So ladies and gentlemen, are you sitting comfortably? Well you should be! 

It’s #AtTheFlix and once again, I encourage you to take some welcome respite from the soccer in Brazil and turn your attentions to the cinema. As always, it’s a mixed bag of stuff, so let’s separate the Arsenals from the Accrington Stanley.

Ready for the kick off?

Edge of Tomorrow (12A)

This week’s big, big-screen picture sees director Doug Liman team up with Tom Cruise for a new sci-fi thriller set in a near future where an alien race has hit the Earth in an unrelenting assault, unbeatable by any military unit in the world.

Tom Cruise plays an officer who has never seen a day of combat when he is unceremoniously dropped into what amounts to a suicide mission. Killed within minutes, Cage finds himself inexplicably thrown into a time loop-forcing him to live out the same brutal combat over and over, fighting and dying again and again. 

With each battle, Cage becomes able to engage the adversaries with increasing skill, alongside Special Forces warrior Rita Vrataski played by Emily Blunt, they take the fight to the aliens.

So proper popcorn action fodder with a Groundhog Day inspired scenaro, and initial feedback has shown it to be gripping, funny and well-acted in equal measure. 

Fans of big Summer spectacles take note!

Jersey Boys (15)

Director Clint Eastwood brings the Tony Award-winning musical to the big screen. Jersey Boys tells the story of the four young men from the wrong side of the tracks in New Jersey who came together to form the iconic `60s rock group The Four Seasons. 

Their trials and triumphs are accompanied by the hit songs that influenced a generation, and Eastwood focusses quite a lot on backstory using a biopic film structure, albeit interweaving the musical elements.

But, let’s be honest, and the editor of this site may possibly testify, it’s mainly about the tunes. [Yep the music is the star, but the story is a true (blue collar) New Jersey account, with one or two surprise faces, if this stays with the stage version — Ed]

3 Days to Kill (12A)

Yep, not 1 or 2, but 3. No rush then?

Directed by that bloke McG* and scripted from the Luc Besson cheesy action school camp which brought you the likes of The Transporter and Taken, Kevin Costner takes a leaf out of Liam Neeson‘s book and becomes the 50/60 something to turn bad-ass.

The story sees Costner as a dangerous international spy determined to give up his high stakes life to build a closer relationship with his estranged wife and daughter. The crux is, he must complete one last mission by hunting down the world’s most ruthless terrorist and looking after his teenage daughter for the first time in ten years, while his wife is out of town.

Yep, it’s B movie type action stuff and in the absence of the likes of Neeson or Statham, is it a welcome return to the big time for Costner? Critics aren’t too sure but the team behind Transporter and Taken often deliver trash with a sense of fun.I  suspect the film’s success will all depends on Coster’s leading man credentials.

* His full name is Joseph McGinty Nichol, if you weren’t aware. Does that make his abbreviated name any cooler?

Pantani: The Accidental Death of a Cyclist (15)

Showing at the mac on Wednesday and Thursday next week, this is a documentary telling the story of Marco Pantani, one of my cycling heroes growing up.

In 1998 Marco Pantani, the most flamboyant and popular cyclist of his era, won both the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia.

He was the saviour of cycling following the doping scandals which threatened to destroy the sport. However, less than six years later, aged just 34, he died alone, in a cheap Italian hotel room. Pantani: The Accidental Death of a Cyclist explores the startling truth behind one man’s remarkable descent from being amongst the finest athletes on earth to his tragic end in a sport riven by intrigue.

James Bond Selection

And lest I forget, I must stick my James Bond fanboy hat on for a minute.  

The Crescent Theatre recently ran a poll called The James Bond Selection, where the public was invited to vote for a Bond film from a selection from across the 50 years of the franchise.

You voted and Daniel Craig’s debut, the rip-roaringly brilliant Casino Royale came out winner, and is being shown next Thursday 26th as part of a special red-carpet event in partnership with Birmingham Favourites. There’s black tie, live music, free nibbles, goodie bags and it promises to be an extremely fun night.  So, don your finest evening dress and raise a Vodka Martini to this most brilliant event.

Take advantage of a special offer by clicking here. 

That’s it from me for this week. Any comments, please drop me a tweet @timmy666.

Until next week ….

After a brief one-week hiatus, the regular slot known at At The Flix returns its rightful place here at Birmingham Favourites.

And to paraphrase Roger Moore, “when one is in the cinema, one must delve deeply into its pleasures”, so let’s delve, and do it, deeply:

22 Jump Street (15)

Yes, it’s the sequel to number 21 with Messrs. Hill and Tatum going deep undercover at a local college. Early reviews stay that the film stays to the formula of the original 21 Jump Street – improvisation, self-depreciating humour (poking fun at a comedy sequel) and a more confident “bromantic” back and forth between the two leads. More of the same often works in sequels, and if 21 Jump Street made you laugh, then this will too!

Grace of Monaco (PG)

This is the film that got given one of the most hostile receptions at the Cannes Film Festival, but it’s Cannes, and quite a lot of things get boo-ed. This though was so massively panned. The biopic follows former Hollywood star Grace Kelly’s (played by Nicole Kidman) crisis of marriage and identity, during a political dispute between Monaco’s Prince Rainier (Tim Roth) and France’s Charles De Gaulle, and a looming French invasion of Monaco in the early 1960s. Critics have laid into everything from the performances to the film’s overpowering sense of artifice and melodrama. There are clear echoes to Naomi Watts and the biopic Diana here, but surely it can’t be that bad?

