What films are out in UK cinemas this week? Reviews from 28 Years later to Elio

The other big release this week is Elio, the latest feature from animation giant Pixar – this time a space-set adventure featuring all sorts of memorable alien characters.

You can read our verdicts on both films below, and they join an already jam-packed cinema roster that boasts the likes of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, How to Train Your Dragon and more independent features like Lollipop and Tornado.

Read on for your weekly round-up of all the films currently showing in UK cinemas.

What films are released in UK cinemas this week? 20th - 26th June

28 Years Later

More than two decades after 28 Days Later, director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland are back in the drivers’ seats to impart deeper wisdom about the longer-term aftermath of a world gone to hell in this zombie sequel.

It follows events on Holy Island off the coast of Northumbria, where a close-knit healthy community goes about the day-to-day rebuilding of a working society, including 30-something couple Jamie and Isla (Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer) and their 12-year-old offspring Spike (relative newcomer Alfie Williams) – who heads to the mainland for a coming-of-age initiation that sets the plot in motion.

Garland’s script suffers a little from disjointed pace, but there’s a more tangible sense of a mythology when Ralph Fiennes shows up in a role that is equal parts bonkers and charismatic. Young star Williams turns in an outstanding, remarkably layered performance, while the violence is suitably, shockingly, deftly choreographed. The result is a well-seasoned, emotionally nutritious soup that feeds its audience a more reflective, human story than before. – Terry Staunton

• Read our full 28 Years Later review
• Read our exclusive interview with Jodie Comer and Ralph Fiennes

Elio

An orphaned boy gets his wish when he’s abducted by aliens in this charming but emotionally distant Pixar animation. Elio (voiced by Yonas Kibreab) lives with his aunt Olga (Zoe Saldaña), spending his days sending messages to the cosmos in the hope he’ll make first contact. Then he gets kidnapped by creatures from the Communiverse, the greatest minds in the galaxy, under the belief he’s Earth’s leader.

To join them, he must negotiate peace with the warmongering alien Lord Grigon (Brad Garrett). Unsurprisingly, the intergalactic animation is sublime, with beautiful, transcendent shots of the milky way. Voice talent is also on point, with Shirley Henderson top notch as an alien super-computer.

Borrowing heavily from Steven Spielberg’s ET, Elio’s relationship with Grigon’s pacifist son Glordon (Remy Edgerly) is cute, but sadly the emotional heart isn’t quite strong enough to pull you through. Directors Domee Shi and Madeline Sharafian, who took over from Adrian Molina, have conjured a story more likely to appeal to youngsters than older Pixar fans. – James Mottram

• Read our full Elio review

The Last Journey

A road trip stirs insights into ageing, memory and filial love in this warm, witty and gently moving documentary. The subject is retired teacher Lars, who has lost his “spark” at 80. Desperate to revitalise his father, Lars’s adult son Filip proposes a shared car journey to France, revisiting the sites of past family adventures – but things don’t quite unfold as planned.

Helped by friend and collaborator Fredrik, journalist turned TV host Filip tries hard, even tracking down a vintage Renault for nostalgic effect. But an accident as the journey begins sounds a warning, and this mission for Lars soon becomes at least partly about Filip’s need to recognise his dad’s infirmities.

Still, Filip means well, and the flashes of joy and mutual affection on their gloriously scenic travels prove heartwarming to witness. Lifted by a well-chosen soundtrack, The Last Journey unfolds as an affirmative celebration of a life well lived, complete with a final surprise that would surely make the stoniest of cynics weep. – Kevin Harley

Best of the rest still showing in UK cinemas

Lollipop

Heartbreaking in the extreme and extraordinarily well acted, Lollipop sees debut feature director Daisy-May Hudson drawing from her personal experience of homelessness and hostel-living.

The film follows Molly (Posy Sterling) as she's released from prison following a short stretch only to find herself sleeping rough. As she succumbs to the frustrations associated with her predicament, the prospect of getting her young children (Tegan-Mia Stanley-Rhoads and Luke Howitt) back from foster care grows slimmer by the second.

