Check out what's showing at cinemas across the region this month...

FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE SECRETS OF DUMBLEDORE - CERT tbc
Released Fri 8 April
Starring Jude Law, Mads Mikkelsen, Valerie Pachner, Katherine Waterston, Ezra Miller, Alison Sudol, Eddie Redmayne
Directed by David Yates

The latest adventure in JK Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts series finds Professor Albus Dumbledore doing his level best to thwart powerful dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald in his efforts to seize control of the wizarding world. 

Unable to stop him on his own, the professor entrusts Magizoologist Newt Scamander with the task of leading an intrepid team of wizards and witches on a dangerous mission, during which they encounter old and new beasts and clash with Grindelwald’s growing legion of followers. 

But with the stakes so high, how long can Dumbledore himself remain on the sidelines?

THE BAD GUYS - CERT U (100 mins)
Released Fri 1 April
With the voices of Sam Rockwell, Awkwafina, Anthony Ramos, Marc Maron, Craig Robinson, Zazie Beetz
Directed by Pierre Perifel

The Bad Guys of the title are a crackerjack criminal crew of animal outlaws, led by dashing pickpocket Mr Wolf, who find themselves needing to broker a deal with the authorities to stay out of jail. So Mr Wolf lies and promises that the team will ‘go good’. But then he unexpectedly realises that being the Good Guys may have a lot more to recommend it than he’d previously imagined... This new action comedy from DreamWorks Animation is based on the bestselling book series by Aaron Blabey. 

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2  - CERT tbc
Released Fri 1 April
With the voices of Ben Schwartz, Idris Elba, Colleen O’Shaughnessey and starring Jim Carrey, James Marsden, Tike Sumpter and Natasha Rothwell
Directed by Jeff Fowler

The team behind The Fast And The Furious franchise and the Deadpool films here turn their attention to this sequel movie to the 2020 box-office blockbuster. 

Having last year celebrated the 30th anniversary of his first-ever appearance, everybody’s favourite blue-coloured high-speed hedgehog hits the ground running in a film which once again pits him against Dr Ivo Robotnik - a mustachioed evil-doer who is determined to track down a special emerald that has the power to destroy civilisations. 

​THE OUTFIT - CERT 15 (105 mins)
Released Fri 8 April
Starring Mark Rylance, Zoey Deutch, Dylan O’Brien, Johnny Flynn 
Directed by Graham Moore

Seven years after picking up an Oscar for penning The Imitation Game, co-writer Graham Moore directs fellow Academy Award winner Mark Rylance in this gripping and stylish thriller. Rylance is master tailor Leonard, an Englishman operating a Chicago shop in which he makes expensive clothes for a family of vicious gangsters. But when two killers knock on his door in search of a favour, Leonard finds himself catapulted into a deadly game of deception and murder...

THE LOST CITY - CERT tbc
Released Wed 13 April
Starring Channing Tatum, Sandra Bullock, Daniel Radcliffe, Brad Pitt, Patti Harrison, Oscar Nuñez  
Directed by Aaron Nee and Adam Nee

Sandra Bullock’s career is liberally peppered with action-comedies, so she should certainly feel right at home in this eagerly anticipated movie from sibling directors Aaron and Adam Nee. 

The story follows brilliant but reclusive author Loretta Sage as she promotes her latest bestselling romance-adventure novel in the company of Alan, the model who appears on the covers of her books. When Loretta is kidnapped by an eccentric billionaire who hopes that she can lead him to the treasure of the ancient lost city that features in her latest story, Alan sets out to rescue her. And in doing so, he’s determined to prove he’s every inch as courageous as the hero who appears in Loretta’s novels...

THE NORTHMAN - CERT tbc
Released Fri 15 April
Starring Alexander Skarsgård, Nicole Kidman, Claes Bang, Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, Anya-Taylor-Joy
Directed by Roger Eggers

Having scored two significant hits with The Witch and The Lighthouse, visionary director  Robert Eggers returns with an epic Viking actioner in which gigantic warrior Amleth seeks revenge for the death of his father. 

Co-written by Eggers with Icelandic poet Sjón - who recently also co-wrote the disquieting horror-fantasy, Lamb - The Northman features a cast of familiar stars, including Björk as a medieval Viking witch...  

OPERATION MINCEMEAT - CERT 12a (128 mins)
Released Fri 15 April
Starring Colin Firth, Matthew Macfadyen, Kelly Macdonald, Penelope Wilton, Johnny Flynn, Jason Isaacs 
Directed by John Madden

In 1943, determined to break Hitler’s grip on occupied Europe, the Allies plan an all-out assault on Sicily. But they face an impossible challenge - how to protect a massive invasion force from potential massacre. It falls to two remarkable intelligence officers, Ewen Montagu (Firth) and Charles Cholmondeley (Macfadyen), to dream up the most inspired and improbable disinformation strategy of the war, one which is centred on the most unlikely of secret agents - a dead man... 

Based on the bestselling book by Ben MacIntyre, Operation Mincemeat tells the extraordinary and true story of the most successful wartime deception ever attempted - one that changed the course of the Second World War. 

THE UNBAREABLE WEIGHT OF MASSIVE TALENT - CERT tbc
Released Fri 22 April
Starring Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal, Ike Barinholtz, Sharon Horgan, Tiffany Haddish, Neil Patrick Harris  
Directed by Tom Gormican

Nicolas Cage here takes on maybe his most challenging role ever: playing Nick Cage.

In yet another movie in which Cage advisedly avoids taking himself too seriously, the star of numerous hit films and no shortage of reprehensible shockers accepts a $1million offer to attend the birthday of a dangerous superfan. 

But when the fictionalised version of Cage is recruited by a CIA operative and forced to live up to his own legend, he finds himself having to channel his most iconic and beloved on-screen characters in order to save not only himself but also his loved ones. 

DOWNTON ABBEY: A NEW ERA - CERT PG (125 mins)
Released Fri 29 April
Starring Hugh Bonneville, Elizabeth McGovern, Maggie Smith, Michelle Dockery, Laura Carmichael, Joanne Froggatt, Jim Carter, Phyllis Logan   
Directed by Simon Curtis

The cast of characters inhabiting everybody’s favourite English stately home and its confines make a welcome return in this second big-screen offering. 

All the usual suspects are present and correct - along with a number of newcomers - in a story which sees Violet Crawley (Dame Maggie Smith) revealing that a man who she knew in her younger days has given her a villa in a sun-kissed corner of the South of France. 

Meanwhile, in the grounds of Downton, a film crew is shooting a state-of-the-art talkie...
With A New Era’s release having been Covid-delayed on several occasions, Downton enthusiasts will by now be excited beyond measure at the prospect of finally getting to enjoy this latest adventure. 

By and large the first movie met with a favourable response, and there’s every reason to imagine that this follow-up entry will inspire a similarly positive reaction from film critics and dedicated fans alike.