FILM: Thor 3D (dir: Kenneth Branagh, 2011)

"Base, we've got Xena, Jackie Chan, Robin Hood...!"

It looked as if Thor was going to be one of the more problematic Marvel characters to tackle as a solo film, but the end result is one of the most successful of the comic adaptations so far. This is more fantasy than superhero, with an epic feel, some very impressive visualisations (and a generally sound 3D post-conversion) and a knowing but serious take on the source material. Branagh creates the comic-book feel with great use of colour and canted shots, directing briskly from a packed script which uses the different locations and narrative threads very effectively. Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston work very well and give strong contrasting performances as the two brothers, headstrong Thor and manipulative Loki, with Anthony Hopkins ideally cast as their father Odin. On Earth, Natalie Portman gives another effortlessly engaging performance. Great timing and a witty script provide many moments of humour, whilst the theatrically-styled dialogue from the Gods creates effectively weighty drama. Thor is a successful big-scale fantasy blockbuster entertainment that delivers solid fun and entertainment, and also leaves an interesting question about how the character will be part of the 2012 Avengers movie.

FILM: Arthur (dir: Jason Winer, 2011)

"First your father, then your horse...just when will my testicles ever get a rest?"

It is interesting that this remake of Arthur has been particularly poorly-received in America, the main reason possibly being the replacement of the original's forced and unconvincing kookiness with a consistent streak of melancholy which runs through the 2011 version. Winer's film is does have many funny lines, and if anything it would benefit from more instances of loosening up and running with the sheer abandon of Arthur's lifestyle and his lack of understanding of 'reality'. Brand is actually fine in the lead, more child-like and less alcoholic than Dudley Moore's portrayal. Making Hudson Arthur's female nanny is a very clever move, providing a necessarily different dynamic than Gielgud's more obvious formal butler, and Helen Mirren indeed delivers a couple of film-stealing speeches whilst never reaching the comedic heights of her 1981 counterpart. Greta Gerwig (so much more credible and charming than Liza Minnelli) uncannily channels Zooey Deschanel's Elf performance as Arthur's love-interest, and Jennifer Garner is surprisingly strong and nuanced as the arranged-fiancee Sarah. The deliberate placing of Arthur's Theme does provide a very sweet moment in this pleasant if slightly inessential remake, which nevertheless does manage to improve on the original overall.

DVD: Unstoppable (dir: Tony Scott, 2010)

"That was ten million pounds of train, Mr Galvin! And this is the sound of me saving your ass!"

Unstoppable delivers a standard runaway-train disaster movie, but with a streamlined and very focused storyline that enables Denzel Washington and Chris Pine to develop a credible mis-matched relationship, reminiscent of Freeman and Pitt in Seven. In spite of the simplicity and generic nature of the narrative, Tony Scott keeps a tight reign on the tension which pays off well in the key moments. It may be 'inspired by true events', but the action inevitably strains credulity more than once; nevertheless, the execution of it is never short of exciting and entertaining.

FILM: Fast and Furious 5 - Rio Heist (dir: Justin Lin, 2011)

"You two stirred up quite a bit of trouble today."

If only all fourth sequels in low-end franchises could be built this way. Following on from the unexpected success and indeed entertainment value of the fourth entry in the series, Fast & Furious 5 is a gloriously dumb, huge popcorn action movie that delivers completely for its target audience and is great fun to watch. Bookended by two of the most ridiculous, exciting and mesmerising action set pieces in ages, Fast & Furious 5 is mostly a basic heist movie with a couple of interesting narrative twists along the way, but it is carried by a uniformly terrific 'family' of actors who clearly understand what they are doing in this movie and have a ball with the action and the material. Dialogue is mostly functional, but listen out for three killer one-liners in the gang's first warehouse meeting. The ace played this time is Dwayne Johnson as the federal agent on the trail of the anti-heroes, in a spectacularly unbelievable but quite brilliant character role; for action fans, a smackdown between The Rock and Vin Diesel is worth the ticket price alone. The main characters have sufficient development in this entry to keep it interesting without ever really stretching the core cast. It is a shame that the race for the 'Papa Smurf' car is elided - it would have provided more much-needed car action in the mid-section of the movie - but the film is never too far away from the next gun-fight, Rio provides a spectacular and visually interesting backdrop, and Justin Lin directs with an efficient, kinetic style. Stay in your seat at the end; a mid-end-credits scene sets up the next movie in a potentially interesting way.

