BEVERLY HILLS CHIHUAHUA (U)

USING special effects to make it look like animals are actually talking is so old hat now but it is a gimmick at the very heart of this rather lame family flick.

The pampered pooch of the title finds itself stranded in the middle of Mexico with no obvious way of getting back home.

The voice cast includes Drew Barrymore and Andy Garcia while humans on screen include Piper Perabo and Jamie Lee Curtis.

STAR RATING: **

MY BLOODY VALENTINE (18)

JUST reading the plot of this oh-so predictable slasher is enough to send you to sleep.

The young man who caused a mine accident 10 years earlier, prompting a survivor to go on a killing spree, returns home only to discover another nutter is on the loose.

You just yearn for a horror flick about a town full of psychos who are stalked by a normal teenager!

STAR RATING: *

SEVEN POUNDS (12A)

EVEN with the mighty Will Smith reunited with his Pursuit of Happyness director Gabriele Muccino, this oddly plotted picture has a hill to climb.

It is a story built on secrets that you must not know before you see the film or it will spoil the effect – which makes it virtually impossible to describe.

Smith is brilliant as the IRS man who decides to change the lives of seven people forever. Why and how does not start to become clear until well after an hour into the film.

Thankfully, someone as stellar as Smith is appealing enough to get people into the cinema in spite of the vagueness of the story and this is one film that repays that kind of faith.

STAR RATING: ***