New Movies 2012

This is it, as the Twilight saga finally comes to a close on screen. Bella’s now having fun as a vampire and a mother – until baby Renesmee is targeted by the evil Volturi. Get the hankies ready...

Read more about Twilight: Breaking Dawn - Part 2

Bad memories of Glitter abound, but we’ll cut this musical drama a little slack – it was the last film made by Whitney Houston before her tragic death, after all. Houston plays the mother of three sisters who form a girl group in the 1960s.

Read more about Sparkle

Milla Jovovich is back, and still squeezing herself into eye-wateringly skin-tight body armour. The fifth entry in the video-game-inspired franchise sees the return of Michelle Rodriguez as Umbrella Corporation’s T-virus spreads across Earth.

Read more about Resident Evil: Retribution

Woody Allen’s latest romantic comedy, an Italy-based charmer, features his first movie appearance since 2006’s Scoop . The film consists of a quartet of stories starring the likes of Jesse Eisenberg, Ellen Page, Penelope Cruz, Alec Baldwin and Greta Gerwig.

Read full To Rome With Love film review

Middle-age rom-com alert! in a similar vein to Something’s Gotta Give and It’s Complicated comes Hope Springs , with Meryl Streep’s marriage to Tommy Lee Jones hitting the rocks. Worth it for the cast alone, surely.

Read full Hope Springs film review

Based on the ‘70s TV series, this Brit police drama from Nick Love has one thing the old TV show didn’t – yes, Ray Winstone. He’s Jack Regan, a hardened detective with Plan B as his sidekick.

Read full film review of The Sweeney

Based on the William Joyce book series, this 3D animated fantasy unites Father Christmas, the Easter Bunny and the Toothfairy (among others) in a battle against Pitch, the Nightmare King. Jude Law, Chris Pine and Isla Fisher provide voices.

Read more about Rise Of The Guardians

Directed by Forty Shades Of Blue filmmaker Ira Sachs, this harrowing drama is set in the ‘90s, where Danish filmmaker Erik falls for lawyer Paul. It doesn’t culminate in happily ever after, though…

Read more about Keep The Lights On

The ex-New York Zoo animals continue their quest home, this time heading through Europe and using a travelling circus as cover. And yes, the penguins are back.

Read more about Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted

Anna Kendrick tests out her pipes for this Glee -style musical comedy, in which college students compete on campus for musical supremacy. Bridesmaids breakout Rebel Wilson also stars.

Read more about Pitch Perfect

Emma Watson, Logan Lerman and Ezra Miller ( We Need To Talk About Kevin ) star in this high school-set adaptation of Stephen Chbosky’s novel, brought to the screen by Chbosky himself.

Read more about The Perks Of Being A Wallflower

Atonement duo Keira Knightley and director Joe Wright reunite for this unusual take on the Russian novel, with the action relocated to a rundown theatre.

Read more about Anna Karenina

Originally titled Welcome To People , this drama from debut director Alex Kurtzman couldn’t be any further away from the films Kurtzman has written in the past ( Star Trek, Transformers, Cowboys & Aliens ). Chris Pine discovers he has a sister he’s never heard about.

Read more about People Like Us

Jennifer Lawrence skips from comic-book movies ( X-Men: First Class ) and book adaptations ( Hunger Games ) to all-out horror with House At The End Of The Street , playing a girl whose new neighbour hides a dark secret.

Read more about House At The End Of The Street

An odd-sounding French import, Holy Motors was written and directed by Leos Carax ( Boy Meets Girl , Lovers On The Bridge ), and has Denis Lavant playing a man who jumps between parallel lives. Also starring Eva Mendes and Kylie Minogue.

Read more full Holy Motors film review

Ever wondered what would happen if classic monsters all lived under the same roof? We get to find out in Hotel Transylvania , a CGI animated comedy in which Dracula (Adam Sandler) runs the titular hotel, patronised by guests including Frankenstein's monster, a couple of werewolves and The Inviisible Man.

