Warm Bodies (12A)
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Dir: Jonathan Levine
With: Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer
Runtime: 97 minutes
MODERN relationships can be tricky, especially when your other half is a zombie.
That is the starting point for Jonathan Levine's loveable comedy set in an America where the undead are at war with the living.
Nicholas Hoult and Teresa Palmer play R and Julie, thrown together in trying circumstances. With her dad (John Malkovich), the head of an army aiming to shoot first and not ask questions later, can young love survive?
Fans of Levine's films (50/50, The Wackness) will know he can mix sharp observation with sweet natured comedy, and he blends the two triumphantly here.
A must see Valentine's movie with a difference, even if it contains scenes of people munching on real hearts rather than chocolate ones.
Wreck-It Ralph (3D) (PG)
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Dir: Rich Moore
Voices: John C Reilly, Sarah Silverman
Runtime: 108 minutes
DISNEY'S latest animated family film features a big, bad, smash-em-up guy who just wants to be good.
John C Reilly gives voice to Ralph, one of the many characters in the video arcade who come out to play when the patrons go home.
No-one cares about his ambitions until he meets another outsider in Vanellope the girl racer (Sarah Silverman).
It helps to be up with video games, as most of the target audience will be, but plenty of cute touches and a clever script make Wreck-It Ralph a solid bet for all the family. And it's in the running for the best animated film Oscar.
No (15)
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Dir: Pablo Larrain
With: Gael Garcia Bernal, Antonia Zegers
Runtime: 118 minutes
AFTER Tony Manero and Post Mortem, Pablo Larrain's Chile trilogy comes to a rousing end with this Oscar-nominated drama starring Gael Garcia Bernal.
The Motorcyle Diaries star plays Rene Saavedra, an advertising creative who takes on the job of selling the answer "no" to the referendum asking if Pinochet should continue in power for another eight years.
Saavedra at first approaches the task like the semi-detached adman he is, but soon the son of a radical finds his true colours coming out.
Savvy, thrilling, intense, with terrific use of footage from the time, this is political drama at its best.
Glasgow Film Theatre, February 8 to February 14; Belmont, Aberdeen, February 12.
A Liar's Autobiography (15)
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Dirs: Bill Jones, Jeff Simpson, Ben Timlett
Voices: John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Michael Palin
Runtime: 85 minutes
SUBTITLED The Untrue Story of Monty Python's Graham Chapman, this animated biopic is stuffed with the voices of the late comedian's fellow players, including Terry Jones and John Cleese, and contributions from Chapman himself.
It rattles along for the first half hour, but thereafter the funniest contributions are from Chapman and, alas, there are too few of them.
Rather like watching Python: moments of brilliance, but one has to wade through padding to find them.
Vue Omni, Edinburgh, February 12
Gimme the Loot (N/C 15+)
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Dir: Adam Leon
With: Tashiana Washington, Ty Hickson
Runtime: 101 minutes
THERE is not a lot to the story in Adam Leon's New York-set comedy drama – two friends, graffiti artists of the parish, set out to pull off a daring stunt – but it fizzes with energy and attitude.
Showing as part of the Glasgow Youth Film Festival (GYFF), writer-director Leon sets up the story quickly and keeps it tearing along while the two young leads, Tashiana Washington and Ty Hickson, do the rest. A breezy study of modern New York that makes HBO's Girls look as hip as Call the Midwife.
Glasgow Film Theatre, February 11, 8.45pm
INTERVIEW: PAGE 18
The Deflowering of Eva van End (N/C 15+)
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Dir: Michiel ten Horn
With: Vivian Dierickx, Jacqueline Blom
Runtime: 98 minutes
WITH a family that barely acknowledges her existence, Eva is having a rotten time of it at home and school in the Netherlands.
Then she is assigned a handsome, charming German exchange student who is a hit with Eva's family and everyone else. As the visitor settles in, the van End family start to take a closer look at themselves. Also showing as part of the GYFF, Michiel ten Horn's piece has a few amusing moments, but as a comedy it is too bleak to be anything other than depressing.
Glasgow Film Theatre, February 13, 6.45pm
I Give it A Year (15)
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Dir: Dan Mazer
With: Rafe Spall, Rose Byrne
Runtime: 97 minutes
YE olde British romcom receives the Borat/Bruno treatment but still there is no happy, laughter-filled, ending.
Dan Mazer, writer of the Sacha Baron Cohen comedies, has a likeable enough cast in this tale of a couple (Rafe Spall and Rose Byrne) who meet and marry quickly, only for their friends and relatives to murmur the words of the title. Stephen Merchant, as the best man, and Olivia Colman as a couples' therapist, try their hardest too.
That's the trouble, though – everyone is trying too hard to be daring, to very little comic effect.
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