ANYTHING FOR HER (15)
LISA (Diane Kruger) and Julien (Vincent Landon) are a happily married Parisian couple whose life is destroyed when Lisa is convicted of murdering her boss. Julien is convinced of her innocence and as she starts to despair, he resorts to desperate measures to save her. Showing at Clwyd Theatr Cymru in Mold on Tuesday and Wednesday.
STAR RATING: ***
CHARLES DICKENS’ ENGLAND (U)
DEREK Jacobi has long nurtured a fascination with the real life inspirations for the locations used in the novels of Dickens. He narrates this documentary, travelling in the footsteps of Dickens and interviewing all manner of people along the way. Showing at Clwyd Theatr Cymru in Mold on Friday only.
STAR RATING: ***
CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS (U)
BASED on the beloved 1978 children's book by Judi and Ron Barrett, this is a comical fantasy about one man’s pursuit of his dreams. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller's computer-animated film is also a colourful morality tale about the gluttony of the West, where bigger is apparently always better. Bill Hader voices the inventor, whose contraption causes food to rain from the sky, while Anna Faris is the inexperienced weather girl asked to cover this meteorological phenomenon.
STAR RATING: ***
DISTRICT 9 (15)
FORGET Transformers, Terminator Salvation, GI Joe and even the rejuvenated crew of the Starship Enterprise – the science-fiction blockbuster of the year has arrived. South African director Neill Klomkamp's feature debut is a heartbreaking morality tale about humanity's intolerance emerging from the arrival of an alien spaceship, augmented with state-of-the-art visual effects and a spectacular finale.
STAR RATING: ****
DORIAN GRAY (15)
THE corruptive power of celebrity casts a long, dark shadow over Victorian London in Oliver Parker's take on Oscar Wilde's gothic horror. The set and costume designs are impressive, much more so than Ben Barnes – whose portrayal of the beautiful titular lead is more wooden than the frame of his infamous portrait. His lifelessness is thrown into greater relief by Colin Firth's eye-catching performance as his corrupter.
STAR RATING: ***
THE FINAL DESTINATION (15)
THE gleefully gory fourth instalment of the Final Destination series sees bodily parts flying all over the screen. 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: **
(500) DAYS OF SUMMER (12A)
DIRECTOR Marc Webb's quirky romantic comedy allows no happy ending for greeting-card writer Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who falls for his boss's new assistant Summer (Zooey Deschanel). As the 500 days of their relationship unfold, Tom comes to realise that while Summer might be perfect for him, he's not her 'Mr Right Now' or even her 'Mr Right Ever'. It's a haunting tale of relationship woes, with two strong lead performances.
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.
STAR RATING: ****
JULIE & JULIA (12A)
MERYL Streep looks certain to secure a 16th Oscar nomination for her tour-de-force portrayal of American cultural icon Julia Child in the new comedy from writer-director Nora Ephron. Based on two memoirs set more than 50 years apart, this is a frothy and entertaining tale of cuisine and l'amour which simmers nicely but never quite comes to the boil. Amy Adams co-stars as the modern-day cook and blogger Julie Powell.
STAR RATING: ***
LITTLE ASHES (15)
PAUL Morrison’s romantic drama based on the early lives and loves of Salvador Dali, Luis Bunuel and Federico Garcia Lorca. An 18-year-old Dali turns up in Madrid determined to become a great artist and is soon absorbed into a decadent and elite group presided over by Bunuel and Lorca. Starring Robert Pattison. Showing at Clwyd Theatr Cymru in Mold on Saturday and Monday.
STAR RATING: ***
SORORITY ROW (15)
SISTERS are doin' it for themselves – covering up murder, that is – in Stewart Hendler's competent remake of the 1983 slasher The House On Sorority Row. A prank on the two-timing brother of a sorority member goes horribly wrong, and months later the girls involved are stalked by a killer in a black graduation robe, wielding the same weapon used to slay their friend. The good-looking young cast includes Briana Evigan, Rumer Willis and Leah Pipes.
STAR RATING: ***
A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (12A)
ONE off screening of the classic Eliza Kazan movie based on Tennessee Williams’ play and featuring an inconic performance by Marlon Brando as Stanley Kowalski, as well as stunning work from Vivien Leigh as the faded southern belle who moves in with her sister and her brutish husband. Showing at Clwyd Theatr Cymru in Mold on Thursday, October 1 only.
STAR RATING: ****
