The guy story is so strong that conventional romantic interludes with the woman torn between two men could easily have been dropped.

Poorly written nonsense, but lovers of beefcake action will be happy enough with the heroes gymnastically vaulting monsters and slicing and dicing their way around the ancient world. An extra star for Ralph Fiennes, who is a god.

Strong turns from its female leads and Amanda Seyfried elicits more sexual tension from proceedings than "Jennifer's Body" ever managed.

The start wobbles, but once boy and dragon connect, this becomes a thrilling flight.

Like a lot of human relationships Greenberg is complicated, infuriating, good-hearted, funny, often painful, and well worth the effort. A sad little movie but also a great one, lit by two astonishing central performances.

An, at-times, marvellous muddle of high farce and low-brow chuckles.

Fun, funny and affectionate, though it packs the emotional wallop of an undernourished high school nerd.

Cringe-making fun for survivors of the '70s. For the younger majority: a familiar rise and fall of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll enlivened by the gender reversal and performances.

The semi-improvised performances and gently nostalgic tone makes this endearing and captivating.

Bourne goes epic. A wham-bam actioner, but its pointed political subtext ensures Damon and Greengrass deliver their most provocative mission yet.

So the boy can act -- this is the best thing he’s done.

A powerful meditation on personal freedom from a Hungarian auteur.

A chilling, intense character study.

Sadly Lewis lite and not without flaws but this is as Burtonesque as one could wish for, a real treat for fans of his twisted imagination and great British character actors.

Flat and unfunny, this merits a second star based entirely on Scott’s cameo. Kev, get thee to a typewriter. You’re so much better than this.

A modern French crime epic where the smudges and crossings out do not diminish the passages of great dreamlike power.

DiCaprio delivers a startling prettyboy-to-tough nut makeover – but he has to play it close to his chest here for the storyline to play out. Once you get past the trickery, Shutter Island offers sumptuous, enthralling, shivery gothic filmmaking with a hardboiled heart and a sly line in asylum humour. If a pot is being boiled, at least it’s an intricately-decorated pot on a spectacular fire.

An uneven tone and the feeling of too many cooks mars the finished product, but there are moments of beauty and real terror.

Slavishly follows every rule of the kids’ fantasy franchise genre, but it’s a well-executed and imagined world. Bet the sequel’s darker.

A touching melodrama illuminated by a solid turn from Tatum.

The dialogue and storyline are both a little on the clunky side, but the action excels.

It’s absolute nonsense, of course, but does quite nicely as knockabout Friday night fun. We can smell a sequel if Travolta can be bothered.

An uneven, somewhat meandering thriller is given emotional pull by Mel Gibson’s excellent comeback performance. The lethal weapon hasn’t lost it.

Could have been T2 with seraphs, or Assault On Precinct 13 crossed with Revelations. Instead, it’s a lazy genre bore. Doesn’t bode well for Priest, the next Stewart/Bettany film in the pipeline.

Thoughtful, moving, and Bettany is brilliant. To be reminded of the power of love to redeem and repair, catch Creation.

A smart and incisive look at race, identity and dysfunction in modern French society.

Mad Max 2 with Thought for the Day thrown in. There’s some ace post-holocaust action, but you can’t help feel you were invited to a party with fizzy pop and cream cake and got suckered into a sermon instead.

44 Inch Chest gets by on the quality of its performances.

A vivid portrayal of life at society's margins with a compelling turn from newcomer Jarvis. Little wonder it scored at Cannes.

Lots of interesting concepts competing for limited running time make for more of a TV pilot than a feature film.

Rubbish. Irish eyes will be hard pressed to grimace, let alone smile.

It’s chaotic and episodic, but this is Cera’s star turn. "Superbad" meets "Fight Club?" That’ll do it.

A hard film to love, but a hypnotic meditation on all the elements -- gossip, religion, bullying -- that can turn a parish and country bad.

Some of the tension drains from a slow middle act, but it remains a gripping tale of sleuth-work and moral awakening.

