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Directed by: Jon Faverau
Starring: Robert Downy Jr. Don Cheadle, Gweneth Paltrow, Micky Rourke

It’s been six months (well about 2 years, our time) since Tony Stark threw down his cue cards and announced to the world that he was Iron Man. The world is a different place, it is at peace and the worlds first walking nuclear deterrent doesn’t only have to worry about enemies on the battlefield. The government wants his suit, his company is on the verge of ruin and the arc reactor chest piece that saved his life is now beginning to kill him. When things couldn’t get more challenging, enter Ivan Vanko, son of Howard Stark’s disgraced Russian employee, intent on destroying Tony; not just the man, but the symbol he has become.

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Directed by: Matthew Vaughn
Starring: Aaron Johnson, Chloe Moretz, Christopher Mintz Plasse, Nicolas Cage

Based on a comic book mini-series that wasn’t even finished when production began, Kick-Ass follows Dave Lizewski, a teenager who buys a costume and hits the streets as a “super hero” to help people. Using the moniker Kick-Ass he discovers that he is way out of his depth when he meets the real deal in the form of Hit Girl and Big Daddy, a father and daughter pair of vigilantes on the trail of mob boss Frank D’Amico. As Kick Ass begins to get the blame for the pair’s “work” he finds himself in the sights of the D’Amico family who put their own “super-hero” on the streets to trap Kick-Ass.

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Directed by: Scott Stewart
Starring: Paul Bettany, Dennis Quaid, Lucas Black

Tired of mankind’s wicked ways, God has had enough. He instructs his general; The Archangel Michael (Bettany), to lead his army to earth to exterminate the human race for good. Convinced that there is still hope for man, Michael gives God the finger, heads down to Earth and cuts off his wings, transubstantiating into complete human form and heads to a diner in the middle of nowhere. There he meets up with a motley crew of misfits including a woman pregnant with man’s only saviour. It is here the final battle for mankind’s survival will unfold. Oh yeah, did I mention that Michael has a fuck load of guns? Probably should have.

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Directed by: Martin Campbell
Starring: Mel Gibson, Ray Winstone, Danny Huston

When his daughter is gunned down in front of him, aging detective Thomas Craven (Mel Gibson) begins an investigation that will lead him into the darkest realms of corporate conspiracy and government corruption. Edge of Darkness sees Gibson return to kicking ass and taking names and also stars Ray Winstone and Danny Huston.

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Directed by: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver

James Cameron returns to the fore after a 12 year hiatus with his $3oo million game-changer, Avatar. This simple story of man’s ruthless desire to take anything he wants has been brought to life in stunning 3D. Paralysed ex-marine Jake Sully is the last hope of a peaceful arrangement with the native population of the planet Pandora, the Na’vi. Using a remote controlled Na’vi body called an Avatar, Sully must gain the trust of the native population and urge them to move away from their home, an area of great interest to the human invaders. As patience runs out, Sully finds that he may have been on the wrong side of the fight all along.

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Directed by: Richard Kelly
Starring: Cameron Diaz, James Marsden

Richard Kelly once again squeezes our mind-grapes in his trademark style. The Box follows a couple played by Diaz and Marsden who are offered the opportunity to make a million dollars to push a button and be responsible for the death of one person, somewhere in the world, they don’t know. Unbeknown to the pair, this choice is just the beginning of a mind-bending series of events that will tear the family and even the human race apart.

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Directed by: Daniel Barber
Starring: Michael Caine, Ben Drew

Brutal vigilante thriller crosses the pond as Michael Caine stars as the titular Harry Brown, an elderly widower who takes the law into his own hands when his only friend is murdered by a gang of local thugs. As Harry journeys deeper into the seedy and violent criminal underworld he must find the inner strength to not only avenge his friend but also make it out alive, with his soul in tact.

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Directed by: Grant Heslov
Starring: Ewan McGregor, George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey

Ewan McGregor plays Bob, a disillusioned newspaper journalist who, following his divorce goes to Iraq in search of a story, a goal and something to believe in. It is here he meets Lyn Cassady played by George Clooney who begins to tell the story of how he and other soldiers were involved in a secret military operation to create psychic soldiers. Bob is inadvertently swept up into Lyn’s current secret mission to find a hidden military installation in the Iraqi desert by means of “remote viewing”. Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges co-star in this voyage of discovery that, I guarantee isn’t what you’re expecting.

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Directed by: Oren Peli
Starring: Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat

“Reality” horror movie made on a shoestring using the actors’ real names and claiming to be footage recovered by police depicting a paranormal event. I finally checked out a movie that was originally released on the festival circuit back in 2007 and has just had a general release. So here we go, my review of The Blair Witch Pro…. erm, I mean Paranormal Activity.

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Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin
Directed by: Ruben Fleischer

It’s a question as old as the genre itself; How would you survive the zombie apocolypse? This simple question forms the premise of Ruben Fleischer’s Zombieland. Not concerned with the origins of the walking dead (although it does get mentioned), Zombieland is purely about the struggle of staying alive once the majority had turned zombie. Jesse Eisenberg plays Columbus (Because that’s where he’s headed. People don’t use their names, just the names of the places they’re going/have come from.) one of the few remaining actual people who scratch out a living by moving from place to place scavenging supplies and avoiding the hoards of zombies. Things go wrong… well right… but wrong, when he meets Tallahassee (Harrelson) and then Witchita (Stone) and her sister Little Rock (Breslin) and the group head out to the west coast… to visit a theme park.

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