Read more about Hotel Transylvania

Mads Mikkelsen stars in this Danish drama about a man living in a small village who’s accused of being a paedophile. After his fantastic work in this year’s period drama A Royal Affair , we can’t get enough of Mads.

Read more about The Hunt

Tom Cruise continues his monopoly of action movies as Jack Reacher in a film based on the Lee Child novel One Shot. Directed by Wolverine scriptwriter Christopher McQuarrie, the movie has Reacher investigating a sniper attack on five innocent victims.

Read more about Jack Reacher

A remake of the same-named 1966 film, Colin Firth plays Harry Dean, who hires Nicole (Cameron Diaz) to help him steal a painting from one of the world’s richest men. Think The Thomas Crown Affair with glasses.

Read more about Gambit

Hot on the heels of the Beeb’s stellar adaptation last Christmas comes this new movie version of Charles Dickens’ novel. This time it’s being helmed by Mike Newell, with Helena Bonham Carter as Ms Havisham, and will close the London Film Festival On Oct 21.

Read more about Great Expectations

He’s back, and he’s still not happy about how naughty you’ve been. Liam Neeson returns as Bryan Mills, who’s being targeted by the father of a man he killed in the first Taken film.

Read more about Taken 2

Adapted from James Patterson’s novel Cross , Alex Cross is directed by Rob Cohen and stars Tyler Perry as the titular detective, who leaps into action when The Butcher (Matthew Fox) starts killing people.

Read more about Alex Cross

The directorial debut of Grammy-winning music producer RZA, The Man With The Iron Fists looks like a Tarantino-esque period bloodfest with serious style. RZA plays The Blacksmith, who must protect his community when a traitor threatens to destroy his village.

Read more about The Man With The Iron Fists

One of our favourites at the Sundance Film Festival this year, For A Good Time, Call… is a raucous comedy in the same vein as Mean Girls and American Pie , with Ari Graynor and Lauren Miller playing roommates who set up a phone sex business.

Read more about For A Good Time, Call…

Directed b y Training Day writer David Ayer, End Of Watch stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña as two LA police officers who are targeted by a drug cartel. Early trailers make this look like one heck of a thrill ride.

Read more about End Of Watch

Winner of the coveted Palme d’Or at Cannes 2012, Michael Haneke’s treaty on OAP life has been getting praise all over the place – and it looks entirely deserved from what we’ve seen of it so far.

Read more about Love

The undead franchise refuses to die, returning for a fourth round of found footage chills. PA3 and Catfish directors Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost are back, with PA4 following directly on from PA2 . Except shivers and nightmares.

Read more about Paranormal Activity 4

Adrenaline-junkie action movie starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a bike messenger who’s being pursued by a villainous Michael Shannon. Screenwriter David Koepp takes the reins.

Read full Premium Rush film review

From the studio behind 2009’s fantastic Coraline , ParaNorman is another creepy-cool stop-motion animation, this time starring the eponymous Norman, a young boy who can speak to the dead.

Read full film review of ParaNorman

Kristen Stewart, Sam Riley and Garrett Hedlund bring Jack Kerouac’s novel to the screen. As Beat Generation cruisers, they hit the road in search of fun and good times.

Read more about On The Road

Riches to (almost) rags documentary from Lauren Greenfield, who follows a billionaire couple’s attempts to create a Versailles-style mansion. Except then the recession arrives and their plans are dashed.

Read full film review of The Queen Of Versailles

A hit at the Sundance and Cannes film festivals, Beasts is the directorial debut of Benh Zeitlin and an effective fantasy fable about a young girl living in South Louisiana. Beautiful and entirely unique.

Read more about Beasts Of The Southern Wild

She’s been everywhere this year, and Elizabeth Olsen's sticking around with this indie drama written and directed by one of the stars of How I Met Your Mother , Josh Radnor. Radnor also stars, as a depressed thirty-something whose life is turned around by Olsen’s sparky college student.

