This week's highlight: Madagascar 2!

Madagascar was one of the few Dreamworks cartoons that wasn't blatantly condescending. The first Madagascar paired up a lion and a zebra as best zoo buddies, but the movie was daring enough to explore the consequences of this unlikely friendship outside of the comforts of their captivity. However, at the end of the day, it's still a Looney Tunes type of cartoon with nary a semblance of logic in its "reality". Let's just hope the second one is even as funny as the first.

This week's highlight: Quantum of Solace!

James Bond returned to our screens via Casino Royale (2006) with extra grit and brutality, probably in response to the increasingly popular Bourne franchise, and all the better for it. Though I missed the uppity suaveness of the earlier Bonds, Daniel Craig's more intensed version refreshes the stale routines of the franchise's fifty-year-old fomula.

Solace offers something rare in the series - continuity. Picking up from clues left over by his former love interest in the last instalment, Bond seeks out the one responsible for her death, and I'm not surprised if he happens to be another megalomaniac hell-bent on destroying the world.

No buts about this one. Go watch it.

This week's highlight: REC!

It's that time of the year where most of Western civilisation dress up in costumes and knock on strangers' doors for assorted candies. Generally, there should also be an onslaught of horror movies also, but apparently we're only getting Saw V this year (unless you count Painted Skin and High School Musical 3 as horror movies). I guess the current financial crisis is enough horror for the year.I'm not sure if Thailand's The Coffin is good, but Spain's REC sounds pretty interesting, judging from the feedback at Rottentomatoes.com. One critic said that REC is "a demonic, barnstorming, cinema verite horror experience that pulls few punches, fears no genre taboo, and reaches for the throat with delightful intimidation."

This week's highlight: Tropic Thunder!

Some people might consider Ben Stiller and Jack Black's movies to be the epitomes of bad comedies. And they're both headlining a movie I'm actually recommending we all should take a look. Why?

Four reasons. One: Robert Downey Jr. Two: It's a parody about Hollywood people. Three: Robert Downey Jr., playing a white actor playing a black character. Four: Tom Cruise's cameo.

This week's highlight: Max Payne!

Max Payne was one of my greatest video gaming experiences, mainly because someone was finally able to translate the John Woo style of slo-mo action frenzy into a working game format. It was one of the very first to allow players to effectively participate in the "bullet time" action instead of merely watching it transpire during cutscenes.

Ironically, while the game was highly influenced by cinema, now we have a movie that's inspired by the game. I'm not sure how it's going to avoid being yet another John Woo-inspired B-movie, made worse by the fact that its violent action has been reduced to PG-13 levels a la Die Hard 4.