The Screen Critic: An updated Snow White, Jason Statham’s moral crusade, terrific animation and a tight sci-fi thriller

It’s hard to recall any film in living memory that has arrived with as much negative pre-release publicity as Disney’s Snow White.

For two solid years the film was slammed as being a disrespectful reimagining of the 1937 classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, mainly due to some light-hearted comments from its star Rachel Zegler who said how dated the original was and that the remake cast Snow White as a leader rather than as a passive romantic figure.

But despite the cacophony of scorn this roused Snow White turns out to be a perfectly fine family film, blending new ideas into the traditional story, including all the dwarfs, a love interest and many signature songs, including the slightly irritating “Hi-Ho” anthem.

The only major change here is that Snow White is now a stronger character so she can eventually stand up to the Evil Queen (Gal Gadot). That’s all. You’ll see the film and wonder what all the fuss was about.

Of course, none of that matters to the people who matter – kids. They’ll enjoy Snow White for the pretty, song-filled, slightly updated fairy tale it is, with Zegler putting in a stellar performance as our heroine.

Kids will also get their fill with The Day The World Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, a fast, fun-filled animated lark that pits Porky Pig and Daffy Duck against an alien who wants to take over the world with mind-control chewing gum.

Replicating the warm look of old-school cartoons the film is loaded with visual gags and some in-jokes for the grown ups who grew up with Warner Bros cartoons. A delight.

Fresh from its Oscar win over such studio behemoths as The Wild Robot and Inside Out 2, the modest Latvian animated film Flow is an enchanting dialogue-free adventure about a cat who escapes a flood by hitching a ride on a boat with several other critters.

Filled with haunting imagery of abandoned cities and mysterious structures, the film grabs your attention from the get-go, slowly building the impression that the world is no longer populated by people. A truly memorable treat, and a must for animation fans.

Action man Jason Statham is back for more morally-motivated mayhem in A Working Man. He plays an ex-soldier who lets loose on a gang of human traffickers when the daughter of his construction company boss (Michael Peña) goes missing.

Co-written by Sylvester Stallone (who co-produced with Statham), the film contains everything Statham fans have come to expect: slick production; plenty of action; twirling vehicles; explosions; gun fights; punch ups; loads of tough talk; and, of course, the mandatory two-note performance from our hero. Very satisfying stuff.

Just beware: some of the action sequences get a bit stabby this time around.

For those curious about the whereabouts of Geoffrey Rush, head over to the arthouse circuit quick smart and catch him in The Rule of Jenny Penn, a taut psychological horror film from New Zealand.

Rush plays a wheelchair-bound stroke victim in a recovery home where a creepy fellow resident (John Lithgow, who co-produced with Rush) is terrorising patients with an equally creepy hand puppet. This is Rush’s first film in six years and marks a welcome, if low-key, return.

Big on Prime is Elevation, a terrific sci-fi action thriller with a nifty post-apocalyptic scenario where alien monsters have destroyed 95 per cent of the world’s population. The remaining 5 per cent live 8000 feet above sea level, a height the giant lizards can’t reach.

Anthony Mackie plays a heavily-armed widowed father who must get life-saving medical equipment for his son, so ventures down into the danger zone with two similarly lethal companions (Maddie Hasson and Morena Baccarin) who bicker and cuss for much of the time.

Very well-directed with some nail-biting sequences, the film zips along briskly and delivers a strong finale.

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