brash finished just ahead of his british team mate ben maher on diva. that's all from sportsday. there'll be more sport on the bbc news channel throughout the evening. next on bbc news it's the film review with gavin esler and mark kermode. hello and welcome to the film review on bbc news. to take us through this week's cinema releases is mark kermode. and we have a festive feast, i would suggest. we do. we have rogue one: a star wars story, you may have seen some publicity about this(!) a very

interesting documentary called eagle huntress. and looking ahead to new year's day, we have a monster calls. yeah, you're right, star wars, who knew? i know, tiny little movie! so this is a stand—alone star wars instalment that comes between episodes iii and iv and takes its cue from the opening crawl of star wars, in which it explains that before everything happened in star wars, rebel fighters were trying to get plans for the death star. so this is that story. felicityjones is jyn erso, who's a loner with a complicated back story who forms an initially uneasy alliance with the rebels. and because it's a stand—alone story, we get a whole load of new characters, not least a reprogrammed imperial droid who trusts her as little as she trusts him. here's a clip. why does she get a blaster and i don't? what? i know how to use it. that's what i'm afraid of, give to me. we're going tojedha — that's a war zone. that's not the point,

where did you get it? i found it. i find that answer vague and unconvincing. trust goes both ways. you're letting her keep it? would you like to know the probability of her using it against you? it's high. are bad droids always english? yes, exactly! that is quite a humorous moment. in fact, the film itself is rather dark, it's directed by gareth edwards who made godzilla and, more importantly, he made monsters, which although nominally was a creature feature, it was actually a film about relationships about people thatjust happened to have extraterrestrials in it. he has described this movie as being like a war movie, and there's lots of nods to cinematic visions of d—day and the vietnam war, and nods along to the dirty dozen

and films like that. because it's a stand—alone story, because it is being envisaged by the director as a war movie, it is tougher than a lot of the star wars films, admirably so. on the very positive side, the cast is a real rainbow coalition. the thing that science fiction manages to do is envisage worlds in which standard barriers about race and gender really have no role at all, and i really liked that about this film. i also like the fact that, although it uses cutting—edge cgi, it does feel like a film from the physical era of empire strikes back. it feels like one of the original movies, and it's very, very coherent in its own sense, despite the fact that there was lots of stories about them doing reshoots, postproduction fights. actually, the story seems to be very coherent and to keep true to itself. i thought it was dark and exciting, and i thought the characters were well done. i really liked felicity jones, i thought she really carried the movie.

and it had genuine surprises, and when you think this could have been a cash—in, anything that is a spin off, — a star wars story, what does that mean? it felt coherent and self—contained but fitted in with the star wars world and leaned towards all the star wars movies that i like and away from the movies that i don't like. and the third act, because of the fact that it doesn't wimp out on its narrative, the third act felt really exciting with genuine jeopardy. no—one was more surprised than me, i've seen it twice, and i thought it was even better the second time round. i was really impressed. did you see $200 million worth of screen time? is that what it felt like? i never sat there thinking about how much any of it cost. i sat there thinking, "i hope they get out of this situation, that's a really good cliffhanger." it worked for me. now, eagle huntress is your next, which sounds extraordinary. yes, it's a documentary about a young girl from a kazakh family, and she wants to become the first woman in her family

to become an eagle huntress. this paternal line of people who hunt with eagles has been passed down from generation to generation. aisholpan is our young subject, and her father encourages her to follow in his footsteps, which according to the documentary creates some tension. not everybody is convinced that women should be doing this. "women can't ride horses, women can't be eagle hunters, they've got to stay at home and get married." the interesting thing about it is she is a fantastic subject and it is a really interesting story. the documentary, however, is very good—looking, as you can tell from these clips. it does, however, feel very constructed, it feels like it's a film that has been put together in the editing room, and there are times where you think, "ok, this feels like a dramatic story which has been put together as opposed to a documentary which just tells it as it is." and there has been some question about the exact voracity of the story, whether she is the very first woman to do this, which apparently she is not. but it doesn't matter, because she is such a great subject, and because the vistas

are so spectacular, and because the central idea is so intriguing and interesting, it gets round whatever formal problems it may have. do you know what? around christmas, if you want a role model for a young girl, that's a lot better than a few that i could suggest. and eagles are big birds! they're huge. there's a sequence where she has to go and get the eaglet, and she is with her father and she is hanging down the side of a mountain on a piece of string, and her father is saying, "on you go." she's very brave, very resourceful, and you will enjoy spending time in her company, because she's a really interesting subject. sounds great — a monster calls. this is out on new year's day, screenwriter patrick ness, working from his own source novel. it's about a young boy who is terrified of bullying, and he's frightened of being bereaved, and he's visited by a tree monster played by liam neeson, which tells him stories, and through these stories lends some form of fantastical reality to the anguish which he is experiencing. here's a clip. break the window!

break them yourself. go on. harder, conor o'malley, come on, harder! that's it, yes! ha—ha—ha! feels good, doesn't it?! wow! that's amazing. you can see what it does is blends seamlessly from the fantastical to the more real. the thing is, fairy tales are really about dealing with very real issues, but dealing with them in a fantastical fashion,

and this does this brilliantly. it's directed byja bayona, who made the orphanage, which the guiding light on the project was guillermo del toro, and you can see a lot of him in this. bayona went to make the impossible, which was the tsunami drama, which was very well done as well. but this really harks back to the great work he did with the orphanage, and it manages to tell a story which is real and heartbreaking and feels very true, about a young boy confronting the difficulties of his life, but doing it through the medium of fantasy. pan's labyrinth is a similar kind of story. the big monster is the protector, in various ways, of a child. there can be very few children who wouldn't, in some way, recognise and relate to that. but is it a bit scary? a little bit, but it is like any good fairy tale, it appeals to the child in everyone, and the thing is, fairy tales are scary. you mentioned pan's labyrinth, which has moments that are really distressing. but i thought this was very impressive and very moving, and i have to say, i was not the only person to leave the cinema

crying at the end, it's very moving. sounds great, and life animated. animation once again, this is a documentary about a young man, who was trying to reconnect through the world, he was suffering from autism and trying to reconnect with the word through his love of disney cartoons. the documentary is about the way in which disney cartoons provided a connection with him and everyone around him, and it's uplifting, there are a fantastic animated sequences in a monster calls, and also in life animated. between them, these films both seem to suggest that animated movies are a really interesting way of understanding the problems of the world. i thought life animated wasjust terrific, i mean really beautifully done, really sensitively done, done with real intimacy and real intelligence, and such an uplifting story, and again, you know, a really positive story about the positive power of movies and of the cinema. and your dvd of the week

is david brent — i was slightly surprised about that, i have to say! because? well, the genius of fawlty towers, let's put it this way is they knew what they were doing and they did it over a short period and they didn't do any more. there's only like 13 episodes. 12 or 13, whatever, but it was limited. and the david brent franchise, i thought, was brilliant, and then i started not to think that. i thought the same thing going in, "do we really want to go back to this character?" and the triumph of the movie is you do. it catches up with him later, in which he's taking time off from work to go on the road with his terrible band. and just like the source material, it's toe—curling, painful, but it has a lot of pathos, and there are moments when you do not know whether to laugh or hide your head in your hands. and believe me, i was really surprised that, after all these years, it managed to do that, move the story on and it actually managed to make the jokes still funny but painful and to make you care about it. i suppose the thing that is so attractive about that character

is that he really does try.. he's trying... he's really trying! somehow, he just wants to escape this awful life, but he doesn't get very far. in the case of this, he actually does get out on the road, and the spectacle of him playing half—empty gigs is really... it smacks of reality! we'll leave it there. a quick reminder before we go, you'll find more film news and reviews from across the bbc online at bbc.co.uk/film. catch up on our previous programmes on the iplayer. that's it for this week, we're back in the new year. thanks for watching and bye—bye. we're expecting a major change in the weather to take place just in time for christmas as things turned more unsubtle. a quiet weekend. it hasn't necessarily look great, with

low cloud and messed around. in south wales, central and southern england, there will be dense fog through the night. a weak weather system in western scotland, with outbreaks of rain through the night. where it is clear, temperatures could be close to freezing, so some frost in the morning. in south wales, southern england, that is where we will see the most dense fog, which could impact fog. check in with your local bbc radio station in the morning to find out if there is anything happening with that near you. at 8am, this is the picture — misty, cloudy and murky, with temperatures where they have been all weekend long, round about the six celsius mark. this front is moving through northern ireland and scotland, most of the rain in the western highlands, as that continues to feed its way southwards. there

won't be much rain left on it but it will turn damp for a time. the further west you are behind that, the more chance you have seen some sunshine in the afternoon. england and wales, plenty of cloud. a bit of patchy rain working in two parts of eastern and south—eastern england. further west through the day. single figure temperatures for all of us. patchy rain for england and wales on monday evening. clearer skies in scotla nd monday evening. clearer skies in scotland and northern ireland, giving frost. on tuesday, parts of western england and wales will see rainfora time, western england and wales will see rain for a time, brighter skies to the east. another weather system sta rts the east. another weather system starts coming towards northern ireland and scotland at the end of tuesday. that is a sign of things to come. look at the isobars, close together, meaning windy conditions. spells of rain heading through. not a co nsta nt spells of rain heading through. not a constant wash—out, but we will see, after the quite starkly, some

rain at times from midweek or not, and stronger winds, potentially stormy, for christmas weekend. we will keep a close eye on that. this is bbc news. the headlines at 7... in syria, the evacuation of eastern aleppo starts again. rebel fighters reportedly set fire to buses due to help people leave north of the city. it comes as russia says it will veto a french—drafted resolution to send un officials to monitor the evacuations in the city. the trade secretary, liam fox, says britain could remain a member of the eu customs union after brexit. ahead of another strike by southern rail conductors tomorrow, the rmt leader, mick cash, denies accusations his union is using the dispute to take on the government. jamie vardy and gareth bale are among the stars who could be named

this year's sports personality