A fun, action-packed reintroduction to Conan Doyle's classic characters. Part Two should provide more in the way of scope.

Like all Meyers’ films, it’s more about interior design porn than real human emotions and drags on for far too long. Still, Streep, Krasinski and Baldwin are so good, they almost make it work. Almost.

There are thrilling flashes of Gilliam getting back to top form here. A scrappy movie with more ideas than it can control, but one born out of a passion and determination that are wholly infectious.

Alvin does high school rom-com and very poorly at that.

A riveting slice of Romanian new wave drama, haunted by shadows of the Ceausescu era and never less than thought-provoking.

Neither good nor bad. Scales dizzying new heights of okay. Aims for mediocrity... and nails it.

It's been twelve years since "Titanic," but the King of the World has returned with a flawed but fantastic tour de force that, taken on its merits as a film, especially in two dimensions, warrants four stars. However, if you can wrap a pair of 3D glasses round your peepers, this becomes a transcendent, full-on five-star experience that's the closest we'll ever come to setting foot on a strange new world. Just don't leave it so long next time, eh, Jim?

Though slightly marred by a clunky structure and a lack of truly catchy tunes, Nine’s wall-to-wall first-rate performances from its stellar cast (especially Cotillard) add a touch of class.

An elegant, entertaining, informative picture with a gallery of vivid supporting turns, this provisionally crowns the winning Blunt as a Brit-pic star - but it skimps a bit on the bodice-ripping, blood and thunder.

A phenomenal, heart-breaking performance from Jeff Bridges powers this simple but affecting redemption story.

One of the year's originals - frantic, unpredictable and very, very funny. Remove brain. See loud.

Like “The Lord Of The Rings,” The Lovely Bones does a fantastic job with revered, complex source material. As terrific on terra firma as it is audacious in its astral plane, it is doubtful we’ll see a more imaginative, courageous film in 2010.

Eastwood hits all the right notes in exactly the right order, but it’s his least personal film for a while.

It sounds like a downer but A Single Man is exciting, emotionally alive filmmaking, a potent cocktail of style and substance. And Firth thoroughly deserves the Oscar.

Despite strong performances from the leads, when it comes to pacing and power, it’s the Danish original that edges it. Still, a sturdy and affecting remake that brings a powerful story to an even wider audience.

This is smart, silky, sensitive, and funny old-school movie magic.

Handsome, engrossing, frequently very funny for a literary bio drama, and ultimately deeply moving, with pitch-perfect performances from one and all.

A deeply disconcerting provocation about the future of civilisation: a powerfully performed vision of an insignificant humanity.

This is way more than it seems and manages to surprise and enchant throughout.

One of the most chillingly effective visions of the world’s end ever put on screen -- and a heart-rending study of parenthood, to boot.

Exactly as good as Musker and Clements’ earlier efforts, so a return to the form of Disney’s early 1990s classics. The animation is gorgeous, the heroine feisty and the animals amusing -- but this may be too scary for the very small.

Decent ingredients but, as a whole, this is lacking in choreographic flair and plot substance.

A really satisfying backstage drama, this is an exhilarating tour around a man whose talent was almost as big as his ego.

If you buy in to the central romance, you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll swoon. Otherwise, the lingering glances, lip-chewing and regular de-shirting may cause uncontrollable giggles.

Bullock delivers a towering performance that grabs the movie and the Oscar race by the scruff of the neck. You will be moved, but at the price of any nuance or complexity.

An exhilarating riff on the cop-thriller drama by a director at the top of his game -- Herzog is also at his most accessible here -- powered by an incendiary performance from Nicolas Cage. A very bad lieutenant, then. And a bloody good film.

Gorgeous and seductive, if pitched at Almodóvar fans and perhaps a touch long. Those drawn by Cruz’s divadom will wonder why it takes so long to get to her -- though she is wholly dazzling when it does.

Camp, over-the-top and entirely unbelievable: in short, the best thing John Woo has made in years.

