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.

What’s it about?
Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) struggles with the death of his beloved Jean Grey (at his hands) before being dragged to Japan where a dying man drags him into a web of intrigue, action and forbidden love.

What did we think?
Anthony Sherratt says: A vast improvement on the first Wolverine solo movie but then again what wouldn’t have been? This version has a much more solid storyline and spends more time on the character. As such, Jackman’s Wolverine is half James Bond and part animal and the movie works the better for it.

It doesn’t reach any great heights and builds ot a comic book ending but is genuinely entertaining and likable. Some great fight scenes (except for the traintop rubbish) and interesting twists mean that not even diehard comic fans will mind the liberties taken with the original storyline it’s lossely based on.

What’s it about?
Based on a true story, this film follows the Perron family, who moved into a house in the country in the 1970s only to find it haunted by multiple demonic spirits. Enter Christian paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga).

What did we think?
Hilary says: If you enjoy the classics when it comes to horror films, The Conjuring is not to be missed. Part Child’s Play, part Amityville Horror, part The Exorcist, this film —  by director James Wan (Saw) — delivers genuinely gut-clenching scare fare. Corny lines we’ve come to expect of this genre crop up at times, but they are improved by strong performances from Farmiga and Wilson as the paranormal investigators, and Lili Taylor (Six Feet Under) as the children’s mother. Make sure you catch this at the cinema for maximum scream factor.

What’s it about?
A retelling of the classic legend that saw Texas Ranger John Reid become a masked avenger. Except sillier. And with more explosions.

What did we think?
Anthony Sherratt says: Genuine fans of the original character, of which I number, were concerned over a remake that appeared more comedy than action and more Pirates of the Carribean than wild west. And we were right. It is much sillier and stupid and is indeed Gor eVerbinski and Johnny Depp (Tonto) remaking it Pirates-style. But despite being FAR too long, something strange happens along the way: it is SO over-the-top it actually becomes rollicking fun. I mean we’re talking about riding a horse on the top of a moving train and yet… Perhaps it’s the iconic theme song playing or the fact we’ve given up on our old memories by this point but you actually leave the cinema having laughed and – somehow – enjoyed this B Grade flick.

What’s it about?
It’s a buddy cop movie. With female leads. Sandra Bullock plays a Type A anal FBI agent who teams up with Melissa McCarthy’s foul-mouthed slovenly detective. You know the rest already.

What did we think?
Anthony Sherratt says: The Heat plays to nearly every buddy-cop stereotype and somehow succeeds in spite of it. The script’s working title was “Female Buddy Cop Movie” which is apparently the reason why Bullock read it. It isn’t high on originality (at all) as the two work their way through cliche after cliche but its rawness does actually manage to elicit laughter. It only works as a parody of the male counterpart movies but in that context it’s entertaining enough.