Back to the Past review – everybody’s still gun-fu fighting in time-travel sequel

Louis Koo is the modern-day cop still trapped in the Qin dynasty in this cinematic reprise of the hit 2001 Hong Kong TV series

With Sátántangó and Werckmeister Harmonies, Béla Tarr became the vividly disquieting master of spiritual desolation

The Hungarian director’s films moved slowly like vast gothic aircraft carrier-sized ships across dark seas, giving audiences a feeling of drunkenness and hangover at the same time

Putin as a Russian James Bond? Jude Law’s Vladimir film seems to have swallowed Kremlin myths

In The Wizard of the Kremlin, Jude Law plays Russia’s president as a cool, reluctant leader, a strategist who got the job because he was young, athletic and a spy. This is a creation far removed from the man himself

It would be an honour to write James Bond theme song, says Noel Gallagher

Songsmith’s comments come after his brother Liam stoked rumours Oasis had been courted for the role

Béla Tarr, Hungarian director of Sátántangó and Werckmeister Harmonies, dies aged 70

The internationally acclaimed film-maker was renowned for beautifully shot cinematic epics

A Game of Thrones spin-off, The Pitt returns and Goolagong: what’s new to streaming in Australia in January

Plus a star-studded Agatha Christie adaptation, gory new Ryan Murphy drama The Beauty and Oscars frontrunner One Battle After Another

2 Fast 2 Furious is the franchise’s most derided film. It’s also the best

Gaudy, plastic and tactile, the series’ second film sums up its manifesto: watching souped-up vehicles drive irresponsibly loudly

The strangest thing: is the future of cinema … not new movies?

Netflix’s big-screen release of the Stranger Things finale is estimated to have made over $25m at the US box office, the latest example of event cinema proving popular

‘I wouldn’t take a nickel of charity’: Mickey Rourke denounces fundraiser set up in his name

Denying any prior knowledge of the appeal, the actor said he would ‘rather stick a gun up my ass and pull the trigger’ than accept the money

Narnia! Dune! Charli xcx! The 2026 films Guardian writers are most excited about

From much-anticipated sequels to music mockumentaries to auteur returns, the next 12 months offers up a wide variety of intriguing new movies

Hamnet review – Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley beguile and captivate in audacious Shakespearean tragedy

Chloé Zhao’s film version of Maggie O’Farrell’s myth-making novel powerfully reimagines the agonising loss of a child as the source of Hamlet’s grand stage drama

How far can James Cameron’s Avatar saga go after its billion-dollar box office triumph?

Cameron warned that Avatars 4 and 5 might end up as novels if third instalment Fire and Ash bombed. But noise about its slow start is beginning to look like a ritual movies in the series must go through before the money pours in

‘Pinnacle of westerns’: the Oscar-winning writer of Forrest Gump on staging High Noon – with songs by Springsteen

He’s written screen smashes like Dune and Killers of the Flower Moon. As Eric Roth plunges into theatre, he talks about classic westerns, being sacked by Robert Redford – and why writing for Martin Scorsese is a dream

Timothée Chalamet and Jessie Buckley in Oscar surge as they win Critics Choice awards

The Marty Supreme and Hamnet stars are jockeying for pole position for the big Hollywood prize after a night in which One Battle After Another and Adolescence were also recognised

‘I find it all a bit comforting’: why Zodiac is my feelgood movie

The first 2026 entry in our ongoing series of writers calling attention to their comfort films is David Fincher’s thriller