Crtical Week(s): Selling your soul

I've been on holiday for the past week (I'm writing this from the airport on my way home, actually), and I managed to catch two new releases in the States that won't be out for a month or so in the UK. By far the best was Shrek Forever After, although it's an oddly bittersweet mid-life comedy rather than the manic fun of the first two films (at least it's an improvement on the rather dull part 3). By far the worst was MacGruber, based on Saturday Night Li ve's absurdly silly MacGyver pastiche sketches - but this film abandons the comedy in lieu of easy vulgarity. Most filmgoers should steer well clear.

Otherwise, the airline's video on demand didn't have any films I hadn't seen (besides a few I'd deliberately skipped). But before I left London I caught up with the surprisingly wonderful French comedy The Concert, which cleverly mixes nutty farce with real emotion. There were also the offbeat, scruffy, not unlikeable Catherine Zeta-Jones rom-com The Rebound, the low-key but very smart comedy-drama Please Give, and the Argentine Oscar winner The Secret in Their Eyes, a sort of dramatic whodunit that is quite simply one of the best films I've seen in the past year.

On arrival in London, I have screenings of Sylvain Chomet's new animated hit The Illusionist, Oliver Stone's latest Latin-America doc South of the Border and the hyped-up sequel Sex and the City 2, which isn't screening to the press until 9pm on Thursday so no advance rewiews appear anywhere. Kind of makes you wonder....

Critical Week: Brute strength

He-man actors dominated the press screenings this past week with pure muscle. First there was Jake Gyllenhaal in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, a whizzy romp through ancient Middle East history with vivid action, elaborate effects and abs of steel. And then there was Russell Crowe romping through olde England in Ridley Scott's Robin Hood reboot, which is actually a prequel to the tales we're used to seeing, and a pretty meaty one at that, complete with an Oscar-calibre turn from Cate Blanchett.

More cerebral men were on hand in two low-key comedies: Kevin Spacey as a Los Angeles therapist in the intriguing Shrink and Ben Stiller as a dysfunctional Los Angeleno in the introspective Greenberg. The week's biggest surprise was the terrific Robin Williams black comedy World's Greatest Dad, while the most pointless remake of the year award goes to the American version of 2007 Brit-com Death at a Funeral. Off the beaten path we had Noel Clarke's fractured heist thriller 4.3.2.1, Andrew Kotting's deliberately obscure French fable Ivul, and the offbeat and rather irresistible end-of-the-world comedy Fish Story from Japan.

I only have a few films before I'm off on holiday for a week or so: the Russian-French comedy The Concert, the Catherine Zeta-Jones romance The Rebound, Catherine Keener in Please Give, and finally the Argentine Oscar winner The Secret in Their Eyes. which I've been trying to catch up with for weeks. And I come home to Sylvain Chomet's new animation The Illusionist, Oliver Stone's documentary South of the Border and the hyped-up sequel Sex and the City 2. And if I see one movie while I'm on holiday, it'll probably be Shrek Forever After.

Critical Week: The horror, the horror

Last week's big event was the unveiling of the new version of A Nightmare on Elm Street, yet another unnecessary horror remake from Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes. Not only is it unoriginal and never scary, but it wastes the skills of Oscar-nominee Jackie Earle Haley. But never mind, because today's teen audiences aren't exactly discriminating.

Much better horror was had in [REC]², the sequel to the Spanish hit (which was remade in America, shot-for-shot, as Quarantine). Surprisingly, the filmmakers actually come up with some clever ways to push the story further, as well as some nifty ways to scare us along the way.

Other happy surprises were two romantic comedies: She's Out of My League turns out to be an effectively sweet rom-com rather than just another lame sex comedy; and Heartbreaker is a hugely engaging romance starring the charming Romain Duris and Vanessa Paradis. Another pair of films from the USA and France were less effective: Brooklyn's Finest has a superb turn from Ethan Hawke but never really rises above the level of a TV cop show; and Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky is intriguing but rather dull, although it features a terrific performance from Mads Mikkelsen. And finally there was Petropolis, a beautifully poetic doc consisting almost solely of aerial shots of a massive oil-mining operation in Canada.

Next week's offerings include another remake, an American version of British comedy Death at a Funeral, as well as Jake Gyllenhaal as the Prince of Persia, Robin Williams as the World's Greatest Dad, Noel Clarke's 4.3.2.1, Andrew Kotting's Ivul, the Romanian drama The Happiest Girl in the World and the Japanese end-of-the-world comedy Fish Story.

Critical Week: Strike a pose

This big news this week is that Scarlett Johansson, with that tight catsuit and crash-bang fight moves, walks off with Iron Man 2, leaving us hoping for a Black Widow spin-off. Actually, I don't agree with the moaning critics; I found the film to be good fun despite the fragmented, thinly constructed plot. There are strong performances from Mickey Rourke and Sam Rockwell, while Robert Downey Jr and Gwyneth Paltrow easily slip back into that flirty banter that made the original seem so much better than it was.

Other Hollywood offerings last week included Jennifer Lopez's return to the rom-com after a seven-year break in the formulaic-but-watchable The Back-up Plan and Bruce Willis in the corny-but-watchable action comedy Cop Out. Much more interesting was Chris Morris' provocative Four Lions, which finds comedy in its characters and drama in its British terrorism premise. And at 87, Alain Resnais gives Wild Grass a bewildering but thoroughly magical tone.

