PLANET 51 (U)
THE computer-animated comedy from debutant Spanish directors Jorge Blanco, Javier Abad and Marcos Martinez unfolds on a world far from ours where little green men, women and child live in domestic bliss.
But the crash-landing of a dim-witted American astronaut (voiced by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) causes chaos. Planet 51 is an entertaining if slight fantasy that nods to the likes of ET and 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Rating: ll
THE BOX (12A)
CAMERON DIAZ stars in a cautionary tale from Donnie Darko writer-director Richard Kelly about a family living in 1970s suburban America who are faced with a terrible moral dilemma.
They receive a box with a red button: if they push it in the next 24 hours, someone they don’t know will die and they will collect one million dollars; if they don’t, the box will be taken away and they get nothing.
Rating: lll
ME & ORSON WELLES (12A)
HIGH School Musical star Zac Efron steps away from cutesy, teen-friendly fare with this handsome period piece, directed by Richard Linklater.
He tests his acting mettle as part of an impressive ensemble cast in a drama inspired by Orson Welles’s notorious 1937 Broadway staging of Julius Caesar, but is upstaged by Lancashire-born newcomer Christian McKay, who plays the bullying, egocentric titular legend.
Rating: llll
PARANORMAL ACTIVITY (15)
ENTERPRISING Israeli-born film-maker Oren Peli wrote and directed this much-hyped, low-budget supernatural horror movie that is set to make him millions.
Shot at his own house in his spare time, his modest vision has bloomed into a 21st-century Blair Witch Project, scaring the bejeezus out of audiences with its deceptively simple narrative and grainy camerawork, captured by characters as they hunt for an evil spirit in their home.
Rating: llll
NATIVITY! (U)
CHRISTMAS comes early courtesy of British director Debbie Isitt (Nasty Neighbours, Confetti) and her improvised comedy about the preparations for a primary school Nativity play.
Shot without a script as a safety net, Nativity! is a feel-absolutely-wonderful treat steeped in festive cheer that delivers tidings of comfort and boundless joy for the entire family. Martin Freeman stars as the teacher tasked with putting on the play who makes life difficult with a little white lie.
Rating: llll
LAW ABIDING CITIZEN (18)
JUSTICE is blind – and by the end of F Gary Gray’s gruesome thriller, it’s also horribly burned, dismembered and disembowelled as a family man (Gerard Butler) turns the tables on the lawmakers who let him down.
Butler’s brilliant inventor exacts bloody revenge on the prosecutor (Jamie Foxx) who agrees a plea bargain with one of the men who killed his wife and daughter. Scenes between them lack tension as both actors go through the motions – justice is bland.
Rating: ll
THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON (12A)
NOT since Harry Potter first cast a spell over cinema audiences has a franchise based on a series of best-selling novels been as completely critic-proof as The Twilight Saga.
The good-looking cast could probably stare silently into the camera for two hours, and fans of Stephenie Meyer’s teen romances would still flock to the multiplexes in their millions.
New Moon is too long – 15 minutes of gloom and adolescent angst could easily have been excised from the opening act – but it’s unlikely that the target audience will complain.
Rating: llll
A SERIOUS MAN (15)
IF FORTUNE truly favours the brave, it’s no surprise that hen-pecked, mild-mannered Larry, the mensch at the centre of Joel and Ethan Coen’s comedy, is pummelled senseless by bad luck.
Set in a Jewish community in mid-1960s Minneapolis reminiscent of the film-maker brothers’ own childhoods, A Serious Man is a deceptively simple portrait of a family in crisis, distinguished by a sharp script and terrific ensemble cast.
A Serious Man drops us squarely into the mounting devastation of Larry’s once-idyllic life as, one by one, all of the people closest to him push him away.
Rating: llll
