Out Now – 16th December 2011

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
Sherlock is back.” “Hurrah!” “No, not Cumberbatch.” “Oh.” “Precisely.” Ever since Steven Moffat showed us how good a Sherlock Holmes adaptation can be, and on a TV budget too, Guy Ritchie’s effort is looking less and less impressive. Still, this version has Stephen Fry and is perfect for a family trip to the cinema.

Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chip-Wrecked (limited release)
Precisely what no family should go and see together, it will insult the children’s intelligence and assault the parent’s senses. While on a cruise the chipmunks fall overboard and end up on a not-so-deserted island.

Dreams of a Life (limited release)
In 2006 the body of a young woman was found in her bedsit. She had died three years previously and had seemingly left this world without anyone taking notice. This documentary promises an intriguing look at how someone’s death can go unnoticed by everyone in their life. When was the last time you saw your neighbour?

Magic To Win (limited release)
According to a person on IMDb this is a “fitfully amusing reboot of the Happy Ghost series that is an unwieldy blend of the old-school humour of the series and modern-day fantasy elements à la Harry Potter

Meet Me in St. Louis (limited release)
The BFI continue their re-release of classic MGM musicals with this Judy Garland vehicle about four sisters preparing to move to New York, singing songs and falling in love.

Wreckers (limited release)
Speaking of Benedict Cumberbatch, he co-stars in this romantic drama about trying to start a family while the husband deals with a troubled relationship between himself and his brother.

Your Week in Promo Materials

We’ve probably talked about this before but every time an exciting new trailer or poster is released we find ourselves in a state of panic deciding whether to bother posting it. The world of film blogging is saturated with every single poster and teaser trailer that rolls along and we don’t want to bury our valuable Harry Potter charts in a sea of weak posters.

As a result here is an incomplete run-down of recent trailers and posters. We’ve removed anything not worthy of comment. Anybody else underwhelmed by the latest Sherlock Holmes posters?

Posters
Big buzz builders so far this week were posters for The Thing and The Dark Knight Rises.

While pretty, the poster for The Dark Knight Rises reveals nothing and is as unexciting as anything related to Christopher Nolan can be, which still leaves plenty of room for excitement. The poster for The Thing is more my type of thing. It looks different to most horror films, no monochrome pictures of horrific images/small children/torture devices/all the above and gives a tantalising glimpse of the thing itself transforming from/into a human. Can’t wait for The Thing to let me down.

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