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Catch these movies in 2019

Sunday January 06 2019

Captain Marvel

Aliens! Action! Mystery Parentage! Brie Larson stars as Marvel’s latest superhero, Carol Danvers, who discovers her powers as Captain Marvel. Set in the 1990s, the story has Danvers searching for her true identity while trying to save the Earth during a war between alien races. If she can’t juggle it all, who can? Danvers grew up among the Krees, noble warriors whose line includes Annette Bening.

Jude Law marches through the trailer, in a role he has been forbidden to talk about, and Samuel L Jackson appears as Avengers stalwart Nick Fury. Avengers: Endgame may get more pre-release attention next year, but Captain Marvel could be the fresher film in the franchise. (Credit: Marvel Studios)

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Quentin Tarantino’s films always make noise. Leonardo DiCaprio plays the fading star of a television Western and Brad Pitt is his stunt double, in a story set in 1969, soon before the Manson murders. Margot Robbie plays soon-to-be-Manson victim, Sharon Tate.

Al Pacino appears as the DiCaprio character’s agent. These stars don’t come cheap: The film reportedly cost $95 million. With its allusion to the epic Once Upon a Timein the West, by one of Tarantino’s directing heroes, Sergio Leone, this film clearly has big ambitions. (Credit: Andrew Cooper/CTMG Inc)

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Us

Jordan Peele’s brilliant Get Out — which combined sly, comic horror with social commentary about race — became a surprise smash hit, and established him as one of today’s most exciting writer-directors.

His follow-up is being promoted as “A New Nightmare,” but everyone has been so secretive about the plot, you’d think they were in a Marvel movie.

Lupita Nyong’o and Winston Duke (M’Baku in Black Panther) star, along with Elisabeth Moss, who has said that Us continues in Peele’s style of “thought-provoking popcorn movies.” (Credit: Universal Pictures)

The Lion King

Disney gives one of its most beloved animated films a high-tech remake, using lifelike computer generated images. James Earl Jones, once again the voice of Mufasa, was apparently the only irreplaceable actor from the 1994 film.

Here Donald Glover is the voice of the adult Simba, with Beyoncé as his love, Nala, and Chiwetel Ejiofor is the villainous Scar. Seth Rogen and Billy Eichner add comic relief as Pumbaa and Timon. With some help from Beyoncé, Elton John has reworked songs from the original, including Circle of Life. (Credit: Walt Disney Pictures)

Star Wars: Episode IX

They. Will. Not. Stop. Coming. Yet another Star Wars instalment, this one the third in the “sequel trilogy” of The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi.

The old franchise can’t promise originality, but the trilogy has thrived on the dynamism of its younger cast. Daisy Ridley is the heroine Rey, Adam Driver is Kylo Ren — possibly the best dark character since his granddad, Darth Vader — and John Boyega is the wholesome Finn.

Leftover footage from previous films will bring back Carrie Fisher as Leia, now a General in the Resistance. JJ Abrams, of The Force Awakens, directs. (Credit: Lucasfilm)

Last Christmas

Sometimes two words are all it takes to make a film appealing: Emma Thompson. She wrote (with the playwright Bryony Kimmings) and appears in this romance, which was inspired by George Michael’s song Last Christmas, and includes more of his music.

Emilia Clarke (far from her role as the Mother of Dragons in Game of Thrones) plays Kate, who works in a Christmas shop where she is dressed as an elf. In walks a dreamboat played by Henry Golding (Crazy Rich Asians). (Credit: Universal Pictures)