But the week's biggest surprise was Francis Ford Coppola's Tetro, which was largely shrugged off at Cannes last year but turns out to be a gorgeously personal film with all sorts of artistic and dramatic layers - plus terrific performances from Vincent Gallo and Maribel Verdu.

This week's big screening is, erm, the remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street. I'm not expecting much from that, but I am rather looking forward to REC 2 (the sequel to the Spanish thriller) and The Secret in Their Eyes (this year's foreign Oscar winner), as well as two French films: the romantic-comedy Heartbreakers with Romain Duris and Vanessa Paradis, and Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky with the nearly ubiquitous Mads Mikkelsen. Less enticing are the comedy She's Out of My League and the cop drama Brooklyn's Finest. And I'm not sure what I'll make of the artful oil-mining doc Petropolis.

Critical Week: Who dares wins

The big press screening here in London this past week was for the lively action romp The Losers, starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana, Chris Evans and Idris Elba as a team of experts trying to get revenge on someone. Or something. But the thin plot is only one of the film's problems - and none of this will matter at the box office as it's clearly going for the same audience as Kick-Ass or the upcoming The A-Team.

Two other Hollywood star vehicles wobble as well - both are watchable, but neither is as good as it should be. I'm talking about Miley Cyrus' weepy chick flick The Last Song and The Rock as the Tooth Fairy. A much better effort from America is The Joneses, in which Demi Moore and David Duchovny are perfectly cast as a desirable, affluent couple, although the film's smart satire kind of runs out before the end.

So we turn to smaller budgets, and the biggest surprise of the week is Britain's first movie designed and shot in 3D, StreetDance. Amazingly, this film manages to rehash that Step Up/You Got Served plot into something that's actually engaging. There were also two inventive historical foreign films: Women Without Men, about Iran's 1953 coup, and The Time That Remains, about Israel's partition in 1948. And finally we have two gripping British documentaries: the privacy-issue action doc Erasing David and the football-as-religion 1990 World Cup doc One Night in Turin.

Next week we have Jennifer Lopez in The Back-up Plan, Bruce Willis in Cop Out, the provocative British terrorism comedy Four Lions, Francis Ford Coppola's personal project Tetro, Alain Resnais' acclaimed Wild Grass, and a little blockbuster called Iron Man 2.

Critical Week(s): People are strange

The last couple of weeks have been a bit bonkers in the press screening rooms, as we have been subjected to the nuttiest movies in recent memory, starting with Julianne Moore's latest trip into gonzo thriller territory (remember The Forgotton?) in Shelter, costarring Jonathan Rhys Meyers as a scene-chewing nutcase suffering from multiple-personality disorder. Or is he? (Onimous chord!) It's just stupid enough to be watchable, which is more than can be said for Repo Men, which features more Oscar-calibre actors (Jude Law and Forest Whitaker) slumming it in an action romp that's bereft of even the tiniest shred of logic.

More wackiness ensued in a couple of British films: Gurinder Chada's Indians-in-London comedy It's a Wonderful Afterlife isn't actually a spoof of the Frank Capra classic, although it does include a pastiche of a key scene from Brian DePalma's Carrie. And then there's Pimp, a gritty look into London's prostitution trade, featuring of course Danny Dyer, that also wobbles a bit as it goes along.

Much better was the tightly wound Austrian Oscar nominee Revanche, a twisty, low-key look at revenge, and the Tom DiCillo documentary about The Doors, When You're Strange, intriguingly made with only archive footage (including lots of amazing never-seen clips) and no reflective narration at all.

Finally, foreign films kept us on our toes, with the askew Japanese drama Krakera: A Piece of Our Life, the astute Uruguayan drama Leo's Room, and the Spanish teen terrorism thriller Clandestinos.

This coming week we've got Miley Cyrus in Nicholas Sparks' The Last Song, The Rock as the Tooth Fairy, Demi Moore in The Joneses, Jeffrey Dean Morgan in The Losers, Britain's first 3D dance movie Street Dance and the Iranian historical drama Women Without Men.

Critical Week: Laugh it up

Two high-profile comedies were screened for the London press over the last week: John Cusack and Rob Corddry in Hot Tub Time Machine and Steve Carell and Tina Fey in Date Night. And the best surprise is that, while both clearly have very silly premises, they're both also very, very funny. And they also have some serious undertones to their stories. Frankly, I can't remember many genuinely funny comedies from Hollywood over the past few years, so let's enjoy them while we can.

The other biggie was the Clash of the Titans remake, which had its press screenings delayed (and press junket cancelled) because the transfer of the film into 3D took longer than expected. Frankly, they needn't have bothered, as the 3D is unnecessary, blurry and even a little annoying. But the movie itself is pretty good fun, with strong effects and a great cast. Staying in the ancient world, we also saw Alejandro Amenabar's Agora, starring Rachel Weisz in a fascinating but strangely awkward story set in ancient Egypt.

Meanwhile, the British Film Institute's 24th London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival has been continuing on the Southbank, with films, events and lots of parties (I need some sleep!). This year's programme has been extremely strong, leading up to the closing film on Wednesday, the excellent Children of God, from the Bahamas. Followed of course by another party.

Next week's film offerings include Julianne Moore in the thriller Shelter, Richard E Grant in the thriller Cuckoo, Tom DiCillo's doc about the Doors When You're Strange, and Austria's award-winning revenge drama Revanche.