With its cast including Paul Walker, Hayden Christensen and Chris “Rihanna’s ex” Brown, Takers was never overly likely to make audiences think too hard. Given its title because its anti-heroes like to take things (told you it wasn’t a thinker), the plot follows a gang of bank robbers as they plan a $30 million heist, unaware that a hard-boiled detective is closing in on them, determined to crack the case. What results is a dodgy pastiche of crime films everywhere – fun in places, but ultimately brainless.

You know the Cravendale adverts? You know, the stop-motion animation where a cow, a pirate and a cyclist all live together, living off milk and competing in musical statue for the last glass? Well, picture a feature length film in that style, in French and with more imagination then you could use to power the whole of Whoville and you’ve got the gloriously absurd and playful A Town Called Panic.

Taking up direction duty for first time since his impressive debut, Gone Baby Gone, Ben Affleck makes his second contribution to the ever expanding sub-genre of Boston crime films. Giving a romantic charm to a story of master criminal versus determined cop that Michael Mann would be proud of, it follows the plight of bank-robber Doug MacRay. Desperate to get out, but hopelessly locked in, will Doug get the girl like Will Hunting, or bite the dust like John Dillinger? Most importantly, will he ever get to leave The Town?

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.

Disgraced former child star Lindsay Lohan has once again been sentenced to a jail term as a result of her persistent problems with alcohol and drugs.

Morgan Freeman lends his hypnotic, rasping voice (is it wrong that a seventy-three year old man can make me go weak at the knees?) to yet another screen classic, as he..

Stunningly good, A Prophet, the latest film from The Beat That My Heart Skipped director Jacques Auidiard grabs you from the start, pulls a burlap sack over your head and doesn’t let up with its intensity and drive for any one of its 155 minutes. A gruelling masterclass in taut, engaging and wholly believable cinema, A Prophet is one release that’s going to be essential not only for fans of crime drama, but also those who like to take their cinema seriously.

Turns out the hope we held out for Brothers wasn’t unwarranted. This tragic portrait of the effects of war on young lives brims with real emotion and powerhouse performances from its lead actors, particularly Tobey Maguire and Natalie Portman. For the most part, despite the potential for cheese in its subject matter (man goes off to war, brother steps in to fill his shoes on the home front, man turns out not to be dead and returns to awkward situation in family), the narrative avoids cliche and leaves you with a real, confronting sense of heartbreak. It’s a harrowing film experience that hits you right in the guts, and it could well be the resurrection of Maguire’s post-Peter Parker career.

From Brit-grit gangsters in 44 Inch Chest to hard-hitting drama in Brothers, Best For Film looks at all the upcoming releases and lets you know what’s worth the price of admission. Also up this month we’ve got the hotly anticipated crime drama A Prophet, rom-coms from Sandra Bullock, The Book of Eli, Up in the Air and heist action in Armored.

2009 certainly brought us a few cinematic corkers, from sci-fi epic Avatar to comic-book crunching goodness from Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight and Watchmen. But it wasn’t all wham, bam and explosions – will 2010 be a year of smarter movies? Judging this list… maybe.