Yes, we have seen the “spunky young woman succeeds against all odds in new job/town/situation and lands a hot boyfriend” plot play out countless times before, but thankfully Roger Michell’s Morning Glory does it rather well. It’s surprisingly smart, funny and very entertaining. Not only is this due to a cracking, intelligently written script by Aline “The Devil Wears Prada” McKenna, it’s also a real credit to leads Rachel McAdams, [...]

Compared to emotionally intelligent 3D animated features such as Toy Story 3 and How to Train Your Dragon, live-action kids movies tend to degenerate into a study of how many blows a man’s gonads can take before he is rendered infertile.

So imagine my surprise when Gulliver’s Travels, a modern rehash of Jonathan Swift’s [...]

Whilst Christmas-celebrating people at this time of year are making their lists and checking them twice, the sanctuary of the cinema usually becomes a safe house and the films within provide the perfect hide-out from fairy lights, excessive shopping and dreaded family gatherings. This year, however, Finnish writer/director Jalmari Helander has made it his seasonal duty to give us a very special, if not creepy, Christmas gift. Rare [...]

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the latest entry in the fantasy blockbuster series The Chronicles of Narnia adapted from the novels by C.S. Lewis, posesses all the elements of a classic fantasy: an epic quest, a group of young heroes facing trials and temptations, jawdrowping visuals and, naturally, a talking lion. The film is brimming with so many fantastical elements, it risks overwhelming the story and reducing [...]

George Clooney has come a long way since the psychologically scarring days of Batman & Robin. It almost seems as though most of his performances in recent years have been dedicated to eradicating the memory of that tragic appearance as the Dark Knight. The American, written by Rowan Joffe (28 Weeks Later) as an adaptation of the Martin Booth novel “A Very Private Gentleman” and directed by Anton [...]

For those outside the United States, the biggest drawcard of Fair Game is likely to be Naomi Watts teaming up with Sean Penn again after their success in 2003’s 21 Grams. But the nature of this post-9/11 film appeals to international viewers just as much as it does to Americans, who know the story of how CIA agent Valerie Plame’s name was leaked and the battle that ensued [...]