The Mockingbird Cinema and Kitchen

Avatar

• 
• 2009
• US
• 2h 46min
• 12A

• Directed by: James Cameron
• Written by: James Cameron
• Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, Sigourney Weaver, Joel David Moore, Giovanni Ribisi

Set in 2154, Cameron's much-hyped Avatar focuses on a paraplegic marine named Jake Sully (Worthington), who arrives on the distant moon of Pandora with a mission to help displace its indigenous population. But, after winning their trust, Jake finds his allegiances gradually shifting. High on technical flair but short on…

The Big Lebowski

• 
• 1997
• US
• 1h 53min
• 18

• Directed by: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen (uncredited)
• Written by: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
• Cast: Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Julianne Moore

The Coen brothers give their unique twist to a Chandler-esque LA noir, as 70s hippy throwback Jeff 'The Dude' Lebowski (Bridges) is drawn into the sordid affairs of his millionaire namesake. Suddenly he has to sleuth his way through disorganised crime. Trademark oddball characters, surreal imagery and excellent…

Black International Film Festival

Film festival celebrating films from Brazil, Jamaica, Kenya, the US and Cameroon. Also featuring UK Shorts and World Shorts. The festival's opening film is Looking for Love and there are workshops and more.

Blade Runner 2049

• 
• 2017
• US
• 2h 43min
• 15

• Directed by: Denis Villeneuve
• Cast: Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Ana de Armas, Mackenzie Davis, Sylvia Hoeks, Lennie James, Carla Juri, Robin Wright, Dave Bautista, Jared Leto
• UK release: 6 October 2017

Blade Runner K (Gosling) is tasked with finding replicants who are passing themselves off as human, but then he makes an earth-shattering, game-changing discovery. Villeneuve’s long-awaited sequel to Scott’s original is beautiful, powerful and relevant; Gosling is exceptional, and Ford steals the show as the ageing but…

Carrie

• 
• 1976
• US
• 1h 38min
• 18

• Directed by: Brian De Palma
• Cast: Sissy Spacek, Amy Irving, William Katt, Nancy Allen, John Travolta, Betty Buckley, PJ Soles, and Piper Laurie

DePalma's adaptation of Stephen King is still the high school angst movie to end 'em all. Distressingly awkward teen Spacek's adolescent experience is so humiliating that she develops telekinetic powers, and the school bullies finally get their comeuppance.

Christine

• 
• 1983
• US
• 1h 50min
• 18

• Directed by: John Carpenter
• Cast: Keith Gordon, John Stockwell, Alexandra Paul, Robert Prosky, Harry Dean Stanton

A nerdish boy buys a strange car with an evil mind of its own and his nature starts to change to reflect it.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

• 
• 1977
• US
• 2h 12min
• PG

• Directed by: Steven Spielberg
• Written by: Steven Spielberg
• Cast: Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr

Dreyfuss plays a power company technician who investigates a mysterious blackout and finds himself facing an alien. A magnificent movie, the master at his best.

The Death of Stalin

• 
• 2017
• UK/France
• 1h 47min
• 15

• Directed by: Armando Iannucci
• Cast: Jeffrey Tambor, Steve Buscemi, Jason Isaacs, Olga Kurylenko, Michael Palin, Simon Russell Beale, Paddy Considine, Andrea Riseborough, Rupert Friend
• UK release: 20 October 2017

When Joseph Stalin abruptly dies in 1953, his subordinates immediately start jockeying for the position of his replacement. The political backstabbing makes for maximum black comedy and exuberant farce, and the deft interplay of a gifted cast makes the whole film a consistent joy.

ET – The Extra-Terrestrial

• 1982
• US
• 2h
• U

• Directed by: Steven Spielberg
• Cast: Dee Wallace-Stone, Henry Thomas, Peter Coyote

For the 20th anniversary of this fable about a peaceful alien marooned on Earth, Spielberg dusted off his beloved original and re-released it in a new and improved form featuring digital tinkering (ET's eyes, for example, have been 'enhanced' to make him appear more alien) and never before screened scenes such as ET…

Ghostbusters

• 
• 1984
• US
• 1h 45min
• 12

• Directed by: Ivan Reitman
• Written by: Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis
• Cast: Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Harold Ramis, Rick Moranis

Three disgraced parapsychology researchers team up to fight spooks. An efficiently-managed plot, solid jokes, a cast let off the leash – Murray in particular – and thrilling and imaginative effects combine in a masterful balance of respect for the sci-fi genre and mockery of it; sly humour and wide-eyed wonder; star…

The Goonies

• 
• 1985
• US
• 1h 52min
• PG

• Directed by: Richard Donner
• Cast: Sean Astin, Josh Brolin, Jeff Cohen, Corey Feldman, Kerri Green, Martha Plimpton, Jonathan Ke Quan, Anne Ramsey

Seven kids go in search of buried treasure and are hotly pursued by vicious villains vying for the loot.

The Hills Have Eyes

• 1977

The Wes Craven classic horror.