Jimmy’s Hall (12A)

Acclaimed film-maker Ken Loach brings us Jimmy’s Hall, the true-life story of James Gralton (played by Barry Ward) – a self-educated, community-serving man of the people who became public enemy number one as far as the Catholic church and local land owners were concerned.

Gralton’s crime was to build a hall for the locals to serve as a venue for community dances were held there, boxing classes, singing lessons, poetry appreciation sessions and – most importantly – earnest debates about workers’ rights. For the Church and the ruling class, the hall and the man who built it represented something dangerous and subversive, leading to Gralton to becoming the first Irishman to be deported from his own country.

This once again is furtive, powerful stuff from Loach, combining strong, lyrical storytelling with a strong political underbelly, and proving what fire burns deep inside his filmmaking at every turn.

Pulp: A Film About Life, Death And Supermarkets (12A)

Britpop legends Pulp get the cinema treatment of Jarvis Cocker and the gang charting the history of the group from their start in the 1980s through to their farewell show some 25 years later.  Documentary filmmaker Florian Habicht provides an intimate documentary of the band, their ties to their home city Sheffield, and the enduring centrepiece of the film and the band, aka Mr Cocker himself. 

Being broadcast over the weekend (including Cineworld Birmingham), the special screening is broadcast live from Sheffield City Hall and will be followed by an extended Q&A with Habicht and the band.

Roundup of other films this week …

Elsewhere, the mac give you a chance to see Ilo Ilo (showing Tues 10 – Thurs 12 June), a film screened at Cannes to very strong reviews. Set in Singapore during the Asian financial crisis of 1997, it focuses on the relationship between bratty, spoilt ten-year-old Jiale and his strict new nanny Terry, who comes from Ilo Ilo in the Philippines.

Other highlights in Birmingham this week, include a chance to catch again Hayao Miyazaki’s spellbinding (supposedly) final feature, The Wind Rises and reshowings of Frank and Next Goal Wins at the mac.    

Ok, that’s it from me. As always, any comments, please sent them my way to @timmy666 or to @BrumFaves on twitter. Until next week, keep supporting your local cinema.

Muster your mutant powers for this week’s supercharged slab of celluloid goodness otherwise known as At The Flix. 

X-Men: Days Of Future Past (3D) (12A)

Rewind back 15 years and the X-Men were the first on the scene in terms of Marvel’s rise as a cinematic superpower (no pun intended).

Bryan Singer‘s X-Men series brings together both X Men universes for an action-packed new adventure to the franchise. Frankly, what an exciting place to be if you’re looking a film blockbuster. The X-Men send Wolverine to the past, as you do, in a last ditch effort to change history and prevent an event that results in doom for both humans and mutants.

This is pure popcorn entertainment with Messrs McKellen, Stewart, Jackman, McAvoy, Fassbender, Lawrence et al providing equal parts thesp and brawn to this big mainstream film with even bigger ideas.

Postman Pat: The Movie (U)

Who knew that when our post hero adorned our small screens (when many of us were small people) that Pat and his cat Jess would come back, but to the big screen. It’s also very British.

The plot finds Pat finding himself entering a TV talent show competition and the challenges that this provides to his life and work. With a cast ranging from Stephen Mangan at Pat through to the likes of David Tennant, Jim Broadbent, Rupert Grint and curiously Ronan Keating as Pat when singing, let’s hope that it is worthy of the legend of Pat and not something twee or overly televisual.

Blended (12A)

This week’s dubious comedy offering comes from the pairing of Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore.  The setup sounds like familiar fare. After a bad blind date, a man (Sandler) and woman (Barrymore) find themselves stuck together at a resort for families, where their attraction grows as their respective kids benefit from the burgeoning relationship.

With Sandler, for every Punch Drunk Love, there are many more films in the critical vein of Jack and Jill. The former proved that Sandler can deliver when given the right material. Yet, my expectation for this is one of diminishing returns and I’m not sure who this appeals to but there might be one or two.

An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker (12A)

Winner of the Silver Bear at last year’s Berlin Film Festival, the mac are showing  Danis Tanovic‘s latest film for a few days next week. This film follows a Roma family in rural Bosnia-herzegovina. The father salvages metal from old cars that he sells to a scrap‐dealer. The mother  keeps the house tidy, cooks, bakes and cares for their two small daughters. A third baby is on the way. One day, she feels a sharp pain in her abdomen.

At the hospital, she is told that there is something wrong with the baby she is carrying. She is at risk of septicemia and must undergo surgery immediately. Yet as she does not have a state‐provided health insurance card, the hospital requests that Senada pay 980 Bosnian marks (500 euros), which a fortune for Nazif.  Senada is denied the crucial surgery and forced to return home to their village.

For the next 10 days, the father does everything he can to try and save Senada’s life. It’s a race against time together with a mounting sense of hopelessness, played by a cast of non‐professional actors re‐enacting an episode from their own lives.  

Finally, fans of Studio Ghibli, please note that the Electric are showing showings of Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke. Go discover Miyazaki’s genius on the big screen again!

Ok, that’s it from me. As always, any comments, please sent them my way to @timmy666 or to @BrumFaves on twitter. Until next week, keep your local cinemas rocking!