COCO CHANEL AND IGOR STRAVINSKY (15)
COCO Chanel attends the premiere of Stravinsky’s Rites of Spring, which takes Paris by storm in 1913, and is struck by the parallels with her own artistic approach. A few years later, mourning the recent death of her lover, she is introduced to Stravinsky and a wild, intense affair ensues. Showing at Clwyd Theatr Cymru in Mold from Tuesday-Thursday.
STAR RATING: ***
DUE DATE (15)
EXPECTANT father Peter Highman (Robert Downey Jr) is a workaholic who keeps in touch with his pregnant wife Sarah (Michelle Monaghan) via his omnipresent mobile phone. With her waters expected to break in only a few days, Peter prepares to fly home to make sure he is at Sarah’s side for the birth. A bag mix-up with fellow passenger Ethan Tremblay (Zach Galifianakis), an aspiring actor who carries his dog in his hand luggage, leads to both men being thrown off the flight. In the absence of his passport or wallet, Peter reluctantly accepts a lift from Ethan and his pooch, who are travelling to Hollywood to seek fame and fortune.
STAR RATING: ***
JACKASS 3D (18)
JOHNNY Knoxville and his daredevil pals attempt another bewildering array of pratfalls that defy all common sense. Since the joke is on the Jackass team, we can’t help but laugh as these grown men set themselves up for an almighty fall by risking life and limb for our amusement. Animated duo Beavis and Butt-head introduce the mayhem, which begins gently with a sequence called The High Five, in which unsuspecting members of the team are walloped in the face by a giant hand.
STAR RATING: **
LET ME IN (15)
TWELVE-YEAR-OLD Owen (Kodi Smit-McPhee) lives with his mother (Cara Buono). Bullied mercilessly at school by classmate Kenny (Dylan Minnette) and sidekicks Mark (Jimmy Pinchak) and Donald (Nicolai Dorian), Owen harbours fantasies of stabbing his tormentors with a penknife and spies on the neighbours with his telescope. Late one night he watches with interest as a girl (Chloe Moretz) and her father (Richard Jenkins) move into the apartment next door. When the latest beating from Kenny draws blood, Abby tells Owen to hit back hard – harder than he dares – and pledges her support to end the cycle of verbal and physical intimidation.
STAR RATING: ***
PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2 (15)
KRISTI (Sprague Grayden) and her husband Daniel (Brian Boland) welcome baby Hunter into their home, which they share with Daniel’s teenage daughter Ali (Molly Ephraim) from his first marriage. Kristi senses an dark force in the family home. Daniel scoffs at his wife’s ghost stories but Ali is excited about the prospect of a visitation. Paranormal Activity 2 leaves a large knot of tension in the stomach as we get sucked into Kristi’s nightmare.
STAR RATING: **
SKYLINE (15)
JARROD (Eric Balfour) and his girlfriend Elaine (Scottie Thompson) fly to Los Angeles to celebrate the birthday of Jarrod’s best friend, Terry (Donald Faison). They stay in Terry’s plush penthouse suite, which he shares with materialistic girlfriend Candice (Brittany Daniel). At the end of the raucous party both couples collapse in their bedrooms, while Terry’s pal Ray (Neil Hopkins) and assistant Denise (Crystal Reed) crash in the living room. In the early hours pulses of bright blue light fall from the sky and Terry and his friends stare horrified out of the penthouse windows as they witness the mass harvesting of the city’s denizens. If Jarrod, Elaine and co are to evade capture and a grisly fate they will have to make stark choices.
STAR RATING: ***
THE SOCIAL NETWORK (12A)
CENTRAL protagonist Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) is a computer nerd whose lack of social skills become apparent as he is deservedly dumped by his girlfriend (Rooney Mara). In revenge, Mark creates a crude website called facemash.com, which brings the nerd to the attention of Divya Narendra (Max Minghella) and Winklevoss twins (Armie Hammer), who want Mark to program their internal social networking site called HarvardConnection. Soon after Mark approaches friends Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield), Dustin Moskovitz (Joseph Mazzello) and Chris Hughes (Patrick Mapel) with an almost identical idea. Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), the entrepreneur behind Napster, becomes involved and offers Mark his advice: “Drop the ‘The’. Just Facebook. It’s cleaner.”
STAR RATING: ***
WALL STREET: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS (12A)
GORDON Gekko (Michael Douglas) is released from prison in 2008. He emerges into a world that is firmly controlled by the financial community and teetering on the brink of ruin. Gordon finds new success with a best-selling book and tour. In the audience is ambitious trader Jake Moore (Shia LaBeouf), who is the boyfriend of Gordon’s estranged daughter Winnie (Carey Mulligan). Showing at Clwyd Theatr Cymru in Mold from Friday-Monday.
STAR RATING: ***
YOU AGAIN (U)
MARNI (Kristen Bell) secures a promotion to vice president of the New York office of her public relations company, and returns home jubilant to northern California to attend the wedding of her beloved brother, Will (James Wolk). En route her mother Gail (Jamie Lee Curtis) reveals Will’s blushing bride-to-be is none other than the very same Joanna (Odette Yustman) who made her high school years a misery. Except that rather than being the sneering bully of old, Joanna has reinvented herself as an earthbound angel and do-gooder, who has her in-laws wrapped around her little finger. Determined to prevent Will from making the biggest mistake of his life, Marni vows to expose Joanna as a fraud.
STAR RATING: **
