, this latest attempt could be described as a tad overlong - but, it probably delivers in spades what Batman fans want from their ever evolving cult hero.

Starring: Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz, Jeffrey Wright

Director: Matt Reeves
Duration: 2 hours and 55 minutes
Rated: 12

See above trailer

Death on the Nile (2022)

Showing daily at Rivoli ...19.30

Plot summary: Long ‘coronavirally’ delayed, Kenneth Branagh’s latest Agatha Christie movie puffs effortfully into harbour. It’s the classic (and often filmed) whodunnit about a murder on a steamer making its way down the river in Egypt with an Anglo-American boatful of waxy-faced cameos aboard. The horrible homicide means that one of the passengers will have to spring into action, and this is of course the amply moustached Hercule Poirot, played by Branagh himself. It is Poirot who interviews suspects, supervises corpse-storage in the ship’s galley freezer cabinet and delivers the final unmasking – and all without the captain insisting that the Egyptian police should possibly get involved. Among the stars on the passenger list - Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders play lady’s-companion Mrs Bowers and her wealthy socialite-turned-socialist employer Marie Van Schuyler, and the presence of this venerable comedy duo makes the movie look weirdly like a version of the spoof they might have created for their erstwhile TV show. Russell Brand keeps his comedy stylings under wraps as the deadpan Dr Linus Windlesham. A good time could be had naming all those famous actors in minor walk on parts. Suffice it to say, you will what you’re getting if you choose to visit this movie!

Starring: Tom Bateman, Annette Bening and Kenneth Branagh
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Duration: 2 hours and 7 minutes
Rated: 12

Uncharted (2022)

Showing daily at Ocimax ...16.30
Showing on Saturday and Sunday at Ocimax...12.10

Plot summary: Street-smart thief Nathan Drake (Tom Holland) is recruited by seasoned treasure hunter Victor “Sully” Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg) to recover a fortune lost by Ferdinand Magellan 500 years ago. What starts as a heist job for the duo becomes a globe-trotting, white-knuckle race to reach the prize before the ruthless Moncada (Antonio Banderas), who believes he and his family are the rightful heirs. If Nate and Sully can decipher the clues and solve one of the world’s oldest mysteries, they stand to find $5 billion in treasure and perhaps even Nate’s long-lost brother...but only if they can learn to work together. Some have compared the plot of this movie to the hugely popular ‘Indiana Jones’ franchise, which is some compliment if true! An impressive cast list might also persuade a person to see the movie, as all the lead males i.e. Holland, Wahlberg and Banderas are top box office at the moment.

Starring: Tom Holland, Sophia Ali and Mark Wahlberg
Director: Ruben Fleischer
Duration: 1 hour and 56 minutes
Rated: PG-13