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: Moneyball

There's a natural and un-cinematic feel that starts as one of Moneyball's strengths but does also stop it falling slightly short of previous Sorkin effort The Social Network. Hampered by being a real-life story, the stage seems set for a West Wing inspirational speech and triumph against adversity full of stirring music and the like, but true life gets in the way of that slightly, which is a shame.

The film is at its best when Pitt (playing as downbeat as someone who looks like Pitt can get really) and Hill are together on screen - Hill deserves particular credit for a shy and sympathetic turn as stats guy Peter Brand, tuning down the increasingly obnoxious traits of many of his recent performances.

I personally could've done with a bit more Philip Seymour Hoffman, as his role a coach seems quite under-developed and disappears from screen far too early in proceedings.

Moneyball probably wasn't worth the awards buzz that came its way, but is a solid effort that even non-sports fans can enjoy.

Review: The Campaign

Considering his recent track record includes the likes of Due Date and The Hangover 2, Zach Galifianakis can count The Campaign as somewhat of an improvement as he plays a character that doesn't comes across as totally unlikeable for once. In fact Galifianakis' naive Marty Huggins actually manages to garner a fair bit of sympathy when is manipulated into abandoning all his principles to run for office.

Fans of Ferrell might be slightly disappointed though, as much like his George W. Bush impression, he has the voice and look down for a simple Republican Senator Cam Brady - he doesn't actually have that many jokes to back it up.

The lack of laugh out loud jokes or any memorable lines put it below the likes of middle of the road Ferell film like Blades of Glory, Semi-Pro and Talladega Nights - meaning despite being perfectly watchable once, The Campaign is completely forgettable.

Review: Looper

A fast-paced opening half set in the futuristic city is where Looper draws most of its comparisons with the science-fiction staples of Blade Runner, Terminator and Matrix films - and if it had managed to keep up the pace throughout, might have ended up being mentioned as one of the classics in the cannon of the genre down the line.

However as things slow down in the film's second half the pause in pace results in the film's premise starting to feel slightly creaky, leaving the viewer time to find a few holes in logic in the time travel story as well thinking despite a prosthetic nose, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis don't really look that much alike.

Spending most of the second part stuck on a farm with a creepy kid means Looper ends up being more reminiscent of a lot of 70s horror - and having most of the good stuff front-loaded means despite all the positives, the film ends up feeling a slight disappointment.

Review: The Bourne Legacy

When The Bourne Legacy was first announced, expectations were pretty low for the series return minus main star Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass: who despite only signing up during the second film The Bourne Supremacy, had become synonymous with the franchise - but in case of the marketing men really earning their money, as each piece of information and trailer leaked out this reboot of sorts started to look like it could be the surprise hit of the summer.

Despite having all the tools in place, The Bourne Legacy never quite clicks meaning it struggles to live up to the standards set before. The film is directed by writer Tony Gilroy with a similar flair for action as Greengrass and Jeremy Renner has much of the believability Matt Damon brought to Bourne as Aaron Cross - but the story so far lets the film down, with too much held back for the sequels leaving a pretty basic plot stretched to breaking point thanks to a run time well over 2 hours, resulting in a final action chase that should be thrilling just ending up a bit boring as you know nothing will be resolved by this point.

The potential is there for a great film, maybe the sequel will see a similar jump in quality like The Bourne Supremacy made from Identity.

Review: Ted

On the surface the premise of Ted, the story of a sweary, stoner teddy bear and his manchild friend sounds like it will struggle to fill a film - but thanks to Seth MacFarlane's proven track record in creating crude comedy characters and Mark Wahlberg once again excelling at playing the idiot, Ted finishes up as one of the funniset comedies of the year.

As you'd expect from the man behind Family Guy and American Dad, the jokes are mostly rude and random - there's just about enough of a plot this time around to ward off any accusation of Ted being written by manatees, but the film is arguably at its weakest in its final third when the jokes slow down and the plot takes precedence - as beneath the jokes its not much more than a pretty basic rom com with a chase stuck in it.

The ability to create chemistry between Wahlberg and a CGI bear is at the core of Ted's success, but there's also strong support from Mila Kunis as John's long-suffering girlfriend alongside Joe McHale making the movie from Community to movies as her sleazy boss Rex - also much like 21 Jump Street, the other comedy hit of the year, the film features an outrageous 80s cameo that comes close to stealing the show.

Review: The Dark Knight Rises

With the hype sky-high after the success of The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan's third and final installment in the Batman franchise was always going to struggle to match up to people's expectations - but quite how short The Dark Knight Rises falls will be a surprise to many.

The main problem with this final film is that whilst the success of the series has been in its realistic setting of the superhero's story in the modern world, too much of The Dark Knight Rises plot stretches the believability to breaking point, taking the viewer out of the film to question whether what happened actually made any sense.

That's not to say this is a bad film - there's plenty to enjoy in the action set-pieces and the performances of Anne Hathaway and the return to the fore of Christian Bale as The Caped Crusader himself, who is back inform after taking a backseat to performances from Aaron Eckhart and Heath Ledger in the previous film. Tom Hardy is good as his nemesis Bane, playing him more like a Bond villain than you may expect - it would be unfair to compare him to Ledger's Joker as they are very different type of villains, but Bane could've done with a bit more development to show why exactly he has managed to amass a cult-like army of followers.

The Dark Knight Rises also suffers from trying to cram too much stuff into one film - it would arguably have been better following the lead of the final installments of the Harry Potter and Twilight franchises by splitting the story into two parts, as it feels like there is at least 4 hours of film crammed into 2 and 3/4 hours, with several minor characters introduced and subsequently getting lost in the shuffle, leading to some underwhelming moments the should be much more powerful as the film hurdles through several of its multiple endings, of which the final one seems a little bit too much like trying to repeat Nolan's trick from Inception, copping out from the proper ending that actually suited the story.