In Cinemas this week (16 – 22 March)

Safe House

Tobin Frost is a CIA agent who’s believed to have turned rogue, in Capetown, South Africa. When he is pursued by men who want to kill him, he goes to the American Consulate where he knows he will be arrested. When the CIA learns of this, it’s decided to bring him to a safe house in Capetown, where they will interrogate him. Shortly after they arrive, the men who chased Frost storm the safe house and kill everyone there. Matt Weston, the agent who’s tasked with looking after the safe house, is the only one left, so he takes Frost and they go on the run. Now the unlikely partners must discover if their attackers have been sent by terrorists or someone on the inside who will kill anyone standing in the way. Now it’s up to Weston to figure out who he can trust before they’re both eliminated from the game.

Cast:
Denzel Washington (Tobin Frost)
Ryan Reynolds (Matt Weston)
Vera Farmiga (Catherine Linklater)
Robert Patrick (Daniel Kiefer)

Director: Daniel Espinosa
Writer: David Guggenheim
Runtime: 115 min
Genre: Action, Crime, Mystery
Rating: 15
Language: English
Production Year: 2012

The Iron Lady

Elderly and a virtual prisoner in her own home due to her concerned staff and daughter Carol, Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s first woman prime minister, looks back on her life as she clears out her late husband Denis’s clothes for the Oxfam shop. Denis is seen as being her rock as she first enters parliament and then runs for the leadership of the Conservative Party, culminating in her eventual premiereship. Now his ghost joins her to comment on her successes and failures, sometimes to her annoyance, generally to her comfort until ultimately, as the clothes are sent to the charity shop, Denis departs from Margret’s life forever.

Cast:
Meryl Streep (Margaret Thatcher)
Jim Broadbent (Denis Thatcher)
Anthony Head (Geoffrey Howe)
Richard E. Grant (Michael Heseltine)

Director: Phyllida Lloyd
Writer: Abi Morgan
Runtime: 105 min
Genre: Biography, Drama
Rating: K
Language: English
Production Year: 2011

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

In the early 1970s during the Cold War, the head of British Intelligence, Control, resigns after an operation in Budapest, Hungary, goes badly wrong. It transpires that Control believed one of four senior figures in the service was in fact a Russian agent – a mole – and the Hungary operation was an attempt to identify which of them it was. Smiley had been forced into retirement by the departure of Control, but is asked by a senior government figure to investigate a story told to him by a rogue agent, Ricky Tarr, that there was a mole. Smiley considers that the failure of the Hungary operation and the continuing success of Operation Witchcraft (an apparent source of significant Soviet intelligence) confirms this, and takes up the task of finding him. Through the efforts of Peter Guillam, Smiley obtains information that eventually leads him to Jim Prideaux, the agent at the heart of the Hungary fiasco…

Cast:
Gary Oldman (George Smiley)
Colin Firth (Bill Haydon)
John Hurt (Control)
Tom Hardy (Ricki Tarr)

Director: Tomas Alfredson
Writer: Bridget O’Connor, Peter Straughan
Runtime: 127 min
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Rating: 12
Language: English
Production Year: 2011

Beauty and the Beast 3D (Greek)

Prince Adam was cursed to a beast form by Enchantress who saw no love in his arrogant heart for others. The one way he could break the spell was to learn to love another and earn her love in return before the last petal from his enchanted rose fell, which would bloom until his twenty-first birthday. But who could ever learn to love a beast? Ten years later, Maurice, an inventor from a nearby village, becomes lost in the woods and seeks shelter in the Beast’s castle, the Beast imprisons him for trespassing. His daughter Belle, a bookworm who dreams of life outside her provincial village, finds him trapped in the castle and offers her place in his stead. The Beast accepts with a promise she’ll remain in the castle forever.

Director: Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise
Writer: Linda Woolverton, Roger Allers
Runtime: 84 min
Genre: Animation
Rating: K
Language: Greek
Production Year: 1991

The Woman in Black

Young lawyer Arthur Kipps leaves his son in London to settle the legal affairs of the recently deceased Alice Drablow. He discovers that a series of inexplicable accidents and suicides have forced the parents of her village to barricade their children indoors, as if protecting them from an unseen foe. When Arthur stays the night all alone at the Drablows’ foreboding house, he hears the screams of a drowning child and sees decaying children listlessly wandering the marshes. He will soon discover these haunting figures share the same date of death, and the same killer.

