GI JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA (12A)

BASED on the popular, military-themed action figures, GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra is an action adventure by numbers from the director of The Mummy and Van Helsing, 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.

Rating: lll

THE UGLY TRUTH (15)

THE battle of the sexes turns ugly in the new romantic comedy from director Robert Luketic (Legally Blonde, Monster-In-Law), starring Gerard Butler and Katherine Heigl.

Uproariously funny in places and politically incorrect to the point of offensiveness in others, The Ugly Truth is as reassuringly predictable as it is unexpectedly potty-mouthed, with a voracious appetite for sex talk that marks it out as distinctly adult fare.

Rating: lll

ORPHAN (15)

A LITTLE girl in search of a loving family proves a handful for her adopted parents in Jaume Collet-Serra’s brutal thriller. Orphan is not for the faint of heart, with graphic scenes of violence.

There are gaping holes in the film’s logic likely to elicit squeals of unintentional laughter, with the story revolving around two grieving parents (Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard) whose adopted girl (Isabelle Fuhrman) has sinister secrets.

Rating: lll

COCO BEFORE CHANEL (12A)

AT a time when summer blockbusters saturate the market, Coco Before Chanel is a welcome dose of Gallic chic chronicling the rise to fame of one of couture’s most revered icons. Amelie’s Audrey Tautou stars as the fashion designer from humble beginnings who became a cause celebre in pre-First World War France. This history lesson has sparkle and style in abundance, but emotions get lost in a swirl of silks and glittering accessories.

Rating: lll

G-FORCE (PG)

BLOCKBUSTER producer Jerry Bruckheimer’s first 3-D film is a light-hearted mix of live action and digital trickery which follows a team of guinea pigs recruited to covertly fight terrorism. The turbo-charged screenplay panders to the short attention-span of children by packing as many thrills and spills and poop gags into 88 minutes as possible. Star voices include Sam Rockwell, Penelope Cruz, Nicolas Cage and Steve Buscemi.

Rating: ll

THE TAKING OF PELHAM 1 2 3 (15)

TONY SCOTT directs an action-packed second big-screen adaptation of the 1973 novel, with John Travolta as a criminal mastermind who hijacks a carriage full of terrified commuters on New York’s subway system and Denzel Washington as the train dispatcher caught up in negotiations. Scott’s testosterone-fuelled revamp lacks the tension of the 1974 film – you have to “mind the gaps” in its plausibility.

Rating: ll

THE PROPOSAL (12A)

SANDRA BULLOCK returns to sparkling form in Anne Fletcher’s screwball romantic comedy, which proves that the path to true love can sometimes begin with some good old-fashioned blackmail. She plays the boss from hell who forces her assistant, the impossibly buff Ryan Reynolds, to marry her to avoid being deported back to her native Canada. Reynolds matches her every goof of the way as the faux-mance kindles genuine attraction.

Rating: lll

CROSSING OVER (18)

REMINISCENT of the Oscar-winning Crash, with its large ensemble cast and fragmented narrative set on the streets of modern-day Los Angeles, Crossing Over is a complex drama about the fates of apparent strangers all seeking permanent citizenship in the United States.

World-weary cop Max Brogan (Harrison Ford) and his partner Hamid Baraheri (Cliff Curtis) spearhead raids on premises suspected of employing illegals, throwing those they capture into the system where immigration defence attorney Denise (Ashley Judd) is left to pick up the pieces.

Rating: lll