It doesn’t matter if there are carollers outside, or if

it’s slap bang in the middle of the hottest summer,

there’s always time for Die Hard. The quintessential

action movie of well, ever, sees Bruce Willis trade in

his sitcom origins for a dirty vest and a Beretta.

New York cop John Mcclane’s (Willis), holiday

season is about to get a whole lot worse. When

Alan Rickman and his band of not-so-merry men

shoot their way into an LA skyscraper and hold the

partying office workers hostage, Mcclane happens

to find himself in the wrong place at the right time.

Leader of this German ‘terrorist’ group, Hans Gruber,

is not just my favourite Rickman role (dodgy accent

aside) but perhaps the greatest villain in Hollywood

history.

Director John McTiernan, fresh off of the surprise

hit Predator, delivers this masterclass in tension

and set-piece action only a year later, making Willis

a household name in the process. A myriad of

copycats, including four sequels(!), over the years

did little to dilute the impact the original had, and

still has to this day, thirty years later. (Jack Whiting)

One Christmas Eve a small baby at an orphanage crawls into Santa’s bag of toys… only to be accidentally carried back to Santa’s workshop at the North Pole. Although he is raised to be an elf, as he grows to be ten times bigger than everyone else it becomes clear that Buddy (Ferrell) will never truly fit into the elf world. One Christmas, Buddy finally decides to find his real family, and sets off for New York City to track down his roots, but soon finds himself as much an outsider there as back at the North Pole. In fact, everyone in New York seems to have forgotten the true spirit of Christmas. So Buddy takes it upon himself to win over his family, realise his destiny, and save Christmas. Another family delight with Will Ferrell gangling in every direction to make the whole film into fabulous chaos. Very silly and very funny, somehow his antics get funnier every year. Don’t dare miss this fabulously silly Christmas treat in this stop-start year on a huge elfin screen - that lives on, while all around it… the grown-up corporate gainsayers, fall apart. Not gloating just green.

Welcome to our 17th anniversary Christmas, with the same old irresistible film we’ve been showing since the Rex re-opened in December 2004. It was a flop at the box office when it first appeared in 1946. After the war, the USA celebrated the brave new world with fashion, cars and fridges. We had bomb-sites, functional clothes, cold water, rations, war debts and the grey 1950’s but with essential, fabulous and much missed old City trams in every corner of Britain. Accidentally, it became essential TV viewing in the UK during the mid 70s, hence a new part of Christmas itself. You couldn’t see it at the cinema until independents got it re-released nineteen years ago. Now thanks to the BFI, this beautifully restored digital copy, is here again at the hand-restored Rex (and Odyssey) for Christmas 2019. Our cinemamatic Christmas would not now be the same without Clarence (angel 2nd class) showing George Bailey how terrible life would be in Bedford Falls, had he not been born. The simplest universal message: without that One in your life, your world is diminished. Happy Christmas. Have fun, go easy and raise a glass to a world with a George Bailey-like future for future children.

Benedict Cumberbatch is the last person I’d expect to voice this classic character, but he does an impressive job embodying the surly, sour, but ultimately wounded soul.

The Grinch lives on a mountain high above the town of Whovillle, where festive goodwill is spreading like an epidemic. Like Scrooge, there’s an explanation for his shrivelled heart that’s rooted in the Grinch’s backstory: he grew up unloved in an orphanage where Christmas came not even once a year.

To destroy the fun for everyone else, the Grinch is impersonating Santa to steal the town’s presents.

At the same time, cute-as-a-button poppet Cindy Lou cracks a plan to trap Santa as he comes down the chimney to be doubly sure her Christmas wishes come true.

While this is a much safer iteration of the Dr. Zeus creation; far more so than the admittedly terrifying, Jim Carrey horror show from nearly two decades ago, and though its ambition remains rather low, the visual gags and charm will warm over any cold critic. (Jack Whiting). It looks and sounds like great fun. Nobody here will be nit-picking. Bring the street. Or to keep a safe distance, perhaps the next street along..