Genuinely original: a silly, hilarious and oddly profound adaptation for adult-sized children.

A mix-tape of successes and failures, perhaps too light for its subject, but a silly, easy watch.

A worthy addition to the canon of Iraq war films, The Messenger has a gentle humanity that creeps under your skin. Look out for a terrific Harrelson turn, too.

Movie Marmite. Many will be perplexed. Donnie Darko fans should lap it up.

While it may not be perfect on a technical level, dramatically it’s a blow-your-socks-off triumph. Be moved. Very, very moved.

It’s always a good story, this time told more creepily than usual. Good, but not as good as The Muppets’ Christmas Carol, Scrooged, Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol or some great, classic live action classic versions.

George Clooney dazzles and Jeff Bridges shines in a scattershot but often hilarious military farce.

This Is It delivers neither the full-on Jackson stage experience or a revealing portrait of his complex mindset. Yet it does not dishonour his memory and you can’t deny the power of the music.

Swank’s moving performance, the period dressing and beautiful planes all appeal, but dramatically it doesn’t really soar.

A star rating is not much help, since von Trier’s self-conscious arrogance is calculated to split audiences into extremist factions, but Antichrist delivers enough beauty, terror and wonder to qualify as the strangest and most original horror movie of the year.

Jaa’s period ‘beatquel’ is thick on action but thin on plot. Awesome final fight, though.

A film for anyone who’s ever climbed trees, grazed knees or basked in the comfort of a parent’s sympathy as they’ve pulled you off the ground crying. It’ll make your inner child run wild.

Cliché-ridden and full of plot-holes.

Relentlessly ugly, preposterous and hackneyed of dialogue: guilty on all counts. It will do well, then.

A decent but unremarkable film with a big, unforgettable central performance. Carey Mulligan passes with First-Class Honours.

Sheen thrives in the guise of the idiosyncratic Clough in a brilliantly candid, if bitty, football parable.

Entertainment that tickles the justice-for-all glands.

Proof that when you aim for the stars, sometimes you find a black hole. Hopefully just an anomaly for the usually wonderful Gervais.

Barrymore, among the most consistently admirable women in showbiz, can proudly add a Guides badge for Meritorious Directing to her many other achievements. Excellent emo chick coming-of-age drama plus broads in fetish gear battering each other on roller skates -- frankly, a film that offers something for everyone.

Admirably low-key, deeply compelling and their warmest movie since Fargo.

Compelling performances and some stand-out scenes but this lacks the cohesive language of "Elephant," for example.

An indecently entertaining trashfest.

More a snapshot of a moment than conventional biography, and while less complex than it might want to be, still a quietly thoughtful look at one of the 20th century’s most influential characters.

An Amityville for the YouTube age: potent, primal and genuinely frightening.

Tackling such un-animation topics as loneliness, body image, alcoholism, suicide and Asperger’s syndrome, it’s quirky, compassionate and slightly seedily sweet.

A barbed study of the American economy puts capitalism in the dock but somehow fails to convict.

It sets out to be less pompous than similar films, which inevitably means it feels less substantial. While amusing rather than hilarious, it ought to establish Matt Damon as a star character actor.

Falls between romance and drama without really satisfying either.

Fox is fun as a demonic harpy, but sadly the meeting of Hollywood’s two rock’n’roll queens is closer to safe studio product than slash-and-burn envelope-pusher.

Surprisingly successful adaptation of J. M. Coetzee's superb novel.

Superbly played and realised, this stays with you.

Campion has created another resonant paean to love’s pain and joy, and gives new life to John Keats, too often now associated with dusty school books.

Comes across as more 80s TV movie than 50s period piece.

Even the gratuitous nudity can't quite save a Heathers-goes-to-college horror that's undermined by a silly plot and clunky dialogue.

Not exactly genre-bending innovation or anything but a decent documentary about an important episode in history of oil company exploitation.

A moody, engaging end-of-the-world horror-drama, if a bit too apocalypse-lite.