hello and welcome to the film review on bbc news, and taking us through this week's releases is jason sullivan. what have you got for us? this week, we go to beirut in 1982. it's mad men in the middle east, wherejohn hamm tries to negotiate the release of a hostage in the negotiator. and there's a big goldfish, an angry one coming up. there it is, jason statham getting his teeth into the meg, and a prehistoric shark is on the loose. can he save us from it? and we take a rare cinematic trip to paraguay for a film called the heiresses. it's about late flowering freedom found amongst older women. so let's start with the negotiator. this has been billed as sort of bond or bourne meets mad men, in beirut. that's right, bourne is a particularly good example, because it's written by tony gilroy, the scriptwriter who wrote the first four bourne films and directed one of them himself. so he's very good on the shady operations of the cia and the negotiations that happen,

and mad men, because donald draper, one of the great tv characters of our time, was played byjohn hamm, who left the television after that series to go to the movies, and i don't think he's ever quite had a part that matches don draper — there are very few around — until now. he plays mason skiles. it's not as good a name as don draper, i'll give you that. but he is enjoying the high life in 1970s beirut, when a terrorist incident ruins his life and family. ten years later, he's a washed—up alcoholic settling small trade disputes in notown, america and propping up the local bar, which is when he gets a strange tap on the shoulder and the cia, in shady form, try to recruit him again.

$6,500 and a first class ticket. i wouldn't go back to beirut if it was the last place on earth. flight leaves at 8:45pm tonight. well, it sounds like you've got about six hours to find somebody else. i was told that is not an option. look, i have no idea what's happening here. it would be a lot easier for both of us if i did. but, er... i was told to tell you that... time is extremely tight and the agency would be deeply grateful for your cooperation. it's a serious request, they know that. tell them i don't have a passport. they put one in there with the ticket. so what do you make of it, jason? well, off he goes to beirut and he's given a handler called sandy, a local cia operative, played by rosamund pike, with a succession of cold stares, which helps him through the rubble of beirut. this film is really good on the atmosphere of the crumbling town that beirut has become, because it's been seized from all sides, druze militia on one side, muslims, christians, thejewish

negotiations with the israelis. we don't know who's got the hostage — is it the plo, is it the various militias? it was an extraordinary time in the middle east. i don't know if you were out there as a news correspondent... i was sent to beirut actually in the ‘80s. john mccarthy had just been kidnapped. it was just a terrifying time. so hostage—taking was all the rage, in a way, terry waite and john mccarthy, and that's the era we are in here, especially with the americans trying to horse trade. they wanted the release of another terrorist. it becomes a moral maze as well as a kind of bond scenario. the tension is great. it's a real game of poker, which is what mason skiles is really good at, and that's whatjohn hamm excels at. he's got this sort of sweaty, intense desperation. one thing that's refreshing about the film is it's a lot of adults talking a lot. the action is not as much as it would be in a bourne, although that's there, but a lot of it is about

the negotiations and the quick talking and shady characters. you never know who to trust or not. there is always going to be a switcheroo and a double—cross at the end. it's available in cinemas and on download as well today, and it's called beirut in some territories. if you are looking for the negotiator, sometimes it's called beirut. that's a bit confusing! there you go. let's move on to the meg, which is definitely called just the meg, about a prehistoric shark. it sounds like a watery version ofjurassic park. yeah, i thought it might be like a dance inspired by meg ryan in katz‘s deli doing that fake orgasm, but it's not. it's just jason statham taking on a prehistoric shark, which has been awoken from the sea bed by a billionaire sea explorer. jason, who plays a deep sea rescuer, obviously, goes down in his submersible to try and save people stranded at the bottom, but they awake this shark. something huge is out there, they say. yes, it is. there's this huge shark, like jaws after a lot of fish food. he's got bigger and bigger. almost too big — you can't really see the monster that well. it's almost not as scary as it

should be, but there are moments where it leaves teeth marks on the glass, and that is a scary fish! that doesn't deter statham, who dives in. he was a former diver, actually, in his previous career, before he became an action hero. so the watery stuff he's really good at, diving off boats, taking on the shark with his captain ahab moment. look, it's a silly, popcorn, summer blockbuster movie, and it does deliver on all of those. interestingly, although it's about a prehistoric monster, it's probably the future of blockbusters, with a lot of chinese characters in it, because that's the burgeoning market. and it's set in some chinese resort, a swishy chinese resort where there are a lot of people in the water and they need to get out pretty quick before the shark comes. but statham will be there to save them, don't worry, and if you are worried, as seems to be contractually obliged, in alljason statham films, he does get his top off at some point. it's up to you to decide if that's anything to do with it. all right.