The BFI’s meticulously restored White Christmas is a treasure trove of Irving Berlin classics: ‘Sisters’, ‘Blue Skies’, and of course… Two song-and-dance men (Crosby and Kaye, actually only one, Bing can’t dance) team up after the war to become one of the hottest acts in show-biz. One winter, after joining forces with a sister act (Gorgeous George’s aunt, Rosemary Clooney and stunning Vera Ellen) they hit the road. The real ‘adventure’ starts at a gig in Vermont. The run-down Inn belongs to their old army General. The result is unabashed sentimental slush, an immortal, perennial Christmas favourite unlikely to fade. 1950s: America’s boom decade. Was it a fabulous time there? Bogart, Brando and Doris Day; the cars, the romance, the Technicolor, with Ella and Sinatra in their prime. At the Pictures every home had a piano and a fridge while we were still rationing carrots and living in forty shades of grey (without a trace of smut) enjoying scrubbed necks, goose grease, darned everything, nits and the unforgiving one-pair of shoes worn too long for growing toes. But somehow Christmas always brought the annuals: Beano and Dandy and that single precious Mars bar. No television! There-there now… ‘The Past is another Country’. White Christmas remains a borderless fantasy passport.

Britain's most loveable bear is back for another charming adventure, this time travelling deep into the South American rainforest.

Needing to break their routine, the Browns and Mrs. Bird join Paddington on a trip to Peru to visit his Aunt Lucy, only for the Reverend Mother (Olivia Colman) who runs Lucy's retirement home to tell them she has vanished. With boat captain Hunter (Antonio Banderas) and his daughter Gina, they venture into the jungle, where a mythical monument stirs rumours of El Dorado, sparking greed and leading to yet another perilous and purely Paddington-esque caper.

While both director and writer have changed since his last outing, things remains whimsical and fun. Packed with jokes and cultural references from Indiana Jones to The Sound of Music, the story playfully nods to British eccentricities, all seen through the eyes of this lovable furry outsider. Whishaw and co are as exceptional as always, while franchise newcomers Colman and Banderas dive right in, creating colourfully bonkers characters who are equally hilarious.

It might not quite match Paddington 2 (at this point a modern classic) but it’s still a blast, for audiences young and old. And stay for the closing credit sequences!

Peter Wright’s much-loved production for The Royal Ballet keeps true to the spirit of this festive ballet favourite.

Bringing to life the timeless charm of this Christmas classic, the production follows Clara as she is swept into a magical adventure on Christmas Eve. After a festive party, she is whisked away into a fantastical world once everyone else has gone to bed, where her enchanted Nutcracker transforms into a brave hero. Together, they battle the menacing Mouse King and journey to the glittering Kingdom of Sweets, where they are greeted by the enchanting Sugar Plum Fairy, who welcomes them with open arms.

Tchaikovsky’s ravishing score, sumptuous period designs by Julia Trevelyan Oman (including an ingenious magical Christmas Tree), an exquisite Sugar Plum Fairy and chivalrous Prince all come together to combine the thrill of the fairy tale with spectacular dancing from the Royal Ballet.

It has been running since the mid-1980s, but this looks as fresh as if newly minted, with every element creating theatrical magic. A sparkling feast for the eyes, this is a festive treat for the whole family to enjoy and cherish

(Subtitled)

Parisian taxi driver Charles (Dany Boon) is not having a good day. In fact he’s not having a good anything.

He is tired of barely making a living. He is tired of missing out on life with his partner and their daughter. When he gets a call to pick up an elderly passenger on the other side of Paris, he’s not keen to take the fare until the operator assures him he can turn his meter on from his start point.

His passenger is Madeleine (Line Renaud), a woman in her nineties who is finally moving out of her house into a nursing home. It’s not something she’s happy about but with no family to help her, it is a sad inevitability. Madeleine is in no rush to reach the home and encourages Charles to make stops along the way so she can revisit the Paris of her youth.

As the film progresses, Madeleine’s life story becomes increasingly unexpected, and against his will, Charles finds himself sucked into it. And, more to the point, enraptured with the effervescent Madeleine

Love actually is all around.

Back, for as long as it likes. From nowhere in 2006 A-list big man Liev Schreiber on a-day-off from tough-guy, turned in this extraordinarily beautiful piece of storytelling from script to made-look-easy directing. And what a timeless treasure it is.

