Our weekly roundup of film reviews returns, courtesy of James Bryan… This week, royal bodice-ripper The Other Boleyn Girl, zombies ahoy in Diary of the Dead, multiple viewpoint assassination thriller Vantage Point and The Rock doing one for the kids in The Game Plan. Don’t expect to learn much history in The Other Boleyn Girl, a film James Christopher in the Times describes as a “ravishing piece of trash” in his 2-star review. The......

Our weekly roundup of film reviews returns, courtesy of James Bryan… Ladies and Gentleman, this is a once in a lifetime event, a week of movies the like of which we may never see again with hardened critics graciously bestowing stars upon worthy films. Let’s not even introduce them; let’s go straight to the reviews. Feel the critical love wash over you. We have to start with There Will Be Blood, a new film......

Our weekly roundup of film reviews returns, courtesy of James Bryan… After its Statue of Liberty beheading sensation of a trailer, the internet-hyped Cloverfield finally arrives. For the uninitiated, the film follows a group of young hip New Yorkers whose loft party is rudely interrupted when a big scary monster decides to munch his (her?) way through Manhattan. The big idea is that it’s all shot as if captured on one of the characters......

Our weekly roundup of film reviews returns, courtesy of James Bryan… As we wallow in the truly miserable news that Aliens Vs Predator made more money at the box office last week than No Country for Old Men, we sigh and turn our attentions to this week’s offerings. The three biggest releases this week are all stamped with Oscar. We’ve got Johnny Depp singing in Cockney and slicing throats in Sweeney Todd, Tommy Lee......

Our weekly roundup of film reviews returns, courtesy of James Bryan… This week, the Coens’ masterful noir No Country For Old Men, the dire AVPR (don’t ask), a spoof musical biopic Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story and Gwyneth Paltrow in The Good Night. No Country for Old Men arrives in the UK soaked in rapturous Stateside reviews. It’s the latest from critical darlings the Coen Brothers (The Big Lebowski, Raising Arizona, Fargo etc.)......

Our weekly roundup of film reviews continues, courtesy of James Bryan… This week, the girls of St Trinian’s, a schizoid version of Bob Dylan’s life in I’m Not There and the vile evil Alvin and the Chipmunks. The posters of vamped up schoolgirls that have sprung up across town mark the return of the anarchic St Trinian’s girls, a bold effort to launch a new generation of Brit comedies, taking the 1950s Ealing comedies......

Our weekly roundup of film reviews continues, courtesy of James Bryan… This week, Bee Movie, Enchanted, We Own The Night, Youth Without Youth, Mr Magorium’s Wonder Emporium and It’s A Wonderful Life. And if you’re too busy to even read a review of reviews then just go and see the masterpiece that is It’s A Wonderful Life. Simple as that. Since the last episode of the Greatest Sitcom Ever™ nine years ago, Jerry Seinfeld......

Our weekly roundup of film reviews continues, courtesy of James Bryan… This week Kidman plays with her monkey in The Golden Compass, The Rock gets confused in Southland Tales, a famous person gets shot in The Killing of John Lennon and Donal MacIntyre cuddles up to some naughty people in A Very British Gangster. Ever since The Golden Compass was announced, devotees of Philip Pullman’s ‘His Dark Materials’ trilogy have been nervously waiting to......

Our weekly roundup of film reviews continues, courtesy of James Bryan… This week Brad Pitt’s latest (with a title so long it shouldn’t be allowed) The Assassination of Jesse James etc, the alternate realities of The Nines, Vince Vaughn slumming it in Fred Claus, the video game adaptation Hitman, Kenneth Branagh directs The Magic Flute and a re-release for the classic All About Eve. If you get annoyed with trailers that give the plot......

This week – rage causes a lot of trouble in 28 Weeks Later and the memoirs of Nelson Mandela’s prison guard are opened in Goodbye Bafana. In 28 Days Later the Rage virus spread throughout Britain leaving it full of dead people and those that had killed them. Now, in 28 Weeks Later, the US Army has come to restore order, repopulate the city of London and, during the same process, also reunite families. Among......

