Shelter gives us classic Jason Statham, basketball animation Goat is mostly for kids

Shelter (NC16)

108 minutes, now showing in cinemas
★★★☆☆

The story: A recluse (Jason Statham) hiding on a remote island in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides rescues a shipwrecked girl (Bodhi Rae Breathnach), setting in motion a chain of events that forces him out of isolation and into a confrontation with his violent past.

British bullethead Statham is introduced in Shelter playing chess and sketching pictures of a German shepherd, his character’s sole companion.

Board games and art are, of course, not the actor’s customary pursuits.

His mystery man is Michael Mason, a British Special Forces operative who turns government enemy No. 1 for going rogue on an extra-judicial mission. A boatload of commandos lay siege to his lighthouse redoubt when his position is compromised, and he must protect the injured lass Jesse (Breathnach) while they flee to the mainland, demolishing enemies by the score.

Glassware, chain, industrial hook and nail gun are his weapons.

Now this, finally, is Statham in his element, following an introspective start.

Three decades of action cinema and the 58-year-old still executes hand-to-hand fights with athletic ease under American director and former stuntman Ric Roman Waugh (Greenland, 2020; Greenland 2: Migration, 2026).

The formulaic plot is filmed in a gritty register and classed up by the likes of English actress Harriet Walter as the British prime minister.

Bill Nighy is at his most reptilian as Mason’s old handler, a slippery spymaster who sends an assassin after him.

And Breathnach must think she is still in the Academy Award-nominated drama Hamnet (2026), where she made her feature film debut playing William Shakespeare’s daughter. The Irish teen carries her role of the orphaned innocent with gravitas in an evolving father-daughter relationship that becomes the hero’s redemption.

Hot take: The Stath does what he does best. Why ask for anything else?

Goat (PG)

100 minutes, now showing in cinemas
★★★☆☆

The story: Roarball is an aggressive basketball played by the biggest and brawniest in the anthropomorphic animal world of Vineland. Neither his size nor ridicule can deter scrawny teen goat Will (voiced by Caleb McLaughlin) from his lifelong dream of joining the pros.

American animated sports comedy Goat has four-time National Basketball Association champion Stephen Curry as a producer.

It gets the moves right. The dynamic court action of the stampeding beasts and their thunderous dunks are nothing short of electric, created by Sony Pictures Animation in the stutter-frame aesthetic of the studio’s Spider-Verse franchise (2018 to present).

It is one such daring street match against a trash-talking stallion (Aaron Pierre) that earns Will viral fame, followed by a contract with his home town’s club Vineland Thorns, the worst on Roar League. His teammates are a rapping giraffe (voiced by Curry), an insecure ostrich (Nicola Coughlan), an iguana (Nick Kroll) and a doting-dad rhino (David Harbour).

The star player is a preening panther (Gabrielle Union) with her own Under Armour sneaker line, an egotistical albeit ageing GOAT – acronym for Greatest Of All Time in hip-hop vernacular – who has her claws out for the talented rookie goat she perceives as a threat to her career.

Director Tyree Dillihay exploits the behavioural traits of the menagerie for gigglesome gags.

The detailed examination of professional basketball – from the management to the draft picks – is the surprise, because Will’s underdog story of guiding his losing side to a championship win through lessons on inclusivity, self-belief and teamwork is by the numbers.

The movie is also so hyperactive in its effort to appeal to tweens, even the eye-popping visuals become exhausting.

Hot take: Bright and brash, this fable about a plucky kid is mostly for kids.