Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning (15)
Directed by Christopher McQuarrie
★★★★

“I NEED you to trust me one last time” pleads Tom Cruise as he brings his 30-year-long franchise playing Ethan Hunt to an exhilarating conclusion. 

Following on from Dead Reckoning, Hunt and his team have to stop the sentient AI known as The Entity from becoming omnipotent and staging an Armageddon.

As The Entity slowly takes control of the nuclear arsenals of the major powers it poses interesting political and moral dilemmas though we could have done with less, yawn-yawn, exposition. 

Filmed in IMAX Tom out-Cruises himself in performing the most audacious, over the top stunts to date. These include a 20-minute-long underwater scene in a submarine and hanging off a byplane in the most heart stopping aerial sequences.

If that wasn’t enough he parades, in the bargain, his fitness at 60 by fighting in his underpants with all the “six-packs” in full view. 

Reunited with director Christopher McQuarrie they deliver the ultimate cinematic thrill ride sustained by stunning cinematography while Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg (twenty years playing Benji) provide the heart and soul. 

This film truly needs to be watched in IMAX on the largest screen possible. 

MD
In cinemas now

Bob Trevino Likes It (PG-13)
Directed by Tracie Laymon
★★★

WELL, if turbo-charged sentimentality is your thing this tear-jerker won’t disappoint. It pulls all the stops and more and has won the acclaim of audiences at no less than 13 US film festivals. Antidote to heartless Trumpism, perhaps?

Barbie Ferreira excels as the ever optimistic home-help assistant Lily Trevino who, while looking to reconnect with an estranged father, by accident bonds on social media with his namesake Bob Trevino, rendered deftly by John Leguizamo.

Bob, and wife Jeanie, grieve the loss of their infant child to an incurable condition and it is Bob’s rectitude that tenderly counterbalances the helter-skelter Lily.

The bete noire of the flick is Lily’s demented egotistical dad Robert Trevino well delivered by French Stewart.

This is a ride on a rickety roller coster with no seatbelts so once on it’s best to let the emotional torrent carry you where it will.

MB
In cinemas from tomorrow.

Lilo & Stitch (U)
Directed by Dean Fleischer Camp
★★★

THIS live action remake of Disney’s ground-breaking 2002 animated classic is as funny and heartwarming as the original. 

Set in Hawaii it follows lonely six-year-old Lilo Pelekai (impressive newcomer Maia Kealoha), who befriends a runaway alien Stitch (Chris Sanders) who pretends to be a dog at the local animal shelter. 

Lilo lives with her 18-year-old sister Nani (Sydney Agudong) following their parents death but a social worker (Tia Carrere) is threatening to take Lilo away as Nani cannot cope.

Directed by Dean Fleischer Camp ( Marcel the Shell with Shoes On) it is more entertaining and moving than the original due to a captivating performance by Kealoha in her first ever film role.  

It provides a fresh take on the story while seamlessly blending CGI with the live action.

Eventually Stitch brings both sisters together and becomes one of the family. This will delight both young and old. 

MD
In cinemas from today.

Fountain of Youth (12A)
Directed by Guy Ritchie
★★

GUY RITCHIE turns his hand to fantasy adventure in this Indiana Jones meets National Treasure style offering which lacks the ingenuity and charm of either film series and seems more like their poor relative.  

It stars John Krasinski and Natalie Portman as estranged siblings Luke and Charlotte Purdue who team up to search for the legendary Fountain of Youth on behalf of a rich benefactor played by Domhnall Gleeson.

They are being pursued by Elza Gonzalez as a crack agent who is trying to stop them. 

Krasinski and Portman are joined by an impressive supporting cast, which includes Krasinski’s brother in law Stanley Tucci, who pull out all the stops to make this work.

But it is all very deja vu as they stage an elaborate art heist and follow mysterious historical clues across the globe.

Krasinski and the Oscar winning Portman (Black Swan), who make a good team, deserved better.  

MD
Available on Apple TV+ from tomorrow.