NOSTALGIA is king once again at the multiplex, with a big screen follow-up to a British television classic on the way into cinemas.

There's also a new comedy starring cinematic man of the moment, Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson. 

Here's the best and the worst of this weekend at the cinema.

New releases

Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie (Cert:15, 91 mins)

At its peak in the mid-1990s, Absolutely Fabulous was a scalpel-sharp satire of bloated celebrity culture that lived up to the effusive self-congratulations of the title.

Joanna Lumley's distinguished career was resuscitated as a booze-soaked, chain-smoking, sex-crazed vamp, and Jennifer Saunders reaffirmed her talent as a writer of hilariously grotesque characters and impeccably tailored one-liners.

More than 20 years later, this glossy feature film directed by Mandie Fletcher has lost some of the brand's lustre, exemplified by lead characters whose morning regime includes Botox injections, DIY liposuction and a generous smear of self-delusion.

There are more fleeting A-list cameos than side-splitting guffaws.

Central Intelligence (Cert:12A, 108 mins)

Underscored with a heartfelt anti-bullying message, Central Intelligence is a surprisingly sweet and goofy mismatched buddy comedy that might lack the quick-wittedness promised by its title but has good will in abundance.

Surprisingly, Dwayne Johnson is gifted the lion's share of the haphazard script's one-liners and physical pratfalls.

The wrestling superstar turned hulking action hero embraces his character's eccentricities with gusto, casting the typically hyperactive Kevin Hart as a relative straight man rather than the usual catalyst of on-screen tomfoolery.

Winning chemistry between the two leads galvanises Rawson Marshall Thurber's picture when gags fall flat or the plot's various bluffs and double-bluffs nudge the whole enterprise alarmingly close to preposterousness.

Still in cinemas

Independence Day: Resurgence (Cert:12A, 129 mins)

Roland Emmerich exhumes a decades-old behemoth of destruction for this belated sequel to 1996 hit Independence Day, which is a thuddingly dull and endlessly loud monstrosity of light and sound that leaves its logic at the door.

New faces such as Liam Hemsworth, Jessie Usher and Maika Monroe mesh awkwardly with the troubled likes of Bill Pullman, Brent Spiner and Jeff Goldblum. The latter, especially, is saddled with nothing but an array of winking one-liners that seem to exist only to fill out the trailer.

Emmerich fails to find a logical through-line for the movie, with the ominous alien presence merely arriving at random rather than through sustained build-up. 

Dodgy CGI leaves the film looking more dated than its 20-year-old predecessor and the bangs are more like whimpers. Fittingly, this is a total disaster.

The Conjuring 2 (Cert:15, 134 mins)

James Wan steps out of the high-octane action of the Fast and Furious franchise to return to his horror roots in spooky sequel The Conjuring 2.

Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga return as paranormal investigators the Warrens, this time investigating an aggressive spirit haunting a family home in Enfield, London populated entirely by people with accents nabbed from Oliver Twist.

Wan conjures up an impressive array of ghouls and beasties, steadfastly adhering to horror conventions whilst providing more than his fair share of shocks and surprises.

It's not got the subtext of The Babadook or this year's The Witch, but The Conjuring 2 is an exhilarating ghost train ride of a movie that packs real sting in its jump scares and potency in its emotional beats.