DVD: My Soul To Take (dir: Wes Craven, 2011)

"It's not OK for everybody to be killing each other all the time!"

Following its poor reception in the US - although it did just about recoup its $15 million budget at the domestic box office - My Soul To Take has gone straight to DVD in the UK minus 3D. Written and directed by Wes Craven, this feels like a 1980s throwback with digital blood, a weak cast and unconvincing plotting. This is a very uneven movie, with occasionally effective set-ups and some flashes of positive work from the young cast, but these are overwhelmed by the generally shallow character work and confusion. This is a disappointing viewing experience, and it feels like there is little more that could have been done with the material.

FILM: Scre4m (dir: Wes Craven, 2011)

"You remind me of me."

Thankfully eschewing the Scooby-Doo runaround of the third Scream movie, the game cast - old and new - play this 2011 entry seriously to the hilt. Wes Craven directs with a genuine flash of his old energy, clearly on familiar territory here, and the (self-)references fly thick and fast. From the cleverly-constructed opening(s) onwards, this is definitely one for the fans of the original trilogy and horror in general, the ten-years-later hook providing some timely references and updates on the familiar themes, which do at times feel so breathlessly touched upon simply because that is what a Scream film should do. Some characters disappear for alarmingly long stretches of the film, and the referencing of the first Scream film in particular gets annoyingly obvious quite often (although the updated riffs on the original music score are quite lovely), but overall the script and the narrative thrust has a density and sense of purpose that is generally satisfying and carries more content than most modern-day horrors. Scre4m is one belated sequel that does not "f*** with the original".

FILM: Your Highness (dir: David Gordon Green, 2011)

"I know your vulgarity masks your pain."

Great idea, promising trailer, awful movie. Scene after scene crashes and burns as the witless script is delivered haphazardly by Danny McBride and James Franco, leaving Zooey Deschanel and Natalie Portman very little with which to work. Rasmus Hardiker (boyfriend Ben in TV's Lead Balloon) and Damian Lewis understand the value of playing their roles straight, and Steve Jablonsky creates a wonderfully rousing score, but otherwise Your Highness has very little indeed to recommend it.

FILM: Tomorrow, When The War Began (dir: Stuart Beattie, 2011)

"Good book?"

"Better than the movie."

"Books usually are."

Screenwriter Stuart Beattie directs his adaptation of the Australian Young Adult best-seller which became last-year's biggest-grossing Oz-produced movie in its homeland. The dialogue and moralising are simplistic and undemanding, yet there are occasional glimpses of a potentially much tougher movie in evidence. The ageing 'teens' here (mostly ex-soap stars) give the film a Dawson's Creek meets Red Dawn in the Outback feel, the characters featuring a predictable mix of character/ethnic/gender stereotypes, yet there is some worthwhile work on display from Deniz Akdeniz, Chris Pang and in particular Caitlin Stasey as the film's lead and narrator. There are some wonderfully cinematic moments and set pieces as the film progresses, especially vehicle stunts, and the scenery is shown off to great effect. Tomorrow, When The War Began is not a huge or world-changing film, but it is far more entertaining and has more substance than could be expected.

FILM: Source Code (dir: Duncan Jones, 2011)

"Do you have the internet on your phone?"

"No, it's just connected to the office by a really long piece of string."

