Film Guide – Movies

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The Invention Of Hugo Cabret

Chronicle: Fresh and gripping sci-film shot in Cape Town where three teenage boys discover crazy super powers. **** TG

Material: Serio-comedy set in the Muslim community of Fordsburg, with stand-up comedy alternating a family drama from the director of Jozi. *** TS

My Week With Marilyn: Michelle Williams brings Marilyn Monroe to life in this sweet, insightful drama about the icon's week spent shooting The Prince and The Showgirl in London. **** HH

Semi-soet: This is the second time round for the director and producers and a first attempt at an Afrikaans romantic comedy. Great idea with some cool rhythms, but they need to keep up the hip factor and not fall back on the tried and tired for laughs. *** DdB

31 Million Reasons: Crime caper set in Chatsworth, Durban. Cops are also robbers and run around saying: "lakka" a lot. ** TS

Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn: Gorgeously rendered motion capture animation brings the world's most famous cartoon journalist to life. Exotic locations and lots of swashbuckling adventure. *** TS

Alvin & the Chipmunks: Chip-Wrecked: The third film about the animated chipmunks sees the little critters go on a cruise and get shipwrecked with the Chipettes. (Not reviewed)

Courageous: From the makers of Fireproof, this Christian-based drama zones in on the realities of fatherhood and the lack thereof. *** TG

Dolphin Tale: Keeping the saccharine to a minimum, this is a sweet story about a dolphin and a boy that the whole family can enjoy. Based on a true story, if you can believe that. *** HR

Footloose:This 1980s reveland-rock musical has been unnecessarily but energetically re-purposed for a new demographic cohort. ** WP

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: David Fincher stays in Sweden and doesn't compromise the story's Scandinavian roots or its top-of-the-world, Seasonal Affective Disorder sense of barrenness, even hopelessness. **** AP

Hugo: Martin Scorsese's love of cinema shines through in this ode to the work of Georges Méliès which makes gorgeous use of 3D. **** TS

Jack and Jill: Adam Sandler plays himself, and his twin sister. Badly. * TS

Man On A Ledge: A suspense-filled heist drama about a man seeking acquittal from a crime he didn't commit, while standing on a ledge of a New York hotel. *** HH

Midnight in Paris: Woody Allen has fallen in love with a new city, Paris. Not exactly his most challenging film, but it's sweetly sentimental and charming. *** TS

Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol: A fun reboot of the action adventure series featuring nifty gadgets, exotic locations and impossible stunts courtesy of Tom Cruise in great form. **** TS

Safe House: Denzel Washington as a bad ass CIA agent gone rogue and Ryan Reynolds tuning SAPS in Afrikaans – all in Cape Town. What's not to love? **** HH

Sherlock Holmes 2: Game of Shadows: The follow-up to Guy Ritchie's 2009 blockbuster starring Robert Downey jr as Holmes and Jude Law as Watson. *** WP

Star Wars Episode One: Phantom Menace 3D: Everyone's favourite Jedis make it back to the big screen, this time in 3D, and before Darth Vader was anyone's father. **** HH

The Descendants: George Clooney stars in this gentle portrait of a man who has to reconnect with his kids. **** TS

The Ides of March: George Clooney stars in and directs Ryan Gosling, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Giamatti in this political thriller about how a young campaign manager learns to take his gloves off to play the politics game. *** HH

The Iron Lady: Meryl Streep disappears into the character of Margaret Thatcher, but is the world ready for the canonisation of Saint Maggie? *** TS

The Muppets: Strictly for fans. ** DdB

Underworld: Awakening 3D: Kate Beckinsale in leather and assorted vampires and lycans run around the screen biting each other and discharging weapons. ** TS

Trespass: Nicolas Cage and Nicole Kidman play a married couple who learn a few things about trust when their security is breached and their house is broken into while they are in it. ** HH

We Bought a Zoo: Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson star in a film about a widower who uproots his two children from the big city and attempts to raise them in a house on a struggling zoo. ** HH

We Need to Talk About Kevin: Tilda Swinton is mesmerising as the mother of a child who went on a killing spree. It's a taut, harrowing and disturbing psychological thriller. **** TS

AP: Associated Press

DT: Debashine Thangevelo

HR: Hollywood Reporter

Film Guide – Movies