Cast:
Daniel Radcliffe (Arthur Kipps)
Ciarán Hinds (Daily)
Janet McTeer (Mrs. Daily)
David Burke (PC Collins)

Director: James Watkins
Writer: Susan Hill, Jane Goldman
Runtime: 95 min
Genre: Drama, Horror, Thriller
Rating: 15
Language: English
Production Year: 2012

Man on a Ledge

An ex-cop turned con threatens to jump to his death from a Manhattan hotel rooftop. The nearest New York Police officer immediately responds to a screaming woman and calls dispatch. More Officers arrive with SWAT and tactical command along with fire-fighters. The police then dispatches a female police psychologist personally requested to talk him down from the ledge. However, things aren’t as straightforward and clearcut as they appear to be.

Cast:
Sam Worthington (Nick Cassidy)
Jamie Bell (Joey Cassidy)
Elizabeth Banks (Lydia Mercer)
Anthony Mackie (Mike Ackerman)

Director: Asger Leth
Writer: Pablo F. Fenjves
Runtime: 102 min
Genre: Crime, Thriller
Rating: 12
Language: English
Production Year: 2012

Chronicle

Three high school students make an incredible discovery, leading to their developing uncanny powers beyond their understanding. As they learn to control their abilities and use them to their advantage, their lives start to spin out of control, and their darker sides begin to take over.

Cast:
Dane DeHaan (Andrew Detmer)
Alex Russell (Matt Garetty)
Michael B. Jordan (Steve Montgomery)
Michael Kelly (Richard Detmer)

Director: Josh Trank
Writer: Max Landis
Runtime: 84 min
Genre: Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
Rating: 15
Language: English
Production Year: 2012

The Descendants

Matt King’s family has lived in Hawaii for generations. His extended family – namely he and his many cousins – own 25,000 acres of undeveloped land on Kauai held in trust, which ends in seven years. However, Matt has not had a perfect life living in Hawaiian paradise as many believe. He and his wife Elizabeth were having problems in their marriage. She recently got into a boating accident which has placed her in a coma. Their seventeen year old daughter Alex is in boarding school on the big island since they couldn’t handle her rebellion, which was made all the worse by an argument of an unknown nature between mother and daughter. And their ten year old daughter Scottie is starting to act out, which Matt doesn’t know if he can handle, potentially raising her on his own. Matt decides to bring Alex home upon news that Elizabeth is brain dead, and that she will be pulled off life support. But revelations about Elizabeth and Alex’s argument leads to some decisions on Matt’s part about what is best for him in both mourning Elizabeth’s death and what is the best thing to do about the land, the two decisions which may be incompatible.

Cast:
George Clooney (Matt King)
Shailene Woodley (Alexandra King)
Matthew Lillard (Brian Speer)
Judy Greer (Julie Speer)

Director: Alexander Payne
Writer: Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon
Runtime: 115 min
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Rating: 12
Language: English
Production Year: 2012

Barbie in a Mermaid Tale 2 (Greek)

Surf’s up for Barbie as she returns as Merliah, the fun and fashionable surfing champion who’s also a magical mermaid princess! In this exciting sea-quel, Merliah makes a splash when she heads to Australia for the ultimate surfing competition. When the evil mermaid Eris escapes from her whirlpool with plans to take over the throne of Oceana, Merliah and her sea friends dive in to stop her. It’s a fresh new adventure where Merliah learns that anything is possible and she really can have the best of both worlds!

Cast:
Kelly Sheridan
Ashleigh Ball
Kathleen Barr
Nicole Oliver

Runtime: 72 min
Genre: Animation
Rating: K
Language: Greek
Production Year: 2012

Journey 2: The Mysterious Island 3D

In this follow-up to the 2008 worldwide hit Journey to the Center of the Earth, the new 3D family adventure Journey 2: The Mysterious Island begins when young Sean Anderson receives a coded distress signal from a mysterious island where no island should exist. It’s a place of strange life forms, mountains of gold, deadly volcanoes, and more than one astonishing secret. Unable to stop him from going, Sean’s new stepfather, Hank, joins the quest. Together with a helicopter pilot and his beautiful, strong-willed daughter, they set out to find the island, rescue its lone inhabitant and escape before seismic shockwaves force the island under the sea and bury its treasures forever.

