What better to do with the free days over Easter than go to the movies? Again there's something for everyone in the new crop of releases. Just to refresh the new scoring system:

5/5              = Unmissable
4 to 4.5 / 5  = Wholeheartedly recommended
3 - 3.5 / 5    = Recommended 
2 - 2.5 / 5    = Maybe (you've got better things to do with your time)
Below 2      = well, that speaks for itself! 

Enjoy the break everyone!  


A Bigger Splash
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Length: 124 mins

© Studiocanal

This thoroughly entertaining film features a brilliantly  energetic  performance from Ralph Fiennes. You've never seen him like this before, as he plays record producer Harry, who turns up on a secluded Sicilian island where his ex-lover, rock legend Marianne (Tilda Swinton), is having a romantic escape with her current lover Paul (Matthias Schoenaerts). Harry brings along his recently discovered daughter Penelope (Dakota Johnson), and the emotional fireworks that ensue are nothing short of high drama. The film is funny, and at times dark, but it is the taut performances, the engaging script and unexpected surprise ending that make it for me a really worthwhile watch. Swinton, as always, is a mesmerising screen presence.
 4!

For a full review from Chris Thompson:

http://www.cinephilia.net.au/show_review.php?movieid=5980


Eye in the Sky
Director: Gavin Hood
Length: 102 mins

© Entertainment One

This vision of modern warfare, though fictional, is totally relevant to today's fraught world of war-torn countries and terrorist attacks. Helen Mirren plays Colonel Katherine Powell who has been tracking a cell of Kenyan-based terrorists affiliated with Al Shebab. Among them is a British woman who has converted to radical Islam, whom Powell hopes to capture alive. Through drone surveillance, Powell sees that a suicide attack is imminent and orders a missile strike. Land-based drone pilots Steve Watts (Aaron Paul) and Lucy Galvez (Kim Engelbrecht) are set to go, when a small girl selling bread parks herself outside the target house throwing the mission into chaos. So ensues a nightmare of administrative chains of command from England to the USA to Africa, with no-one wanting to take responsibility. 
The film explores the serious moral issue of killing by remote control, and making fraught decisions as to who should die in the interests of the greater good. The film is flawlessly executed and is a nail-baiting movie experience. Sadly, this is the last screen performance of Alan Rickman as General Frank Benson.

5!

For a full review from Chris Thompson:

http://www.cinephilia.net.au/show_review.php?movieid=5990


Our Last Tango
Director: German Kral
Length: 84 mins

For lovers of dance and tango, this feature documentary is unmissable. It reveals the lives of two renowned tango dancers from Argentina who partnered each other for 50 years, through love and hate, but always with an abiding passion for their art. 80-year old Maria Nieves, and Juan Carlos Copes, 83,  met as teenagers, and now they talk to the film-makers of their turbulent lives together. As they speak, the most dramatic and moving moments are re-enacted by other dancers, who transform the stories into moving tango-choreographies. The skill of all the dancers is simply mind-blowing, as is the incredible sensuality of the dance form.
4!  (Exclusive to Cinema Nova)

Batman vs Superman: The Dawn of Justice
Director: Zack Snyder
Length: 151 mins

Where to begin? It seems our two heroes have fallen out of favour with the public and politicians. Superman (Henry Cavill) is seen as an alien threat by some, and as a demi-God by others. Batman (Ben Affleck), apparently has got his cape in a twist about Superman's power.  Arch-villain Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) causes the usual mayhem, contriving a situation in which the two muscular heroes are forced to slug it out. But of course when a greater threat to mankind emerges, a united Superhero front must prevail, even bringing Wonderwoman (Gal Gadot) out of retirement.  
This latest superhero offering is overly long, pretentious in content, and not a patch upon the previous Batman movies. Affleck and Cavill act woodenly, and a miscast Eisenberg lacks the requisite villainy. The attempts to be politically relevant, the quasi-religious overtones with soaring music, and the waste of some excellent actors like Jeremy Irons, Laurence Fishburne, Amy Adams, Dianne Lane and Holly Hunter, make it all the more disappointing. Admittedly the action pieces are impressive, but I find myself horrified that such money is spent on this type of entertainment.
  
2!

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2
Director: Kirk Jones
Length: 94 mins

Unfortunately they're back! Toula (Nia Vardalos) and hubby Ian (John Corbett) now have a seventeen-year-old daughter Paris (Elena Koumporis), who is expected, like all Greek daughters to find a nice Greek husband. But the wedding that ensues is not one we would have expected. While the first film was reasonably fresh and funny, this one quickly wears out its welcome with serious stereotyping, and over-the-top cliched humour. While there is the odd insipid laugh, and Vardalos is always an amiable screen presence, the characters are generally annoyingly bland making it an almost an insult to Greeks!   
2!