New action adventure starring Tom Hiddleston revives one of cinema's iconic monsters, King Kong

Released: March 9 (UK & Ireland)

Mankind tumbles several links down the food chain in Kong: Skull Island, a rollicking 1970s-set action adventure directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts, which revives one of cinema's iconic monsters.

Unfolding predominately on a Pacific island where "God did not finish creation", the picture unleashes a menagerie of hulking beasts as well as the titular ape and contrives a series of digitally rendered showdowns between these leviathans of a lost world.

Kong's briskly edited ding-dongs ping-pong between the spectacular and the dizzying, choreographed to the relentless beat of Henry Jackman's bombastic orchestral score.

There are fleeting moments of humour to punctuate the carnage, like when a shadowy US official arrives by car in his nation's political capital, which is swarming with Vietnam protesters, and deadpans: "Mark my words, there will never be a more screwed-up time in Washington."

Very droll.

Director Vogt-Roberts and his three screenwriters are apparently fans of Jurassic Park and its sequels.

Key sequences pay homage to Steven Spielberg's dino-blockbuster, and Samuel L Jackson, who played the park's chief engineer, recycles one of his iconic lines of dialogue - "Hold onto your butts!" - in the guise of a squadron leader here shortly before the gargantuan primate starts swatting helicopters.

Bill Randa (John Goodman) spearheads a secretive government organisation called Monarch, which specialises "in the hunt for massive unidentified terrestrial organisms".

He leads an exploratory geological survey to a Pacific island, which is encircled by an electrical storm, and sequesters Preston Packard (Jackson) from Da Nang airbase to fly the mission.

Packard corrals his best pilots and loads aircraft with sonic bombs to map the island's topography.

Passengers include tracker James Conrad (Tom Hiddleston), anti-war photojournalist Mason Weaver (Brie Larson), geologist Houston Brooks (Corey Hawkins) and biologist San Lin (Tian Jing).

The sonic weapons rouse a giant ape and the best-laid plans of men of science are smashed to smithereens.

Crash-landed on the island, the survivors encounter a crazed US airman called Hank Marlow (John C Reilly), who has been living wild for 28 years and 11 months since his aircraft was downed during the Second World War.

"Kong is king around here," confirms Marlow and he joins the race against time to reach the extraction point.

Kong: Skull Island angrily flexes its muscles, but punches below its weight.

In moments of calm, character development is given disappointingly short shrift and cast including Oscar winner Larson are squandered in bland roles.

Hiddleston is unconvincing as a former British soldier, hired to lead the otherworldly expedition, and his swaggering hunk's centrepiece action sequence involving a samurai sword and gas mask is superfluous and almost laughable in its execution.

A brief coda, nestled in the end credits, teases the head-on collision of monster franchises in next year's Godzilla: King Of The Monsters and the full-blown rumble Godzilla Vs Kong in summer 2020.

:: SWEARING :: NO SEX :: VIOLENCE :: RATING: 6/10

THE TIME OF THEIR LIVES (12A, 104 mins) Drama/Comedy/Romance. Joan Collins, Pauline Collins, Franco Nero, Ronald Pickup, Sian Reeves, Joely Richardson. Director: Roger Goldby.

Released: March 10 (UK & Ireland)

Birds of a greying feather squawk together in writer-director Roger Goldby's gently effervescent road movie that reimagines Thelma & Louise 30 years later with dodgy hips, walking sticks and nagging regrets.

Modest in its dramatic ambitions - and largely achieving them - The Time Of Their Lives is a bittersweet valentine to the transformative power of female friendship as seen through the eyes of elderly characters, who are usually relegated to supporting roles.

Goldby's film is clearly targeting older audiences, who flocked to The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Philomena and The Lady In The Van.

His portrait of sisterhood in twilight years isn't in the same league as those polished pictures and will be a cosier fit for primetime Sunday evening TV than the big screen.

However, small can be beautiful and there a moments in Goldby's script and the performances of lead actresses Joan Collins and Pauline Collins - no relation - that prove there is life after you start collecting a pension.

Unassuming housewife Priscilla (Pauline Collins) quietly marks the anniversary of her son's death, but her embittered husband Frank (Ronald Pickup) ruins the melancholic moment by sneering, "You shouldn't pick wild flowers - spoils it for everyone else."

At the local supermarket, the couple argue over the price of biscuits and Priscilla temporarily escapes her misery to help another customer, Helen (Joan Collins), with her bags as she boards a coach.

Unexpectedly, the doors close and Priscilla becomes an unwitting companion to Helen on a daytrip to the seaside for residents of the nearby retirement home.

Priscilla learns that her waspish buddy is Helen Shelley, a famous Hollywood actress from the 1960s, who intends to gate-crash the funeral of her ex-lover, Jerry Standing, director of her breakout hit Morty & Me.

Helen is penniless and implores Priscilla to join her on the glamour-soaked trip to Ile-de-Re off the west coast of France.

"It'll be like the Academy Awards," promises the faded actress. "A little sadder... but not much."

En route, the mismatched ladies encounter a reclusive Italian artist (Franco Nero) and the dead man's daughter (Joely Richardson).

Meanwhile, Priscilla's enraged husband and daughter Sarah (Sian Reeves) give chase.

The Time Of Their Lives is a sweet and inoffensive tale of reminiscence and awkward reconciliation, which allows the two leads to play to crowd-pleasing type.

Joan Collins turns back the clock to her Dynasty heyday, pouting, preening and tossing verbal grenades with lip-smacking glee.

Pauline Collins warmly embraces her role as a mother hen, who has been worn down by years of grief and has forgotten what it means to be cherished.

Dramatic contrivances and a messy final act cluttered with two dead bodies unpick some of their solid work, drizzling positive messages of female empowerment and independence with the sticky syrup of sentimentality.

:: SWEARING :: NO SEX :: VIOLENCE :: RATING: 5/10