Sterling gives a raw, raging turn as a flawed yet desperately devoted mother. TerriAnn Cousins plays Molly's heavy drinking mum, and Idil Ahmed is an old college friend who offers Molly a shoulder to cry on, while struggling with her own housing situation. The film boasts a Loachian sense of injustice as it illustrates Molly's plight and the bureaucratic nightmare she becomes caught up in. It's an essential example of British cinema banging a drum for those whose voices go unheard. – Emma Simmonds

• Read our interview with star Idil Ahmed

How to Train Your Dragon

The geeky son of a Viking chief forms a friendship with one the tribe's bitterest enemies, a dragon, in this thrilling live-action remake of the beloved children’s animated fantasy. Hiccup (Mason Thames) is training to be a dragon-slayer to impress his dad (Gerard Butler), but when he accidentally wounds a dragon, instead of killing it, he forms a bond with it that reveals a whole new side to the scaly fire-breathers.

As remakes go, this rates as one of the most loyal in Hollywood history. It’s almost a scene-for-scene copy, with much of the same dialogue and even some sequences shot and edited identically. Director Dean DeBlois also helmed all three animated Dragon features and his love of Cressida Cowell's original books shines though.

Amazingly, the magical charm and sly wit of the earlier film version survive almost unscathed, and the human cast fleshes out the cartoon characters marvellously. The action sequences thrill, the dragons look amazing and the flying scenes are breathtaking. Not quite as consistently brilliant as the 2010 original, but not far off. – Dave Golder

Ballerina

From the world of John Wick comes a fittingly turbo-charged action spin-off, led by Ana de Armas as elite assassin Eve Macarro. It's a simple plot: Eve is out for revenge against the cult leader (Gabriel Byrne) whose followers murdered her father. But this is all director Len Wiseman needs to put his charismatic star through her paces with one expert set piece after another.

From an astonishing car crash and an explosive grenade face-off, to martial arts showdowns in both an Alpine café and an ice disco, Wiseman maintains an exhilarating propulsion throughout. The stunt choreography is just as masterful as in previous Wick films, as is the moody, neon-drenched visual style.

De Armas, who previously impressed as a CIA agent in James Bond flick No Time to Die, shines here with a cool integrity, imbuing her character with sensitivity and credibility, without ever stinting on the high intensity. A rogue’s gallery of eccentric bit players – Ian McShane, Anjelica Huston and Lance Reddick, in his final role – gives this imaginative spectacle a camp finesse, and a couple of deadpan cameos from Wick himself, Keanu Reeves, is just the icing on the cake. – Alan Jones

• Read our full Ballerina review
• Read our interview with star Ian McShane

Tornado

Scottish film-maker John Maclean's debut feature, 2015's Slow West, was an explosively violent revisionist western, and his sophomore outing - a coming-of-age parable set over a single eventful day - boasts a similar tempo and tone.

Set in the British Isles in the 1790s, the film follows impetuous 16-year-old Tornado (Kōki) and her samurai father Fujin (Takehiro Hira), who are nomads scraping a living performing a puppet show from a wagon that is their home and stage.

When Tornado capitalises on an opportunity to secure their future, she sets in motion a devastating chain of events that sees her hunted by a gang of bandits led by the merciless Sugarman (Tim Roth). A Western that draws inspiration from Japanese samurai cinema, Tornado depicts a world of outsiders living on the fringes of civilisation. It's light on dialogue, and the circuitous plot takes too many unsatisfying turns that can make for a frustrating watch.

However, it's a pleasure to have Maclean behind the camera again, and this unusual and grisly tale represents a brand of cinema we could do with seeing more of. – Sean McGeady

The Ballad of Wallis Island

Longtime writing partners Tim Key and Tom Basden lead this twee odd-couple comedy, which over the course of its runtime deepens into an affecting story of pain and acceptance.

Eccentric millionaire Charles (Key) hopes to reunite his favourite musicians, folk duo and former lovers Herb McGwyer (Basden) and Nell Mortimer (Carey Mulligan), at a private show at his home on Wallis Island. Bringing them back together, though, awakens feelings that cause Herb to question his direction in life, while there’s more to Charles’s scheme than his passion for the McGwyer Mortimer back catalogue suggests.

The film is based on a Key and Basden short from 2007, whose director James Griffiths returns to the helm here. How funny you find it will depend on whether you click with Key’s fussy delivery and the script’s rat-a-tat-tat wordplay, but its slow-burning warmth pays off in a lovely, bittersweet resolution. – Sean McGeady

• Read our interview with the cast and director

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning

The closing chapter of the long-running saga follows on directly from Dead Reckoning, with Christopher McQuarrie back in the director's chair for a fourth straight outing. This time around, the AI weapon known as the Entity has gained even greater prominence by accessing the nuclear arsenals of every major power in the world, and is threatening instant Armageddon.

