Danish director Vinterberg (The Celebration; The Hunt), might have been expected to turn in a challenging reading of the Thomas Hardy novel, one to loosen the grip of John Schlesinger’s 1967 version starring Julie Christie and Terence Stamp.

Did you know Minions have been around since the dawn of time? That's just one of many interesting facts you'll learn about Minions in Geoffrey Rush's amusing narration that begins this Despicable Me spin-off.

The acclaimed non-fiction book by New Yorker staff writer Katherine Boo is the raw material of this energetic and often spellbinding production of an adaptation by David Hare, the first National Theatre show with an entirely Asian cast.

It’s the early 80s and the country is emerging uncertainly from the Franco era. Old loyalties are dying hard — the area, we gather, was a fascist stronghold — and widespread industrial unrest lends a simmering sense of disquiet.

Ever since Jerry Maguire showed him the money, Cameron Crowe has had a hard time making movies that stick.

A small war in the contested Black Sea state of Abkhazia is the backdrop to this gripping and focused chamber piece, which made the final five in the best foreign film category at this year's Oscars.

Our hero's preoccupation with his personal life trivialises the magnitude of the events taking place.

From Anne Fontaine, writer/director of Coco Before Chanel, comes this lighthearted and lusty modern-day interpretation of Posy Simmonds' graphic novel based on Gustave Flaubert's 19th century novel, Madame Bovary.

This doco, made and heavily branded by the V&A, is likely to be as close as fans here will get to it without an airfare.

Poltergeist 2015 is a faithful tribute, produced with an eye to introducing the Steven Spielberg-produced original - and the phrase "they're here" - to a new audience.

In the closing moments of this deliciously unpredictable Western, set in Colorado but shot in the South Island, the camera revisits the scenes of the various killings that have punctuated the action.

When word spread that a feature film starring Paul Henry was to premiere at an international film festival, the news was met with surprise, amusement and confusion.

Like the many, ingenious vehicles it has roaring and exploding across the screen, Mad Max: Fury Road is a giant scrapyard jalopy, says Herald entertainment editor Russell Ballie.

Who knows what happened on May 8, 1945 when Princess Elizabeth, the future Queen, and sister Princess Margaret went on to the streets of London to celebrate Victory in Europe (VE) Day.

The budget is minuscule. There are no big names. Set pieces are delivered infrequently, and on a small scale. And if it's monsters you're after, there are precious few ghouls, goblins, ghosts or gremlins.

Pitch Perfect was hilarious, feel-good fun, and one of the surprise hits of 2012.

Australian film-maker Robert Connolly, known for Balibo and Underground: The Julian Assange Story, enters new territory with this sweet family drama about a 12-year-old boy from rural Western Australia.

The second instalment of a two-parter, this play proposes a solution to the mystery of what happened to the play that matched Love's Labour's Lost by assuming it was (and then delivering) Much Ado About Nothing.

One of the later sequences in this heavily armed action flick takes place in a bullfighting ring. Yes, we're now in Spain. No kidding.

The wonderful choristers of the American Boychoir School (is "boychoir" even a word?) in Princeton, New Jersey, are the heart and soul of this production. But all the star power at the top of the bill cannot save a sentimental paint-by-numbers film.

Toni Collette is fabulous and utterly convincing in this low-key drama about a magazine music writer whose latest assignment is to go in search of her ex-boyfriend, cult rock hero Matthew Smith, who mysteriously disappeared 10 years ago.

For Russian writer-director Zvyagintsev, whose 2003 debut The Return deeply impressed, this is feature number four, though only his second to be seen here outside festivals.

Age of Ultron feels less of an event than the first film, just a reasonably exciting instalment in Marvel's ongoing mega-franchise.

After a difficult start with the comings and goings of numerous directors and stars, including Katherine Heigl and Natalie Portman, this epic romantic drama about a woman who remains aged 29 for almost eight decades finally sees the light of day.

John Steinbeck's classic American tragedy-in-miniature has had five screen adaptations (including an Iranian film) but the only theatre version was the author's own, published and first staged in 1937, the same year as the novel.

In the black-and-white photograph of her that appears briefly during the end credits of this true-life melodrama, Maria Altmann looks somewhat more interesting than her screen version.

The new film by the writer-director duo behind the 2011 hit The Intouchables is not as formulaic and manipulative but it lacks the single-minded coherence that was so crucial to that film's success.