Review: Young Adult****

High school reunion flicks are ten a penny, and play to our morose curiosity of what others are up now, and how better/worse others have faired since leaving education. Up in the Air director Jason Reitman has teamed up with Academy Award-winning writer Diablo Cody of his other hit teenage dramedy, Juno, to take this ‘home-coming’ idea to depressing new levels of self reflection and blacken humour that the results of unregulated and misguided nostalgia can generate. Charlize Theron is Mavis Gary, a writer of teen literature that is going out of fashion who returns to her small hometown to relive her glory days and attempt to reclaim her happily married high school sweetheart, Buddy…

Review: Journey 2: The Mysterious Island***

Our thirst for family adventure movies is never quenched, and the promise of yet another involving a mystical, far-off land packed with interesting creatures promises big things. Carving a niche in such a market is Canadian filmmaker Brad Peyton, the debut director of Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore that got mixed reviews in 2010. Tasked with breathing life back into the Journey to the Center of the Earth franchise from 2008, and with the second film simply shortened to Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, Peyton’s shaky foray into family feature filmmaking has been redeemed. In this adventure, a more mature Sean Anderson (Josh Hutcherson) is back on another quest to find yet…

Review: Carnage*****

Tried and tested on stage from Paris to London to Broadway, New York, Yasmina Reza’s successful play God of Carnage was always going to present a challenge being adapted for film by the playwright herself. However, the key to the story – shortened to Carnage – is the power of the acting talent assigned to play the parents; director Roman Polanski’s excellent casting of Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly as the Longstreets, and Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltzas the Cowans is the absolute tour de force of the film. After the Cowans’ son, Zachary (Polanski’s own son Elvis) ‘disfigures’ the Longstreets’ son, Ethan (Eliot Berger) with a stick in the park, the Longstreets, Penelope…

Review: The Descendants*****

It’s Hawaii – but not as we know it. Writer-director Alexander Payne has set one of star George Clooney’s most anticipated releases, The Descendants– since its unveiling at the BFI LFF 2011 – in paradise. But it’s a paradise of a viewing kind that is the perfect combination of dramedy, tragedy and familiar fallouts that simultaneously brings tears of joy and sorrow, with seemingly effortless effect. And with a sprinkle of the Clooney magic in this, its possibilities are endless for the route the story will take. Matt King (Clooney) is a workaholic lawyer who has lost touch with his wife, Elizabeth (Patricia Hastie), and his two teenage daughters, Alexandra (Shailene Woodley) and Scottie (Amara…

Review: The Sitter**

Jonah Hill may appear to have grown up in Moneyball, and got some intellectual credibility in an adult environment, but he reverts back to the same self-depreciating man-boy role we all know him for in David Gordon Green’s new mainstream comedy, The Sitter. It’s really a half-hearted, mischievous Noughties twist on zany 1980s comedy adventure, A Night on the Town – more commonly known as Adventures in Babysitting, starring Elisabeth Shue, but minus the hot babysitter and the child-friendly fun. Hill is immature Noah Griffith, a suspended college student fixated on one sexy girl down the road, Marisa (Ari Graynor), who he gives ‘personal favours’ to. Planning to hook up again later that night, Noah begrudgingly…

Review: Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows***

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle might be turning in his grave at the use of his work, but if he had a sense of humour, he might appreciate Guy Ritchie’s more contemporary, humorous interpretation of his British sleuth, Sherlock Holmes, and certainly admire Robert Downey Jr’s eccentric turn as the infamous detective again. What is certain is Ritchie gets to play out his love of Cockney bromance once more, while taking a European action-packed tour, Orient Express style this time around. Holmes (Downey Jr) turns sulky schoolboy when his right-hand man, Dr Watson (Jude Law), decides to give up bachelorhood and get hitched, leaving his detective days behind. After taking over his stag do, ‘Best Man’…

Review: Alvin And The Chipmunks: Chipwrecked***

The sound of those rapid-fire, squeaky voices are enough to send some grown-ups running for the hills. Others will take a deep breath and prepare for the super-cute onslaught at the cinema – there has been a two-year respite after all. But once you’ve tuned into the inane Chipmunk banter, Film Three in the series, Chipwrecked, still manages to charm while thrilling the kids, what with its intrepid little adventurers and energetic musical numbers. This time, Alvin (Justin Long on helium) and his band, The Chipmunks, including smart Simon (Matthew Gray Gubler) and gullible Theodore (Jesse McCartney), are on their way to some music awards with the Chipettes – Eleanor (Amy Poehler), Jeanette (Anna Faris)…

Review: Puss in Boots****

Shrek’s journey has been one of highs and lows, and was running out of interesting places to go that even Shrek the Third director Chris Miller would agree with. Concentrating on another of Shrek’s travelling companions was always going to be a tall order; making a supporting character stand alone in a film can go either way. Miller and co have definitely succeeded with Puss in Boots in the new 3D film of the same name, tapping into the older audience’s nursery-rhyme nostalgia while putting the ‘cool’ back into the time-old stories for the newer generation. Long before he even met Shrek, the notorious fighter, lover and outlaw Puss in Boots (voiced by Antonio Banderas)…

Review: New Year’s Eve*

You have to worry when a film’s musical medley finale is far more entertaining than what you’ve just sat through. Another snag for the filmmakers of the equally disappointing Valentine’s Day last year is their biggest star, Robert De Niro, is woefully miscast in the sombre role, when his true comedic talent is apparent in the end sing-song. – You’ve guessed it: it’s nearly ball-dropping time in Times Square, New York City, and a bunch of characters have all sorts of New Year’s resolutions to make and keep, all to do with some form of love: forgiveness, compassion, opening their hearts to a different point of view etc. We follow the 24 hours before the…

Review: Happy Feet Two (3D)***

More penguins, more dancing set-pieces is what Happy Feet writer-director George Miller gives us again, probably because they make for vibrant family entertainment. Short of the penguin musical, the second film that had some huge boots to fill after the Award-winning first is rather a colourful, sing-song whirl of incoherent plot-lines and snatched, throwaway character comments, even if it does spell mega cute in places. In Happy Feet Two, toe-tapping penguin Mumble (voiced by Elijah Wood) is all grown up with a young, incredibly shy son called Erik (voiced by Ava Acres) who has two left flippers and can’t join in with the Emperors’ routines. Like father, like son, Erik struggles to fit into this…