AUSTRALIA (12A) (All major cinemas)
@A COOL director takes on an epic, romantic drama that seeks to encapsulate a country as well as characters and story – it could have been a recipe for disaster.
By all accounts, Baz Luhrmann has survived the experience with reputation intact, even if some of the comparisons critics are making with Gone With The Wind are inevitably leading to the impression it falls short of what it might have been.
The likes of The Big Country or Duel in the Sun may be better benchmarks by which to measure Luhrmann’s achievement with a sweeping tale of English aristocrat Nicole Kidman arriving in Oz to take over the huge ranch owned by her philandering but now murdered husband.
She tries to persuade heroic cattle driver but stubborn free spirit Hugh Jackman to help her, especially when villainous rival rancher Bryan Brown threatens to take over Kidman’s land. It all heads towards a race against time to get herds of cattle across country - All of this set against the backdrop of World War Two and its impact on Australia.
STAR RATING: ***
BEDTIME STORIES (PG) (All major cinemas)
THIS is almost Inkheart rewritten as an Adam Sandler vehicle as he plays a handyman who discovers the bedtime stories he tells his young nephew and niece are starting to come true.
The fact this is a family friendly fantasy comedy means Sandler is more like the likeable guy he played in 50 First Dates than the objectionable persona of Click.
And there is fun to be had as he ends up as a Greek in a chariot race among other likely scenarios, helped out by a supporting cast that includes Russell Brand, Guy Pearce and Courteney Cox.
STAR RATING: **
YES MAN (12A) (All major cinemas)
JIM Carrey lives up to his usual comedic reputation in his latest offering.
Finding himself at the crossroads as an older funny man deep into midlife crisis territory with pressing identity reinvention issues, Carrey makes a winning bid to pull off sweet, sexy, serious and outrageous all at the same time.
Sourpuss LA loan officer Carl (Carrey) spends his time avoiding his friends, brooding at his job, and spending every evening slumped on his sofa watching DVDs.
Then an old acquaintance Nick pushes Carl to attend a self-help seminar led by motivational guru Terrence Stamp.
He ends up signing up for a self-help programme based on one simple principle: say ‘yes’ to everything.
As the good results roll in and Carl starts uttering "yes" without hesitation, Yes Man becomes less a story and more a collection of set-pieces, with everything from bungee-jumping to learning to play guitar, flying lessons and racing a motorbike.
It’s a typical Jim Carrey movie, a silly, comedic mass of mishaps and unexpected turns with plenty of moments when you can’t help but laugh.
STAR RATING: ***
A BUNCH OF AMATEURS (12A) (Vue, Cheshire Oaks)
BRITISH comedy with Burt Reynolds starring as a faded Hollywood action hero who ends up being conned by his agent into agreeing to star in King Lear in an amateur charity production in London. It has been a long time since Reynolds has been the biggest star in the cast but here he ends up rubbing shoulders with such British actors as Samantha Bond, Imelda Staunton and Derek Jacobi.
STAR RATING: **
CHANGELING (15) (Vue, Cheshire Oaks)
CLINT Eastwood may be less than two years away from his 80th birthday but it is extraordinary how his powers as a film-maker are growing as he gets older. Set in Los Angeles in the 1920s, his latest stars Angelina Jolie as a hard-working single mother who suffers the ultimate nightmare when the nine-year-old son she dotes on goes missing. Five months later, the police inform her they have found the child – only for her to instantly declare the boy is not her son when she sets eyes on him.
STAR RATING: ****
THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (12A) (All major cinemas)
KEANU Reeves returns to science fiction by taking the risky gamble of starring in a remake of one of the best loved examples of the genre ever made. A well spoken, immaculately dressed alien comes to warn mankind of certain destruction if they don’t find a way to live in peace. Jennifer Connelly as a brilliant scientist and her young son end up befriending extraterrestrial Klaatu and becoming embroiled in his desperate bid to save the Earth from being destroyed.
