NINE LIVES (PG, 87 mins)
A SELF-ABSORBED businessman is taught an overdue lesson in generosity and humility in director Barry Sonnenfeld's body swap comedy.
Business tycoon Tom Brand (Kevin Spacey) has a finger on the pulse of his various financial concerns, but his dedication to his job has created a gaping emotional divide from his wife Lara (Jennifer Garner) and young daughter Rebecca (Malina Weissman).
He leaves buying a present for Rebecca's 11th birthday until the last minute and hurries into a pet shop run by the mysterious Felix Perkins (Christopher Walken) to buy a cat.
On his way home, Tom is involved in an accident and he is magically transported into the body of the furry feline.
Felix informs the businessman that he has just seven days to reconcile with his family in his four-legged form or he will remain as a cat for the rest of his nine lives.
LIGHTS OUT (15, 81 mins)
EXPANDED from a 2013 short film, Lights Out is a horror thriller that should traumatize anyone who has ever been afraid of the dark. Paul (Billy Burke) owns a mannequin factory where one of the workers, his assistant Esther (Lotta Losten), glimpses the monstrous figure of a woman with long, deformed fingers hovering in the darkness.
When Esther turns on the lights, the apparition vanishes and she shares this disturbing turn of events with Paul. His wife Sophie (Maria Bello) and son Martin (Gabriel Bateman) are estranged from Paul's daughter Rebecca (Teresa Palmer), who is battling depression and mental illness, and lives alone.
Late one night, Martin sees the same shadowy, deformed woman in the dark and he develops chronic insomnia, unable to close his eyes for fear of what lurks in the inky blackness.
Rebecca invites her brother to stay with her in the hope that she can soothe his crippling night terrors.
Instead, Rebecca is confronted by the mysterious figure in the dark.
BLINKY BILL: THE MOVIE (U, 87 mins)
A CHEEKY koala bear embarks on the adventure of a lifetime in Deane Taylor's computer-animated yarn based on the Australian book series by Dorothy Wall. Blinky Bill (Ryan Kwanten) yearns to follow in the paw prints of his explorer father Mr Bill (Richard Roxburgh), who vanished in the outback.
Friends and neighbours in the little town of Greenpatch believe that Mr Bill perished on his escapades, but Blinky is convinced that his father is alive and well.
One day, Blinky stumbles upon a mysterious marker that points to the whereabouts of Mr Bill. Armed with this information, Blinky ventures into the outback with koala best friend Nutsy (Robin McLeavy) and a nervous frill-necked lizard called Jacko (David Wenham).
En route, Blinky and his pals draw courage from gossipy emus Sheryl and Beryl (Toni Collette) and a wildly eccentric wombat called Wombo (Barry Humphries).
They also clash with a feral cat called Sir Claude (Rufus Sewell), who has a personal score to settle with Blinky.
