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MARLEY & ME (PG)
Animal lovers will go bow wow wow for this comedy-drama about one man’s journey of self-discovery with a mischievous Labrador.
Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston star as a young couple struggling to juggle professional and parental responsibilities as well as Marley, the tiny, adorable bundle of fun that soon grows into 100 pounds of uncontrollable energy, chewing up anything and everything in the couple’s home.
Only the stone coldest heart – or a cat lover – would fail to be moved by the outcome of this movie.
Rating: Four stars

BRONSON (18)
Originally sentenced to seven years at the age of 19 for a bungled armed robbery, Charles Bronson is now one of the UK’s most notorious and violent inmates of our overcrowded prison system.
So how do you get inside the mind of a man who has been certified as clinically insane… and would you even want to?
Violent and expletive-ridden, Bronson is an acquired taste.
Rating: Three stars

SURVEILLANCE (18, 97 mins)
Director Jennifer Lynch returns with her second feature, a thriller of murder and deception set predominantly on one of those never-ending highways loved by her father David. Explosions of graphic violence and moribund humour prove that she has definitely inherited his appreciation for a world teetering on the brink of insanity, but the histrionics of the final act skirt perilously close to laughable.
Rating: Three stars

WATCHMEN (18)
Relations between America and the Soviet Union are strained and there is a clear and present danger of nuclear attack. In this politically charged climate, a deadly conspiracy involving the masked crime-fighters unfolds, which could have far-reaching implications for the future of mankind.
An uncomfortable, buttock-numbing 162 minutes, Watchmen is bloody and violent from the outset – hence the 18 certificate.
Rating: Three stars

THE YOUNG VICTORIA (PG)
Of all the love stories that have defined the British monarchy, none tugs the heartstrings quite like Victoria and Prince Albert.
Tracing the romance from the initial sparks of attraction between the first cousins to marriage, The Young Victoria reveals the private frustrations of the young queen.
Boasting gorgeous sets and costumes and a haunting orchestral score the film adheres closely to fact, albeit with an attractive cast being somewhat easier on the eye than some of their historical counterparts.
Rating: Three stars

NEW IN TOWN (12A)
Hopelessly misconceived and poorly executed, New In Town is a tiresome fish out of water comedy reminiscent of Sweet Home Alabama. Ambitious executive Lucy Hill (Zellweger) has been hired by her bosses back in Miami to spearhead the restructuring of a tiny Minnesotan town’s ailing Munck Foods plant. A city girl at heart, she has trouble adjusting to her new surroundings but slowly finds common ground with the locals – particularly union representative Ted Mitchell (Harry Connick Jr). Despite Zellweger’s admirable attempts at physical comedy, this film is dull to its frozen core.
Rating: One and a half stars

THE UNBORN (15)
Gleefully appropriating elements from The Exorcist including a possessed soul whose head swivels through 180 degrees then scuttles up the stairs on all fours, The Unborn awkwardly uses the Holocaust as a backdrop to an outlandish tale of secret experiments and evil spirits. When Casey Beldon (Odette Yustman) suffers a series of disturbing visions and one of her eyes mysteriously changes colour, she discovers she was in fact a twin. It transpires her unborn brother died in utero, and an evil spirit is now haunting her waking hours. But the only real shock in this proposterous supernatural yarn is whatever possessed Gary Oldman to be involved.
Rating: Two stars

GRAN TORINO (15)
In what reportedly will be his final appearance in front of a camera, Clint Eastwood delivers a tour-de-force performance as Walt Kowalski, a xenophobic war veteran, in this timely, Humanist drama. A powerful tale of modern day vigilantism, Gran Torino examines the clashes of ideals in predominantly white, blue-collar American neighbourhoods, where the ethnic and cultural make-up altered by the influx of immigrants. After intervening in a fight, Walt inadvertently takes young Asian Thao (Bee Vang) under his wing but finds himself in a world riven by gang violence and peer pressure.
Rating: Four stars

THE INTERNATIONAL (15)
Interpol Agent Louis Salinger (Clive Owen) uncovers evidence of serious infringements within one of the world’s most powerful banks and resolves to bring the institution’s boardroom to justice. However, the men in power will stop at nothing to protect their investments – even murder. The International is distinguished by a couple of brilliantly orchestrated action sequences, and Owen is strong as a man of conviction willing to go to any lengths in the name of justice.
Rating: Three stars

CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC (PG)
Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher) is a journalist who dreams of working on fashion bible Alette. Biding her time on a financial journal, her quirky column becomes a huge success. But she is hiding a deep, dark secret – an obsession with shopping. She juggles 12 credit cards, racking up debts of around 16,000, yet somehow still clings onto her apartment, her dream job, Mr Right and the love of family and friends. As long as Isla is on screen, goofing around, we’re happy to be sold this cheap and cheerful fantasy.
Rating: Two and a half stars

PUSH (12A)
This suspense thriller is set in a grim, foreboding future. A shadowy government agency known as The Division rounds up psychics for the express purpose of creating an army capable of controlling every thought and event. Nick Gant (Chris Evans) is a second generation telekinetic, who has been on the run ever since Division Agent Henry Carver (Djimon Hounsou) murdered his father. He meets 13-year-old Cassie (Dakota Fanning), a “watcher” or clairvoyant, who needs his help to retrieve a suitcase containing £6 million. Director Paul McGuigan directs with confidence, including a couple of blistering action sequences, but the script, however, is riddled with unanswered questions and plot holes.
Rating: Two and a half stars

FRIDAY THE 13TH (18)
What is this crazy, mixed-up world coming to when a group of promiscuous, bong-smoking college kids can’t spend a weekend at a waterside retreat with a grisly past, without running into a machete-wielding psychopath?
The new Friday The 13th nods and winks to Sean S Cunningham’s seminal 1980 bloodbath and adds a few twists of its own.

Devoid of scares, male characters are largely misogynist jerks while their female companions divide neatly into sensible girls and brazen hussies who are incapable of keeping their breasts covered.
The latter die first.
Rating: Two stars

THE PINK PANTHER 2 (PG)
The razor-sharp intellects of Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple would struggle to unravel The Curious Case Of The Completely Pointless Sequel.
The convoluted plot, clumsily stitched together, is a hook for desperately unfunny set pieces, which include Steve Martin as Inspector Clouseau, falling down a chimney, donning the guise of a flamenco dancer and impersonating the Pope.
The Pink Panther 2 is an embarrassment, revolving yet again around the theft of the legendary diamond from under ze noses of ze gendarme in ze French capital.
Hardly the cat’s whiskers
Rating: Two stars

HOTEL FOR DOGS (U)
While The Pink Panther 2 leaves us caterwauling for mercy this week, Hotel For Dogs turns out to be a decidedly finer pedigree of comedy, a family-oriented tale of two enterprising orphans, whose enduring love for their four-legged friends sparks a magical adventure.
Andi and her younger brother Bruce have passed from one foster home to the next, eventually landing up with musicians Carl and Lois Scudder, who care more about rehearsals than feeding two brats. So Andi and Bruce learn to take care of themselves, and their Jack Russell terrier Friday.
Cute and undemanding, Hotel for Dogs engineers a happy ever after for the two diminutive heroes.
Rating: Three stars

NOTORIOUS (15)
In the early hours of March 9, 1997, Christopher ’Biggie’ Wallace aka rapper The Notorious B.I.G. left a Los Angeles club with his entourage, bound for their hotel.
When the vehicles stopped at traffic lights, an unknown assailant opened fire in a drive-by shooting, spraying the car with bullets and fatally injuring the musician.
Executive produced by Sean “Diddy” Combs, Notorious is an overlong biopic that doesn’t draw any conclusions, but offers up a reverent if not entirely affectionate portrait of The Notorious B.I.G.
Rating: Three stars

VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA (12A)
Flighty and single Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) and soon-to-be-married Vicky head to Barcelona for the summer. Taking in the sights of the Catalan capital including Antoni Gaudi’s most famous buildings and the Picasso Museum both contrasting beautifully with the city’s bohemian and gothic quarters, the young women catch the eye of artist Juan Antonio, who is the talk of the town.
Cristina falls under Antonio’s powerful spell embarking on an affair before his crazy ex-wife, Maria Elena (Penelope Cruz), reappears and stirs up dormant desires.
Rating: Four stars

THE SECRET OF MOONACRE (U)
There’s not much in the way of magic or gung-ho adventure in this exceedingly gloomy tale of thwarted love, adapted from the children’s classic The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge. Plucky 13-year-old orphan, Maria Merryweather (Dakota Blue Richards), is forced to seek lodgings with her gruff uncle, Sir Benjamin Merryweather (Ioan Gruffudd), on the isolated Moonacre Valley estate. She arrives with a leather bound copy of The Ancient Chronicles Of Moonacre Valley, which reveals her family’s dark history. Unless an enchanted necklace is located by the rising of the 5000th moon, the entire valley will be destroyed. Alas, even esteemed director Gabor Csupo is unable to spark this turgid fairy-tale to life.
Rating: Two stars

