Review: Madagascar 3 - Europe's Most Wanted

The original Madagascar film has grown in popularity over the years as it stands up surprisingly well to getting hammered at home by kids on the DVD player - the second in the series, Escape 2 Africa was a bit of a clunker, so it nice to report that this latest installment is a return to form for those who'll have to watch it umpteen times over the next 12 months.

There's not much new here to report, as despite the moving the setting to Europe the jokes largely stay the same - Noah Baumbach getting a screen writing credit is one of the more bizarre sights of the year, but you'd be hard pressed to spot any signs of his previous indie-riffic work at any point during this.

Truth be told, that's probably a problem that's affected the whole Madagascar series as a whole, as despite an impressive range of names involved in the projects, there's always the nagging feeling they could be a little bit better - though with likes of Cars 2 and Brave dropping standards slightly of late, the Pixar sized shadow doesn't loom over Dreamworks' output quite as badly as before.

Review: Hugo

Mis-marketed as Scorcese's first family film - instead of having the widest appeal, Hugo is arguably Marty's most niche film to date, focusing on French film-maker Georges Méliès and the birth of cinema rather than the character from which the film takes its name.

At times you feel like Hugo actually gets in the way of things, with his hijinks trying to escape from Sasha Baron Cohen's 'Allo 'Allo style station master sitting uneasily amongst Scorcese's love-letter to early cinema. Kids won't like the second half and adults will struggle to stay with the by the numbers chases and pratfalls that make up most of the opening act.

Hugo deservedly won 5 Oscars for its sumptuous design, but its telling they were all for its technical prowess as the sets always outshine the script.

Review: The Dictator

Don't go in expecting anything new from Sacha Baron Cohen, as The Dictator once again features Cohen combining another outrageous foreign accent alongside many even more outrageous jokes in his tried and tested formula.

The main difference is dropping the interaction with real people that had started to wear thin in the hit & miss Brüno, this time around the film is a straight up comedy that Cohen's performance as the despot Aladeen has to carry throughout, with the rest of the cast simply there to be the butt of his latest offensive outburst.

He succeeds at this thanks to most of the jokes hitting the mark and wisely keeping the running time short, with The Dictator being a rare example of a Hollywood comedy that finishes before the 90 minute mark. One downside of the switch to the scripted form seems to be the loss of some of the satire present in his previous work, the one scene at the end feels a bit bolted on and slightly out of place in a story that gives more prominence to the relationship between Aladeen and Anna Faris' Zooey.

The Dictator won't go down as one of Sacha Baron Cohen's more memorable work, but will still makes a fun way to spend a Friday night.