Young Adult (2011)

It's not surprising she finds success writing for an adolescent audience since she still defines her life with teenage-level priorities and fantasies. As she has proved with "Juno", Cody is thoroughly fluent with this perspective, but the twist is that this time, it's coming from a jaded 37-year-old woman. Even though Mavis is a divorcée who lives in a high-rise apartment with a toy dog and can easily get any man she wants, she is triggered by a birth announcement email she receives from her high school sweetheart Buddy Slade and becomes fixated on getting him back all these years later. It doesn't matter that he's happily married and perfectly content living in Mercury. She concocts a scheme to make herself so alluring that he will want to run away with her. Normally, this would be an excuse for broad comedy machinations, but Theron is so gorgeous that it makes her shameless attempts at seduction all the more edgily desperate.

The Muppets (2011)

Has any of the magic left the Muppets? I don't think so. I must admit that some of the story points were a bit ridiculous, and sometimes a little too on the nose (yes, I am aware that it was trying to be, but doing it too much becomes tedious). I wasn't entering the film expecting completely revamped Muppet style. It was by the book, aimed appropriately at both children and adults, without ever stepping too far in either direction.

Arthur Christmas (2011)

Arthur (James McAvoy) is one of Santa's two sons, a bungler with a big heart. He takes it on his own to bring a present to the one girl in all the land whose present was not delivered. His technocrat brother, Steve (Hugh Laurie), has been responsible for the mis-delivery, although his array of laptops for elves and computerized delivery system is impressive. The head versus the heart forms the central conflict, providing laughs and groans but never in a mean way as in Bad Santa.

Hugo (II) (2011)

It's such a fantastical but genuine story that you can't help but fall in love with it, I think. Scorsese has brought a boy's dream to life but also written a love letter to film-making. I won't spoil anything outside of the trailer for fear of diminishing the magic, but I needed to write a somewhat coherent review to get my thoughts down, and hopefully persuade more people to watch the film! There's heart, there's magic, there's wonder, there's enjoyment, there's a little bit of everything for everyone to love in this. Some parts had me misty-eyed with the wonderful score and the ode to the joy of film.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Full Movies

Condon does have a few moments of visual darkness, including the dream sequence in the beginning with its juxtaposition of bright white clothing and blood and Bella and Edward standing on top of a load of corpses. The birth scene was actually intense and gory. But these are counter-balanced with goofy moments, one of the most infamous being a psychic werewolf argument.

The Sitter (2011)

With a script as half-assed as this seemed to be, one would assume that the characters throughout are bound to be just as problematic. And that brings me to the children. The children here are so underdeveloped that they aren't even people, they are simply emotions used to move the razor-thin plot along. A bratty little girl who uses foul language (yeah, that would have been funnier if I were seven), a super emotional pre-teen boy whose storyline attempts to become sentimental, but verges on borderline homophobic, and a stereotypical Latin kid who thinks he's Scarface, does not a film make! And as for those sentimental moments, they are truly the most cringe inducing aspect here. I'm sorry, but any movie that would have Jonah Hill giving out sappy life lessons is doomed for failure. But again, Hill wasn't the worst part of the film. The fact is, without Hill's likability as a lead actor, "The Sitter" would have been unwatchable.

New Year's Eve (2011)

The characterisation is incredibly lazy; Ashton Kutcher plays a pyjama-wearing stoner cartoonist, Zac Efron is the plucky young go-getter, De Niro (who will sign up for anything these days) is the grumpy old coot. These typecasts are bad enough before Lea Michele appears essentially playing Rachel Berry from Glee, replete with the screeching vocal performances. The cherry on top of the cake, however, is Michelle Pfeiffer who re-enacts her performance in Batman Returns as kooky wallflower Selina Kyle; to my immense disappointment she never became Catwoman and proceeded to whip up any sense of excitement.