This week - Spiderman gets into more bother (Spiderman 3) and a film that features Avril Lavigne (Fast Food Nation). Peter Bradshaw begins his review of Spiderman 3 thus, Global warming continues. The magnolias are blooming obscenely early. The sky is an unseasonable blue. The burning sunshine seeds tiny flowers of skin cancer on our puckered flesh. And the long, hot summer of pointless film sequels is underway. In the coming months, it seems......

This week - The East German Stasi listen in on a writer's life (The Lives Of Others) and Disney rape our minds (Wild Hogs). First up, The Lives Of Others, a film written and directed by a man called Florian Maria Georg Christian Graf Henckel von Donnersmarck. It won the Oscar for best foreign language film this year for that name alone. It beat Pan's Labyrinth to the prize, a film that we thought......

This week - David Lynch makes another film which makes everyone say "wha...?" (Inland Empire) and Eddie Murphy dons a fat suit and makes a racially insensitive film(Norbit). First up, Inland Empire. We're not a huge fan of David Lynch here at Londonist. For a while we were awed by the mysteriousness and 'cleverness' of it all but then, during a trip to Blockbuster when we had to choose between Mulholland Drive and Die......

This week - Edward Norton does magic tricks (The Illusionist) and Nicholas Cage sells his soul to the devil and replaces his usual head and motorbike with burning versions (Ghost Rider). But first, a couple of words about Helen Mirren, someone who, on principled grounds, turned down an CBE in 1996 but then became a Dame (more accurately, Dame Commander of the British Empire... bugger her principles, she wasn't going to be outdone by......

This week - The accompanying film to Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers, the 1945 invasion of Iwo Jima as experienced by the Japanese Imperial Army. (Letters From Iwo Jima) and Jim Carrey gets obsessed with the number 23 (The Number 23). Today had the potential to be a very sad day at Saturday Cinema Summary. As we sat down to write, the Guardian website would not load, it was thought that here could......

This week - Dame Dench catches Cate Blanchett fiddling with a child and goes nuts (Notes on a Scandal) and Beyonce fronts the Supremes (Dreamgirls). Bradshaw gives Notes on a Scandal 4/5. So we have some "tremendous acting" from Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett, director Richard Eyre "gets the best out of Dench and Blanchett and, with great shrewdness, elicits from these two actors all the little tensions and exasperations - as well as......

This week - Leo dodges bullets in Sierra Leone to find a pink diamond (Blood Diamond) and Peter O'Toole flirts with someone 50 years his junior (Venus). First up Blood Diamond. To begin, you must read the most authoritative review of all - our own. After that it may seem like a waste of time to read what the broadsheets have to say but let's do it for tradition's sake eh? Bradshaw gives it......

This week - Rocky has another bite at the boxing apple (Rocky Balboa) and Cate Blanchet gets shot in the neck and all manner of problems arise (Babel). The general feeling in the press about Rocky Balboa, the sixth Rocky film, has been one of mild embarrassment. What is Sly doing? He's 60 for God's sake! Wasn't Rocky rubbish the first time? However, we here at Londonist do not follow the journalistic tides of......

This week - A Scottish doctor finds himself embroiled in Amin's Uganda (The Last King of Scotland) and Affleck is rubbish again, (Smokin' Aces). Four star ratings across the board (The Times, Guardian and Independent) for The Last King of Scotland, a film not about James VI but about Idi Amin. Bradshaw describes it as "thoroughly enjoyable, confident, dramatically satisfying". The bulk of the praise goes to Whitaker for his portrayal of Amin, Talk......

This week - The Mayan empire collapses (Apocalypto) and Renee Zelwegger is Beatrix Potter, (Miss Potter). First up - it may sound like a fruity drink, but it's a film - Apocalypto! Bradshaw gives it 4/5. It's Guardian film of the week. If people have got it in for Mel Gibson, he has only himself to blame. His behaviour has been repulsive. Everyone is prejudiced against his films. I am prejudiced against his films.......

