uk cinemas reopened this week with films that have previously been available on streaming services such as minari, mortal kombat and raya and the last dragon playing alongside new releases like those who wish me dead. why'd they put you in a fire tower? well, i'mjust lucky, i guess. angelina jolie plays smoke jumper hannah, combating forest fires in montana. hannah is a wild card, haunted by guilty memories of a mission in which she misjudged the wind, with grim consequences. having been sent to spend a season alone atop a fire tower, her path conveniently crosses

with that of a young boy lost and on the run after his father was targeted by sinister hit men, played by aidan gillen and nicholas hoult. give �*em something else to worry about. music sting. loosely adapted from a novel by michael koryta and directed by taylor sheridan, whose credits include the oscar—nominated screenplay for hell or high water, this is solidly pedestrian stuff — a by—the—numbers, box—ticking affair spiced up by shoot—outs, lightning strikes and some very impressive fire—scapes. we can't go through that! that eats everything in its path! none of it is particularly believable, withjolie looking far too much like a movie star to convince as a battle—scarred firefighter. still, her character is far more convincing than the hit men, who were essentially upmarket, b movie caricatures, killing everyone they meet whilst complaining about the scenery in entertainingly daft fashion. he's still on duty —

you can try him on your radio. on the other hand, you have medina senghore stealing the show as the most indomitably bad—assed mother—to—be since frances mcdormand's marge gunderson in fargo. no masterpiece, then, but distracting popcorn fare, tailor—made to be seen on the big screen. on the subject of indomitable women, sigourney weaver achieved iconic status as ripley in the alien movies — a role which earned her an academy award nomination. she's had two further oscar nods for working girl and gorillas in the mist, and starred in such varied fair as ghostbusters, the ice storm and the cult sci—fi spoof galaxy quest. in her new movie my new york year, from the 2014 memoir byjoanna rakoff, weaver plays old—school literary agent margaret, whose most high—profile client is reclusive catcher in the rye authorjd salinger. well? i like it.

really? but what do you make of it? i'm not sure what you mean. well, it's not a kids�* book, is it? no, no. it's about kids for grown—ups. it's about female friendship. but will adults buy a book about kids? can i sell it? into margaret's agency comesjoanna, a college grad played by once upon a time in hollywood co—star margaret qualley who has never read salinger but aspires to be a poet. she's set to work dealing with salinger�*s fan mail, ensuring that no—one gets to the writer, while keeping an eye out for anything suspicious. jd salinger on phone: don't getl stuck answering the phone, joanna! you're a poet! what follows is a whimsical drama in which salinger befriends joanna over the phone and encourages her to concentrate on her writing, despite margaret's fierce insistence that she must never telljerry that she's a writer. there are echoes of the master—slave relationship at the heart of the devil wears prada, although this has none of the bite of that acerbic novel—turned—film.

instead, it settles for something more twee — a nostalgic world observed with dewy—eyed wonder by a character who, although based on real life, never seems real. is it on? but weaver has fun as the imperious grande dame who cannot abide computers and whose withering look is worth the price of admission. it's in cinemas now. a decade ago, saw 3d, the seventh film in the torture—packed franchise, promised to be the final instalment. fat chance! after 2017's jigsaw, we now have a ninth movie, portentously entitled spiral: from the book of saw. what is that? "play me." digitally modified voice:

hello, detective banks. directed by darren lynn bousman, who held episodes two, three and four, this new chapter stars chris rock, promising to do for the saw franchise what 48 hours did for buddy cop movies. he's zeke, a wisecracking detective whose dad, played by samuel ljackson, was a legend in the force. i could've killed you. faced with a jigsaw—style copycat targeting the police, loner zeke, who's watching his back after turning in a dirty cop, finds himself paired with a wide—eyed rookie played by max minghella. detective banks. zeke initially hates the rookie because, hey, that's what cliched movie cops do. but gradually, he comes to respect him because, hey, that's what cliched movie cops do. based on a script that has been polished by rock — and remember, there are some things you just can't polish — spiral seems to be pulling in two different directions. on the one hand, there's rock doing his post—eddie murphy procedural shtick and on the other,

there's the elaborate set pieces in which people get horribly tortured by ridiculously complicated machinery while a puppet explains the plot on a tape. when�*s the last time you saw your father? the saw franchise may be predicated upon these set pieces but it would help if they actually made sense and didn't leave you wondering a, how the killer designed, built and then set up all this machinery without anyone noticing, and b, what exactly the point of the traps is — particularly the one that seems to offer the victim the choice between death and, er, death, without even the possibility of cake. most importantly, for all its grotesquery, nothing in spiral is scary, with its plot twists provoking not shocks but groans. it's in cinemas now. meanwhile, over on netflix, we have army of the dead, the latest from zack snyder, who recently scored an online hit with his director's cut ofjustice league. is there anybody else here who hasn't killed a zombie?

well, we all know the basics. zombies, shamblers, the undead — whatever you want to call them — when it comes to killing them, it's all about the brain. quietly: brain. one comes at you, shoot in the brain. it's that simple. any questions? yes. what if i took a big rock and smashed it into the head? would — would that work? best known for such comic book—inspired movies as 300, watchmen and batman v superman, snyder cut his teeth on a remake of george romero's zombie classic dawn of the dead. in army of the dead, he conjures a satirical world in which a zombie outbreak has been confined to the walled—off environs of las vegas — a place that's always been hell on earth, but is now doubly so. what the. . ? shh! with a nuclear strike looming, muscle—bound dave bautista leads a ragtag troop back into vegas to raid a vault in one of the casinos, and also to try to save a mother who went missing in sin city some weeks earlier.

