A CHRISTMAS CAROL (PG)

ROBERT Zemeckis’s technologically groundbreaking adaptation of Charles Dickens’s festive novella is a delightful early Christmas present. His team drags the timeless fable kicking and screaming into the 21st century using state-of-the-art motion capture technology. Jim Carrey leads an all-star cast playing not only curmudgeonly Ebenezer but also bringing to life the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Christmas Yet To Come. But the technology never obscures the heartfelt emotion of the novella, including some heartbreaking scenes.

STAR RATING: ***

FANTASTIC MR FOX (PG

HIP indie director Wes Anderson brings his offbeat and distinctly adult sensibilities to bear on Roald Dahl’s classic children’s story, with lead voices from George Clooney and Meryl Streep. He imprints his personality so indelibly on the script that it’s hard to see children enjoying the film. The stop-motion animation is visually impressive, but Fantastic Mr Fox is a film you admire and marvel at rather than unreservedly love.

STAR RATING: ***

INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (18)

QUENTIN Tarantino’s long-mooted war opus is a blood-soaked fairytale set in Nazi-occupied France, divided into five hefty chapters. He plays loose and fast with historical fact, and splices genres to dizzying effect across its over-long two-and-a-half hours, with Christoph Waltz providing an Oscar-worthy supporting performance as a sadistic German officer and Brad Pitt plotting to kill the upper echelons of the Third Reich. Showing at Clwyd Theatr Cymru in Mold from Friday to Monday.

STAR RATING: ****

JENNIFER’S BODY (15)

SCREENWRITER Diablo Cody follows the deserved Oscar triumph of Juno with a horror comedy about a high-school hottie (Megan Fox) who develops a bloodthirsty taste for teenage boys. Jennifer’s Body is a distinctly off-kilter teen horror that doesn’t quite find its rhythm. Fox confidently graduates from her eye-candy roles in the Transformers films to leading lady, but has wild-eyed competition from co-star Amanda Seyfried.

STAR RATING: ***

THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS (15)

GEORGE Clooney adds to his ever-expanding repertoire of hilarious misfits in The Men Who Stare At Goats, a deranged tale of US servicemen who are trained to become Jedi warriors, capable of killing the enemy with mind-power alone. Ewan McGregor co-stars as the reporter in war-torn Iraq who gets sucked into the escalating madness, culminating in a memorable LSD trip in the desert.

STAR RATING: ***

MESRINE: KILLER INSTINCT (15)

THE first of two films directed by Jean-Francois Richet depicting the life of Jacques Mesrine (Vincent Cassel), one of France’s most notorious criminals. Showing at Clwyd Theatr Cymru in Mold on Tuesday-Wednesday.

STAR RATING: ***

9 (12A)

EXPANDED from his 11-minute, Oscar-nominated 2005 short film, Shane Acker’s 9 is a computer-animated odyssey set on a post-apocalyptic Earth devoid of humans. The protagonists are a race of tiny, man-made sack people, voiced by Hollywood stars including Elijah Wood, Christopher Plummer and Jennifer Connelly, who seek to sow the seeds of a new humanity. Sadly, it is a triumph of dark visuals over plot and substance.

STAR RATING: ***

SAW VI (18)

THERE’S lots of blood and no glory as Kevin Greutert, who edited the previous five films in the Saw horror franchise, directs the latest instalment of the series. Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) lives to slay another day – from beyond the grave – as Detective Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) orchestrates one last horrific game of survival.

STAR RATING: **

SCARFACE (18)

ONE of Al Pacino’s most iconic roles sees him play a Cuban hustler who arrives in the US via the 1980 refugee boatlift and murders his way to the top of the Miami cocaine business. Directed in 1983 by Brian de Palma. Showing at Clwyd Theatr Cymru in Mold on Thursday only.

STAR RATING: ***

TRIANGLE (15)

MELISSA George plays single mother Jess, who gets more than she bargained for when she agrees to a trip on a yacht called Triangle. The boat capsizes in a storm, but the stranded group is rescued by a mysterious, deserted ocean liner. George, who’s in every scene, delivers a performance that makes sense once the film’s elaborate overall design becomes clear.

STAR RATING: ***

UP (U)

THE latest computer-animated masterpiece from the wizards at Pixar is an airborne adventure in the company of a cranky old man and an excitable young boy. Both hysterical and heartbreaking, this rumbustious romp – the Disney studio’s first release in Digital 3D – is guaranteed to have even the most cynical soul choking back tears long after the lights go up. The opening 10 minutes of Up are among the finest Pixar has ever crafted.

STAR RATING: ****

ZOMBIELAND (15)

A BLOODY jaunt through a futuristic America ravaged by a contagion that has metamorphosed all but the lucky few into flesh-chomping predators. Jesse Eisenberg stars as the reluctant anti-hero helped by tough guy Woody Harrelson and survivors Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin.

STAR RATING: ***