Elizabeth Banks

Review: What to Expect When You're Expecting

There's no end to what Hollywood can monetise. Board games, toys, popular holidays, and now non-fiction books that guide expectant parents through pregnancy. You'll have noticed one constant thread running through the examples linked above: in being straightforward, cynical attempts to cash in on a popular phenomenon with a distinct target audience, they all dispensed with one key tenet of film production. Namely, the idea that you're supposed to at least try to make a good one.

Review: The Hunger Games

Now that the pallid adventures of K-Stew, R-Patz and T-Lauts are officially coming to an end, welcome to your new Teen Phenomenon Based On A Series Of Books. There's a female lead, there's a love triangle, there's even CGI wolf dogs…are we destined to spend the next few years balking at more inappropriate mum groupies and handmade Hunger Game-themed sex toys? Not so, for this tale is above such cringe-worthy histrionics, delivering surprising substance and maturity, and, as a result, packing more punch.

Review: Man On A Ledge

Go into this cold turkey and you could be forgiven for thinking Man On A Ledge is a contemporary commentary on the current state of the economy. Let's look at the evidence, shall we? It's set in New York, there are mentions of "this economy" followed by tutting, Ed Harris wears a sharp suit and smokes cigars like a boss (lit with $100 bills I hope ) and, oh, there's a bloke perched on a ledge threatening to throw himself off.

Final poster for The Hunger Games features nice bird

It's time for another round of 'Ali thinks there's something weird about a new movie poster and is going to use his website to tell you all about it!'

Hunger, Hunger, Hunger, Hunger... GAMES! (To the tune of Thundercats)

Look, a trailer for The Hunger Games! It's Battle Royale meets High School Musical or something! (*actually watches trailer*)

The Hunger Games staring contest

The Hunger Games cast practice their thousand yard stares in these new character posters. First one to blink, loses. Ready? STARE... JENNIFER LAWRENCE WINS.

Review: The Next Three Days

The Next Three Days is kind of a throwback to the classic action movies Hollywood put out in the mid-nineties - the 'one man versus the world' era of thrillers, in which lantern-jawed heroes like Harrison Ford or Mel Gibson fight to save their family against improbable odds and injustice. At one point, the lead character - a stoic, possibly stubbled everyman forced into action against his will - is likely to growl "Give me back my wife" or something, before killing eight thousand terrorists in the name of love. Brilliant.

Review: The Uninvited

Yawn. That's how excited I was about The Uninvited. Not even bothered enough to think up a witty intro. Fact is, even for a man who's often frightened by his own toes, modern horror movies fill me with roughly as much terror as receiving a free pizza. I am happy to report, then, that this is barely a horror movie at all, and wha...

Review: Role Models

Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott (y'know, Stifler) are two of the most underrated comic actors in the business; they've both been plugging away for years but always seem to get saddled with thankless roles in shitty films (Over Her Dead Body, Dukes Of Hazzard etc). Surviving on the bottom rungs of the comedy ladder, their only ...

Review: Zack And Miri Make A Porno

With the credit crunch biting hard, there are only a few constants in the current climate. One, that guys will always jerk off to pornography. Two, filmmaker Kevin Smith can always be relied on for a foul-of-mouth, sweet-of-heart comedy with a lion's share of toilet humour and sentiment. Three, Middle-England will always make it...