THE AMERICAN (15)

FOLLOWING a bungled assassination attempt in Sweden, hit man Jack (George Clooney) decides to abandon the killing game once and for all. He telephones handler Pavel (Johan Leysen), who suggests that Jack should lay low in the Italian town of Castelvecchio. The hit man drives to the remote community and on the spur of the mo2ment, he disobeys orders and sets up camp in nearby Castel Del Monte. By day, Jack keeps himself busy by constructing a custom-made weapon for mysterious client, Mathilde (Thekla Reuten). By night, he enjoys the carnal delights of local prostitute, Clara (Violante Placido). As Jack's paranoia takes hold, he seeks counsel from local holy man, Father Benedetto (Paolo Bonacelli).

STAR RATING: ***

CERTIFIED COPY (12A)

JULIETTE Binoche won Best Actress at Cannes for her role as a French antiques dealer who meets a stranger, an English academic, on a Sunday outing in Tuscany. But their relationship is not all it seems – next thing they appear to have been married for years. Showing at Clwyd Theatr Cymru in Mold from December 14-15.

STAR RATING: ***

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART 1 (12A)

THIS follows on from the shocking events of Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince with Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) facing the renewed threat from Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) and the Death Eaters. The nefarious Lord Voldemort and his followers continue to grow in power, threatening everything that Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) and his followers hold dear. With Hogwarts in disarray, Harry, Ron and Hermione embark on a perilous quest to track down the mysterious Horcruxes and stop the forces of darkness from taking a stranglehold over the wizarding world.

STAR RATING: ****

MEGAMIND 3D (PG)

MEGAMIND is a fast-paced computer animated adventure that asks if a villain could become a hero when the entire world is pitted against him. Megamind (voiced by Will Ferrell) is separated from his alien parents as a child and crash-lands on Earth, where he grows up in the Metro Prison For The Criminally Gifted. Megamind destroys rival Metro Man, allowing him and his loyal henchman, Minion (David Cross), to take charge of Metro City but he soon finds life is empty with no one to fight.

STAR RATING: ***

MR NICE (18)

RHYS Ifans plays Howard Marks, the charismatic international drug dealer and sometime MI6 spy who became Britain’s most wanted man, got into all sorts of scrapes and eluded the authorities for years. Showing at Clwyd Theatr Cymru in Mold from December 10-13.

STAR RATING: ***

MONSTERS (12A)

SIX years ago previously, a NASA probe returning to earth with samples of an alien life form, crashed over Central America. Following the crash, new life forms began to appear and half of Mexico was quarantined as a infected zone. Newspaper photographer Andrew (Scoot McNairy) agrees to help his boss's daughter, Samantha (Whitney Able), return home. The ports are about to close and Andrew is told he must pay an extortionate fee to get Samantha on the last boat before the borders are locked down. The only other option is to pay a smuggler to shepherd them through the infected zone where the tentacled aliens roam. Andrew and Samantha have no choice and head off into the wilderness. As they near the US border and freedom, the couple encounter the gargantuan beasts close-up and discover that the real monsters might just be mankind.

STAR RATING: ****

PIANOMANIA (PG)

AUSTRIAN directors Robert Cibis and Lilian Franck explore the rarified world of contemporary concert pianists in this documentary about Steinway’s master piano tuner Stefan Knupfer. Showing at Clwyd Theatr Cymru in Mold on December 16.

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 of the morning, 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: ***

UNSTOPPABLE (12A)

IN A Pennsylvania rail yard, Dewey (Ethan Suplee) foolishly jumps off a slow moving freight train in order to race ahead and change a set of points. Unfortunately, the throttle jars forward and the carriages speed down the line without a driver... or any air brakes. More worrying, the locomotive includes drums of a highly flammable liquid. Yardmaster Connie Hooper (Rosario Dawson) clears the entire line to prevent a head-on collision. Further down the line, veteran engineer Frank Barnes (Denzel Washington) and conductor Will Colson (Chris Pine) orchestrate a daring rescue plan to slow down the runaway train before it reaches the notorious Stanton curve, where it will inevitably derail.

STAR RATING: ***