What’s it about?
A retelling of the classic legend that saw Texas Ranger John Reid become a masked avenger. Except sillier. And with more explosions.

What did we think?
Anthony Sherratt says: Genuine fans of the original character, of which I number, were concerned over a remake that appeared more comedy than action and more Pirates of the Carribean than wild west. And we were right. It is much sillier and stupid and is indeed Gor eVerbinski and Johnny Depp (Tonto) remaking it Pirates-style. But despite being FAR too long, something strange happens along the way: it is SO over-the-top it actually becomes rollicking fun. I mean we’re talking about riding a horse on the top of a moving train and yet… Perhaps it’s the iconic theme song playing or the fact we’ve given up on our old memories by this point but you actually leave the cinema having laughed and – somehow – enjoyed this B Grade flick.

What’s it about?
It’s a buddy cop movie. With female leads. Sandra Bullock plays a Type A anal FBI agent who teams up with Melissa McCarthy’s foul-mouthed slovenly detective. You know the rest already.

What did we think?
Anthony Sherratt says: The Heat plays to nearly every buddy-cop stereotype and somehow succeeds in spite of it. The script’s working title was “Female Buddy Cop Movie” which is apparently the reason why Bullock read it. It isn’t high on originality (at all) as the two work their way through cliche after cliche but its rawness does actually manage to elicit laughter. It only works as a parody of the male counterpart movies but in that context it’s entertaining enough.

What’s it about?
A teenager finds herself shrunken and transported to a deep forest setting where a battle between the forces of good and the forces of evil is taking place. So of course she bands together with a rag-tag group characters in order to save their world.

What did we think?
Anthony Sherratt says: There should be laws against mislabelling a movie like this: Epic is anything but. It’s a visually appealing but overly simplistic story that fails to engage on any real level. Rather forgettable sadly as the potential is there but majorly unrealised. Epic? Fail.

What’s it about?
In the near future, humanity takes its last stand against the interdimensional Kaiju – immense, destructive beasts from beyond the deep – by building equally immense mechas (not robots, thank you) known as Jaegers, which they use to lay the smack down on our would-be conquerors. That is literally all you need to know going in to this film.

What did we think?
Mitch says: Michael Bay wishes he knew how to film giant creatures beating the crap out of each other as well as this. Visually spectacular and possessing a levity, grace and intelligence not commonly found in so many modern “event” movies, Pacific Rim – for all its cheesy dialogue and atrocious Australian accents – is the most fun I’ve had at a blockbuster in years.

Idris Elba and Ron Perlman are highlights on the human side of things, but the show is totally stolen by the gargantuan combatants, beautifully realised and animated as they are. Del Toro and screenwriter Travis Beacham don’t spoon-feed the audience either, nor do they draw things out, and the film is all the richer for it.

Super cool or super frustrating?

What’s it about?
Two salesmen (Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson) whose careers have been torpedoed by the digital age find their way into a coveted internship at Google, where they must compete with a group of young, tech-savvy geniuses for a shot at employment.

What did we think?
Anthony Sherratt says: It’s rare to find an American comedy that doesn’t rely on crudity, bodily functions and adolescent physical comedy so Vaughn and Wilson’s new offering was a pleasant surprise. There are some unexpected but lovely messages flowing throughout the film but it’s really the genuine charisma of the leads that manage to take a comedy that, on paper, looks lightweight and turn into a truly warm movie. More about people than tech though there are nerd jokes and references there for us geeks too.