Cast:
Dwayne Johnson (Hank)
Michael Caine (Alexander)
Josh Hutcherson (Sean)
Vanessa Hudgens (Kailani)

Director: Brad Peyton
Writer: Brian Gunn, Mark Gunn
Runtime: 94 min
Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy
Rating: K
Language: English
Production Year: 2012

This Means War

The world’s deadliest CIA operatives are inseparable partners and best friends until they fall for the same woman. Having once helped bring down entire enemy nations, they are now employing their incomparable skills and an endless array of high-tech gadgetry against their greatest nemesis ever – each other.

Cast:
Reese Witherspoon (Lauren)
Chris Pine (FDR Foster)
Tom Hardy (Tuck)
Chelsea Handler (Trish)

Director: McG
Writer: Timothy Dowling, Simon Kinberg
Runtime: 98 min
Genre: Comedy, Action, Romance
Rating: 12
Language: English
Production Year: 2012

Hugo 3D

Hugo is an orphan boy living in the walls of a train station in the 1930s in Paris. He fixes clocks and other gadgets as he learned to from his father and uncle. The only thing that he has left that connects him to his father is an automaton that doesn’t work; Hugo has to find its heart-shaped key. On his adventures, he meets with a cranky old man who works in the train station and his adventure-seeking god-daughter. Hugo finds that they have a surprising connection to his father and the automaton, and as he discovers it, the old man starts remembering his past and his significance to the world of film-making.

Cast:
Ben Kingsley (Georges Méliès)
Asa Butterfield (Hugo Cabret)
Chloë Grace Moretz (Isabelle)
Christopher Lee (Monsieur Labisse)

Director: Martin Scorsese
Writer: John Logan, Brian Selznick
Runtime: 126 min
Genre: Adventure, Drama, Family
Rating: K
Language: English
Production Year: 2011

Abduction

Nathan Harper is a teenager who lives with his parents, Kevin and Mara. He has a recurring nightmare, and consults a psychiatrist, Dr. Geraldine Bennett to discover why. One day, Nathan is partnered with his neighbor and longtime crush Karen Murphy on a school assignment about missing children. Karen finds a website that shows how the children would look like as adults, and Nathan discovers that a young boy named Steven Price would look exactly like him, when Price got older. Searching in his basement, he finds the same shirt that Steven is wearing in the picture and realizes that he and Steven are the same person. This revelation triggers a series of events and leaves Nathan running for his life.

Cast:
Taylor Lautner (Nathan)
Lily Collins (Karen)
Alfred Molina (Burton)
Sigourney Weaver (Dr. Bennett)

Director: John Singleton
Writer: Shawn Christensen
Runtime: 106 min
Genre: Action, Drama, Mystery
Rating: 12
Language: English
Production Year: 2011

Conan the Barbarian (3D)

A quest that begins as a personal vendetta for the fierce Cimmerian warrior soon turns into an epic battle against hulking rivals, horrific monsters, and impossible odds, as Conan realizes he is the only hope of saving the great nations of Hyboria from an encroaching reign of supernatural evil.

Cast:
Jason Momoa (Conan)
Ron Perlman (Corin)
Rose McGowan (Marique)
Rachel Nichols (Tamara)

Director: Marcus Nispel
Writer: Thomas Dean Donnelly, Joshua Oppenheimer
Runtime: 113 min
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Rating: 15
Language: English
Production Year: 2011

Happy Feet Two 3D

Mumble, The Master of Tap, has a problem because his tiny son, Erik, is choreo-phobic. Reluctant to dance, Erik runs away and encounters The Mighty Sven – a penguin who can fly! Mumble has no hope of competing with this charismatic new role model. But things get worse when the world is shaken by powerful forces. Erik learns of his father’s “guts and grit” as Mumble brings together the penguin nations and all manner of fabulous creatures – from tiny Krill to giant Elephant Seals – to put things right.

Cast:
Elijah Wood (Mumble)
Robin Williams (Ramon / Lovelace)
Pink (Gloria)
Brad Pitt (Will the Krill)

Director: George Miller
Writer: George Miller, Warren Coleman
Runtime: 100 min
Genre: Animation, Comedy, Family
Rating: K
Language: English
Production Year: 2011

Shark Night 3D

A weekend at a lake house in the Louisiana Gulf turns into a nightmare for seven vacationers as they are subjected to shark attacks.

