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......

It's finally here! The Sweeney Todd movie opens today. We were so excited yesterday, though, that we took to the city streets with the fabulous free Sweeney Todd Soundmap in our ears. This movie themed walk starts at Temple tube and wends its way through the back alleys cutting across Fleet Street and leading you, of course, to the site of Mrs Lovett's pie shop, Sweeney's barbaric barber shop, St Dunstan's in the West,......

While most will undoubtedly be snuggling up on the sofa, warmed chocolate cupped in one palm, tv remote in the other, the residents of East Barnet will be endeavouring upon a very different xmas eve: as was the tradition back in 1932, those with a ghoulish disposition will be flocking to Church Hill Road, near Oak Hill Park, in the hope to catch a glimpse of the former Sir Geoffrey de Mandeville, a headless......

This week: a treat for Christmas as Tim Burton's animated masterpiece goes 3D (Nightmare Before Christmas 3D), a Soviet agent starts questioning his life in London's Swinging Sixties (Joy Division) and a philosophising serial killer paints canvases with his victims' blood (Antibodies). As that big tinselly jelly-bellied day creeps slyly upon us a special treat is in store for fans of 1993's excellent Nightmare Before Christmas. Wendy Ide hails it as "a terrific Christmas movie......

Halloween is Tuesday, which means this weekend is really the time for all of the –ists to celebrate. And whether they’re designing super-spooky costumes or talking about the super-spooky upcoming elections, we’d say that they’re doing a fine job of it. Austinist knows that few things in life are scarier than zombies, people with way too much money, and politicians who try too hard to be funny. Slightly less scary, depending on whom you......

Londonist attended the London Film Festival press launch this morning - we're suckers for a free breakfast. This year is the festivals 50th birthday and by all accounts all the stops have been pulled out to make this years line up a little bit special. Of particular interest to us was the news that Trafalgar Square will play host to A Portrait of London - director Mike Figgis is overseeing a specially commissioned event......

Don’t be fooled by the peace and tranquillity that pervades the oasis of NW3 – the Guardian readers stacked up on Primrose Hill, yummy mummies hiking those 4x4 buggies along Belsize Lane, up past the celeb-spotters perched outside the latest place to be. Despite the semblance of calm, you’ll find the area has broken into two warring factions in an argument started by actress Helena Bonham Carter and her director partner Tim Burton. The......

There's a slideshow with accompanying talk tonight at the Ritzy Cinema in Brixton. Which is hardly pant-wetting stuff when described like that but this is Andy Kirkpatrick's version of the slideshow - it won't be an evening of slides showing interesting bratwurst he ate while on a weekend break in Dusseldorf. Andy Kirkpatrick is a writer, photographer, film maker and one of the UK’s most accomplished mountaineers and ‘big wall’ climbers (big walls are......

This week: Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, Broken Flowers and Into The Blue. Kicking off this week then with more half-term, stop-animation goodness in the form of Tim Burton's Corpse Bride The film gets three stars from Pete Bradhsaw who thinks it will be "best be enjoyed by tweenie goths, who will want to turn out for it out in full costume on Halloween night before getting into the real business of annoying the neighbours......

This week: Wallace & Gromit, Lord of War, Domino. Well, there's not much doubt what this week's most interesting release is: Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. And despite having the best tagline of any film so far this year (Something wicked this way hops) WAGTCOTWR (as we're going to stubbornly refer to it from here on in) also get an incredibly rare five stars from the Grim Reviewer himself: Pete Bradshaw.......

First up in the film reviews this week is The Aristocrats, which starts off reasonably well by picking up three stars in the Times. At just two paragraphs Wendy Ide's review of this documentary about a legendary in-joke amongst comedians is probably shorter than the joke itelf, but she seems to like it, calling the film "a fascinating insight into a close circle". By the time we get to Anthony Quinn in the Independent......

There's a lot of pressure ridign on Depp, Burton and their adaptation of Charlie & the Chocolate Factory. After all it's a remake of a pretty good film based on a near-legendary book by the greatest (?) children's writer of all time (none of that Rowling nonsense here please!). What's great though is that the film seems to have surpassed all expectations, at least it has for the broadhsheet critics. It's four stars from......

One line review: The Dark Knight gets his balls back. Slightly longer (spoiler free) review: We came out of the cinema last night grinning. Sure, we overheard a few people muttering "too long" and "bit slow" but they were obviously stupid and would soon walk under a bus or tube raising the city's IQ slightly. Batman Begins is great. And we had a PILE of reservations, but thankfully we worried over nothing. So let's......

Tom Jones has revealed that he thought about throwing himself in front of a tube train just before he hit the big time back in the sixties. Not only would have this delayed the commute for other swinging pop stars like Twiggy, it would also have denied us the pleasure of singing Delilah drunkenly for years to come and watching him punch Martians in Tim Burton movies. SKY Showbiz have the full story in......

The Sun newspaper has the first photograph of Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka, from the set of Tim Burton's Charlie And The Chocolate Factory. Currently being filmed over at Pinewood Studios, Depp is starring alongside Helena Bonham-Carter, David Hyde and Christopher Lee in what Burton promises will be a faithful adapatation of the Roald Dahl story. Under the headline Johnny Depp's a Wonka, The Sun has a grainy black and white shot of Depp in......