What’s it about?
A girl becoming a woman finds that her father has become a corpse. A stranger arrives and turns into her creepy uncle while her mother again turns into the bottle. Skittish old ladies know more they they are letting on and a tiny key doesn’t have a lock. Oh, so much gothic whimsy I want to cake my face in pancake and wear black and white polkadots!

What did we think?
Dan says: Every shot in this film is a piece of art unto itself. Like the cinematographer saw the surgical perfection of Nicole Kidman’s new face and felt he had to up his game. Everything has had so much care put into it you feel that Chekov’s guns are being loaded at every moment.

Sadly, in the third act many of them misfire wildly. The dramatic reveal is that the film turns out to be much less interesting than it set out to be. It’s not Poison Ivy (1992) but it feels like it would get played at the same movie marathon.

What’s it about?
A long-time drug dealer (Jason Sudeikis) has to create a fake family (including Jennifer Aniston as a stripper) to move a huge shipment of weed into the U.S. from Mexico. Unsurprisingly it goes wrong and weird.

What did we think?
Anthony Sherratt says: I can’t quite say it’s bad but it’s a little sad that the best laugh is actually a prank in the credits. It’s a pretty run-of-the-mill comedy and despite the quirkiness of the plot, the promised potential never quite eventuates. In fact the characters end up cliched and the whole thing becomes mundanely predictable.

It features good acting and even a minor surprise or two but the laughs are a little lacking. Overall it’s okay-ish but wait for the DVD if you must see it.

What’s it about?
Nebbish high-schooler Dave Lizewski (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) has sparked a masked-vigilante craze as Kick-Ass. But wannabe supervillain Chris D’Amico (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) is still fuming over the death of his criminal dad at Kick-Ass’s hands (and bazooka). Orphaned freshman Mindy Macready (Chloe Grace Moretz) is kicking street-thug butt as spunky lone-wolf Hit Girl but her adolescence is fast blooming and catty teen bitches are much tougher to crack than crooks.

What did we think?
Ben says: OK, so it’s teenage Watchmen meets Mean Girls, with McLovin’ in emo. Like its tighter prequel, this hyperactive comic-book adaption is laden with irony (no lumbering Christopher Nolan-esque existential brooding here), with crunching ultra-violence erupting often and hilarious X-rated dialogue that would have Tarantino blushing. Bonus points: The naughty c-word is not just said but spelt out on screen; a hulking Russian she-woman wreaks carnage as a remix of the Tetris theme plays; and it’s a modern superhero flick in which NO SKYSCRAPERS TOPPLE. Halle-motherf’n-lujah to that.

What’s it about?
In the year 2154 the very wealthy live on a man-made space station while the rest of the over-populated Earth resides on a ruined planet. A desperate ex-con (Matt Damon) takes on a mission that could bring equality to the polarized worlds.

What did we think?
Anthony Sherratt says: It’s grim and gritty. Impressive visually and with interesting characters. Its themes are universally relevant (have/have-nots, sustainability, and asylum seekers). And the action is wonderfully brutal. But the longer the movie wears on, the more it becomes formulaic unfortunately. It’s still a very good flick and one of the better ones of the year but you’re left feeling that it didn’t quite reach the mark of greatness despite its strengths.

Most sci-fi fans will enjoy it. As long as they don’t think about the ending too much.

What’s it about?
Three bodybuilders come up with a kidnapping and extortion scheme that goes horribly wrong. The real life story of the Sun Gym gang is a baffling and absurd mish-mash of poorly motivated dimwits making violent decisions. Michael Bay is an accomplished director of such narratives and is the perfect choice to helm this tale of crime gone wrong.

What did we think?
Dan says: The problem with true crime is that true criminals are morons. This film gives the hollywood treatment to real life crimes without once giving you reason to root for the idiot protagonists. It’s visceral without being comically gory. It runs about ten minutes too long and will turn off those who (quite rightly) abhor violence, misogyny and homophobia.

If you can put those concerns aside, Dwayne Johnson puts in an incredible performance as the hesitant, born-again christian and Ed Harris is extremely strong as the only decent human being in the film.

This is a satisfying film about unlikable characters. Accept that going in and you won’t hate it as much as everyone else does.

What’s it about:
The great chateaux of Bordeaux struggle to accommodate the voracious appetite for their rare, expensive wines, which have become a powerful status symbol in booming China.

What did we think?
Cindy says: A film about the French red wine industry and the growing Chinese thirst for luxury goods?  Dry, right?  No.  Elegant, full-bodied, flamboyant, dense.  From the narration by Russell Crowe, whose dulcet tones may have left this viewer vibrating in her seat, to the sweeping views of the vineyards of Bordeaux, it is a delight.  The directors have bottled lessons in history, economics, marketing, China’s global reach, and the love of the world’s best red into a beautiful blend.  Even this teetotaller is now ready to fork out big bucks to experience whatever is in one of those magical bottles.  In the words of one of the Bordelais chateau owners, ‘Our aim shouldn’t be to impress people.  We should aim to please people’. And I am pleased to report this film does just that. Santé.

What’s it about?
Four high school mates are reluctantly dragged back to their home town by their former ringleader to re-create a night of drinking excess. And then robots happen. Except they aren’t robots.

What did we think?
Elizabeth says: The final installment in Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright’s Cornetto trilogy (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) has all the laughs and offbeat comedy you expect from this duo, served with a hefty dollop of emotional resonance I wasn’t expecting.  A movie about dudes battling pseudo-robots (they’re roboty aliens who really don’t like to be called robots, see) that’s actually super relatable? That’s a win in my book.

What’s it about?
Julian (Ryan Gosling), a respected figure in the criminal underworld of Bangkok, runs a Thai boxing club and smuggling ring with his brother Billy who is suddenly murdered. Blah blah blah… Julian finds himself in the ultimate showdown.

What did we think?
Anthony Sherratt says: The producers are obviously relying on Gosling’s sex appeal because they didn’t bother polishing a story that is excessively padded, meandering and ridiculously pretentious. I’m not sure even God will forgive this slow and painful monstrosity of a movie.

What’s it about?
Based on the autobiographical novel, the tempestuous 6-year relationship between Liberace and his (much younger) lover, Scott Thorson, is recounted.

What did we think?
Cindy says: “Too much of a good thing is wonderful”. At the heart of this beautifully crafted film is excess, sex, but most of all, romance.  Michael Douglas and Matt Damon have incredible chemistry as Liberace and his ”baby boy” Scott Thorson.  Director Steven Soderbergh again deftly explores the truth of human emotion, while Douglas is particularly mesmerising and at times superbly unrecognisable.   The audience is treated to the sumptuous visual and aural feast that was the tragic love story spanning the last decade of the flamboyant entertainers final decade.  Sadly this magnificent and sparkly biopic will not grace the cinema screens in the US.  While it has secured a theatrical release here in Australia and Europe, American audiences will have to tune in to HBO, who stepped up with the cash to fund it after studios refused to commit, the actors were told that it would be a career ending project and the director was told it simply shouldn’t be made.  And as Soderbergh’s possible swan song, we have one more thing to thank HBO for giving us: pure entertainment gold.

What’s it about?
A police special forces team gets stranded halfway up a building full of very hostile, desperate and well-armed people.

What did we think?
Anthony Sherratt says: The Raid is what Hollywood action movies want to be when they grow up. This is nearly the perfect action movie. Amazing fight scenes, great plot and genuine suspense punctuate a fast-flowing adventure. You’re never sure who’s expendable and the refusal to follow traditional narrative paths for the first half of the movie only add to the sense of chaos and panic. Truly wonderful cinema.

Simply a must for action fans.