Jim Carrey takes another swipe at serious acting in this thriller about a man who finds a book which seems to be based on his life but ends with a dreadful murder. Carrey isn’t bad as the frazzled hero but even without the laughs, his rubber face is hard to take all that seriously. Joel Schumacher directs in his usual manner: commercial, schlocky but often entertaining.

Why those in charge of Comedy Central saw fit to bring this mediocre cop comedy to the big screen is anyone’s guess. That’s not to say there aren’t funny moments and that fans of the show won’t enjoy this immensely but there’s nothing new that comes from transplanting the bumbling constabularies to Florida. Fans only.

Fresh from the success of Hustle and Flow, director Craig Brewer returns with this tale of an abused young girl who finds help and guidance from Samuel L. Jackson’s retired bluesman. There’s something unpleasantly racist about the assumption that blackness is in and of itself spiritually healing and while Christina Ricci’s central performance is strong, her character never quite feels complete.

Billy Bob Thornton stars as a NASA astronaut who is forced to retire to save his family’s homestead. Once there he begins building his own rocket much to the consternation of the authorities. It’s exactly the kind of scrappy little-guy-against-the-big-corporation that will cause half the audience to swoon and cheer and the other half to vomit. Personally, I’m with the latter.

The last few years have seen Diane Keaton stick closely to a certain, mildly successful and somewhat charming role. Here she plays an overprotective and interfering mother to Mandy Moore but it’s hard to distinguish this from her work in Something’s Gotta Give or The Family Stone. This is good light-hearted fare but Keaton can and should be so much better.

Director Tyler Perry (best known for the Madea films) has been carving himself a nice market for mainstream melodrama over the last few years. This is no exception, telling the story of a woman (Gabrielle Union) who falls for a penniless father-of-three (Idris Elba) and tries to make it work out, against the wishes of his vicious ex. It’s not great but it is solid and competent at least which, in today’s market, is a rare enough combination.

Espionage and excitement in the Cold War is not a hard thing to imagine but this adaptation of a true story captures the pitch and tension perfectly. The excellently creepy Chris Cooper puts in a fine performance as the traitorous Robert Hanssen and Ryan Philippe has just the right look for newbie Eric O’Neill. Slick, dark thrills abound.

Harry Potter draws to an end some time soon and the Narnia saga won’t hold anyone’s attention for all that long so the search is on for the next child-friendly fantasy series. Disney is banking on Katherine Paterson’s classic tale of two athletic youngsters who find friendship and excitement in a mystical forest kingdom. Schmaltzy and heart-warming, this might fill the gap but it’s not going to start a craze.

Hot on the heels of the dreadful novel on which it’s based comes the tale of the early years of everybody’s favorite serial killer. However this is no Lector at Laguna Beach-style romp, instead it’s a bleak tale of war and Lithuania and poverty and the cruelty of soldiers. As the young “hero” of the piece, Gaspard Ulliel is simply too weak to fill the very large shoes left by Anthony Hopkins.

It’s a return to the world of the comic-book franchise but Johnny Blaze, aka the Ghost Rider, doesn’t quite have the brand-recognition of Spiderman or Superman. Nicolas Cage is in the driver’s seat, guided by director Mark Steven Johnson (of Daredevil fame) but no amount of revs or gunshots can stop this movie from feeling tired and derivative.

Oh, Eddie Murphy. People are taking you seriously right now with Dreamgirls and the Oscar nomination and so on and so forth and all you can do to repay them is star in another fat-suit film. It’s a crying shame…… Here Murphy plays a dweebish man, engaged to an enormous woman (also played by Murphy) who falls in love with another woman (Thandie Newton must get a better agent).

Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore make a pact to kick start both of their careers with a little light-hearted Valentine’s Day romance. Neither do anything out of the ordinary in this tale of a lyricist and a song-writer who are initially in conflict with one another but soon enter into a blossoming romance. Trite but guiltily enjoyable.

Dave Evans’ MINI – MOVIE REVIEWS