Review: The Hunger Games

Comparing this to Twilight is really mis-selling what type of film this is. Whilst the adventures of Bella and Co. gets undeserved flack for daring to aim itself at teenage girls, it doesn't really offer that much else to crossover to any other audiences - The Hunger Games however can be enjoyed by anyone teen and upwards thanks to its superior mix of story and action.

The more realistic comparison is Battle Royale not only for sharing the children fighting to the death premise (though despite Jennifer Lawrence being brilliant she struggles to pass for 16) but Gary Ross deserves great credit for making a 12A feel more brutal than what actually goes down on screen with a tense, dystopian atmosphere gripping throughout. The only let-down comes towards the end with the introduction of some ropey CGI monsters that do there best to ruin the mood created, but this slight blip doesn't come close to spoiling things.

One question that did bug me after was I'm still not sure how someone who lives in a District where they have to survive on hunting squirrels is quite so proficient in cake decorating though?

Review: Your Highness

The premise of Your Highness (which is little more than swearing in a medieval English accent) unsurprisingly struggles to hold itself over the duration of an entire film - any fans of Danny McBride are still better off sticking with Eastbound & Down. There's still a few laughs to be found, but thankfully most of them pop up in the red-band trailer above, so you don't have to bother with watching the film itself.

Review: 21 Jump Street

A remake in loosest possible sense, 21 Jump Street might carry the name of the 80s undercover police show, but the film is closer to Superbad than the TV series.

Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum play the lead roles who find themselves out of their depth time after time in every scenario, but by being constantly funny the film manages to avoid seeming repetitive. Hill might be the one from the comedic background but Channing Tatum is the star of the show, stealing all the the scenes he's in thanks to the best performance of a himbo since Brad Pitt's turn in Burn After Reading.

I'd be tempted to say the film could do without the last 20 minutes as like most modern comedies it does suffer from being just a bit too long, but in featuring one of the best cameos of recent times you can see why they chose to keep all of it in.

Review: Half Nelson

Half Nelson's setting can't help but draw comparisons to season 4 of HBO's The Wire, and the eagle-eyed viewer will be able to spot a couple of the kids from the show return in Dan Dunne's classroom - but David Simon's show never worked in just a single sixty minute fix and in being so similar to it, Half Nelson is a little bit of a letdown, drifting by without much resolution, not having the luxury of another 50 episodes to tell its slow-burning story.

However, there's still plenty to like about the film, in particular excellent performances from Ryan Gosling as drug-addled teacher Dunne and Shareeka Epps as Drey, who share a unique Teacher/Student relationship on discovering Dunne's addiction. The film-makers also deserve credit for avoiding falling into the same trap of Gran Torino where having such a great actor in the lead shows up a cast of novices in support, though we know from Blue Valentine, Gosling could step in and sing over the end credits if they wanted to go down that route.

Review: Lars and The Real Girl

The premise might sound like one from the latest gross out comedy, but Lars and The Real Girl avoids the lewd humour to tell a sweet-natured story about one man's relationship with a sex doll he buys off the internet.

This film is definitely more Coen Brothers than Farrelly Brothers, with the wintery setting recalling that of Fargo. But the darkness of the Coen's work is something that is missing from this film, a result of everyone being so nice means there's no real drama of such to drive the story forward, meaning it kind of drifts towards the end - but on the other hand with everyone being so likeable does serve to give the films finale surprisingly enough warmth that could melt the iciest of hearts.

Review: Cars 2

Pixar have an almost flawless record when it comes to family films - but Cars 2 isn't trying to be a family film, so it doesn't really matter that the film became the first of Pixar's to be certified rotten on film aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes.

But for anyone over the age of 8 or so who wants to know what the film is like... the problems with the first are amplified in Cars 2 thanks to four different plots fighting for attention, leaving the story all over the place and the decision to give the main role over to Larry The Cable Guy's Mater, who was frankly the most annoying thing about the original.

The result in the end is the same as first time around - young kids will love it just like they did the first film and anyone over a certain age will be left cold.

Review: The Road

This adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy novel shows The Walking Dead how a post-apocalyptic drama should be done, focusing more on the 'Why live?' aspect of the drama whilst still providing enough edge of seat tension and jumpy bits to keep your attention.

The only downside is as the film gets closer to the 2 hour mark Kodi Smit-McPhee shouting 'Papa!' starts to get a little bit annoying - perhaps they could've cut out the glorified Coca-Cola advert in the middle to move things on a little bit quicker.

Review: Sucker Punch

Zack Snyder's career output of increasingly diminishing returns finally hits rock bottom with Sucker Punch, another of his fantasy-action films that is crammed full of CGI and his trademark slow motion shots.

The flimsy clothes flouted controversy, but the flimsy plot is the biggest crime of all - Sucker Punch tries to provoke some kind of reaction from the viewer, but simply ends up in 90 minutes of utter boredom.