And so it begins… in a week's time, the World Cup is going to consume your life entirely, whether you want it to or not. Even if you have absolutely ZERO interest in the highs and lows of soccerball, you can guarantee that pretty much every day between June 12th and July 13th, there will be constant chanting of 'Ola! Ola ola olaaaa!' from every bar you pass. Everyone will be trying to learn some Portuguese so they can chat up the local Brazilians. Copper Face Jacks will just be a sea of soccer jerseys.

BUT! As always, your local cinema is going to be there to help you through this. Always a shelter from the elements, especially during this depressingly terrible summer we've been having, it's now going to be your storm cellar as we all wait for Hurricane World Cup to pass us by.

So here's some early tips on what to go see while everyone else you know is off getting drunk and cheering on eleven men in shorts.

THURSDAY JUNE 12TH

World Cup: Brazil VS Croatia – 17.00 local time (21.00 here)
This is it, the very first match of the World Cup, so expect a lot of bars to be staying open late for these few weeks, and lots of people to be coming into work all bleary-eyed and stanking of last night's coffee and Red Bull.

Cinema: Edge Of Tomorrow
By all accounts, we loved this film (review HERE), and from what we've heard, so has pretty much everyone else who's gone to see it so far. But MORE of you need to see it, as this is one of the few genuinely great, smart, funny, action-packed sci-fi thrillers you’re likely to see this year, so get to it before it gets dumped out of IMAX and into one of the smaller screens.

FRIDAY JUNE 13th

World Cup: Spain VS Netherlands – 16.00 local time (20.00 here)
This is first full fixtures day, with two other matches also on (Mexico VS Cameroon, Chile VS Australia), but this is the match that everyone is going to be watching, as they're two of the favorites to actually win the World Cup. This is one of those matches that even those who don't like soccerball will probably end up watching.

Cinema: Oculus

The first of the summer’s big horror movies, and they’ve filled the ranks with some much loved females, including Doctor Who’s Karen Gillan and Battlestar Galactica’s Katee Sackhoff. Featuring a plot that involves an apparently haunted mirror, expect the screams from the screens to be almost as loud as the screams from the local pub when someone scores a goal.

SATURDAY JUNE 14th

World Cup: England VS Italy – 18.00 local time (22.00 here)
Another full fixtures line-up today (in descending order of potential goodness: Columbia VS Greece, Uruguay VS Costa Rica, Ivory Coast VS Japan), but since we didn't make it into the cup this year, most of us likely end up following our closest neighbour/biggest rival, England. Considering their playing one of the best teams in the world on their first match out, this is gonna be a biggie.

Cinema: Cheap Thrills
It doesn't have to be all blockbusters this summer, with some hidden gems well worth seeking out. We really rather liked this one (review HERE) which features Anchorman’s David Koechner as a rich businessman who uses his riches to get two broke friends to do some increasingly desperate things for money. A darkly comic horror film, you'll probably be watching a good deal of this from behind your fingers.

SUNDAY JUNE 15th to SATURDAY JULY 5th

World Cup: LOTS
From here on in, if you're not into it, it's just going to be a total miasma of football, with no less than 52 – FIVE TWO! – matches being played across eighteen days. You've got the rest of your leagues which brings you up to Thursday 26th, then the Last 16 from Saturday 28th to Tuesday 1st, and then the Quarter Finals on the 4th and the 5th. There are three whole days of soccer-free respite buried in there for you to reacquaint yourselves with your friends and family, before going back into the fray once again.

Cinema: LOTS
Depending on what you're looking for, there’s bound to something for everyone. Romantic drama and sure to be weep-fest The Fault In Our Stars (Thursday 19th), Kevin Costner starring spy action thriller 3 Days To Kill (Friday 20th), big screen debut of hit TV show Mrs Browns Boys D’Movie (Friday 27th), an all-star cast including Robert Downey Jnr and Sofia Vergara get their food on in Chef (Friday 27th), Melissa McCarthy goes on a road-trip with her profane grandmother in Tammy (July 4th), and sci-fi mind-twister The Anomaly (July 4th) are all on offer, amongst LOADS more.

TUESDAY JULY 8th

World Cup: Semi Finals – 17.00 local time (21.00 here)
The first of two matches who will eventually dictate who gets to go to the final, and who gets to play for third place. According to someone we sent to a bookie’s to find out the odds, these top four places should be filled out by the following teams: Brazil are at 3/1 to win, Argentina are next with 9/2, then it’s Germany with 11/2, and finally there’s Spain at 13/2. In case you're wondering, in last place is Honduras, with odds of 3000/1 that they’ll win the World Cup. Go Honduras!

Cinema: How To Train Your Dragon 2

Like so many others out there, we absolutely LOVED the first How To Train Your Dragon, as it was one of the best animated movies not to have been made by Pixar in the last ten years. Early word on the sequel is that it’s just as good, if not even better than the original! Anyone with kids who may have forgotten they had them during the previous month can probably make it up to them by bringing them along to this today.

WEDNESDAY JULY 9th

World Cup: Semi Finals – 17.00 local time (21.00 here)
As above, but with two different teams. As you were.

Cinema: Love Eternal
Irish cinema is having an absolutely stellar year, with 2014 bringing us the likes of Calvary, Frank, Run & Jump, Hill Street, Living In A Coded Land, The Stag and more still to come. Those on the horizon include the peculiar but enthralling Love Eternal (read our review HERE), so while you may not be able to support Ireland on the football field, you can still support her in the local cinema! Go Ireland!

SATURDAY JULY 12th

World Cup: Third Place Match
So close, and yet so far! Whoever ends up in this match must be so totally bummed out, but still they must play on for at least another ninety minutes to see who ends up being the second best loser of the whole World Cup. They don't even get to play in the same city as the final, with the third place match taking place in Brasilia, and the final happening in Rio De Janeiro. Ouch.

Cinema: Boyhood

Richard Linklater is one of our favorite directors, having brought us the peerless trilogy of Before Sunrise, Before Sunset and Before Midnight, as well as the likes of School Of Rock, Dazed & Confused and A Scanner Darkly. His latest film took TWELVE YEARS to make, filmed using the entire same cast throughout, and chronicling the life of a young boy named Mason from the ages of 5 to 18. Early word from screenings festival is nothing short of universally staggering, and this really is one of the films we’re dying to see this summer.

SUNDAY JULY 13th

World Cup: Final – 16.00 local time (20.00 here)
Okay, we can make a case that you can probably do without most of the World Cup in your life if you’re not a fan of the sport. But in reality, the World Cup Final is one of the biggest events – not just sporting events – in, well, the world, and the atmosphere that comes from watching the final is really not something that should be missed. So maybe, just this once, you should treat the game like you would a film, and find the place with the biggest screen and best sound system to watch the beautiful game at its most beautiful.

Cinema: Transformers – Age Of Extinction

Well, after all that madness and tension, it’s probably time to switch your brain off and have some fun. Michael Bay returns for the fourth robots in disguise movie, ditching pretty much all of the original cast, and replacing them with the likes of Mark Wahlberg, Stanley Tucci and local superstar Jack Reynor. Expect lots of explosions, some robot dinosaurs, and that one bit in the trailer where the guy gets a car to the face!