It

• 
• 2017
• US
• 2h 15min
• 15

• Directed by: Andrés Muschietti
• Cast: Jaeden Lieberher, Bill Skarsgård, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Wyatt Oleff, Chosen Jacobs, Jack Dylan Grazer
• UK release: 8 September 2017

A group of kids discovers that their town is haunted by an evil shape-shifting clown (Skarsgård). Well-crafted and properly creepy, with a sinister turn from Skarsgård as the dribbling Pennywise and Lillis superb as the gang’s only female member, it lays down solid groundwork for the planned second instalment.

Little Shop of Horrors

• 
• 1986
• US
• 1h 34min
• PG

• Directed by: Frank Oz
• Written by: Howard Ashman
• Cast: Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene, Vincent Gardenia, Steve Martin, Levi Stubbs

Deep in the florist something is stirring, as meek green-fingered type discovers that his favourite plant, Audrey, is actually a flesh-craving alien from outer space. Daft, enjoyable screen version of the stage musical, with funny foliage effects, and a beezer cameo from Martin as a biker dentist.

A Nightmare on Elm Street

• 1984
• US
• 1h 31min
• 18

• Directed by: Wes Craven
• Cast: Robert Englund, Johnny Depp, Heather Langenkamp

Perhaps the quintessential teenage slasher flick, A Nightmare on Elm Street obliterates the distinction between fantasy and reality. Nancy (Langenkamp) and her friends Glen (Depp), Tina (Amanda Wyss) and Rod (Nick Corri), discover they’re all being stalked in their dreams by the grotesque psychopath Freddie Krueger. As…

Predator

• 
• 1987
• US
• 1h 47min
• 18

• Directed by: John McTiernan
• Written by: Jim Thomas, John Thomas
• Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Elpidia Carrillo, Bill Duke, Jesse Ventura, Kevin Peter Hall

Arnie and his dirty half-dozen are hired to enter a dense South American jungle to free a hostage, but lurking unseen in the foliage is a chameleon-like being waiting to skin alive any unsuspecting human to cross its path. Slow to build, but ultimately gripping macho mayhem with a real sense of threat.

Rise of the Footsoldier 3

• 2017

• Directed by: Zackary Adler
• Cast: Craig Fairbrass, Terry Stone, Roland Manookian

Notorious gangster, Pat Tate, rises through the ranks of Essex's criminal underworld. A prequel to the 'Rise of the Footsoldier' franchise.

The Shawshank Redemption

• 
• 1994
• US
• 2h 23min
• 15

• Directed by: Frank Darabont
• Cast: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman

Banged up for a crime he didn't commit (ain't they all?) quiet man Robbins plans a slow but effective revenge on the unnecessarily harsh prison regime. Freeman excels as the fellow con with an uncanny knack for procuring desired items. The film is certainly overlong, but the apocryphal feel to the storytelling and the…

The Shining

• 
• 1980
• US
• 2h 26min
• 18

• Directed by: Stanley Kubrick
• Cast: Jack Nicholson, Shelly Duvall, Philip Stone.

Kubrick's overwrought, overlong horror film dispenses with much of the psychic apparatus of Stephen King's novel to concentrate on the deeper horror of a family turning in on itself. Nicholson, with all the stops out, is bug-eyed and demonic as the writer cracking up violently in an isolated hotel, and the final scenes…

Sister Act 2: Back In The Habit

• 1993

The Snowman

• 
• 2017
• UK
• 1h 59min
• 15

• Directed by: Tomas Alfredson
• Written by: Hossein Amini, Peter Straughan
• Cast: Michael Fassbender, Rebecca Ferguson, Chloë Sevigny

Detective Harry Hole investigates the disappearance of a woman whose scarf is found decorating an ominous-looking snowman. He sets out to connect decades-old cases to the new one in the hope of putting an end to them before the next snowfall.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

• 2017
• US

• Directed by: Rian Johnson
• Cast: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong'o, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Gwendoline Christie, Andy Serkis, Benicio del Toro, Laura Dern, Kelly Marie Tran
• UK release: 14 December 2017

In Lucasfilm's Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the Skywalker saga continues as the heroes of The Force Awakens join the galactic legends in an epic adventure that unlocks age-old mysteries of the Force and shocking revelations of the past.

The Thing

• 
• 1982
• US
• 1h 48min
• 18

• Directed by: John Carpenter
• Cast: Kurt Russell

Carpenter's excellent 1982 monster flick revived on digital big screen projection.

True Romance

• 1993
• US
• 1h 59min
• 18

• Directed by: Tony Scott
• Written by: Quentin Tarantino, Roger Avary (uncredited)
• Cast: Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Dennis Hopper, Val Kilmer, Gary Oldman, Brad Pitt, Christopher Walken

Comic bookstore assistant Clarence meets, sleeps with and marries novice hooker Alabama within a matter of hours, then the lovebirds find themselves on the run with an accidentally stolen case of cocaine. Limelight-stealing cameos and writer Quentin Tarantino's verbal set-pieces fire this excellent movie, the epitome of…