• THE VOW. BLACK GOLD. THE PHANTOM MENACE in 3D. THIS MEANS WAR. 21 JUMP STREET.
• POSITION AMONG THE STARS. ANGEL & TONY. IF A TREE FALLS. PARADISE LOST 3: PURGATORY. CITY OF DREAMERS.
* LFF: HARA-KIRI: DEATH OF A SAMURAI. KING CURLING. THE LONELIEST PLANET. PLAY. TARGET. TERRAFERMA. TERRI. WITHOUT. IRIS: THE ADORED. GOING DOWN IN GA-GA LAND. MY LAST ROUND. IRIS SHORTS. EIFF: BY DAY AND BY NIGHT. FAST ROMANCE. JITTERS. KING OF DEVIL'S ISLAND. THE LAST CIRCUS. PHASE 7. ETC: ABSOLUTE HELL. ALEXANDER THE LAST. AROUND A SMALL MOUNTAIN. MISS BALA. HELL AND BACK AGAIN. SHIVER. UNRELATED. WAITING FOR SUPERMAN.
• FOSTER CHILD. MAIN STREET. THE LEDGE. STALKER. STRAW DOGS (1971).
• BONSAI. CONTRABAND. THE FAIRY. LE HAVRE. WE BOUGHT A ZOO.

ALBERT NOBBS 
ALPS (Gr)
BECOMING CHAZ
BERNIE
A CAT IN PARIS (Fr)
DARK HORSE
FOOTNOTE (Isr)
THE KID WITH A BIKE (Bel)
THE MONK
NATURAL SELECTION
OUTSIDE SATAN (Fr)
PARIAH
SARAH PALIN: YOU BETCHA!
SHE MONKEYS
* SING YOUR SONG
* SOUTHERN ZONE (Bol)
* 3 
360

* films I've seen, reviews en route

JOHN CARTER

dir Andrew Stanton; with Taylor Kitsch, Bryan Cranston, Mark Strong, Thomas Haden Church, Samantha Morton, Ciaran Hinds, James Purefoy, Dominic West, Willem Dafoe, Lynn Collins, Polly Walker, Daryl Sabara; Disney 12/US
release US/UK 9.Mar.12

Yet another dumbed down title hints at studio meddling (it's based on the classic John Carter of Mars books by Edgar Rice Burroughs, creator of Tarzan), but the presence of director-cowriter Stanton hints that this is a passion project. This is way off-genre for the director of Wall-E, which could mean that the film is unlike any sci-fi action movie we've ever seen. And the casting is just as unexpected. So all we can hope is that the fairly dull trailers are studio-manufactured marketing tools that don't actually reflect the film's fresh take on the genre. Otherwise it could be pretty painful to watch.

THE HUNGER GAMES

dir-scr Gary Ross; with Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Banks, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Stanley Tucci, Donald Sutherland, Toby Jones, Wes Bentley, Lenny Kravitz; Lionsgate 11/US
release US/UK 23.Mar.12
Officially designated as The Next Big Franchise, this three-novel series kicks off in March with its story of a dystopian future in which young people battle to the death for, erm, some reason or other. Expect the requisite love triangle and some fraught hand-wringing, but hopefully the filmmakers will keep everything tight and energetic. The casting is extremely promising - with solid young actors Lawrence and Hutchinson plus some nice scene-stealing oldsters. As long as it's not aimed at 12-year-old girls, we should be ok. Is there any hope of that?

BEING FLYNN

dir-scr Paul Weitz; with Robert De Niro, Paul Dano, Julianne Moore, Olivia Thirlby, Lili Taylor, Victor Rasuk, Dale Dickey, Billy Wirth; Focus 12/US
release US/UK Mar.12
A lot of films are getting dumbed-down titles at the moment, and this one is no exception, as it's based on Nick Flynn's memoir Another Bulls**t Night in Suck City. So then it's not actually a surprise either. The story looks intriguing: about a guy working in Boston homeless shelters, where he often runs into his father. So while I'm a bit dubious about Weitz's spotty filmography (from American Pie to Little Fockers by way of About a Boy), I refuse to give up hope that De Niro has a good performance left in him (if he's woken up after sleepwalking through the humiliation of New Year's Eve). I'm also a fan of Dano and Moore, so I'll definitely look forward to this one. Even if I don't go in with huge expectations.

