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.

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.

Yes Man is basically Peyton Reed’s (Down With Love) version of Liar Liar and, of course, it stars none other Jim Carrey as the leading man. Carl Allen (Carrey) a miserable banker notorious for saying “no” to everyone and everything. In a plight to change his life, he signs up to a self-help programme which enforces one rule – he must say ‘yes’ to everything. EVERYTHING.

The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow’s thrilling and hard-hitting war drama, is a master class in sustained tension as a three-strong bomb disposal squad attached to the US Army risks life and severed limb to defuse roadside IEDs. Starring Ralph Fiennes and Anthony Mackie, it’s one of the sharpest and most intelligent films concerning the War in Iraq, but it’s in no way easy viewing.

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.

Richard Curtis’ (Love Actually) The Boat That Rocked is set in 1966, a time where people could only listen to one hour a week of rock’n’roll on radio. Bill Nighy stars as Quentin, boss of Rock Radio – the pirate radio station which millions of music fans illegally tuned into for their fix of rock’n’roll.

The fourth in the increasingly desperate-sounding Final Destination series sees another premonition-prone twentysomething (Bobby Campo) foreseeing the death of himself and a few of his similarly hot-to-trot mates. This time, the trouble starts at a race car track, with Campo’s Nick persuading his sceptical chums to exit just before a multi-car pile up blitzes the just-vacated seats.

Produced by Sir Peter Jackson of Mordor and directed by talented newcomer Neill Blomkamp, District 9 is a smart, slick sci-fi thriller that tries to hit all the buttons and almost – almost – succeeds. The film concerns the attempts of corrupt corporation MNU’s attempts to evict the stranded aliens – derogatively referred to as “prawns” – from a slum in the centre of town to a concentration camp far away from the dismissive human populace.

When it comes to inappropriate but tear-inducing laughs, Family Guy is about as reliable as they come, and even more so the DVD specials. Particularly if you combine the hilarity of the show with a cultural icon we’re all too familiar with: Star Wars. This release follows on from Seth McFarlane’s first Star Wars tribute episode, Family Guy: Blue Harvest, and the jokes are just as reliable, the accuracies to the original film just as nerdishly faithful. Whether you’re a devoted George Lucas fan or just looking for an hour’s easy laughs on a Sunday afternoon, you could do a lot worse than the typically sick wit of the Griffins.

Directed by conceptual artist Sam Taylor-Wood, whose previous interest in celebrity included a video portrait of David Beckham sleeping, Nowhere Boy is a biopic of John Lennon’s early life. Focusing on his pre-Beatles stardom, the film charts the complex relationship between the legendary man himself (played by Aaron Johnson), his staid and respectable Aunt Mimi (Kristen Scott-Thomas) and his free-spirited mother Julia (Anne-Marie Duff).