Horror film stroke revenge drama Red White and Blue is a dark jewel; a cinematic feast of suspense and sleaze with an ending that, though shot off camera, leaves you speechless. Hell isn’t just you and your weird little brain. Hell is other people…

Jean Reno stars in Richard Berry’s compelling tale of a reformed mobster who must kill or be killed after an assassination attempt. We’re fine with that – in fact, we’d let him use our shirts to wipe the blood from his manly gun and his stubbly cheek – because he is SO DAMN COOL.

Jonah Hex is arguably what you’d get if you transposed Van Helsing to 1876 Virginia, stripped every joke and ironic line out of the script, replaced the mediocre CGI vampires with dreadful CGI corpses and then forcefully raped John Malkovich’s reputation with a branding iron. It’s spectacularly awful.

At the invitation of the Swedenborg Society, Best For Film is publishing a special series of reviews to follow its ‘Images of the Afterlife in Cinema’ film season, which will be exploring life, death and everything in between. This week it’s the turn of Adrian Lyne’s harrowing supernatural classic Jacob’s Ladder. Hold onto your sanity…

Steve Carell and Paul Rudd don’t so much star as blackhole in Dinner For Schmucks; a deeply unfunny comedy so stupid it makes Kenan And Kel look like The Importance Of Being Earnest. An army of talented cameos only highlight the ludicrous, all-encompassing foulness of this creation, and the only reason it scrapes a half-star is that Flight Of The Conchord’s Jermaine Clement manages to steer clear of the worst bits as a vaguely amusing goat/artist.

You might not be tempted by Buried – after all, it’s by a director you’ve never heard of and it stars an actor best known for playing vapid romantic interests or unnecessarily violent supervillains. We’d more or less written Ryan Reynolds off too, but in this extraordinary film he demonstrates a range and talent which left us gasping for breath. A bit like him, because he’s been buried alive.

Comedy veteran Drew Barrymore and an astonishingly buff Justin Long sparkle in this bromance/romance about all that stuff that rom-coms are about. Though it uses every trick in the book, fantastic lead performances, a killer soundtrack and a focus on comedy rather than fluff makes Going The Distance a cut above the rest.

The Switch is arguably Jennifer Aniston’s best movie since The Good Girl. This no-surprises summer rom-com sells itself as “Jennifer Anniston turkey bastes herself a baby” – but if you don’t like rom coms then switch that with “gentle comedy about a shy man’s attempts to get to know his son” and then just don’t watch it. You weaselly genius!

A strong cast and excellent animation sequences don’t quite make up for the hollow sentiment offered by Diary Of A Wimpy Kid. Though it tries – and in some parts succeeds – to be a cool comedy for kids and adults, an obvious plot and empty morality means that you’re never really rooting for the (not especially) wimpy protagonist.

Two parts Team America and one part Battle of Britain, with a healthy dose of Robot Chicken and some Braveheart thrown in for good measure, Jackboots on Whitehall sounds like a thoroughly unsavoury mix – think sage gravy and Minstrels. But don’t be fooled! With the addition of some superb voice talent and snazzy FX, first-time directors the McHenry brothers have created an unorthodox but thrilling cinematic taste sensation. Think chicken hearts and fried banana (trust us on that one).