HAVING previously destroyed all the major cities in an alien invasion (Independence Day) and plunged the globe back into the Ice Age (The Day After Tomorrow), director Roland Emmerich goes one better in 2012 by trying to wipe out the entire human race.
John Cusack stars in the jaw-dropping, special-effects frenzy based on the premise that Earth will come to a dramatic end on December 21, 2012, as decreed by the Mayan calendar.
Rating: 4/5
HARRY BROWN (18)
SIR MICHAEL CAINE delivers one of his finest performances for years in the accomplished debut by British director Daniel Barber. He plays a vigilante pensioner in a role thematically reminiscent of Clint Eastwood’s harrowing thriller Gran Torino, hunting down a gang of council-estate thugs who killed his best friend.
The 76-year-old is fearless and mesmerising as a war veteran with nothing to lose.
Rating: 4/5
AMELIA (PG)
MIRA NAIR’S biopic of the first woman of aviation – who inspired millions of women to break gender boundaries and whose life was cut short in mysterious circumstances – is disappointingly unsatisfying.
It looks brilliant and conveys the awe of flying felt by Amelia Earhart (played by Hilary Swank) but the clunky, cliché-ridden script leaves you feeling emotionally cold. Also stars Richard Gere and Ewen McGregor.
Rating: 3/5
THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS (15)
GEORGE CLOONEY adds to his ever-expanding repertoire of hilarious misfits in The Men Who Stare At Goats, a deranged tale of US servicemen who are trained to become Jedi warriors, capable of killing the enemy with mind-power alone.
Ewan McGregor co-stars as the reporter in war-torn Iraq who gets sucked into the escalating madness, culminating in a memorable LSD trip in the desert.
Rating: 4/5
A CHRISTMAS CAROL (PG)
ROBERT ZEMECKIS’S technologically groundbreaking adaptation of Charles Dickens’s festive novella is a delightful early Christmas present. His team drag the timeless fable kicking and screaming into the 21st century using state-of-the-art motion capture technology.
Jim Carrey leads an all-star cast playing not only curmudgeonly Ebenezer but also bringing to life the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Christmas Yet To Come. But the technology never obscures the heartfelt emotion of the novella, including some heartbreaking scenes.
Rating: 4/5
