Million-dollar deals, murder, and mind-altering substances: this is all decidedly heady stuff, but most impressive is that Limitless has provided Bradley Cooper a role in which he finally gets to access his full intellect – just don’t hold your breath for any profound revelations.

In any trial, anywhere, someone’s gotta represent the bad guy, right? Matthew McConaughey is brilliantly tortured in The Lincoln Lawyer; a tense and twisty courtroom thriller that showcases the wrinkly best of some veteran acting talent. Essentially a clever little tale let down by some silly plot-points and a baggy ending, The Lincoln Lawyer still does just about enough to keep you guessing until its final (slightly ridiculous) moments.

There are two things that epitomise a Hammer film: a distinctively poignant visual style and a plot whose direction is deciphered within the first twenty minutes. In these two respects, The Resident is bona fide Hammer at its idiosyncratic best.

Earlier this year Inside Job proved once and for all that documentaries can be just as thrilling as the twistiest of Hollywood box-blasters. So what happens when you try to fictionalise the fact? Enter Fair Game, a “true story” political thriller that meshes real-life footage with Sean Penn’s frustrated wrinkles. The result is an interesting, compelling mess; held up by a great story and let down by the telling of it.

This time it’s George Nolfi’s turn to adapt a Philip K. Dick story as Matt Damon is pursued by the ‘fate police’ through many, many doors.

V is for vendetta in Ken Loach’s latest, Route Irish, in which Mark Womack sets about avenging the death of popular stand-up comedian John Bishop. Armed with a PMC-busting mobile phone, Skype and a garage-full of training equipment, our hero wastes no time shouting his head off in this very serious movie about privatisation and the Iraq War.

You may not think that a documentary about the 2008 banking crisis is particularly thrilling popcorn fodder. You might think that watching Russell Crowe do some exploding or Adam Sandler fall over might satiate your entertainment valves to a greater extend than watching men with ties say words like “subprime loans” and “credit default swaps”. And you’d be wrong. So wrong. Inside Job is utterly brilliant. A flabbergasting explanation of the global economic disaster, it demands your attention and frankly, if you don’t watch it I’ll be ashamed of you. Though after watching this, I’m not sure I’ve got any shame left to give.

With Emily Watson in the lead role, Oranges and Sunshine tells the true story of hundreds of thousands of children who were deported to Australia by the British government, and the struggle of one woman to reclaim their identity. Managing to move rather than manipulate, this emotional powerhouse of a drama is undoubtedly the best film I’ve seen in years.

An intriguing piece of sinister, twisty seaside noir – a much under-represented genre – Brighton Rock deals equally in shadows and bright skies. May or may not represent good and evil.

CSI: Las Vegas returns for Season 10, and the seedy location allows for some casino-based antics, wanderings in the desert, and enough dead prostitutes to start a zombie army. The American crime drama contains some good special effects, but even Morpheus can’t rescue the series from tired storylines and a lack of character development.