Review: Seeking a Friend for the End of the World

In this directorial debut from Lorene Scafaria, writer of the underrated Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, Keira Knightley steps into the Manic Pixie Dream Girl role for a tale of an odd couple's road trip across the country in the face of impending apocalypse.

Steve Carell is once again back on regular turf as the sad sack middle-aged man, whose life had seemingly already fallen apart 3 weeks before Armageddon, who decides to help Knightly's Penny track down a plane to see her parents whilst finally mustering up the courage to take a chance for the first time in his life and track down his childhood sweetheart.

At times the film does seem like a collection a scenes with a few cameos thrown in for good measure (namely William Petersen, Martin Sheen and one of the blokes from Cloverfield) but the likeable chemistry between the leads holds the film together and makes the romantic storyline much sweeter than it has any right to be on paper, with plenty of gentle laughs thrown in along the way.

Review: Dinner for Schmucks

Steve Carell and Paul Rudd are usually two of the more likeable stars in the Judd Apatow stable, so its quite a surprise just how bad and unfunny this film is.

Unlike his turn as Brick Tamland in Anchorman, this time Carell is just irritating instead of the loveable idiot - the film hangs on his performance and the lack of any laughs means it fails completely. Paul Rudd coasts along doing his usual nice guy routine, so escapes relatively unharmed - but its a shame to see someone who should be a much bigger star wasted in so many films.

Jermaine Clement provides the few laughs that are in the film, playing a character pretty similar to his role as Ronald Chevalier in Gentlemen Broncos. But the fact that Dinner for Schmucks is only just better than that film tells you all you need to know about this. One to avoid.

Review: Crazy Stupid Love

After the likes of Drive, Blue Valentine, Lars and the Real Girl and Half Nelson - you could be forgiven for forgetting that Ryan Gosling first big breakthrough was in the classic noughties sob-fest The Notebook.

Crazy Stupid Love is the closest he's got to returning to that territory in that its your by the numbers rom-com with few surprises to be had, but it always remains a step above the rest thanks to a classy ensemble cast and steady flow of funny jokes.

Steve Carell has the lead role as a father going through a mid-lfe crisis of sorts following the break up of his marriage and being taken under the wing of Womanizer Jacob (Gosling). The film gives him ample chance to show how Carell has moved on from the frat-pack comedy like Anchorman that first brought him to fame and he's now settled into the type gentle comedy roles like Bill Murray used to do in the nineties.

Comparisons have been made to Carell's best work, Little Miss Sunshine, but that's probably more due to the fact both films feature precocious kids - Crazy Stupid Love falls short of that standard by being a little too long (the whole babysitter lusting after Cal stuff could've been dropped) and the ending is a bit too cheesy and ties everything up too neatly it threatens to spoil the film a little. Emma Stone also disappears for too long for my liking as well

The likes of Kevin Bacon and Marissa Tomei turn up for cameos, but its good to know somebody's watched Josh Groban appearances on Never Mind The Buzzcocks as he's perfectly as Emma Stone's douchey boyfriend Richard.