Peter Rabbit and Love, Simon make excellent Easter viewing

Because it's nearing the end of the long weekend, we thought we might try to keep the Easter spirit alive a bit longer and tempt you with a few movies that have just opened - including one about a very special bunny.

For the kids you can't really go past Peter Rabbit.

This is not the gentle Peter Rabbit and friends you may know and love from your childhood - this is a far more impertinent and downright subversive little farmyard gaggle, and they may well win you over.

A host of Hollywood vocal chords lend themselves to this animated rabbit tale.

James Cordon in the title role, Sia as Mrs Tiggy-Winkle and Margot Robbie and Daisy Ridley as Flopsy and Cotton-Tail.

Domhnall Gleeson and our very own Sam Neill embody Farmer McGregor old and new.

The hate/hate relationship between rabbit and rogue is real, and there will be frenetic farmyard farce and plenty of poultry partying to drive that theme home.

None of it is particularly fresh, but it certainly delivers some guilty giggles. Not quite the Easter Rabbit, but Peter will do.

Irreverent laugh out loud family fun that's not really for the Beatrix Potter purests but an enormously entertaining outing nonetheless. 

3.5 stars.

Also hitting the Easter weekend big screen is the fabulous teen rom-com Love, Simon.

Here Jurassic World's Nick Robinson moves on from dinosaurs and is a total break-out as high school hottie Simon Spier. 

Simon has a great group of mates, an impossibly cool family and to all intents and purposes, life is good.

Apart from one little thing; Simon is gay, and he quite simply doesn't know how to tell the people he loves.

Love, Simon uses all the common storytelling tropes of Hollywood rom-coms - but in this instance this template adds, instead of detracts, from the delivery. 

This isn't boy-meets-girl, this is boy-wants-to-meet-boy... and telling that story just like any other teen romance is what makes Love, Simon just a little bit special.

At its heart, this is simply a story about love and tolerance and honesty, and told with a perfect dose of each of those things.

And importantly, it's not at the expense of your IQ.

4 Stars.

Newshub.