it's not too late to go back. with so many zombie movies in the past few years, it's unsurprising that army of the dead — of which a prequel and a spin—off anime—style series are on the way — seems so unoriginal, lifting riffs from everything from romero's movies to world war z to return of the living dead part iii. what's more surprising is just how much snyder and his co—writers have pinched not only from john carpenter's escape from new york and escape from la, but also from james cameron's1986 gem aliens, which similarly spliced genres to altogether more gripping effect. bickering squad entering a deserted area full of temporarily dormant beasties? check. let's remember the team. parent—child jeopardy reconciliation theme? check. that's crossing the line. duplicitous company man who can't be trusted? check. foolhardy return to rescue someone as the clock counts

down to a nuclear blast? check. the difference is that while aliens was a nail—biting combination of horror movie and war movie, this not—very—humorous horror heist hybrid settles for altogether more goofy splatter thrills, content to throw blood and entrails around without ever getting beneath the surface of the story. but when it comes to snyder's films, surface is everything, as is length, with army of the dead clocking in at a bloated 2.5 hours when it could have been in and out in 89 minutes. oh, and note to film—makers — putting a gurning cameo by trump's former press secretary sean spicer in your movie is never a good idea. ever. army of the dead is on netflix now. i'll leave you with news of rare beasts, in which star of stage, screen and pop charts billie piper adds writer—director to her cv. speaks breathily: even though i feel scared and angry, - i still love and respect myself.

a post—fleabag era tale of dysfunctional male—female relationships teamed with humour and a hint of horror, it's an ambitious work boosted by an exceptional cast. so, why are you single, pete? i find women intolerable. right. piper plays mandy, a single mum living with her own mum, played by kerry fox. when mandy goes out on a date with uptight workmate pete, played by leo bill, he tells her that he finds women intolerable but he refuses to be without one — something that should send her running for the hills. instead, she embarks upon a masochistic relationship with pete while simultaneously trying to reconcile with her selfish father, played by david thewlis, and to raise her anxiously twitchy son. yells: every wife, - respect your husband! there are stylistic echoes of craig roberts�*s eternal beauty, in which piper and thewlis co—starred, both in the mix of tragedy and comedy

and in the heightened theatrical reality which occasionally tips over into fantasy. i want a man! at times, this super stylised performative approach can seem distracting, and some audiences will struggle to engage with the characters, but the examination of modern gender roles is intriguing, entertaining and honest. and while mandy may be an uncertain character riddled with self—doubt, piper's direction is bold and confident, suggesting that a future career behind the camera awaits. rare beasts is in cinemas and online now. that's it for this week. thanks for watching the film review. stay safe, and i'll see you next week. how'd you get in here? are you forgetting who the landlord is? yeah, but that doesn't give you the right to just walk in here anytime you want! renters got rights. you start paying some rent, you can get some rights.

hello there. the weather charts are pointing towards something a little drier, more settled toward the end of the week at long last because it has been a very wet may for virtually all parts of the uk. but some areas have had nearly 300% of their average may rainfall. and this week is starting on an unsettled note. the rain moving through on sunday, and showers following for the day ahead. this is the area of low pressure that brought that intense rain and strong winds for a time. it has actually become stuck or slow moving across the north of scotland. that will be with us through monday. we can see clearing in eastern areas by dawn, but showers do follow, but under the clearing skies i think the morning could start on a chilly note, perhaps a touch of frost in rural parts of northern ireland and a bright start. a little bit of mist around and that clears. and then sunshine prevails for a time but already the showers in the west are developing more widely, our rain circulating, our area of low pressure moving to the northern isles after a dry start here and after the fine start in northern ireland, chilly albeit,

the rain arrives in the afternoon. now, the showers will end up being slow—moving, some torrential downpour with hail and thunder, but the sunshine in between lifts the temperature to iii or 15. those showers and thunderstorms continue to go through the evening, only easing slowly overnight, tomorrow night not as chilly and some respite potentially in western areas later but really we have bands of cloudy, showery weather for tuesday, heavy showers particularly in scotland and central and eastern england. we may have something a little wetter as well for the southwest on tuesday. in between there may be fewer showers but they will still be intense when they come along. light winds, strong sunshine, building some really big thunderstorms potentially with hail. come wednesday, just the hint things are starting to settle down. we still have weather fronts around but they do look a little bit weaker. a few heavy showers following in behind, not certainly a dry picture but probably fewer of those intense downpours and therefore temperatures will creep up — i6, 17 in the sunshine.

that's because we have that little ridge of high pressure potentially just keeping these weather fronts at bay, or even if they do come in later in the week, they are likely to be weaker. that is, they will not give as much rainfall as we have seen of late in may. just the signs things are starting to settle a little later in the week and perhaps a little warmer too by then.

this is bbc news. i'm philippa thomas with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. international outrage as belarus forces a passenger plane to land, and then detains an opposition activist on board. roman protasevich is now in custody. the plane was allowed to fly on to lithuania, where passengers described their ordeal. we all were being checked and they were standing in front of us with guns. a mountain cable car plunges to the ground in northern italy, killing 14 people. children of the border. we hear some of the desperate accounts of the thousands of youngsters detained after entering america illegally. and the eurovision winner's lead singer agrees to a drugs test after speculation over this competition footage.