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

THE NAKED GUN CERT 15 (105 mins)
Released Friday 1 August
Starring Liam Neeson, Pamela Anderson, Paul Walter Hauser, Kevin Durand, Liza Koshy, Danny Huston
Directed by Akiva Schaffer

Now here’s a blast from a distant past... 

Back in the late 1980s and early 90s, The Naked Gun films were all the rage, with the original 1988 movie being followed by two similarly well-received sequels. 

All three starred Leslie Nielsen as bumbling and frequently nonplussed police officer Frank Drebin, a character he’d first played in the now-cult 1982 television show Police Squad!. 
Boasting surreal humour and fast-paced slapstick comedy, both the TV series and the Naked Gun movies were the brainchild of Jim Abrahams and brothers David and Jerry Zucker, who’d previously hit box-office paydirt with 1980 disaster-movie parody Airplane!...

This sequel to the original Naked Gun trilogy finds Liam Neeson playing Frank Drebin Jr -  the son of Nielsen’s iconic character - as he leads Police Squad and investigates the murder of a woman’s brother. 
Not that the details of the storyline are even remotely important in this instance; it’s the gags by which the film will sink or swim - and if the original trilogy is anything to go by, expect them to come thick and fast.

FREAKIER FRIDAY CERT PG (111 mins)
Released Friday 8 August
Starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Lindsay Lohan, Chad Michael Murray, Mark Harmon, Julia Butters
Directed by Nisha Ganatra

It’s taken 22 long years, but fans of hit movie Freaky Friday finally have a sequel to get excited about.
Freakier Friday sees Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan reprise their roles as Tess and Anna Coleman respectively. The story picks up years after Tess and Anna endured an identity crisis. Anna now has a daughter of her own and a soon-to-be stepdaughter. 

As they navigate the myriad challenges that come when families merge, the two women discover that lightning might indeed strike twice...

“The truth is I’m quite old, and I have worked a lot,” Jamie told JustJared.com, “and everywhere I go, the movie that people want to know about is Freaky Friday... 
“[This new] movie is just freakier in all aspects. It’s funnier, and there’s more physical comedy.
The switches are freakier.” 

MATERIALISTS CERT 15 (116 mins)
Released Friday 16 August
Starring Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, Pedro Pascal, Zoe Winters, Marin Ireland, Dasha Nekrasova
Directed by Celine Song

Lucy, an ambitious New York City matchmaker, finds herself torn between the perfect match and her imperfect ex... 

That’s the storyline of Past Lives director Celine Song’s new movie Materialists - and while the premise may seem straightforward enough, in the opinion of Dakota Johnson, who plays Lucy, the choice which her character faces is anything but. “People are in a very strange place in evolution,” Johnson told AP News, “and I think the difference between these two characters and these two men, sure they are different ends of the spectrum in terms of, like, technical value, materialistic value, but also, each of them have the opposite in terms of psycho-spiritual value and emotional value, and what they can offer the other person in terms of soul evolution and growth.

“Perhaps because she works in this world of trying to understand people and what they want, [Lucy] is forced to go more inward, really interrogate herself and say, what do I really want and what is actually important in this life? Is it how much money I have, or is it how truly loved I am?”

THE LIFE OF CHUCK CERT 15 (111 mins)
Released Friday 22 August
Starring Tom Hiddleston, Jacob Tremblay, Benjamin Pajak, Cody Flanagan, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan
Directed by Mike Flanagan

Winner of the People’s Choice gong at the Toronto International Film Festival - and based on a 2020 novella by Stephen King - The Life Of Chuck focuses-in on the world of Charles ‘Chuck’ Krantz as he experiences ‘the wonder of love, the heartbreak of loss, and the multitudes contained in all of us’... 
As might reasonably be expected of a film-festival award winner, the movie has garnered plenty of praise, with critics referring to it in the most glowing of terms. 

‘A life-affirming masterpiece’ and ‘a stunning celebration of the moments that make life worth living’ feature among the accolades bestowed upon it. 

Director Mike Flanagan has form - impressive form, at that - when it comes to filming the stories of Stephen King. He has previously helmed critically acclaimed adaptations of the bestselling author’s Doctor Sleep and Gerald’s Game. 

CAUGHT STEALING CERT tbc
Released Friday 29 August
Starring Austin Butler, Regina King, Zoë Kravitz, Matt Smith, Vincent D’Onofrio, Liev Schreiber
Directed by Darren Aronofsky 

High-school baseball phenomenon Hank Thompson no longer plays the sport he loves, but life is otherwise pretty sweet; he’s got a great girl, tends bar at a New York dive, and his favourite team is making an audacious underdog run at the pennant.

But then things go suddenly and dramatically awry. When his punk-rock neighbour Russ - played by former Dr Who star Matt Smith - asks him to take care of his cat for a few days, Hank suddenly finds himself caught in the middle of a motley crew of threatening gangsters who all want a piece of him. Problem is, he has absolutely no idea why. As Hank attempts to evade their ever-tightening grip, he’s got to use all his hustle to stay alive long enough to find out… 

Based on the 2004 novel by Charlie Huston.

THE ROSES CERT tbc
Released Friday 28 August
Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Olivia Colman, Allison Janney, Andy Samberg, Kate McKinnon
Directed by Jay Roach

Life seems easy for picture-perfect couple Ivy (Olivia Colman) and Theo (Benedict Cumberbatch): successful careers, a loving marriage, great kids. 

But beneath the façade of their seemingly ideal life, a storm is brewing. As Theo’s career nosedives while Ivy’s flourishes, a tinderbox of fierce competition and hidden resentment ignites...

The film is based on Warren Adler’s 1981 novel, which was previously adapted for the big screen in 1989 under its actual title of The War Of The Roses. The movie starred Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner as the titular couple, with Danny DeVito in a supporting role and also taking the directorial reins.