After enduring the icy arctic climate to bring us March of the Penguins, French director Luc Jacquet decides to warm up the screen with the unlikely friendship of two fiery redheads; one an inquisitive fox, the other a cute freckled girl by the name of L’enfant (Bertille Noël-Bruneau). The inclusion of the latter sees this would-be animal documentary turn into something of a children’s fairytale. But in its hybrid state, The Fox and the Child falls shy of being either a captivating tale for kids or an enlightening documentary for adults.

A good romantic comedy only has to tick two boxes: depict two people falling in love and be funny about it. Simple as that. Yet the pen hovers past the first box in 27 Dresses director Anne Fletcher’s new film The Proposal. It’s definitely funny, but I must have missed the part when Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock fell in love. Their comedic chemistry is there in spades, but never does their sham wedding amount to anything more than, well, a sham wedding. For a rom-com, this presents a problem. Or at least half of one.

The jokes on the entertainment industry in Barry Levinson’s What Just Happened, but much like last year’s How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, it comes without a punch line. With the memoirs of veteran producer Art Linson (The Untouchables, Fight Club) fuelling the fire, one would expect this satirical take on the melodrama of Tinseltown to be hard biting. Yet despite some inspired moments, such as seeing Sean Penn and Bruce Willis send up their own star profiles, What Just Happened only ever takes a carefully considered chew.

Playing on the theme of the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future from the Charles Dickens classic ‘A Christmas Carol’, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past replaces an old, miserly man with an attractive guy that doesn’t believe in love. An entertaining and amusing journey ensues as the ghosts attempt to help him change his ways and win the love of his life before it’s too late.

One would have been easily forgiven for thinking that the sub-title of the third X-men film, The Last Stand, clearly implied that it was the last of the franchise. Of course, a prequel is the industry’s devious way around a word such as ‘Last’. It’s not such a bad thing; X-men Origins: Wolverine sees Hugh Jackman return to the character that made him a star.  Not only does he do his fellow Aussie males a favour by making our accent sound sexy, he also makes for the perfect action hero. Unless you’re Scrubs actor John C. McGinley, you just can’t hate the guy; even when his shirt inevitably comes off and your lady friend simultaneously starts to complain about it getting hot in the cinema, you’ll be too busy admiring those magnificent mutton chops to really care.

From the clean, modern tone of this film, you’d never guess it is not the first, but the second remake. L’Emmedeur, billed this time over as A Pain in the Ass, is based upon a play written by French director Francis Veber around forty years ago. He then made it into a film, which was consequently remade in the 70s under the title Buddy Buddy and starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. But this latest effort eclipses both its predecessors, offering viewers not only Veber’s typical farce but a fresh look and fast paced storytelling.

There’s some truth behind the past tense used in the title of The Boat that Rocked.  Whilst British pirate radio might have rocked the airwaves back in the 1960′s, Richard Curtis’ onscreen depiction only ever manages to gently sway. It’s by no means a nauseating motion; there’s still a lot of light-hearted fun to be had, but Curtis’ screenplay tends to drawout the lean premise, causing the film to run out of steam well before it reaches its destination.

Zac Efron is America’s ‘golden child’, the perfect heartthrob for the girls and a positive role model for youngsters. Disney made him a star through the High School Musical trilogy, but even he admits it’s time to move on onto meatier roles. Unfortunately for him, 17 Again can’t be classified as his starting point in this endeavour – but another fluffy ride never hurt anyone.