Movies

We all love a good cinema trip, and summer often presents some truly iconic moments in film. Only two years ago, on July 21st, we saw Barbenheimer, with the release of the Barbie movie and Christopher Nolan's epic about the atomic bomb. That being said, this July is no different, being jam-packed full of summer blockbusters for you to choose from and perhaps a Marvel/DC Studios rivalry too. From Marvel madness to a recurring horror, what will you go and watch this month? Here are the top five releases coming to UK cinemas.Jurassic World Rebirth July 2Set five years after 2022's Jurassic World Dominion, Rebirth follows a group of mercenaries and scientists who venture to a forbidden island with the hopes of retrieving dinosaur blood that could lead to a cure for heart disease. Zora Benne...

Writer and director Oliver Stone’s 1986 war film has been hailed as one of the greatest war movies of all time for its realistic and heartbreaking  portrayal of what life was like on the frontlines during the Vietnam War.It’s no surprise, since Stone’s own experience as a Vietnam War veteran made this film the first Hollywood movie written and directed by someone who served in the war. Stone reportedly wrote the screenplay based on his time serving as a US infantryman in Vietnam, in an effort to counter the portrayal of war in John Wayne’s The Green Berets.Platoon, starring Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, Johnny Depp, Kevin Dillon, Keith David, John C. McGinley, and Forest Whitaker, was the first in the trilogy of Vietnam War films directed by Oliver Stone. It was followed by...

With all the James Bond films ranked by Rotten Tomatoes in an exhaustive round-up, Licence to Kill came in at number 11 in the 27-film franchise.Accruing a 79 per cent critics approval rating, License to Kill received a mixed bag of reviews (bordering on the generally favourable), with one critic writing: “Many may have forgotten [Timothy] Dalton’s time as the iconic agent, but whether you remember him or not, it’s worth sinking your teeth into.”The 1989 spy thriller is the sixteenth film in the James Bond catalogue and was the second and final film star Timothy Dalton as the fictional MI6 agent. It was also the fifth and final John Glen directorial, and the very last to feature Caroline Bliss as Miss Moneypenny and Robert Brown as M.While one critic called it “very underrated”, another...

28 Years Later concluded with a cameo introduction of Jack O’Connell’s character Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal.We first saw him as a boy in the film’s opening scene, which depicts the outbreak of the Rage virus in 2002.The Scottish lad was totally traumatised seeing his whole family killed in front of him, and his vicar father madly welcome the infected as a sign of the apocalypse before being turned himself.Film fans were quick to point out that, as an adult, the character is dressed like Sir Jimmy Savile. The late TV presenter was considered a national treasure in life before being discovered to be one of Britain’s worst sex offenders after his death.Now, director Danny Boyle has teased why he and his gang of Jimmies are dressed like the monster at the film’s conclusion and in the sequel 28 ...

Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later is out now in cinemas, but what may surprise some cinema-goers is the ending.The film concluded with Spike coming across Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal and his Jimmies cult, who will be a big part of the second film, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, next year.The sequel was shot back-to-back with the first film and is written once again by Alex Garland, but with Nia DaCosta directing instead of Boyle.Speaking at a recent EMPIRE Q&A, the latter teased of the second film: “You can expect a lot of Jack O’Connell [Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal] and a lot of Ralph Fiennes [Dr Ian Kelson] and a lot of Chi Lewis-Parry [Alpha] and a lot of the Jimmies.”Boyle has also confirmed that just as the Jimmies cameoed at the end of 28 Years Later before starring in The Bone Temple, Cil...

One of the biggest releases of last year is finally available to stream from home.Sonic the Hedgehog 3 will be made part of Paramount Plus' library from June 25.It means fans can stream at their leisure provided they have a subscrition to the dedicated platform or through an add-on via Amazon Prime Video.The third chapter in Sega's beloved blue mascot Sonic's live-action saga sees Ben Schwartz reprising his role as the voice of the eponymous hedgehog, alongside Idris Elba as Knuckles and Jim Carrey as Doctor Eggman.Carrey also portrays his character's grandfather in a dual role. James Marsden returns as one of the few human characters, while Keanu Reeves makes his debut in the franchise as Shadow the Hedgehog.The 2024 release synopsis reveals that Sonic, Knuckles and Tails band together...

Rumours have abounded that Brad Pitt would reprise his Oscar-winning performance as Cliff Booth from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood in Quentin Tarantino's 10th and final movie.The film was set to be called The Movie Critic and set in 1970s LA after the 1969 setting of the latter.However, Tarantino changed his mind about the project and instead penned a script that he handed to David Fincher to direct at Netflix.The latter filmmaker previously directed Pitt in Fight Club, Se7en and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and has made his last couple of films, Mank and The Killer, at the streamer with a short cinematic release prior.The upcoming film is currently titled The Continuing Adventures of Cliff Booth and now Pitt himself has spoken out on the project.Speaking with Deadline last night...

Back in 1992, Clint Eastwood starred in, produced and directed Unforgiven, one of the greatest Westerns ever made.The Best Picture winner (which lost in eight other Oscar categories) co-starred Morgan Freeman, Gene Hackman and Richard Harris.The latter was cast as English Bob after Eastwood phoned the future Dumbledore star at his house in the Bahamas.Yet the Irish actor thought it was one of his friends pulling his leg, pretending to be the Hollywood legend, as he was in his basement watching High Plains Drifter.After offering to send him a script, Harris simply replied: “Oh, you don’t need a script… I’ll be there!” Yet upon reaching the Canadian set, he was in for a shock from Eastwood.Filming on Unforgiven took place 40 miles south of Calgary, Alberta, where production designer Henry...

Take it all with a pinch of salt, but also “in the running” are: 5-4 Aaron Taylor-Johnson, 5-2 Theo James, 3-1 Aaron Pierre, 5-1 Henry Cavill, 8-1 Jack Lowden, 10-1 James Norton, 12-1 Tom Hardy, 14-1 Callum Turner, 25-1 Idris Elba, 25-1 Lucien Laviscount.

It's been 25 years since its release, but the 2000 film Cast Away is still named as one of the most well-loved movies starring actor Tom Hanks, who by far had the most screentime.Hanks plays Chuck Noland, a systems analyst for FedEx who travels the world on the company's cargo planes to help resolve productivity problems.However, during a stormy flight, the plane crashes in the middle of the Pacific Ocean - leaving Chuck to wake up alone on a deserted island.The movie then follows Chuck as he navigates the island, trying his best to survive. He also opens up several FedEx parcels that ended up on the island with him to see if any of them included things that could help him. Their contents include a Wilson volleyball, which becomes his companion during the years he spend alone on the isl...