This week - Denzel Washington goes back in time (Déjà Vu) and a horrible Christmas slasher, (Black Christmas). We're going to be frank. There really isn't anything exciting that has come out this week. Even the reviews are pretty boring. Go and see Pan's Labyrinth if you haven't already, go to a Carol concert, give a goose to your poor employee's family, if you don't his tiny becrutched son will surely die. First up,......

This week - Kate Winslet falls in love with Jack Black - ludicrous, ludicrous! (The Holiday) and a documentary about the US governments attempts to deport John Lennon, (The US vs. John Lennon). In short, this film is gash. The rule goes - the worse the film, the more entertaining the reviews. This film is no exception. Bradshaw gives it 1/5. He begins with, "I'm a book editor from London - you're a trailer-maker......

This week - The suicide of TV's original Superman, George Reeves, in 1959 (Hollywoodland) and Tenacious D go on a quest to find a plectrum made from Satan's tooth, (Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny). Usually on Saturday Cinema Summary we summarize and synthesize the reviews of the week's films from three esteemed publications, the Guardian, the Times and the Independent. However, following an article in this week's Guardian media supplement accusing Johnny......

This week - Borat visits the USA (Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan) and British rom-com set on Hampstead Heath, (Scenes of a Sexual Nature). When we saw the posters for this on the tube, with five star reviews from the News of the World and the Mirror, we were ready for this to be shit. Turns out it's ok though, who'd have thought? All of the reviewers......

This week - Alan Bennett's adaption of his smash-hit play (History Boys), Costner plays a lifeguard, (The Guardian) and Outkast make a jazz/hip-hop movie (Idlewild). First up, The History Boys, the film adaptation of Alan Bennett's ridiculously successful play which won a sackful of awards. However - does this mean that it makes a great film? Seemingly not, the reviews this week all agree that this adaptation does not measure up to its theatrical......

This week - Scorsese remakes Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs (The Departed) and conjoined twins become a punk band, (Brothers of the Head) First up, The Departed by director Martin Scorsese. If you're the kind of person who believes the proclaimations of a certain man salaried by the Guardian, Mr. Peter Bradshaw (and we are), it looks as if this might be the film to see this week. He has not a bad word......

This week - Filth and disgustingness (Dirty Sanchez: The Movie), a dystopian look at London 2027, (Children of Men) and the sequel to Clerks, (Clerks 2). Today's Friday Film News is going to be a little different in terms of order. Usually the first spot is given to the most hyped film of the week, or the most worthy film. However, as the focus of this post is supposed to be the reviews and......

This week - A look at the actions of the Queen and Tony Blair in the wake of Diana's death (The Queen), a lecture by Al Gore on climate change (An Inconvienient Truth) and a thriller about a famous LA murder (The Black Dahlia). First up, The Queen. This is definately the film of the week, and by the sounds of it, the British film of the year. Her portrayal of the Queen won......

Last week an unfortunate combination of holidays and illness thwarted our well-laid plans to bring you the Friday Film News come rain or shine. Sorry about that. But fear not, the FFN is back to something approaching normality this week as we check out Owen Wilson’s latest lightweight comedy (You Me and Dupree), an Australian drama (Look Both Ways) and a hard-to-categorise-but-ultimately-heart-warming ghost-story (Volver). First up, You Me and Dupree – a trademark Owen......

This week - CGI cars populate the earth (Cars), stylist sci-fi thriller set in Paris 2054 (Renaissance) and a computer game becomes deadly (Stay Alive) First up, Cars from Pixar, makers of Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Toy Story etc. etc. However, where Pixar's previous efforts have been recieved well by the critics, Cars dissapoints. Bradshaw in the Guardian awards it three stars writing that Cars "just doesn't have much in the tank." As expected,......