HE’S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU (12A)
Based on the book by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo, this is an ensemble drama-comedy about the affairs of the heart of myriad twenty- and thirty-something men and women living in present day Baltimore. Despite a stellar cast list – Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Connelly, Scarlett Johansson – He’s Just Not That Into You is a disappointingly familiar scrapbook of relationship highs and woes, culminating in the usual array of broken hearts, smouldering kisses and wedding vows.
Rating: Two and a half stars

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON (12A)
This fantastical tale of a man who grows younger not older with each passing day is set to scoop a number of awards. Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt) was born “under unusual circumstances” in 1918. Raised in a retirement home, he soon grows young enough to leave and seek his fortune on a tugboat. Here, he falls in love with a ballet dancer (Cate Blanchett) but fears commitment as he continues to grow young, alone. The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button recalls Forrest Gump, possessing the same scope and ambition as it juxtaposes an ordinary man’s extraordinary escapades against a backdrop of 20th century American history.
Rating: Four stars

DOUBT (15)
Themes of certainty and suspicion underpin writer/director John Patrick Shanley’s film, adapted of his own Tony award-winning stage play of the same name, set in a ’60s Catholic school. On the basis of rumour and hearsay, Father Flynn (Philip Semour Hoffman) is accused of child abuse. The ferocious Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep) makes it her mission to bully Flynn into a confession of guilt. Doubt lacks the immediacy and some of the palpable tension of the stage version but Shanley’s adaptation of his own source material is still a riveting game of cat and mouse.
Rating: Four stars

BOLT 3D (U)
Man’s best friend learns to stand on his own four paws in Byron Howard and Chris Williams’ computer animated comedy, which pokes fun at our obsession with celebrity. Since he was a pup, Bolt (voiced by John Travolta) has been the star of a hugely popular TV series, in which he plays a genetically engineered canine with superpowers who saves plucky owner Penny (Miley Cyrus) from the clutches of the dastardly Dr Calico (Malcolm McDowell). But once thrust into the real world he embarks on a series of misadventures. Also available in 3D format.
Rating: Three stars

REVOLUTIONARY ROAD (15)
Sam Mendes’s beautifully crafted adaptation of the novel by Richard Yates chills to the bone with its unflinching portrait of scenes from a disintegrating marriage. Set in ’50s suburban Conneticut, Frank Wheeler (Leonardo DiCaprio) and aspiring actress April Johnson (Kate Winslet) have high hopes of happy life together. They raise two children and make ambitious plans to move to Paris. But these dreams quickly fade and are replaced with screaming, shouting and tears. Revolutionary Road is technically polished with electrifying performances.
Rating: Three stars.

VALKYRIE (12A)
Bryan Singer’s controversial war opus relates the final attempt on Hitler’s life before his suicide in April 1945 in the Fuhrerbunker. Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise) is recruited by the German Resistance to spearhead the assassination attempt. The dissenters plot to seize control of the government using Operation Valkyrie, Hitler’s plan to protect ministers in case of an uprising using the reserve army. Unfortunately, Valkyrie is a plodding history lesson. Bryan Singer’s film ambles along without any sense of urgency, while Cruise’s sombre one-note portrayal lacks vitality.
Rating: Two and a half stars

FROST/NIXON (15)
On August 8, 1974, in the wake of the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon became the first President to resign from the Oval Office. Rather than answer tough questions about his so-called crimes, Nixon was sensationally pardoned by his successor Gerald Ford. Frost/Nixon documents the efforts of an unlikely champion – British talk show host David Frost – to interview Nixon on camera and to effectively tease a confession from the wily orator. Based on the award-winning stage play by Peter Morgan, Ron Howard directs this classic tale of David and Goliath blessed with tour de force performances.
Rating: Three and a half stars

(15)
On November 27, 1978, Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man elected to public office in California, was gunned down along with Mayor George Moscone by city supervisor Dan White. Gus Van Sant’s stylish and haunting biopic celebrates the power of one man to take on the political establishment and to affect lasting change through a selfless, unwavering pursuit of equality for all. Sean Penn delivers possibly the performance of his career, affecting Harvey’s speech patterns and mannerisms perfectly.
Rating: Five stars

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