Sigh. Why do this to us, Hollywood? Why? How Space Chimps 2 ever got past the DVD shelf is beyond us, but sadly, inexplicably, it did, and it’s launched to number seven in the UK top tep this week. Shame on you Britain. Shame on all of us.

Set shortly after the events of Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza’s nerve-shredding 2007 film, [Rec] 2 slyly uses the locations, characters and storyline from the first film as a solid foundation for a second hellish journey into a Barcelona apartment block, where a viral outbreak has apparently transformed the residents into flesh-crazed killers.

Remakes have become the scourge of a Hollywood system starved of creativity and imagination. No sooner has a subtitled film won critical plaudits than there are whispers of an English language retread. A reinterpretation of the Swedish coming of age story Let The Right One In, directed by Matt Reeves (Cloverfield) and re-titled Let Me In, opens in multiplexes this Halloween. Now it seems that British films simply aren’t good enough for audiences across the Atlantic because director Neil LaBute has remade the 2007 comedy of errors, Death At A Funeral, transplanting the action to a middle-class suburb of Los Angeles

Sex And The City 2 has been lauded as a slight on feminism, a betrayal of a TV series that inspired a generation of women, and a diamond-encrusted step backwards for independent ladies everywhere. But it seems that the negative press has failed to affect box office power. What’s the story here, then?

Enter Up in the Air, the latest romance-comedy-drama from Juno director Jason Reitman, and starring perhaps the most universally idolised and desired movie star of our generation, George ‘Smooth As Silk’ Clooney. The prospect of such a dream team was always going to be a hotly anticipated one, and we’re pleased to report that this is one of those few wondrous instances of a film living up to its press.

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. Yes, he’s pretty much played the same character for the past 20 years, but goddammit, the man does it well. His latest frothy outing with toast-of-New-York Sarah Jessica Parker is no exception – this time, a posh man is heading into the wilds of the American midwest after he and his estranged wife witness a murder.

After the surprising success of the first St. Trinian’s reboot in 2007, a sequel was always a risky proposition: it would either surpass the original and cement the franchise as a bona fide modern classic or sully the occasional chuckles of the original and sink the whole thing. We’d like to hope that that seldom-seen beast – the British comedy – isn’t quite dead at the box offices, with only rare examples like Shaun of the Dead hitting the big time. Can St. Trinian’s 2: The Legend of Fritton’s Gold reach the heights of its 1950’s predecessors?

A couple of months ago, Matthew Vaughn’s hyperviolent Kick-Ass somersaulted over the graves of Watchmen and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, proving that comic book-inspired action movies can be every bit as smart and sassy as the cult pictorials they are based on. Director Sylvain White continues the good work with The Losers, an explosive romp based on the potty-mouthed DC Comics series written by Andy Diggle and illustrated by Jock.

When the announcement was made that the bloke who played Daredevil’s mate alongside Ben Affleck’s blind superhero, Jon Faverau was to direct Marvel’s Iron Man, nobody could have quite predicted it would be the best comic book adaptations since Bryan Singer’s X2.

Inspired by the best-selling video games series, Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time is a rollicking escapade which marries gorgeous Moroccan locations with state-of-the-art visual effects. The time-bending storyline of Mike Newell’s big budget adventure incorporates a romantic subplot, presumably to appeal to female audiences who might otherwise give this testosterone-heavy romp a wide berth.