It was about time Sherlock Holmes got the Hollywood treatment – audiences have been continually fascinated with Arthur Conan Doyle’s series of short detective stories through the years, yet they undoubtedly needed a little sexing up to succeed with a modern audience. Enter Guy Ritchie, whose new action-packed adaptation is certainly a departure from the original series, but nonetheless entertaining in its own right. The screenplay has enough intelligence not to completely insult fans of Conan Doyle’s stories, and it’s perfectly complemented by Downey Jr’s sarcastic, slightly camp take on Sherlock. This adaptation won’t set the world on fire, but it’s a fine two hours entertainment for a dreary winter’s night.

After a mini-leak of footage from Iron Man 2 in a behind-the-scenes doc, Paramount (bless ’em) have decided to give us all an early Christmas present in the form of a new trailer. And we have to say, it’s looking pretty chuffin’ awesome.

Well, pretty much. Lately, it seems like you can’t go two minutes without some Hollywood star-or-other announcing they’re set to appear in Thor, the upcoming film of the popular Marvel strip. With with so many names being bandied about we thought it was high time someone sat down and collated all the info together.

We can’t help but notice that Hollywood loves to up the explosion-and-sex factor with Britain’s classic literature. One only needs to look at the bare chest of Robert Downey Jr as the new Sherlock Holmes to see that the silver screen doesn’t mind taking a few liberties. But what other classic-but-uncool tales are Hollywood missing out on? We re-imagine some great British classics the way Spielberg would do ’em…

This film adaptation of Steve Lopez’s real-life friendship with schizophrenic musician Nathaniel Ayers has two of the year’s best performances from stand-out actors. But a cheesy screenplay and cliched directorial treatment make it a little forgettable.