Eugene Hutz’s perplexed Alex, our ‘guide’, his straight-faced story telling and of the haunting film-score is from him too, and his real-life band: ‘Gogol Bordello’ (they are at the train-station)

A heartstopping surprise from its first outing at the Rex 15 years ago, Jonathan Safran Foer’s real family tale and best-seller.

Geeky ‘Jonfen’ (Elijah Wood) travels from America in search of Augustine, whom he believes saved his grandfather during the Nazis razing of Trachimbrod a now lost, Ukranian town. It was wiped-out. Armed with a yellowing photograph, he begins his search with the unlikely Alex, his grandfather (Boris Leskin) and his ‘seeing-eye bitch’. Alex’s butchery of the English language and passion for all things American is a tragi-comic joy from the start. You will be glad to be in the presence of every word and gesture. It is as unexpected as it is beautiful. It will touch you now. Then, it will fill your hearts long after and for years to come…

Ridley Scott’s return to the Roman arena is something of a repeat, but it’s still a ludicrously engaging epic, and Paul Mescal is a formidable lead. We are entertained.

15 years have passed since Russel Crowe’s Maximus defied an empire. His son Lucius (Mescal) has grown into manhood in Numidia, northern Africa, and soon plunges into war against the Roman invaders. Scott is in total command of the action scenes, and makes that point with an extravagant opening battle. Numidians catapult balls of fire toward the approaching Roman ships; Lucius's wife is killed, he is captured, and surprise surprise, is sold into slavery as a gladiator.  His destiny brings him to Rome, vowing revenge against the empire's General Acacius (Pedro Pascal).

Denzel Washington plays the cunning and ambitious slave-owner Macrinus, who plans to parlay his warlord status into political power. Meanwhile, Rome itself is no better after the last film; now we have not one, but two insufferable Caesars in Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger).

This is a sequel that delivers on upping the ante, and while Mescal doesn’t quite match Crowe’s intensity (who does?) it is nonetheless an utterly thrilling spectacle

Every screening sold out since its first in Sept 2006, and ever since. It will take you on an unanticipated, emotional ride. The characters are beautifully drawn, and unlike those that leave you empty, this will warm your heart. It tells the story of the Hoovers, one of the most endearingly fractured families you’re ever likely to meet. To fulfil the dream-wish of seven-year-old Olive, the whole motley family, trek to the Little Miss Sunshine pageant in California. Along the way they must deal with crushed dreams, heartbreaks and a broken-down van. The family is made up of an uncommonly natural little miss Olive, a silent, Nietzsche-reading teenager, a suicidal uncle, an embarrassingly optimistic dad, a scatty mother, and a horny, coke-snorting grandfather with a penchant for creative profanity (the wholly original Alan Arkin, got Best Supporting Oscar for this) This is a beautifully observed road movie, where sanity takes a back seat, while innocence and hope drive it every step of the way. Come now, see it afresh, untampered on our big screen, before it goes missing.

Alan Arkin 26/3/34 – 29/6/23

This is one film we cannot resist. Whistle the tune in the street and we’ll show it! It all begins in 1927, Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont (the show stealing Jean Hagen) are the darlings of the silent screen. Off screen, Don, aided by Cosmo Brown (the sensational Donald O’Connor) has to dodge Lina's romantic overtures especially when he falls for chorus girl Kathy Selden (the lovely, then 19 year old Debbie Reynolds). With the advent of the ‘Talkies’, Don and Lina's new film will be all singing, dancing and… talking! Unfortunately, Lina's voice would make gums bleed (think: Kate Bush screeching Sinatra). Kathy is hired to secretly dub Lina’s voice off screen while Gene K goes off splashing in the street, to make B-Movie Musical history. When Lina (who steals the show) finds out, run for cover. For Gene’s famous splash dance, the rain was lit from behind so primative acetate film might capture the downpour, and Gene had the flu! One single take, no waste or mishap after just three dry runs. Ouch! Witness too the fabulous Donald O’Connor’s unparalleled screen masterpiece “Make ’em Laugh” (one take?). What greater celebration of family cinema. New Years Eve. A timeless 1952 classic to dance us into 2020… Irresistible.