THE PIRATES! IN AN ADVENTURE WITH SCIENTISTS!

dir Peter Lord; scr Jane Goldman; with Hugh Grant, Brendan Gleeson, Jeremy Piven, Brian Blessed, Lenny Henry, Salma Hayek, Martin Freeman, David Tennant, Ashley Jensen, Imelda Staunton, Russell Tovey; Sony 12/UK
release UK 28.Mar.12, US 30.Mar.12
Previewed scenes from this stop-motion animated romp look absolutely hysterical, thanks to lively and inventive production design that makes the most of its puppet characters and settings. And the script looks like it's packed with wit too, giving the ace voice cast plenty to work with. From the wildly outrageous spoofery of the entire pirate genre to some knowing commentary about gender politics, it looks like the kind of film that will have something to entertain everyone in the audience. The plot looks madly copmplicated, so hopefully it'll hang together as an overall film. Why the subtitle has been dumbed down in America to "Band of Misfits" says a lot about the way US studios see their home-grown audiences.

TITANIC in 3D

dir-scr James Cameron; with Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Kathy Bates, Billy Zane, Frances Fisher, Gloria Stuart, Bill Paxton, Bernard Hill, David Warner, Victor Garber, Ioan Gruffuddn; Fox 97/US
release US/UK 6.Apr.12
No one would ever say that James Cameron's epic blockbuster needed to be converted into 3D, but then why not? It is the 100th anniversary of the ship's sinking, after all. And every huge movie is in 3D now, right? Especially huge James Cameron movies. (Don't be surprised if 3D versions of The Terminator and Aliens are on the way.) No, the only reason we're looking forward to this is because it gives us a chance to see this enormous, bloated, perfectly constructed melodramatic epic up on the big screen where it belongs. And if we have to wear silly glasses to see it there, so be it. At least we know that, as far as 3D conversions go, this is a good one: the 30-minute preview was astonishingly bright and clear, offering what felt like whole new perspectives on some scenes.

THE DICTATOR

dir Larry Charles; with Sacha Baron Cohen, Ben Kingsley, John C Reilly, Megan Fox, Anna Faris, Kevin Corrigan, Aasif Mandvi; 12/US
release US 11.May.12, UK 18.May.12
Sacha Baron Cohen brings yet another fully realised comedy character to the screen in what is clearly another guerrilla-style romp in which he does his best to shock unwitting members of the public on camera. The problem is that after Borat and Bruno, he is finding it difficult to find people who don't know what he's up to, so hopefully the writers will come up with something witty for him to get up to this time. The trailer looks just a bit on the silly side, but the political context should make it entertaining.

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES

dir Christopher Nolan; with Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Liam Neeson, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Gary Oldman, Cillian Murphy, Marion Cotillard, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Juno Temple, Matthew Modine; Warner 12/UK
release UK/US 20.Jul.12
Sure, this doesn't come out for what seems like years, but it's hard to imagine how anticipation could be any higher already. With the release of the Imax prologue sequence in December, things cranked up a gear. And that footage is pretty spectacular, showing an airbourne assault that's complex and extremely inventive. It doesn't feature Bale, but rather Hardy as the rather terrifying Bane, a masked hulk whose words are barely intelligible (they have six months to fix the sound). And the trailers give us further glimpses of Hathaway's Catwoman, as well as teasing us with plot points that may or may not mean anything. In other words, it's hard to imagine this not being the biggest hit of the year.

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Also on my want-to-see list...

Spring: ACT OF VALOR  CONTRABAND  WANDERLUST  WE BOUGHT A ZOO  WRATH OF THE TITANS  THE AVENGERS  BATTLESHIP  DAMSELS IN DISTRESS. THE FIVE-YEAR ENGAGEMENT  JEFF WHO LIVES AT HOME  DARK SHADOWS. THE FORGIVENESS OF BLOOD  MEN IN BLACK III  MOONRISE KINGDOM  ILL MANORS. THE THREE STOOGES 
Summer: G.I. JOE: RETALIATION  JACK THE GIANT KILLER  PROMETHEUS  ROCK OF AGES  SHOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN  THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN  PARANORMAN  THE EXPENDABLES 2 
Winter: THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY 
No UK release date: ENDGAME  FIVE MINUTES OF HEAVEN  MAIN STREET  PIRANHA 3DD  UNCERTAINTY