“Happy Gilmore” is one of Adam Sandler’s stronger studio comedies.

The central romance isn’t convincing, there are many reasons why Nick might become infatuated with Sheeni but virtually none vice versa. Sure they share a strange taste in culture but other than that Sheeni seems a far more attractive person; both physically and emotionally. Cera struggles to make Nick anything other than a slightly creepy weirdo, though his interpretation of Francois is skilfully restrained and rather fun.

“Adventureland” is a curiously vanilla production; at times very funny but boasting a truly unremarkable central narrative. Coming courtesy from the director of “Superbad” maybe I was expecting something more aggressively energetic and spunky, but still false hopes don’t account for the somewhat lifeless final product.

2009 was not a great year for romantic comedies. Films like “The Proposal” and “The Ugly Truth” dominated the genre and were for the most part uniformly awful. “(500) Days of Summer” is however the ultimate remedy to such uninspired and revolting romantic indulgences, firing up a brilliantly shot, well acted and poignantly written film that treats its audience with respect and integrity.

Ritchie has never had such a mighty budget at his disposal and he showcases a surprisingly deft touch with CGI, not overloading the film with helpings of action but timing their inclusion rather nicely. Whilst it’s considerably more spectacle and explosion filled than any of Conan Doyle’s books the film isn’t as balls out action obsessed as early previews suggested

In terms of horror-comedy “Jennifer’s Body” is notably more effective at bringing the funny than cooking up proper scares. Cody will always have a way with words and despite this representing a step down for the scribe she stills crams in some solid jokes and draws a reasonable tally of laughs. More at fault for the patchy fright rate is director Karyn Kusama who seems largely clueless as to how scary moments should be presented.

The gags are limp from start to finish with one underwear based joke being drawn out to punishing length during the movies second half. I tittered once during the films runtime and snorted in disdain several times but aside from that the movie had me sitting in stone faced silence for the duration.

I liked “Up” and am keen to see it again, if more than anything to confirm it as a playful if not flawed addition to Pixar’s filmography. It remains a safe bet for a motion picture to keep all family members entertained and stays a beat or two ahead of the DreamWorks crew thanks to its fine tuned emotional detail.

For director/writer Jody Hill “Observe and Report” is a vast improvement over his last feature, the wasteful and largely overrated “The Foot Fist Way”. Both films share a central character who exhibits weak social skills and a sense of illogical self worth but “Observe and Report” offers better jokes and more depth.

The writing is well crafted and the jokes and jibes maintain a low key hilarity, “Zombieland” has a wicked sense of humour that should be of equal appeal to both genre diehards and casual moviegoers.