YOUR GUIDE TO THIS WEEK'S NEW CINEMA RELEASES

Now that you have recovered from the exhaustion of seeing MAD MAX last week (I hope you did!), here's some calmer movies to check out...

TOP PICK TO SEE

A Spanish comedy/drama/thriller is top of the list this week. It's WILD TALES - six of them, all involving distressed people. It was an Academy Award nominee last year for best foreign language film.  The Playlist's Oliver Lyttelton says, 'It's crisply and cleanly shot throughout, and the filmmaker shows a rare feel for how to not only make comedy land, but also to make it actually feel cinematic too.'

OTHERS TO SEE

Melissa McCarthy appears alongside Rose Byrne and Jason Stratham playing a desk-bound CIA analyst who volunteers to go undercover to infiltrate the world of a deadly arms dealer, and prevent diabolical global disaster. Surprisingly, critics are liking this. For HitFix's Drew McWeeny 'There is a giddy sense of glee that runs through most of this movie, making it feel like Feig can barely contain himself with all of the things he wants to do and show you in the movie.' Sounds like a lot of fun.

MAYBE/MAYBE NOT

Cinemas have been heavily promoting WOMAN IN GOLD starring Helen Mirren and Ryan Reynolds. Mirren plays Maria Altmann, an octogenarian Jewish refugee, who takes on the Austrian government to recover artwork she believes rightfully belongs to her family. General audiences seem to be enjoying this one, although critics not so much. As far as Slant Magazine's Matt Brennan is concerned, 'The film evades all but the most careful commonplaces about the relationship between the viewer and the work of art at its center.'

Finally, there is a remake of the 1982 movie POLTERGEIST. A family whose suburban home is haunted by evil forces must come together to rescue their youngest daughter after the apparitions take her captive. Screen International's Fionnuala Halligan suggests the movie has 'A good cast including Sam Rockwell and Jared Harris [who] wander around sincerely in what feels, at times, almost a shot-by-shot remake, and at others, an obstinately wrong-footed exercise in dabbling with the narrative.' General audiences are rating it as average and critics below average. This genre is not my cup of tea - so if you see it, let us know what you think.

That's it for this week. See you at the movies!

*NOTE* Movie summaries are adaptations of movie summary on IMDB. Opinions are mine unless credited.