This sci-fi Groundhog Day is lean, tautly-constructed, absorbing and thought-provoking, made so effective by skillful and confident direction and genuinely warm and engaging central performances by Jake Gyllenhaal and Michelle Monaghan. The inventively-handled use of a small number of limited spaces keeps the focus firmly on character and story without ever becoming repetitive, leading to some surprisingly affecting scenes towards the end of the film. Source Code is an efficient and very successful straightforward small-scale thriller with an unusually strong human heart beating at its centre.

FILM: Rio 3D (dir: Carlos Saldanha, 2011)

"I did not get that at all."

Rio has a very promising start, with an interesting set-up juxtaposing the vibrant colours of the South American jungle with snowy Minnesota, and the film's final twenty minutes are a real triumph of CG design and 3D rendering. The intervening story, however, is rather uninspired, a generic love story/chase with a couple of gratingly inappropriate musical numbers thrown in. A great voice cast tries hard - even Tracy Morgan livens things up later on as Luis the slobbery bulldog - but otherwise there is surprisingly little to really engage for most of the film's running time.

FILM: Mars Needs Moms 3D (dir: Simon Wells, 2011)

"Is there going to be a lot of running?"

Mars Needs Moms is a classic fable, told simply with a breezy, focused narrative that zips along from one chase to the next falling-down-a-long-tunnel-in-3D to arrive at a suitably large-scale climax which contains a remarkably near-traumatic moment for a PG movie. The level of CG detail is strong and uses colour well, and the use of 3D to create expansive environments both on and under the Martian surface looks good. Sound design is terrific and John Powell provides another wonderful score. There are elements in this film that show a significant step forward in the use of motion-capture in terms of facial expressiveness and movement, ably demonstrated by the raw mo-cap studio footage recap of the movie that plays alongside the end credits. Mars Needs Moms is decent, well-made and reasonable entertainment, which will lose much when stripped of the 3D element.

FILM: Hop (dir: Tim Hill, 2011)

"Any baggage? Just emotional."

At last, an Easter film for the little ones, and unsurprisingly it riffs on all the Christmas movies (The Santa Clause, Santa Claus-The Movie, The Nightmare Before Christmas, etc) and applies them to the much less rich trappings of Easter celebrations - indeed, at times the movie seems to forget it has any Easter connections. The script, tone and audience targeting veer all over the place, and for a U-certificate film it is very dialogue-heavy and often quite tedious. The reliable James Marsden and his amazing teeth gives a charming performance amazingly pulled from such thin material, even though he seems a little old for the role, whilst the rest of the great live-action cast barely get a look-in. The CG content integrates well with the live action, with effective voice work from Russell Brand as E.B. (the Easter Bunny) and Hugh Laurie as his father. Hop is a very lightweight children's film which feels underdeveloped and leaves little impression, lacking real magic or engagement.

FILM: Sucker Punch (dir: Zack Snyder, 2011)

"If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything."

From the imagination of Zack Snyder comes probably the most demented film you will see this year. Being Zack Snyder, everything from mise-en-scene to sound dubbing is dialled up to 12. Although the action sequences are frequent, relentless and often very creatively shot, it does leave you feeling like being hit over the head repeatedly with an X-Box for a couple of hours whilst a wispy emo covers band warbles away in the corner. The episodic structure of the narrative runs like clockwork, apart from a couple of interesting curveballs thrown in towards the end, and the diverse nature of the quests gives the impression of a series of mini-movies strung together. Emily Browning just about convinces in the lead role, but there are some surprisingly assured supporting performances to look for by Vanessa Hudgens and Jena Malone, and Oscar Isaac gives a consistently unsettling turn. To the film's credit, the final voice-over manages to pull it all together to some degree, in spite of leaving some very big unanswered questions. Sucker Punch delivers epically on the visual level, but emotionally it does not quite convince, and it clearly demonstrates why watching your mate playing a computer game is not a very satisfying experience.