three to see
Missed it at the cinema or on TV? We round up the best streaming and DVD releases of the week
THE HATE YOU GIVE (12)
★★★★★
ADAPTED by Audrey Wells from Angie Thomas’s young adult novel, The Hate U Give is an emotionally charged drama, which rages against racial division and police violence in 21st-century America.
Amandla Stenberg delivers a gut-wrenching lead performance as a teenager who zigzags uncomfortably between two worlds – her poor, mostly black neighbourhood and the wealthy, mostly white prep school she attends. The script ripples with fury and despair, but there is an undercurrent of hope.
Download/stream from February 14 and on DVD/Blu-ray from February 18.
HALLOWEEN (18)
★★★★★
HALLOWEEN repeatedly bows its head to John Carpenter’s original film, relying on solid jump scares to ensure a spiralling body count.
Jamie Lee Curtis transforms Laurie into a gun-toting avenging angel, who has secretly prayed for crazed killer Michael Myers’ escape so she can lay him to rest forever. So when he returns to Haddonfield, she is prepared. There is nothing self-reverential, knowing or fussy about director David Gordon Green’s reboot.
Download/stream from February 11 and on DVD/Blu-ray from February 25.
GOOSEBUMPS 2 (PG)
★★★★★
GOOSEBUMPS 2 is a crushing disappointment.
Ari Sandel’s laboured follow-up unravels quicker than a mummy’s bandages in a fictional town, where inventor Nikola Tesla once conducted his daring experiments with electricity.
The young cast are poorly served by a linear script, which has been purged of laughs, scares and dramatic tension. There is nothing in Sandel’s picture that will shock or disturb young viewers, aside from the unsettling realisation that if this sequel makes a tidy profit, more geese will bump on future Halloweens.
Download/stream from February 11 and on DVD/Blu-ray from February 18.