Catching up on films

May elections and personal developments have been rather occupying my time lately, so I've fallen rather behind in the film reviews. Here then is a whistlestop overview of what I've seen over the past few weeks.

Red Riding Hood - 5.5/10 Gorgeous looking but rather flat fairy-tale updating which doesn't manage to match The Company of Wolves. Amanda Seyfried is left rather stranded in a love triangle with two men competing to be the most wooden whilst Gary Oldman does a rare turn demonstrating how to go truly over the top.

Your Highness - 3.5/10 Deeply unfunny so-called comedy in the genre of those 80s fantasies. Krull was both a better movie and funnier. Oscar-winner Natalie Portman (why????) gamely tries her best, whilst Oscar-nominee James Franco seems to spend the whole film laughing at a joke that is lost on the audience. Maybe its just me, but I just don't get Danny McBride's appeal.

Thor - 7/10. Portman is better served here in the latest from Marvel. Kenneth Branagh directs and manages to do a good job of making it fun without descending into self-parody (given that we need to buy into the hero being a Norse god, thats no easy feat). Anthony Hopkins and Stellan Skaarsgaard add the gravitas, whilst relative newcomers Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston give star-in-the-making turns as hero and villain respectively. It also gets The Avengers back on track after Iron Man 2 plugged it rather too heavily - watch out for Jeremy Renner's cameo and the post-credit teaser. Next up - Captain America.

Cedar Rapids - 6/10 Frank Capra updated for the gross-out generation. Small little comedy drama which is pleasantly watchable, but at its best when it goes meta with its riffs on The Wire.

Hanna - 7.5/10 The latest from director Joe Wright (Atonement, Pride and Prejudice) is a slightly strange combination of Bourne and fairy-tale. The film combines action and comedy well, but could have done without the soundtrack that tries to bludgen you into submission. Tom Hollander makes a truly creepy bad guy (referencing the Fritz Lang classic M) whilst Cate Blanchett also enjoys a trip to the dark side, but Saoirse Ronan holds the film together with a performance thats part cold killer, part naive innocent but never jarring.

Rio - 6/10 Over-trailed, but quite watchable family entertainment. Even as an animated bird, Jesse Eisenberg is still Jesse Eisenberg, but the film is almost stolen by the Jermaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords) as the villainous cockatoo, but why did they only give him one song - which is the film's only moment of true genius.

Attack the Block - 7.5/10 Aliens take on inner city yoofs in a British film that effectively combines humour, action, elements of gore and horror and Nick Frost. The Aliens look a bit too much like shaggy dogs to be genuinely scary, but the cast of largely non-professional youngsters add a sense of authenticity to the dialogue and setting.