Cast:
Sara Paxton (Sara)
Dustin Milligan (Nick)
Chris Carmack (Dennis)
Katharine McPhee (Beth)

Director: David R. Ellis
Writer: Will Hayes, Jesse Studenberg
Runtime: 91 min
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Rating: 12
Language: English
Production Year: 2011

Immortals 3D

Eons after the Gods won their mythic struggle against the Titans, a new evil threatens the land. Mad with power, King Hyperion has declared war against humanity. Amassing a bloodthirsty army of soldiers disfigured by his own hand, Hyperion has scorched Greece in search of the legendary Epirus Bow, a weapon of unimaginable power forged in the heavens by Ares. Only he who possesses this bow can unleash the Titans, who have been imprisoned deep within the walls of Mount Tartaros since the dawn of time and thirst for revenge. In the king’s hands, the bow would rain destruction upon mankind and annihilate the Gods. But ancient law dictates the Gods must not intervene in man’s conflict. They remain powerless to stop Hyperion… until a peasant named Theseus comes forth as their only hope. Secretly chosen by Zeus, Theseus must save his people from Hyperion and his hordes…

Cast:
Henry Cavill (Theseus)
Mickey Rourke (King Hyperion)
Luke Evans (Zeus)
Freida Pinto (Phaedra)

Director: Tarsem Singh
Writer: Charley Parlapanides, Vlas Parlapanides
Runtime: 110 min
Genre: Action, Drama, Fantasy
Rating: 15
Language: English
Production Year: 2011

The Three Musketeers (3D)

The hot-headed young D’Artagnan along with three former legendary but now down on their luck Musketeers must unite and defeat a beautiful double agent and her villainous employer from seizing the French throne and engulfing Europe in war.

Cast:
Milla Jovovich (M’lady De Winter)
Logan Lerman (D’Artagnan)
Orlando Bloom (Duke of Buckingham)
Christoph Waltz (Cardinal Richelieu)

Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
Writer: Alex Litvak, Andrew Davies
Runtime: 110 min
Genre: Action, Adventure, Romance
Rating: K
Language: English
Production Year: 2011

The Muppets (Greek)

When three muppet fans learn that Tex Richman wants to drill under the muppet theater for oil Gary, Mary and Walter set out to find the muppets who have been split up for years. Kermit lives in his own mansion depressed in Hollywood, Gonzo is a high class plumber at Gonzo’s Royal Flush, Fozzie performs with a tribute band called The Moopets, Miss Piggy is the plus-size fashion editor at Vogue Paris, and Animal is at a celebrity anger management rehab center in Santa Barbara.

Cast:
Jason Segel (Gary)
Amy Adams (Mary)
Chris Cooper (Tex Richman)
Rashida Jones (Veronica Martin)

Director: James Bobin
Writer: Jason Segel, Nicholas Stoller
Runtime: 103 min
Genre: Comedy, Family
Rating: K
Language: Greek
Production Year: 2011

Puss in Boots

Years before meeting Shrek and Donkey, the adorable but tricky Puss in Boots must clear his name from all charges making him a wanted fugitive. While trying to steal magic beans from the infamous criminals Jack and Jill, the hero crosses paths with his female match, Kitty Softpaws, who leads Puss to his old friend, but now enemy, Humpty Dumpty. Memories of friendship and betrayal enlarges Puss’ doubt, but he eventually agrees to help the egg get the magic beans. Together, the three plan to steal the beans, get to the Giant’s castle, nab the golden goose, and clear Puss’ name.

Cast:
Antonio Banderas/Tilemahos Krevaikas (Puss in Boots)
Salma Hayek/Vicky Nikolaidou (Kitty Softpaws)
Zach Galifianakis/Vasilis Milios (Humpty Dumpty)
Billy Bob Thornton/Fotis Petrides (Jack)

Director: Chris Miller
Writer: Charles Perrault, Brian Lynch
Runtime: 90 min
Genre: Animation, Comedy, Adventure
Rating: K
Language: Greek
Production Year: 2011

Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chip-Wrecked (English)

Playing around while aboard a cruise ship, the Chipmunks and Chipettes accidentally go overboard and end up marooned in a tropical paradise. They discover their new turf is not as deserted as it seems.

Cast:
Jason Lee (Dave)
Justin Long (Alvin)
Matthew Gray Gubler (Simon)
Jesse McCartney (Theodore)

Director: Mike Mitchell
Writer: Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger
Runtime: 87 min
Genre: Animation, Comedy, Family
Rating: K
Language: English
Production Year: 2011