Read more about Liberal Arts

Some might say that political campaigns are total jokes, and to a degree some might be right. With The Campaign, the joke's on Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis, who play warring potential congressmen.

Read full film review of The Campaign

Scripted by Nick Cave and starring man of the moment Tom Hardy, Lawless comes from awesome Aussie director John Hillcoat – here reuniting with his Proposition star Guy Pearce, who plays a deliciously oily villain.

Read full Lawless film review

Sly’s out and Karl Urban’s in as the helmet-wearing future cop. Taking a no-holds-barred approach to adapting the popular 2000 AD comic, this new Dredd is a bloody, action-oriented feast for the eyes.

Read film review of Dredd

From the guy who brought you Kill List comes a raucous comedy about a couple on a caravan holiday who turn their hand to a little on-the-side murder. The trailer released this week had us giggling and wincing in equal measure.

Read more about Sightseers

Marion Cotillard stars as a whale trainer who plunges into a deep depression after a freak accident. Attempting to help her see the bright side is the equally troubled Matthias Schoenaerts, an unemployed drifter who dabbles in street fights on the side.

Read more about Rust & Bone

A break-out hit at FrightFest The 13th, Sinister has been hailed as an old-fashioned horror with some fantastic scares, with Ethan Hawke on top form as a crime writer who discovers disturbing secrets about his new house.

Read more about Sinister

The happiest-looking film to come out of Australia for some time, The Sapphires stars Chris O’Dowd ( Bridesmaids ) as a talent hunter who discovers four fantastic singers and turns them into soul group The Sapphires.

Read more about The Sapphires

Six years after they made Oscar snapper-upper Little Miss Sunshine , directors Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton finally deliver their second feature – a whimsical fantasy about a struggling author (Paul Dano) whose latest creation comes to life.

Read more about Ruby Sparks

Tim Burton resurrects his ‘80s cult short and fleshes it out into a full-length feature film. A black-and-white stop-motion treat, this looks like Burton back to his best after the somewhat disappointing Alice In Wonderland and Dark Shadows.

Read more about Frankenweenie

Early trailers and press shots have been making us swoon, and the imagery contained in Ang Lee’s adaptation of Yann Martel’s novel is sure to have the Oscar voters in a twist come next year.

Read more about Life Of Pi

Dodgy title (and photoshop-happy poster) aside, Killing Them Softly has all the markings of another intense drama from director Andrew Dominik, who re-teams with his Assassination Of Jesse James star Brad Pitt.

Read full film review of Killing Them Softly

Crime thriller from Oliver Stone, with Aaron Johnson and Taylor Kitsch as marijuana-growing best friends who fight a Mexican drug cartel. After the double-flops of John Carter and Battleship , Kitsch could do with a big hit right about now.

Read full film review of Savages

Can Ben Affleck do funny and tragic at the same time? He’s definitely going to try with his third directorial effort, Argo , set around the 1979 Iran hostage crisis. Gone Baby Gone was a big surprise, and The Town proved Affleck had definite form, so we can’t wait to see what he does this time.

Read more about Argo

Paul Thomas Anderson makes a return to the movies after exhausting us all with the magnificence that was There Will Be Blood . Joaquin Phoenix joins a religious cult led by Philip Seymour Hoffman. We're fully expecting our minds to be blown.

Read more about The Master

Joseph Gordon-Levitt dons a fake nose and contact lenses to look like Bruce Willis. No, he’s not going to a costume party – he’s playing a younger version of Brucie sent into the future to kill himself. Sounds and looks awesome.

Read more abou t Looper

He’s taken his sweet time, but Bond is back with his 23rd big-screen extravaganza. Slipping into the tux for the third time is Daniel Craig, who faces off against Javier Bardem’s simmering baddie.

Read more about Skyfall

Peter Jackson makes a return to Middle-earth with the first of two (or maybe three) Hobbit films. Martin Freeman’s playing the younger Bilbo Baggins, while a raft of the original Lord Of The Rings gang will make appearances.

Read more about The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey