Trolls (U) Odeon, ABC, Cineworld Poole ****

CRAMMED to bursting with toe-tapping pop ditties courtesy of Simon & Garfunkel, Lionel Richie, Donna Summer and Justin Timberlake, Trolls is 92 minutes of glitter-dusted, computer-animated joy that is virtually impossible to resist.

Based on the fluffy-haired good luck trolls designed by Thomas Dam, which have inspired numerous fads since the early 1960s, Walt Dohrn and Mike Mitchell’s musical misadventure unleashes a colour-saturated assault on the senses from the opening frames. Kendrick’s vocal performance fizzes with Timberlake.

Admittedly, Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger’s screenplay is simplistic and the trolls’ and Bergens’ journeys of self-discovery are largely linear.

While Trolls might be lacking sophistication and cute in-jokes, it bursts with whizz-popping energy. 

It’s the cinematic equivalent of a mouth crammed to bursting with popping candy.

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (12A) Odeon, ABC, Cineworld Poole ***

SOLID, reliable, polished and compact - Jack Reacher: Never Go Back and its charismatic leading man, Tom Cruise, share many positive qualities.

Based on the book by Lee Child, director Edward Zwick’s thriller continues the escapades of the eponymous former Major in the Military Police Corps as he exposes greed and injustice.

The opening salvo in the franchise, Jack Reacher, released in 2012, was an entertaining genre piece punctuated by smartly orchestrated action sequences, including opening scenes of a sniper taking aim at innocent bystanders that unsettled in the wake of shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

On this slick offering, Reacher will be back again.

Keeping Up With The Joneses (12A) Odeon, ABC,Cineworld Poole **

AS a colloquialism, keeping up with the Joneses perfectly encapsulates the basic human desire to be part of the in-crowd, to polish away the rough edges of individuality for the sake of social acceptance.

Greg Mottola’s action comedy Keeping Up With The Joneses doesn’t have to break sweat to achieve this depressing, bland conformity.

Wit, humanity, romance and plausibility are repeatedly sacrificed in the film’s lumbering pursuit of feeble laughs, squandering a gifted cast on a lacklustre script that begs, borrows and steals from superior crime capers including Mr & Mrs Smith, The Heat and Spy.

If James Bond was right and you only live twice, that’s still too short to sit through Mottola’s film.