and prepare to tap, clap and stomp your way through an uplifting new dance documentary, step. quite an eclectic mix this week, james. let's start with the big blockbuster. it looks like one. yes, atomic blonde, so charlize theron stars in this. it's a spy thriller directed by a guy called david leitch. previously he's worked on a movie called john wick with keanu reeves, that was a big hit a couple of years back. there are similarities, they are both very stylish. style over content, really. very violent, very polished, very cartoonish. but atomic blonde has some basis in real events because it is set in 1989 after the fall of the berlin wall. charlize theron is a spy sent there by the british government to track down a list of missing agents. let's have a look. 0k. so, is this your first time in berlin? yes. well, it is a remarkable time to be here. wonderful music.

superb nightlife, marvellous restaurants. you must try the central cafe for a drink. you'll need it later. you remembeer abramowitz, don't you? of course you do. yeah. we can kind of guess what happens after that. it has been hard to find clips of any duration which are not violent. she's quite adept with her stilettos, is charlize. it is ridiculous. however, i think there is some fun to be had with its ridiculousness. firstly, charlize theron is great and there is a pairing that she has with james mcavoy, we didn't see it in that clip, but he's a fellow british agent in berlin and he's crazy and over the top and she is ice cool and very measured so they have this great chalk and cheese partnership. that really works. she's such a watchable actress, isn't she?

very watchable actress. looks great in this, of course is an oscar winner, she can actually act. i wouldn't say she particularly has to act that much in this, but we know she can. and the style is great, this industrial punk aesthetic to it, this pumping 19805 electro soundtrack. we can see a bit of action, the car chases and the fights are stunning and relentless. it almost beats you into submission. with it being visually striking should it remind us of pulp fiction, is that what he's after, the slick look with the violence that goes with it? what it does not have that pulp fiction had is the witty, clever script. it is easy to be snobbish and say the plot is flimsy and stretched. it means you can get away with quite a lot. i think it relishes its own silliness and pulpy quality. it acknowledges that and when a film is shameless about it it can get away with much more. is it a missed opportunity

because the time period in which it is set, berlin, such a great city, it could be the most fantastic story. are they not bothered about that. a slightly missed opportunity but still worth seeing, a male fantasy of a female spy, i don't think many spies are six foot tall former models wandering around in stockings and suspenders. but there is just enough awareness for it to get away with it and i would happily watch another, that movie hasn't done really well but if there is a sequel i wouldn't complain. 0k. we move to something that could not be more different. i am intrigued that this was shot in secret, is it apocryphal that the director was so concerned about how it might end up that he thought, i just won't tell people i am making it. it is very low budget. this is david lowery, last year he moved into the mainstream because he made a film with disney

called pete's dragon, so a remake of the old disney story. but that was out of characterfor him. he's much more of an independent, low budget film maker, this is a return to that. this is a ghost story as the title suggests. not a horrorfilm, a drama. casey affleck plays a recently deceased man who returns in spirit to his home to watch over his grieving partner, rooney mara. he is still wearing the sheet that he had placed over him in the morgue. talking about difficult clips to find, it is hard to show you any clips out of context because pacing and the rhythm of the film is so key. it is a very slow film. there are many takes were seemingly not much happens, the camera is very static and quiet. there's probably more music than dialogue in it. it's even shot in the old 4x3 ratio, the square tv ratio to make it

feel claustrophobic. so it's pretty bold and risk taking. i can understand why david lowery might want to keep it secret in case it did not work. i think it does work. you have to take a bit of a leap of faith to get into its rhythm and slowness but when you do it is rewarding and a film about memory and legacy and slow change. ok, i am a bit worried the trailer might put people off, it's quite bizarre! it isn't that kind of movie. what is your third choice? a documentary, called step. people use the word ‘feelgood' too much, to the point of redundancy but this is genuinely a feel good movie. a documentary about a girl's dance troupe, called the lethal ladies working out of a high school in inner—city baltimore. the film focuses on three of the girl dancers in particular, about their hopes and aspirations. trying to break the cycle of poverty they come from and get out of baltimore and into college.

very charismatic leads, the people in the film are very charismatic. as we will see in this clip. this is the girls in training. you will watch me step. actually, i'm going to make you watch me step. i'm going to get my step, it's going to get up in your grill. i'm going to take you by your neck and you're gonna watch me do what i do. that's what you're supposed to project, every time you get in front of somebody. that's what you step on. if you're not stepping on it, sit down, go home, good night. stand to attention and give me that face. nothing to stop! i like that teacher, i am not missing with her. she's brilliant, everyone is brilliant. it's a really uplifting story.

