AUGUST continues to yield a packed schedule in cinemas as studios make the most of the last few weeks of summer.

A comedy behemoth returns from his slumber this week and a children's classic gets a brand new adaptation, providing cinemagoers with a blast from the past.

Here's the best and the worst of this weekend at the cinema.

New releases

David Brent: Life on the Road (Cert:15, 96 mins)

Our pleasure is Ricky Gervais' self-inflicted pain in David Brent: Life On The Road, a toe-curling faux documentary comedy that catches up with the politically incorrect title character as he embarks on a quest for musical nirvana with his band, Foregone Conclusion.

Life and art are blurred in Gervais' script, which plays like a cover version of his award-winning TV series The Office, replete with a wince-inducing scene of dad dancing that is supposed to attract the fairer sex.

David Brent: Life On The Road is peppered with uproarious one-liners and moments of skin-crawling brilliance that confirm Gervais as a master of unflattering observation.

The mockumentary conceit isn't consistent and the sentimentality of the band's final performance feels contrived, but it's nice to have some sweetness to cut through the film's acidic brand of humour.

Swallows and Amazons (Cert:PG, 97 mins)

Adapted from Arthur Ransome's beloved book, Swallows And Amazons is a charmingly old-fashioned tale of messing about on the river set in more innocent times before children became zombified slaves to their parents' tablets and smartphones.

Philippa Lowthorpe's film is a valentine to the great outdoors and the wild, sprawling splendour of the British countryside, set in the mid-1930s against a picturesque backdrop of the Lake District.

If a British film is ever going to convince 21st century youngsters to stop swiping and start building dens and scavenging, this is it.

Swallows And Amazons maintains a gentle pace, anchored by solid performances from the young cast.

Still in cinemas

Pete's Dragon (Cert:PG, 103 mins)

Disney fails to replicate the oddball wonder of The Jungle Book and The BFG in its third live-action revamp of an animated movie this year. Pete's Dragon isn't a bad film by any stretch of the imagination, but it's something of a dull throwback.

The performances are decent and the fairly secluded town is nicely conveyed, but the story limps along at a lacklustre pace and the eponymous beastie never quite looks at home amidst the real world scenery.

Bryce Dallas Howard and Robert Redford try to imbue the film with some emotional gravitas, but it's Karl Urban who proves to be the most fun as the ambitious logger determined to capture the dragon.

Pete's Dragon is a glossy, sentimental film and one that's executed with reasonable flair. It simply fails to locate the twist of intrigue that would've elevated it to the standard of something more.

The Shallows (Cert:15, 86 mins)

Blake Lively is game and committed in a movie that, in true shark movie fashion, pits her against an entirely implausible CGI predator and hopes that her acting is enough to carry the movie.

Thankfully, in this case, it is. Lively is tremendous fun as the quick-witted surfer who finds herself marooned and bleeding on a rock after a shark takes an enormous chunk out of her leg.

The film itself is proper shlock of the sort that you can find on any Friday evening if you're willing to scroll into the dregs of the Sky channel listings. Lively, though, gives The Shallows an extra sheen of A-list credibility, helped by director Jaume Collet-Serra. veteran of a trio of Liam Neeson action movies.

Nothing is plausible, nothing makes sense and there's certainly nothing of substance to the story. But when there's a ferocious predator roaming around a beach, narrative meat is the last thing they want to chew on.