OBLIVION (12A)
SINCE the release of Top Gun in 1986, Tom Cruise has been a box office heavyweight, headlining high-profile blockbusters which have raked in more than seven billion dollars around the world and earned the actor three Oscar nominations for Born On The Fourth Of July, Jerry Maguire and Magnolia. Now Cruise blasts into space in this post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller, based on a graphic novel by Joseph Kosinski and Arvid Nelson, which is set on a futuristic metropolis hovering above the surface of the devastated planet Earth. Drone maintenance officer Jack Harper (Cruise) defies the orders of his tech operator Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) to rescue a mysterious woman called Julia (Olga Kurylenko) from a crash site. This act of gung-ho chivalry brings the former Marine into contact with grizzled resistance leader Malcolm Beech (Morgan Freeman) and his followers, who possesses startling information about the fate of mankind. "They lied to you, Jack, it's time to learn the truth," growls Malcolm, hinting at a massive conspiracy that provides Cruise with the perfect excuse to perform death-defying stunts and acrobatics amid a blitzkrieg of expensive pyrotechnics and digital effects.
STAR RATING: ***
THE GATEKEEPERS (15)
IN times of bitter and bloody conflict, morality is sacrificed to secure the tiniest victory. Directed by Dror Moreh, The Gatekeepers is an engrossing documentary which gently lifts the veil of secrecy that shrouds Shin Bet, Israel's security agency, and revisits the group's triumphs and devastating failures through the eyes of its six surviving directors: Avraham Shalom, Yaakov Peri, Carmi Gillon, Ami Ayalon, Avi Dichter and Yuval Diskin. These men are refreshingly candid about their roles in history and their conflicted feelings, reliving dark days such as the 1995 assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Moreh intercuts these revealing interviews with archive footage and dramatisations that attest to the ruthlessness and resolve of the agency directors, and the deep emotional scars they must now bear.
STAR RATING: ***
FLYING BLIND (15)
LOVE is blind to the dark secrets we all keep in Polish director Katarzyna Klimkiewicz's first feature. Frankie (Helen McCrory) is an aerospace engineer based in Bristol, who is a vital cog in the British military war effort, designing drones that can save lives on the ground. She is a control freak and puts her work ahead of personal relationships. By chance Frankie meets handsome French-Algerian student Kahil (Najib Oudghiri) and they embark on a passionate affair. For once in her life, Frankie loses control and she loves the sense of helplessness as she falls head over heels in love with Kahil. Then one day at work, security services detain her and begin a brutal interrogation about the new man in her life. Frankie realises that she knows very little about Kahil and his past and as she probes deeper, the aerospace engineer becomes embroiled in a living nightmare.
STAR RATING: ***