STAR RATING: ***
FOUR CHRISTMASES (12A) (All major cinemas)
REESE Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn play a couple forced to visit each of their divorced parents over the course of one Christmas, encountering family tensions at every turn. It hardly comes across as a film bursting with festive spirit despite an impressive supporting cast that includes Sissy Spacek, Robert Duvall and Mary Steenburgen.
STAR RATING: **
INKHEART (PG) (All major cinemas)
AN ATTEMPT to create a lucrative family film franchise along the lines of Narnia but this time based on the successful series of fantasy novels written by Cornelia Funke. A young girl discovers her father has an amazing talent to bring characters out of their books and must try to stop a freed villain from destroying them all., with the help of her father, her aunt, and a storybook’s hero. A superb cast is headed by Brendan Fraser with support from Helen Mirren, Andy Serkis, Paul Bettany and Jim Broadbent alongside newcomer Eliza Bennett as Meggie.
STAR RATING: ***
MADAGASCAR : ESCAPE 2 AFRICA (PG) (All major cinemas)
THE animated foursome, Alex the lion, Marty the zebra, Melman the giraffe, and Gloria the hippo are back, in this spectacular sequel to 2005’s top family comedy. Alex, Marty, Melman, Gloria, King Julien, Maurice, the penguins and the chimps find themselves marooned on the distant shores of Madagascar. In light of the current situation the pampered New Yorkers hatch a plan to get home.
STAR RATING: **
QUANTUM OF SOLACE (12A) (All major cinemas)
THE Bourne Influence might be a good subtitle for Daniel Craig’s second 007 outing, which merely adds to one’s enjoyment of a breakneck Bond sequel to Casino Royale with mind-blowing action sequences and cool performances. (Olga Kurylenko is a real find) and great chemistry between Judi Dench’s M and our hero.
STAR RATING: ***
THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX (U) (All major cinemas)
AN UNDERDOG hero, a beautiful princess, a genie and an evil rat – perfect family fare for the panto season. An amazing voice cast – Emma Watson, Robbie Coltrane, Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Kline, Matthew Broderick, Sigourney Weaver – has been assembled for this animated tale. The hero is a little mouse with big dreams who falls in live with a human princess, makes friends with a rat and ends up saving his beloved’s kingdom.
STAR RATING: **
TRANSPORTER 3 (15) (All major cinemas)
IF YOU have any regard for the mindless action genre, it is impossible not to love the Transporter franchise. It is the perfect vehicle for the limited range of talents possessed by Brit star Jason Statham, who is irresistible as Frank Martin, the guy who always delivers. And this time he is being directed by the explosively named Olivier Megaton who makes the most of a nonsense story in which Frank has to deliver a girl who has a crucial role to play in a dastardly plot to poison a Ukranian harbour.
STAR RATING: ***
TWILIGHT (12A) (All major cinemas)
THE quartet of books have become a teen publishing success story and now Stephenie Meyer’s saga is conquering cinemas thanks to its central romantic premise of a teenage girl falling in love with a dashing but troubled young vampire. Director Catherine Hardwicke spices things up with other threats: the rest of the mysterious pale-faced Cullen clan, the local Native Americans who may or may not be werewolves and a band of murderous rogue vampires. Eventually, some of these aspects take centre stage to up the action factor but it is clear Hardwicke is far more interested in the romance which will wholly satisfy the main target audience of early to mid teen girls.
STAR RATING: ***
COMING SOON
January 9: SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE (Dev Patel)
January 9: DEFIANCE (Daniel Craig)
January 16: SEVEN POUNDS (Will Smith)
January 16: THE WRESTLER (Mickey Rourke)
Dates subject to change.
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2
Rating:
Contains moderate sex references.
Running time: 120 minutes
Director(s): Sanaa Hamri
Cast: Amber Tamblyn, Alexis Bledel, America Ferrera, Blake Lively.
Released on: 02/01/2009
Book now
Synopsis
Lifelong friends embark on separate paths for their first year of college and the summer beyond, but remain in touch by sharing their experiences with each other as they always have--with honesty and humor. Discovering their individual strengths, fears, talents and capacity for love through the choices they make, they come to value more than ever the bond they share and the immeasurable power of their friendship.