it's uplifting because it does not scrimp on the hardships. these people that we focus on have had tough lives. there is a lot of anger and it's set among the backdrop of the black lives matter movement and the female empowerment movement. so there are tough issues going on. that makes it all the more feel—good when the highs come along and when it gets more optimistic. it's not really a film about stepping as a dance. if you don't know much about stepping, very popular in american colleges, but it's not about the technique and history of stepping. really it's a film about what dance means to people when they don't have much else. i'm really looking forward to that one. and for best out this week you have delighted me because it is a reissue and what a pleasure it was to watch this film so many years later. this is prick up your ears. re—released, a movie about playwright joe orton, rereleased for the 50th anniversary of his death, the film

actually came out in 1987, so the film itself is 30 years old. stephen frears is the director, alan bennett is the writer, based on the diaries ofjoe orton, which we see in the movie. we see john lahr who was the editor, played by wallace shawn in the movie. and then it flashes back to the life ofjoe orton. gary oldman is amazing as orton. i am always reminded of a couple of things, first that time in the 80s when gary oldman and contemporaries like daniel day lewis and tim roth were the angry young men of british cinema and the future of british cinema. weren't they? now daniel day lewis has announced his retirement! and gary oldman will be playing winston churchill! so you feel very old watching this! secondly, more importantly, what alan bennett did with this script is capture the whit and boisterousness that made joe orton such a great playwright in the 1960s. gary oldman great, vanessa redgrave, for me, it is alfred molina's movie.

he plays kenneth halliwell, orton‘s lover. they had an ultimately tragic and shocking relationship. he steals the show. but what is so striking, as you say, the film is 30 years old and it is a litany of wonderful actors because the mother of orton is played byjulie walters and his sister is played by frances barber, these people are part of britain's acting firmament. alan bennett has become even more part of the furniture. what he does brilliantly is give us movies that feel traditional but they are pretty out there when you look at what is going on. now quick thought about the dvd. raw, belgian/french horror movie about a student who goes to vetinary college and discovers a cannibalistic tendencies. beautifully unsettling. determined to freak you out with the acting, performing and lighting and editing.

it is like carrie directed by salvador dali! it weird, but it is wonderful. james, thanks very much. james king, thanks for being with us and that's just about it for this week. enjoy your cinema going. goodbye. hello, there. after a mixed, changeable, and in places very soggy week of weather, the weekend is looking a little bit different. it will be mostly dry, and there will be some spells of sunshine. having said that, quite a cloudy start for many on saturday morning, particularly across southern england and the channel islands. the odd spot of drizzle here. things brighten up through the day. across—the—board patchy cloud and sunny spells. yes, one or two showers, but they will be the exception rather than the rule.

many places will stay dry. so let's take a closer look, then, at a:00pm in the afternoon, and across the south—west of england we'll see some spells of sunshine. no heatwave — 18 in plymouth, 19 in cardiff. the odd shower in the hills of wales, and into the midlands as well. mainly fine for north—west england, 18 or 19 degrees. and for northern ireland, it is a story of patchy cloud, some sunny breaks, and temperatures about 18 in belfast. similar temperature for glasgow, 16 in aberdeen, and just a couple of showers across scotland. most places dry. and it is a similar for north—east england, down into east anglia and the south—east. sunny skies, patchy cloud at times. temperatures in dover, about 21 degrees. some spots could get to around 22 degrees celsius. so, on balance, it should stay dry for the world championship athletics. only the small chance of a shower, and temperatures up into the 20s. as we go on through saturday evening, this area of high pressure is building its way in from the west, with light winds and clear skies.

there could be the odd mist patch and it is going to turn quite chilly, especially in the countryside. towards the north—west we could possibly get down to four degrees. if you're out early on sunday it could be cool, but sunday is looking like a cracking day, with plenty of sunshine. a little bit more cloud developing into the afternoon, but the vast majority will stay dry all day long. temperatures — 17 in glasgow, 19 in cardiff, 22 degrees in london. but, as we go into the start of the new working week, things take a turn for the worse again, if you don't like wet weather, that is. this rain working its way in from the west. heavy downpours potentially. ahead of that, some warmth into the south—east, but most places fairly cool. monday night into tuesday, this frontal system responsible for the wet weather doesn't move anywhere fast. so still some wet weather to come on tuesday, most likely across north—eastern scotland. a mixture of sunshine and showers elsewhere. these showers could be heavy, possibly thundery into the south—east,

and highs of 16—23 degrees. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is duncan golestani. our top stories: president trump keeps up the war of words on north korea. as the heated rhetoric continues, he again warns pyongyang not to target us territories. and, if anything happens to guam, there's going to be big, big trouble in north korea. kenya's re—elected president appeals for calm after being declared the winner of tuesday's disputed election. the opposition claims the vote was a charade. at least 37 people die as two trains collide in northern egypt. it is the country's worst rail crash in years. the nuclear bunker that became a cannabis factory. a british courtjails three men after police break up a major drugs ring.