ALIENS IN THE ATTIC (PG)
A SPACESHIP full of ray gun-wielding extra-terrestrials, intent on invading Earth, meets resistance in a most unexpected form in John Schultz’s out-of-this-world family comedy. High School Musical starlet Ashley Tisdale is almost surplus to requirements until the alien butt-kicking finale.
STAR RATING: ***
BANDSLAM (PG)
BANDSLAM hopes to woo the pre-teen High School Musical crowd, charting the fortunes of a group of high-school misfits who seek glory in their local battle of the bands. HSM star Vanessa Hudgens is cast in a key role alongside Gaelan Connell, whose lead character blooms from an unhappy target for bullies when he reinvents himself as a cool loner at his new school.
STAR RATING: ***
BLUE EYELIDS (15)
MARINA (Cecilia Suarez) wins a fabulous beach holiday for two in a prize draw. Only she doesn’t have anyone to go with. Until she meets Victor (Enrique Arreola), a complete stranger. This touching Spanish movie is directed by Ernesto Contreras. Showing at Clwyd Theatr Cymru in Mold on Wednesday and Thursday.
STAR RATING: ***
THE FINAL DESTINATION (15)
THE gleefully gory fourth instalment of the Final Destination series from director David R Ellis sees bodily parts flying all over the screen, accompanied by fountains of blood and the occasional one-liner. Bobby Campo plays the lead who saves his friends and other bystanders from certain death at a speedway track, then sees them killed one by one as death restores its true order.
STAR RATING: **
FUNNY PEOPLE (15)
THERE’S nothing remotely funny about Judd Apatow’s latest, which is based on his early years writing jokes for other performers. Adam Sandler stars as a stand-up comic turned film actor who finds out he has leukaemia, and hires Seth Rogen to pen him gags. After surprisingly recovering, he seeks out an old flame (Leslie Mann), who is married with kids. But this is a bore, pitching haphazardly for laughs at the expense of plausibility.
STAR RATING: **
G-FORCE (PG)
BLOCKBUSTER producer Jerry Bruckheimer’s first 3D film is a light-hearted mix of live action and digital trickery which follows a team of guinea pigs recruited to covertly fight terrorism.
STAR RATING: ***
GHOSTED (18)
THIS mysterious love story set in Hamburg and Taipei is the centrepiece to this year’s London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. Hamburg artist Sophie is trying to come to terms with the murder of Ai-Ling, her Taiwanese lover. To ease her grief, she creates a video installation about Ai-Ling, travelling to Taipei to exhibit and dedicate it to her. Showing at Clwyd Theatr Cymru in Mold on Tuesday only.
STAR RATING: ***
GI JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA (12A)
BASED on the popular, military-themed action figures, this is an action adventure by numbers from the director of The Mummy, starring Channing Tatum, Marlon Wayans, Sienna Miller and former Doctor Who Christopher Eccleston. Aimed squarely at teenage boys with limited attention spans, Stephen Sommers’s all-guns-blazing romp has big weapons, bigger explosions and visual effects-heavy sequences in abundance.
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.
STAR RATING: ****
IN THE LOOP (15)
ARMANDO Iannucci, creator of The Thick of It, directs this comedy of politics in the run-up to war. It could be any war but with elements of the Middle East, dodgy dossiers, US-UK relations, there are more than a few connections with recent history. Starring Peter Capaldi and James Gandolfini. Showing at Clwyd Theatr Cymru in Mold from Friday-Monday.
STAR RATING: ***
A PERFECT GETAWAY (15)
TWO newlyweds realise that a vow to love one another “till death us do part” might be a lot sooner than they thought in writer-director David Twohy’s serpentine suspense thriller. Steve Zahn and Milla Jovovich star as the couple whose dream honeymoon in Hawaii ends up as the holiday to hell.
STAR RATING: ***
THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE (12A)
UNFOLDING over the course of 35 years, this recounts a heartbreaking romance between two people who were always destined to meet and fall in love – one of whom suffers from random fits of time-travelling. Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana star in director Robert Schwentke’s faithful adaptation of the bestselling book by Audrey Niffenegger, which builds to a harrowing finale.
STAR RATING: ****
THE UGLY TRUTH (15)
GERARD Butler and Katherine Heigl make a winning team in this routine but fun rom-com. Butler’s unconventional sex advice expert becomes a TV sensation, much to the disgust of his uptight producer, Heigl, who nevertheless turns to him for help when the man of her dreams moves into her neighbourhood.
STAR RATING: ***
