Movie releases

Put it down to coincidence, studio rivalries, "great" minds thinking alike or just something in the air, Hollywood releases often come in pairs, whether they're meteor movies (1998's Armageddon and Deep Impact), Snow White retellings (Mirror, Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman, both 2012) or Truman Capote biopics (Capote (2005) and Infamous (2006)). This week sees the arrival of White House Down, which bears a striking similarity to the recently released Olympus Has Fallen. Here, instead of Gerard Butler we have Channing Tatum as the hero called on to save the president when the White House is attacked by terrorists. A police officer recently turned down by the Secret Service, he finds himself performing exactly that job when paramilitary forces attack 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue while he and his young daughter are enjoying a tour of the premises. Jamie Foxx plays the commander-in-chief while German disaster specialist Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow) directs.

Speaking of striking similarities, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters is the sequel to 2010's Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, a Harry Potter cash-in based on Rick Riordan's series of children's books about a boy who discovers he is the demigod son of Poseidon. Logan Lerman reprises his title role in a follow-up with less star wattage than the first entry, which finds Percy and pals on the trail of the Golden Fleece.

From first-time director Miguel Larraya, Spanish thriller Afterparty stars Luis Fernández as a reality TV star who wakes up trapped in a house where he attended a wild party the night before. Alongside him are three women with whom he had various encounters the previous evening, plus a cellphone on which he starts to receive videos showing other locked-up party guests who start to meet a series of grisly ends.

Doc three times

A trio of documentaries completes the week's offerings. The Spirit of '45 is Ken Loach's portrait of the progressive postwar Britain that advanced the welfare state by spawning the National Health Service and nationalizing many industries.

Made in Spain, Arraianos is an unconventional documentary featuring the residents of a small village on the Galician-Portuguese border reciting lines from the play O bosque as they go about their everyday lives.

Finally, Eva Vila's Bajarí - the name for Barcelona in the Caló Romany language - shows the flamenco tradition being passed from one generation of Gypsy families to the next in the Catalan capital.