Old Red Eyes is back

TERMINATOR SALVATION (12)

3/5

MAN battles the machines once again in an all-guns-blazing reboot of the Terminator series, which sows the seeds of a new trilogy charting John Connor's rise to leader of the resistance in the aftermath of Judgment Day.

However, screenwriters John Bracato and Michael Ferris focus too intently on honouring the series' past to create anything memorable of their own.

This fourth film is a very bleak and sombre affair, a colour-bleached war epic that pits the last vestiges of humanity against a fully-aware Skynet and its robotic foot soldiers.

Action sequences are orchestrated with brio including the crash-landing of a helicopter in a river full of deadly, serpent-like Hydrobots.

But the script is as lifeless, clunky and mechanical as some of the killing machines, constructed by bolting together cliches.

Christian Bale looks ill at ease amid the pyrotechnics.

Sam Worthington at least gets beneath the synthetic skin of his pivotal player – a hybrid with a human brain and heart powering a metal exoskeleton – exploring the inner conflict of an abomination torn between corporeal past and cybernetic future.

"The battle has been won, but the war rages on," growls John at the end of the film, echoing the final words of Terminator 3. On this lacklustre evidence, he won't be back.

ICE AGE 3: DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS (U)

3/5

THE squirrel steals the show once again in this third instalment of the climate-change cartoon caper.

The colourful follow-up to Ice Age 2: The Meltdown plunders from Jules Verne's A Journey To The Centre Of The Earth as the cuddly critters discover an entire eco-system beneath the ice.

Fearsome predators roam this vast, subterranean kingdom, as well as a daredevil weasel, whose gung-ho antics will coax a chuckle from younger viewers.

Sid the sloth, pictured, yearns for a family of his own so he "appropriates" a nest of dinosaur eggs.

When they hatch, their mother roars through the camp carrying off her brood, plus Sid, to her nest.

The sloth's friends, Manny the woolly mammoth and Diego the tiger (Denis Leary), embark on a perilous rescue mission.

They are accompanied by the love of Manny's life, Ellie (Queen Latifah), who is preparing to give birth to their first mini-mammoth.

The quest takes the friends into a mysterious world where the flora is almost as deadly as the fauna and a loveable, one-eyed weasel called Buck (Simon Pegg) is on a mission to hunt a dinosaur called Rudy.

Ice Age 3 is certainly bright and breezy, but Carlos Saldanha and Mike Thurmeier's film is the weakest adventure so far, lacking inventive visuals or a clever screenplay to appeal to adults and children.

COCO BEFORE CHANEL (12)

3/5

COCO Before Chanel is a welcome dose of Gallic chic chronicling the rise to fame of one of couture's most revered icons.

Audrey Tautou stars as the fashion designer from humble beginnings who became a cause celebre in pre-First World War France.

The central casting of Tautou, a luminous screen presence since the sublime Amélie, should help to attract audiences unfamiliar with the story of Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel.

Anne Fontaine's biopic, which is in French with subtitles, is impeccably coiffed and tailored, employing authentic models and jewellery from the Chanel Conservatory, augmented by Catherine Leterrier's costumes, which mimic the fabrics and cuts of the original 1930s designs.

This history lesson has sparkle and style in abundance, but emotions get lost in a swirl of silks and glittering accessories.

LAND OF THE LOST (12)

2/5

COMEDY heavyweight Will Ferrell stars in this lamentable reworking of the kitsch 1970s television series about a family flung back in time, with Anna Friel woefully miscast as a plummy British explorer.

The entire budget of Brad Silberling's film has been wasted on a menagerie of prehistoric, computer-animated critters and the leading man's bloated salary. It's a deeply unsatisfying mish-mash of comedy and action.

MY SISTER'S KEEPER (12)

3/5

CAMERON Diaz headlines as a mother seeking to save her daughter by any means possible in the big-screen adaptation of Jodi Picoult's challenging novel My Sister's Keeper, but it's Abigail Breslin and Sofia Vassilieva who steal the show as her suffering kids.

After enduring years of painful operations to save her sister, who next needs a kidney transplant, the 11-year-old Anna (Breslin) takes her parents to court to sue for the rights to her own body.

KISAAN (15)

3/5

THE fight for land and property rights was a mainstay of Bollywood movies of yore and the theme is revisited in Kisaan to melodramatic effect, writes Badri Ahmed.

The film contrasts attitudes to land – is it your motherland or simply property? – and in doing so pitches family members against one another.

What gives Kisaan its appeal is its setting in rural Punjab, providing a sense of the simple farming life.

Jackie Shroff plays the widower who is proud of his heritage and his ancestral lands. His educated son, played by Arbaaz Khan, is a city lawyer while the other son, Sohail, stands by his father.

This is an absorbing drama, though clichéd in parts, that places its finger on the pulse of change in society's attitudes and values.

The film also stars Dia Mirza and Nauheed Cyrusi.

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1 Night At The Museum 2

2 X-Men Origins - Wolverine

3 Fast And Furious

4 Bruno

5 Monsters Vs Aliens

6 12 Rounds

7 Public Enemies

8 Drag Me To Hell

9 Year One

10 Angels And Demons