thank you very much for that. and then we've got the heiresses, which is a spanish drama. even more unusual than that, it's a paraguayan drama. i'm not sure i've ever seen a film from paraguay. we've had a great latin american new wave of films from chile at the moment, argentina and brazil over the last 15 years. this is the first from paraguay and, if this is anything to go by, i hope there's a lot more to come. it's called the heiresses, and it's a really extraordinary story about two women who live in a crumbling mansion in the capital of paraguay. that's a good question — what's the capital of paraguay? er... it's asuncion. of course, i did know that. it was on the tip of my tongue. ecuador? no. so in asuncion, and i've never really seen it in the cinema before, but it's obviously a capital that is riven by inequality, so there's the wealthy area, where this is set, and it's about class privilege, but it's also about a female couple who live in a house they've clearly

inherited, but they are coming up on hard times. one of them might be sent to prison for tax evasion, so they are selling off the family silver. ok, it looks pretty atmospheric. it is. the atmosphere is really good, the cinematography, the kind of crumbling nature of this area, but also the faces that we get. one of the women that we see there is chela. when her partner gets sent to jail, that prison is very evocative. it's a chaotic space with poorer people. she ends up sort of ferrying richer women around, because they don't trust local taxi drivers in paraguay. in most of south america, a risk of kidnap is a major thing. there's a lot of it about this week in the movies. she becomes a sort of local taxi driverfor the rich, the ladies who lunch in this area of asuncion, and she suddenly discovers a freedom when she gets behind the wheel of a car, a late—flowering romance with another woman called angie, who she finds rather sensual and striking, played by ana ivanova. the woman, chela, won the best actress at the berlin film

festival earlier this year for her performance. it's her first screen performance ever. that's how rare cinema is in paraguay. she's been a stage actress all her life and this is her first ever screen appearance. you'd never know. she's brilliant. i hope there is more from paraguay. and a really impressive debut. probably the film of the week. 0k. jason, best out at the moment? the best film out at the moment, i know there is mamma mia and mission impossible, but if you are looking for a sort of small british success, there is a film called apostasy, which is out at the moment. again, a rare glimpse into a society i'd never seen on camera before. it's jehovah's witnesses. the writer and director of this, dan kokotajlo, was a jehovah's witness growing up and he's sort of now showing what it's like in there. if you've ever wondered what it's like — and it's notjust the jehovah's witnesses, it's any religion, any sect where the intensity, children are growing up and splitting from the mother and questioning things... you rarely see a british film that's actually about religion or about faith, and that's what this is.

i thought it was brilliant. fantastic performances from molly wright and siobhan finneran, who plays the mother. a brilliant glance into a bit of british society which, you think you've seen it all, you haven't. and a quick look at the best dvd. a big change of pace here! i'm going for peter rabbit, which is out. not anything immediately to do with beatrix potter, which i always found a bit twee, be honest. this is james corden voicing beatrix potter's fluffy—tailed hero, and i think he does it rather well. i think it's funny. it got terrible reviews when it came out, including from me, and i've since seen it with my kids and i think it's really funny. they love it, it's got a lot of energy, and it's kind of anarchic and funny, and very well done in many places, with lots of characters for the animals. it's a very funny film, and i'm sorry i gave it a bad review in the first place. i'm retracting that and saying it's good. jason, you've changed your mind.

thank very much indeed, jason. that is it for this week. thank you for watching the film review. bye— bye. while many of us all some sunshine on saturday, sunday was a different story with a lot of cloud around, outbreaks of rain. this sums up sunday afternoon quite well. a large swathe of the weather in lincolnshire. by contrast the best weather has been in shetland, 11! hours this afternoon, because for shetland and orkney they have been in the south of these were fronts. they will continue to work eastwards overnight and continuing to bring some heavy and thundery showers which are currently from southern scotla nd which are currently from southern scotland down to north—west england, east wales, the west midlands,

continuing to work eastwards, bringing heavy downpours of rain in places. behind it, clearspells, bringing heavy downpours of rain in places. behind it, clear spells, the chance of a look at the media shower, and cloud across scotland and outbreaks of rain here, clear skies for shetland, loads of io— 15. so the area of low pressure is still close by. lingering along eastern coast of scotland and england. and still helping to generate showers. for england and wales you can sum up monday as a day of sunny spells and showers. and where we have the showers, they could be heavy and thundery. meanwhile, we have a lot of cloud across scotland, still bringing outbreaks of rain, which will slowly work northwards. they will slowly work northwards. they will fizzle out and again the best of the sunshine across shetland. temperatures for scotland 15 — i9. northern ireland, 20— 2a in england and wales with the best of the sunshine. the best of the sunshine

remains across central, eastern and southern england. further north and west, cloud, outbreaks of rain into northern ireland, northern england, western scotland, feeling cool. 17— 20. further south and east, temperatures might top 25— 26 for south—east england and east anglia and similaron south—east england and east anglia and similar on tuesday. areas closest to high pressure. further north and west, a brisk breeze and further outbreaks of rain into wednesday. it could be quite windy for western coasts on wednesday. still holding onto the warmth and the sunshine south and east. not for long. the rain sweeps across to all of us on thursday, introducing fresh conditions once again. so to sum up the week, windy at times, quite gusty for the western coast, showers and long spells of rain, but warmest and long spells of rain, but warmest and driest in the south and east. good night. i'm karishma vaswani in singapore. the headlines: torrential rain and flooding

across much of china, a dramatic rescue in the city of xi'an, as a sinkhole opens up in the street grief in yemen ahead of the funerals of children killed in a saudi air strike, the worst attack involving children in three years of war. i'm babita sharma in london. also in the programme: tight security in the us capital, washington, where a handful of white supremacists have held a brief rally. they were expecting up to 400 people to turn up. on its way to the sun. nasa's space probe begins its ambitious 7—year journey to reveal more about the solar