A starry English cast of middle aged and older actors and actresses decamps to India for a stay in a hotel that isn't all it's cracked up to be. Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Tom Wilkinson and Bill Nighy are the best known names, but you will also recognise Dev Patel from Slumdog Millionaire. Directed by John Madden who made Shakespeare In Love but that was many years ago.

trailer

5/10

A new film from the director of City Of God and The Constant Gardner should be a cause of celebration, but Fernando Meirelles's new film is by and large a disappointment.

The fact that this film about an Arab prince stars an English actor (Mark Strong) and a Spanish actor (Antonio Banderas) both playing Arab aristocracy seem to me to undermine the film's credibility. As well as Freida Pinto who is Indian. Plus the fact that it is directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, who hasn't made a decent film in a long time. The story is about a young Arab prince in the 1930s at the dawn of the oil boom who has to choose between the influence of his conservative father and his more liberal father-in-law. All a bit ho hum.

trailer

Based on a series of best selling books, this stars Katherine Heigl as Stacey Plum, newly-divorced and taken on in her cousin's bail bond business.  As far as I can see, this is aimed at a younger female audience, and would probably hope to become a franchise. Heigl is still trying to prove there's more to her than Knocked Up.

trailer

Ryan Reynolds is given the job of keeping bad guy Denzel Washington safe. Therefore when more bad guys come and try and kill him, they have to escape together. It looks like a pretty formulaic thriller, set for some reason in South Africa, and with Sam Shephard, Vera Farmiga and Brendan Gleeson providing solid back up. Quality control, uncertain.

trailer

I don't want to be unkind to a fellow Bath inhabitant, but I don't think I'm the only person wondering quite what Nic Cage is doing in his choice of movies recently. This is a sequel to an unmemorable original, and its main raison d'etre seems to be 3D. The Ghost Rider is some kind of sub-comic book superhero trash about a guy on a big motorbike who wreaks revenge on the wicked - in this case the Devil who is obviously very wicked indeed. Cage also suffers from the well know medical syndrome of 'having-a-skull-on-fire' which looks painful. Though not as painful as this film.

trailer

4/10

I've been looking forward to Pawel Pawlikowski's new film ever since My Summer Of Love several years ago, so it gives me no pleasure to have to report that when I finally saw this film at TIFF in September, I experienced an almost complete lack of interest and an intense disappointment. And yes, that's even with Kristin Scott Thomas in a leading role.

While it's true that the prospect of most Hollywood films is depressing, this one hits a new low. Why? 1. Because it's directed by a man who calls himself McG even though he's 43 years old and is called Joseph Nicol. It's pathetic. 2. This same McG has previously directed two Charlie's Angels films, and the worst Terminator movie. 3. We are asked to believe - for the second time in a year - that Reese Witherspoon is so hot that she has two men fighting over her. Reese is not hot, warm, or even balmy. She's slightly less of a hamster than Renee Zellwegger and that's as far as it goes. 4. It has a stupid trailer, with a stupid heavy metal sound track. 5. It is the lowest of low concepts. A couple of CIA friends fight over the same woman. 6. Chris Pine has no screen charisma. 7. Tom Hardy on the other hand, has charisma to burn. So what is he doing in this piece of shit?

So, no I'm not looking forward to it.

trailer