Ever since Iron Man was released in 2008, Marvel have been building toward a huge ensemble film called The Avengers. Members of SHIELD (Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division), notably Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg), have appeared in all of the Marvel films involved, including Captain America: The First Avenger, The Incredible Hulk, Thor and Iron Man 2. It has been years in the making, but the marketing strategy has been clear, throw everything that Marvel have created cinematically into one super-event film ... read more

An Luc Besson-produced, action thriller, set in the future, and space, with an A-List Hollywood star having to protect an innocent and untrained woman. No it’s not The Fifth Element, but rather the new Guy Pearce vehicle Lockout. He plays a wise-cracking, wrongly imprisoned bad ass called Snow, and for reasons best ignored is sent up to a floating maximum security prison in space to rescue the President’s daughter Emilie (Maggie Grace) from the clutches of the inmates. While on paper Lockout sounds like the aforementioned Willis-starring actioner, it is actually more like a re-imagining of Escape from New York. ... read more

The Decoy Bride, written by Sally Phillips of Smack the Pony and I’m Alan Partridge fame is a low-budget UK romantic comedy. It stars former Dr. Who David Tennant and Boardwalk Empire star Kelly MacDonald. Made for a tiny £2.5m it has failed to make its money back at the box office based on a very limited release (only 1 screen in the US) and was released on DVD and blu-ray 3 days after its debut. ... read more

Based on a successful novel of the same name by Paul Torday, the improbably titled Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is a romantic drama comedy directed by Lasse Hallstrom. Based on a screenplay by Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours), Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is as charming as it’s vistas of Scotland and Yemen that it presents. It was partially funded by a grant from the National Lottery and was released by a combination of BBC Films, Lionsgate and the UK Film Council. ... read more

Producer Joss Whedon and director Drew Goddard worked on the script to The Cabin in the Woods together and these two former Buffy the Vampire Slayer contributors have succeeded in creating something quite spectacular and completely unexpected. ... read more

From director Peter Berg and ‘The toy company that bought you Transformers‘ comes the latest toy-to-film adaptation, Battleship. Like Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Battleship is a CG-heavy, $200m blockbuster. It casts John Carter lead Taylor Kitsch in his second blockbuster lead of 2012 and marks the film debut of pop sensation Rihanna. It is based on the extremely popular board game Battleships, but replaces one sides ships with invading aliens. ... read more

In 2010 Hollywood once again mined Greek mythology to create a big summer special effects blockbuster. Clash of the Titans was a staggering box office success , which crushingly and predictably lead to talk of a sequel. In 2012, Wrath of the Titans was released recouping the money it cost in little over a week. Like its predecessor Wrath of the Titans follows Perseus (Sam Worthington), ten years after the events with the Kraken, who is now attempting to break into the great prison Tartarus with fellow demi-God Agenor (Toby Kebbell). Following the help of Hephaestus (Bill Nighy) they fight their way in to rescue Perseus’ father Zeus (Liam Neeson) from his brothers Hades (Ralph Fiennes) and Ares (Edgar Ramirez) who intend to release their imprisoned father Kronos. ... read more

It must be nice to live in a world where all your problems can be solved by simply dancing. Horribly cut-up that you may have ruined a blossoming romance? Dance the pain away. Can’t afford your ridiculous tour of Europe to assemble a team of stereotypical street dancers? Dance and the public will give you money. Tired of listening to a flatmate snore? Have a pillow fight and then dance. There is no aspect of human life and suffering that apparently can’t be solved by a quick one-step and the odd jumping roundhouse kick. This is the world we’re invited to be part of in StreetDance 2. ... read more

Waiting for an Aardman film requires patience and understanding. With the advent of computer-generated animation, the wait has been reduced which leaves cinema-goers in the enviable position of having had two released within 6 months of each other. Arthur Christmas was a treat for the wintery season, but now we have a fully-fledged claymation film in the form of The Pirates! In An Adventure with Scientists. Based on the first of a series of books by Gideon Defoe, The Pirates! is the first clay-animated film from Aardman since Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. ... read more

In the last decade there has been a visible movement from Hollywood to cater for a large group of young teenagers. Working on adapting smash hit novels, we’ve seen Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Twilight and Red Riding Hood. The latest in this trend is The Hunger Games, based on the first in an incredibly successful series of books by Suzanne Collins, which has sold over 3 million copies worldwide. Created from a budget of $78m, The Hunger Games casts Oscar nominated actress Jennifer Lawrence in the lead role and is clearly aimed at the audience hole left by the soon to depart Twilight Saga. ... read more