You can tell Jackie Chan is starting to get that little bit older. He’s still moving along just fine, but his Hollywood workload of late is turning to kid-friendly films – requiring less of his well known crazy stunts and more of the cheesy acting. Playing it safe isn’t a negative, but the material usually has to be good in order to pull it off. Although teaming up with Billy Ray Cyrus (arguably the most famous dad in the world), this film plays it too safe and brings you only a smidgeon of charm and laughter.

What are the essential things you’ll need in order to survive in a post-apocalyptic world? According to Denzel Washington’s character in The Book of Eli, an iPod, some KFC refresher towels and a whole lotta faith.

While George W. Bush was prematurely touting “Mission Accomplished” from the deck of the USS Lincoln back in May 2003, super soldier Roy Miller (Matt Damon) was going Rambo through the streets of Baghdad, determined to uncover the truth as to why US intelligence was so incredibly wrong about Iraq harbouring weapons of mass destruction.

Something unexpected happened around the half hour mark of the ho-hum romantic drama Remember Me. No, the film didn’t start to improve. Don’t be silly. Rather, I realised that leading man Robert Pattinson – or RPattz as his legions of adoring Twilight fans call him – was in the middle of doing something many critics said he wasn’t capable of. Yes, he was acting. And doing a pretty darn good job of it too.

For a movie about a man who transforms into a ravenous beast each full moon, it’s somewhat fitting that The Wolfman suffers from severe split personality disorder. Despite remaining faithful to the story of the 1941 classic, this remake has absolutely no idea what kind of movie it wants to be; a solemn and suspenseful horror, or a B-grade slasher?

Either would have been fine, but it’s clear that with the grim screenplay and A-list cast, the former was the intention. Unfortunately, given the dry direction and silly action set pieces, the film would have been better off if just embraced being the latter.

Either would have been fine, but it’s clear that with the grim screenplay a A-list cast, the former was the intention. Unfortunately, given the dry direction and silly action set pieces, the film would have been better off if just embraced being the latter.

Strip away the gazillion pop culture references that cloud the atmosphere of Planet 51 and you’re left with a scarcely inhabitable kid’s sci-fi that hasn’t an original idea beyond its setup. Actually, even that’s a blatant role-reversal of the likes of E.T, My Favourite Martian and The Iron Giant as it sees a human astronaut cause chaos when he lands on a distant planet populated by a green, trouserless species of aliens.

Following the backlash of Richard Kelly’s sophomore effort – the grand disaster that was Southland Tales — one would have thought that the famed Donnie Darko director would play it safe for his next outing. It looked like Kelly was doing just that with The Box; a bluntly titled, seemingly straightforward period thriller starring the ever-bankable Cameron Diaz. It doesn’t get much safer than that, right?

Wrong, all wrong. The Box is a logically-impaired, hyperbolic mess that darts from one high-concept idea to another as flowingly as someone with a bladder infection.

I feel it important to state up front that the kitchen and I do not get along. While we inevitably cross paths from time to time, I try not to make eye contact let alone a meal. This might explain why Julie & Julia didn’t remotely appease my appetite. It’s a film that spends so much time celebrating the art of cooking, it forgets to be about anything else. It’s not a drama, as there is hardly a moment of drama to speak of (conflict, what conflict?). It’s not a romance, as everyone in the film is already happily partnered up. It’s not even a comedy, as the funniest moment on offer is a replay of Dan Aykroyd’s impersonation of Julia Child in a Saturday Night Live skit. It is, however, a biography. Two, in fact.