Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
(dirs Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath)
Awesome levels of pester power will guarantee a big family turnout for this sequel to the popular animation. Ben Stiller voices Alex: the city-boy lion from New York zoo, who now is marooned with his buddies in Africa.
• Release date December 5
Che: The Argentine
(dir Steven Soderbergh)
Benicio Del Toro is fiercely convincing as Che Guevara in this first part of the massive two-part epic. This section shows him helping Fidel overthrow Cuba's Batista government in 1959, and later making his sensational appearance at the United Nations in 1964.
• Release date January 2
The Reader
(dir Stephen Daldry)
Adapted by David Hare from Bernhard Schlink's novel, this movie stars Kate Winslet as the older woman in postwar Germany with whom a teenage boy begins a passionate affair. Later, as a middle-aged man (played by Ralph Fiennes), he discovers a terrible secret in her past.
• Release date January 2
Lakeview Terrace
(dir Neil LaBute)
Another confrontational film by Neil LaBute. A young interracial couple move into a pleasant neighbourhood, and find themselves living next door to a stern cop, played by Samuel L Jackson. He disapproves of their relationship and begins a psychological war of harassment.
• Release date December 5
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
(dir Rouben Mamoulian)
This 1931 classic is showing as part of the Mamoulian season at London's BFI Southbank. Frederic March stars as both upstanding citizen Dr Henry Jekyll, and also Mr Edward Hyde, his terrifying alter-ego, unleashed by a secret potion.
• December 12-30, 020-7928 3232
Onibaba
(dir Kaneto Shindo)
Showing as part of the Wild Japan season at BFI Southbank, this rare chiller from 1964 remains uniquely disturbing. In the 14th century, a woman and her daughter-in-law live by robbing and killing wayfarers. One places a victim's samurai mask on her face, with disturbing results.
• December 16 and 21, 020-7928 3232.
As Old As My Tongue
(dir Andy Jones)
This is part of the Africa In Motion season at the Manchester Cornerhouse: a portrait of the iconic singer Bi Kidude, who lives in Zanzibar and has become a legend in world music. Jones's film shows her life and her status as a living folk-memory of Swahili music.
• Manchester Cornerhouse, December 11, 0161-200 1500
