THE BEAVER (12A)

BUSINESSMAN Walter Black (Mel Gibson) presides over a toy company that desperately needs one innovative product to revive its ailing fortunes. While the VP (Cherry Jones) holds the business together, Walter self-implodes with depression, making life unbearable for his wife Meredith (Jodie Foster), teenage son Porter (Anton Yelchin) and youngest boy Henry (Riley Thomas Stewart). Eventually, Meredith is forced to kick out her husband, hoping he will get professional help. Following a failed suicide attempt, Walter returns to the homestead with a beaver glove puppet, through which he addresses the family as part of a bizarre form of therapy.

STAR RATING: ***

BRIDESMAIDS (15)

ANNIE (Kristen Wiig) used to own her own bakery but she has fallen on hard times and now works as a jewellery saleswoman. Best friend Lillian (Maya Rudolph) reveals she is getting married and asks a clearly delighted Annie to be maid of honour. Without two dimes to rub together, organising a bridal shower to remember will be tricky for Annie, especially since one of the bridesmaids is socialite wife Helen (Rose Byrne), who splashes cash as if it is going out of fashion. Fellow bridesmaids Megan (Melissa McCarthy), Becca (Ellie Kemper) and Rita (Wendi McLendon-Covey) witness the fallout as Annie and Helen vie for Lillian's affections.

STAR RATING: ****

GREEN LANTERN (12A)

THE Green Lanterns maintain peace and justice in the universe using superpowers granted to them by magical rings When an old adversary called Parallax re-emerges in the Lost Sector, venerated Green Lantern warrior Abin Sur (Temuera Morrison) is fatally wounded in the ensuring melee and his ring chooses United States Air Force test pilot Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) as a worthy successor. Hal is blessed with empathy and he slowly comes to terms with his superpowers, spurred on by sweetheart Carol Ferris (Blake Lively). Standing in Hal's way is eccentric scientist Dr Hector Hammond (Peter Sarsgaard), who is exposed to a drop of Parallax's otherworldly powers and mutates into a hideous harbinger of doom.

STAR RATING: ***

LARRY CROWNE (12A)

AFTER being made redundant from his job at a superstore, former Navy man Larry Crowne (Tom Hanks) decides to broaden his skills base by enrolling for public speaking classes at East Valley Community College. Arriving late on his first day, Larry meets feisty teacher Mercedes Tainot (Roberts), who is stuck in an unfulfilling marriage to her husband, Dean (Bryan Cranston). With encouragement from classmate Talia (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), and next-door neighbours Lamar (Cedric The Entertainer) and B'Ella (Taraji P Henson), Larry musters the courage to ask Mercedes to join him on his haphazard journey of self-discovery.

STAR RATING: ***

TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON (12A)

WHEN a Cybertronian spacecraft crash-lands on the Moon in the early 1960s, the crew of Apollo 11 retrieves an important Autobot artefact and returns it to Earth, unaware that the device will spark a titanic war with the Decepticons more than 40 years later. Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) is caught in the eye of the storm, joined by girlfriend Carly (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley). While Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen), Bumblebee and the other Autobots protect the humans, field commanders Major Lennox (Josh Duhamel) and Master Sergeant Epps (Tyrese Gibson) spearhead the final stand against the Decepticons, comprising Megatron (Hugo Weaving) and his menagerie of terrifying predators.

STAR RATING: ***