This raising of the stakes gives the film an impressive doomsday tone that sets it apart from the more playful mood of its immediate predecessors; this mission really does feel like the most vital – and, of course, impossible – for Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and co. However, the movie is also plagued with major structural and pacing issues. The convoluted opening section devotes too much time to longwinded exposition scenes, while attempts to tie up various loose ends are clumsy. The film has also lumbered itself with too many characters, leaving some underused or superfluous.

Yet there is no denying the bonkers brilliance of the film when it comes to action. A nail-biting underwater sequence is the first masterstroke, but the franchise has saved arguably its best set piece for last in the form of an exhilarating sequence that sees Cruise desperately dangling off the wing of a plane. – Patrick Cremona

• Read our full Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning review
• Read our interview with Hayley Atwell
• Read our interview with Simon Pegg

Lilo & Stitch

Directed by Dean Fleischer Camp (Marcel the Shell with Shoes On), this remake of the much-loved 2002 Disney animation is a near-seamless mash-up of live-action and state-of-the-art computer animation. Adorable newcomer Maia Kealoha plays Lilo, a wilful and friendless Hawaiian orphan being raised on the island by her older sister Nani (Sydney Agudong).

The siblings’ already precarious situation is jeopardised when Lilo brings home extraterrestrial escapee Stitch from a rescue centre. Originally known as Experiment 626, Stitch is on the run from the Galactic Council, presided over by Hannah Waddingham’s Grand Councilwoman. In pursuit are his creator Dr Jumba Jookiba (Zach Galifianakis) and the Galactic Federation’s Earth expert, Agent Pleakley (Billy Magnussen).

The film has been made with great care and love for Hawaiian culture, with the story fleshed out nicely. Kealoha is a perfect match for her cartoon counterpart, with Agudong excellent as her struggling sibling, while Magnussen excels in the slapstick comedy stakes. Lilo & Stitch hammers home the ‘family matters’ message, but overall this is expertly executed, cross-generational fun that combines the look of a lavish Disney production with oodles of oddball charm. – Emma Simmonds

• Read our full Lilo & Stitch review
• Read our interview with director Dean Fleischer Camp

The Phoenician Scheme

A father reconnects with his daughter in this typically quirky offering from writer/director Wes Anderson (Asteroid City). On the surface, it’s a mid-20th-century tale of industrial espionage, as Benicio Del Toro’s tycoon Zsa-zsa Korda is set upon by government officials looking to undermine him. But after he decides to leave his estate to his only daughter, noviciate nun Liesl (Mia Threapleton), Zsa-zsa is forced to confront family members and others as he tries to get a long-standing business scheme under way.

Bursting with talent (Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Scarlett Johansson and many more feature), The Phoenician Scheme is a classic Anderson confection. It once again features immaculate production design from Adam Stockhausen and a droll script, co-written with Roman Coppola.

Del Toro is a muscular presence, too, while Threapleton is a force of nature. Anderson devotees should get a kick out of it, even if those not convinced by his delicate aesthetics and storybook style will likely be left cold. – James Mottram

• Read our full The Phoenician Scheme review

Final Destination Bloodlines

Releasing fourteen years after the previous Final Destination film, this tension-filled reboot sees Death spreading his wings further than just a few frantic survivors of a crash or bridge collapse. After a dazzling opening premonition set in 1968, the film cuts to the present, following student Stefani Reyes (Kaitlin Santa Juana) as she is plagued with visions of that incident.

Soon, her whole family is drawn into a new game of (avoiding) death, which is brought home gruesomely at a family barbecue. Also eye-catching is the swansong of the late Tony Todd whose creepy, enigmatic William Bludworth appeared in four of the previous Final Destinations, and pops up to impart some much-needed advice on how to dodge Death’s clutches.

Co-directors Adam Stein and Zach Lipovsky proved their genre mettle with 2018 sci-fi thriller Freaks, and here produce plenty of gallows humour to accompany the torturous torment and blood-letting thanks to classic tunes like Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head, Without You and Spirit in the Sky. The result is a slick, ghoulishly entertaining reboot. – Jeremy Aspinall

• Read our full Final Destinations Bloodlines review
• Read our interview with directors Adam Stein and Zach Lipovsky
• Read our celebration of Final Destination as the franchise turns 25

Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.