The Screen Critic: Paddington triumphs again, a captivating Vatican drama, a nail-biting airport thriller and a car ride you won’t forget

The world’s favourite marmalade-loving, digitally rendered movie bear returns in Paddington in Peru, a fun adventure lark that sees the congenial carnivore leave Britain for the first time to visit his elderly Aunt Lucy in South America.

His loving family – lead by veterans Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey), Emily Mortimer (Match Point) and Julie Walters (Educating Rita; Harry Potter) – accompany Paddington to the steaming jungle, only to find Aunt Lucy has gone missing.

Finding her involves dealing with a seemingly devoted nun (acclaimed Oscar winner Olivia Colman) and taking a voyage down a river in a cruise boat owned by a ghost-obsessed captain (Spanish great Antonio Banderas).

As the gang head ever deeper into the dangerous jungle they partake in plenty of nifty comic action – you can’t really hurt people in films like this – while the story cleverly weaves in a subplot about Paddington discovering his roots, which produces an unexpectedly moving moment late in the piece.

The fact that the cast is strewn with A-list actors – Hugh Grant even pops up again – comes as no surprise.

After all, who wouldn’t want a piece of a Paddington movie ever since the loveable bear went from being a hero of children’s literature – created in 1958 by the late Michael Bond (who died in 2017 at 91) – to a global animated superstar?

And there’s already a fourth film planned – which also comes as no surprise.

For the adults in the room, Conclave offers a superb drama with a raft of exceptional performances, all set in the Vatican during the election of a new Pope.

In one of his best turns yet, Ralph Fiennes plays a broad-minded cardinal who helps oversee the complicated process of picking a new pontiff. Amidst all the competition for the job he is surprised to find himself in the running.

Blessed with ravishing cinematography and a haunting score, the film delves into the questionable character of the main candidates and explores the tension between the benefits of change and the importance of maintaining tradition for the good of the institution.

Also starring John Lithgow, Stanley Tucci and Isabella Rossellini, Conclave presents a stirring story about faith, acceptance and the quiet thrill of finding new life in old ideas. It’s bound to be all over the Oscars. Opens 9 Jan. Don’t miss it.

In the taut airport thriller Carry-On, Taron Egerton (Rocketman) plays Ethan Kopek, an unambitious security officer at LAX who is forced to take part in a highly organised plot to get a suitcase rigged with nerve gas onto a packed passenger plane.

To ensure Ethan does as he’s told without raising the alarm, the nameless mastermind behind the plan (Jason Bateman) threatens to kill Ethan’s partner Nora (Sofia Carson) who, as luck would have it, told him last night that she’s pregnant.

At a time when most movies have story holes you could fly an airliner through, the plotting here is intricate and involving, where every action has a consequence and every decision has a cost.

It’s top stuff, and includes an absolute ripper car prang sequence. Catch it on Netflix.

Big on Stan at the moment is Locke, a terrific, compelling small-scale drama that, having attracted little attention when it came out in 2013, seems to have found a new audience.

In an absolute tour de force performance, Tom Hardy – the only person who actually appears in the film – plays Welshman Ivan Locke as he frantically drives through the night from Birmingham to London to be with a woman he barely knows as she gives birth to his child.

Trouble is, he has a family who knows nothing about this as they wait for him to arrive home to watch a soccer match. His wife needs to be told.

Also, Ivan happens to be the foreman at a construction site where a giant concrete pour is to occur in the morning. Against everyone’s expectations he’s not going to be there and so must make arrangements to cover his absence.

All of this he handles in a flurry of frantic phone calls as Ivan struggles to keep things from spiralling out of control.

Speeding down the motorway as the camera swirls around him, you quickly become totally absorbed by his multi-layered dilemmas as the voices on the other end of the line argue, scream and plead with him to turn back.

Locke is great stuff that proves how all you really need for a good movie is one setting, one actor and an absolutely riveting story.

And it’s barely 85 minutes. Check it out.

For more visit jimschembri.com with updates on X at @jimschembri