Pitch Perfect was hilarious, feel-good fun, and one of the surprise hits of 2012.

The budget is minuscule. There are no big names. Set pieces are delivered infrequently, and on a small scale. And if it's monsters you're after, there are precious few ghouls, goblins, ghosts or gremlins.

I enjoyed Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me, even as I shrank from its outrageous contrivance.

Australian film-maker Robert Connolly, known for Balibo and Underground: The Julian Assange Story, enters new territory with this sweet family drama about a 12-year-old boy from rural Western Australia.

Documentary that captures small-town, rugby-mad culture enthrals.

The second instalment of a two-parter, this play proposes a solution to the mystery of what happened to the play that matched Love's Labour's Lost by assuming it was (and then delivering) Much Ado About Nothing.

One of the later sequences in this heavily armed action flick takes place in a bullfighting ring. Yes, we're now in Spain. No kidding.

The wonderful choristers of the American Boychoir School (is "boychoir" even a word?) in Princeton, New Jersey, are the heart and soul of this production. But all the star power at the top of the bill cannot save a sentimental paint-by-numbers film.

Toni Collette is fabulous and utterly convincing in this low-key drama about a magazine music writer whose latest assignment is to go in search of her ex-boyfriend, cult rock hero Matthew Smith, who mysteriously disappeared 10 years ago.

Age of Ultron feels less of an event than the first film, just a reasonably exciting instalment in Marvel's ongoing mega-franchise.

After a difficult start with the comings and goings of numerous directors and stars, including Katherine Heigl and Natalie Portman, this epic romantic drama about a woman who remains aged 29 for almost eight decades finally sees the light of day.

John Steinbeck's classic American tragedy-in-miniature has had five screen adaptations (including an Iranian film) but the only theatre version was the author's own, published and first staged in 1937, the same year as the novel.

In the black-and-white photograph of her that appears briefly during the end credits of this true-life melodrama, Maria Altmann looks somewhat more interesting than her screen version.

The new film by the writer-director duo behind the 2011 hit The Intouchables is not as formulaic and manipulative but it lacks the single-minded coherence that was so crucial to that film's success.

The patient, deeply humane tone that distinguished Conversations with My Gardener and My Afternoons with Margueritte is on show in the new film by veteran French director Becker.

Nominated for a Golden Globe, The Book of Life is directed by Jorge Gutierrez but also carries the creative imprint of producer Guillermo del Toro.

Frederic Tcheng, who co-directed Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel and co-produced Valentino: The Last Emperor, steps out with his solo directing debut, Dior and I.

Following The Hunger Games was always going to be tough for the Divergent series, another young adult novel series set in a dystopian world.

A loss of focus turns this small English feature from an excellent film into a routine and mediocre one about half-way through, but its opening reels have touches of understated genius about them and it is full of undeniably moving moments.

Liam Neeson sure is making the most of his late career run as an action hero.

Looking for light, cheerful entertainment for the littlies these holidays? Meet Home, the latest animated family film from DreamWorks Animation.

Free of the Harry Potter juggernaut, British actor and director Alan Rickman has finally returned to the director's chair, almost two decades after his directing debut with The Winter Guest.

Chameleon character actor Marsan has a long list of supporting-role credits in big films (Sherlock Holmes; Mission Impossible III) and small (X+Y), which releases here next week.

A good kidnapping requires clever design, meticulous planning and a magician's sense of timing; so does a good kidnapping film. This isn't one.

Will Smith and Aussie It Girl Margot Robbie team up in a sleek slice of escapism from directors John Requa and Glenn Ficarra, the co-writers and directors of I Love You Phillip Morris and Crazy, Stupid, Love.

Even best actress Oscar winners can have a bad day at the office, and this is one of those for Julianne Moore.

Just as warm and charming and with pretty much the same cast as the original, this sequel will delight its sizeable fan base, and leaves the door wide open for a third film.

Mike (Austin Powers) Myers' debut as director is a documentary about a talent agent. The choice of subject matter is perhaps the last word in self-referentiality, though it's not clear whether the titular Gordon ever represented Myers.