We at Best For Film are probably in the majority if we say we’ve never seen Meryl Streep in a bad movie, so it’s not surprising that in safe, recession-era Hollywood, a rom-com with her name in top billing is one of January’s big releases. Add director Nancy Meyers of Something’s Gotta Give fame to the mix and you should have a surefire hit. But despite having all the hallmarks of a Meyers film, this fluffy romp still falls a little flat.

When it comes to that greatest of British cultural exports, the punk rock movement, figures don’t come much bigger than Ian Dury, so when we at Best For Film learned of the release of a Dury biopic starring the fantastic Andy Serkis, we were psyched. Serkis is spellbinding in his complete embodiment of the eccentric, mercurial rock star, but it’s almost too good a performance for his support cast to hold their own against. Mat Whitecross’s patchy and confusing narrative also leds proceedings down sufficiently.

There are few stories more tragic amongst the continuingly unstable African political landscape than that of Zimbabwe. This heartbreaking new documentary by Andrew Thompson and Lucy Bailey is a portrait of a local family under siege as a result of Robert Mugabe’s regime, this time through the eyes of an oft-overlooked category of victims – the white African. It’s a rare filmmaking triumph that makes it impossible to turn away from the injustice of life in this harrowing country.

It’s sad when your realise something you used to find endless entertainment in as a child is no longer appealing to you. Much like discovering we would rather play drinking games than jump rope, it seems the time has come where we may have outgrown the Chipmunks. Either that or this modern-day retelling of the rodents’ rise to fame in the music industry was, well, crap.

Look out, Hollywood, there’s a storm a-brewin’, and his name’s Bad-Ass Bill Paxton. Yes, the Aliens action king of the ’90s has plans to return to the big screen in the form of a 3D sequel to cheesy disaster flick Twister.

It’s always a bit awkward when Adam Sandler tries a serious role, so when viewing this comedy-drama in which he plays a successful comedian coming to terms with a cancer diagnosis, we approached with caution. Sandler actually proves his chops as an emerging dramatic actor well, and Seth Rogen is equally capable in support as the struggling amateur comic who Sandler decides to mentor. Naturally, the pairing of these two giants of the genre along with the equally impressive Judd Apatow as writer/director delivers a load of laughs, but a lack of balance in the script as a whole means it’s not as good as it could be.

Yes, folks, just in case Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel wasn’t enough proof for you that the cinematic apocalypse draws near, a director has now been confirmed for a third Big Momma’s House film.

In these troubling times of global warming, financial crises and that nice Tiger Woods cheating on his wife, it’s comforting to know that one man alone remains staid and unchangeable: Hugh Grant. Luckily, his latest frothy outing, with toast of New York Sarah Jessica Parker, is no exception to his usual bumbling-posh-man charms – this time, he’s heading into the wilds of the American midwest after he and his estranged wife witness a murder and must be relocated into a protection scheme. There’s just as many laughs, albeit predictable ones, as always, so if you’re a Hugh fan, get ready for a fun-filled 90 minnutes spent chuckling into your popcorn.

And so another decade comes to a close. Come with us down memory lane as we recall the snakes-and-ladders-esque ups and downs of Hollywood’s movers and shakers from 2000-2010.

With the recent box-office success of movies like The Hangover and Superbad, it was only a matter of time before the bromance genre spread from the sets of Hollywood overseas. Now India is giving it a try, with this screen adaptation of Chetan Bhagat’s novel that centres around two college friends on a journey to find their vanished buddy. But this film has a little more heart than your average drunken-exploits-and-fart-humour college romp.