HUGO
Dir: Martin Scorsese - Starring: Asa Butterfield, Chloe Grace Moretz, Ben Kingsley

Hugo is a lovely little film, superbly controlled by Martin Scorsese, which will bring a warm glow to the heart of anyone with a love of early cinema. But that love just adds a cherry on the cake – this is terrific stuff from any perspective.
The story centres round the eponymous boy, living as an orphan in the nooks and crannies of Paris' magnificent 1930s railway station. He makes sure the clock is wound and tries to repair a strange mechanical figure left with him by his father. A meeting with Moretz, a plucky young girl, sets him off on a quest to find the origins of the automaton, a mystery that leads to the heart of the birth of film. Saying much more is a bit of a spoiler.
This rightly won several technical Oscars and the whole design and look of the film is stunning. The young leads are likeable without being too cutesy and there are delightful cameos from the likes of Sacha Baron Cohen as the love-lorn station guard in constant conflict with Hugo.
I'm not sure this is exactly a kids' film, however. It is certainly remarkably unpatronising towards younger viewers, and the wonders revealed in the second half will probably appeal more to adults, in the same way that magic is often more appreciated by grown-ups. But, whatever the audience, it's a wonderful film.

The Muppets totally won me over with its old-school charm. And it really is old school. An evil oil magnate wants to demolish the dilapidated Muppet Studio and Kermit – with the help of three fans – has to get the gang together again and put on one more show to raise money to save the studio. It's a deft juggle of characters and jokes. Bret McKenzie's songs are fine but it's the old favourites that bring a tear to the eye and somehow Kermit – clearly a green sock with ping-pong balls – is still more likeable and expressive than the likes of a motion-captured Tintin.

In The Perfect Age of Rock n Roll rundown reclusive star Spyder gives his first interview in 20 years. It centres on his memories of a 1991 road trip along Route 66, his band, their manager, a legendary old driver and the childhood friend he hopes will save his career. Amidst the drugs and old grievances they search for inspiration and the resultant road movie is smartly written with an involving story. It helps that the young cast (and Peter Fonda) create vivid sympathetic characters and also that the music – particularly at a pivotal juke joint where Pinetop Perkins and Hubert Sumlin are playing – is pretty good.

Set in 1941 in the one Chinese city not fully under Japanese control, Shanghai follows John Cusack's intelligence officer as he – Third Man-like – investigates the murder of his best friend, sifting through a twisted nest of Nazis, Japanese imperialists and Triads. Further complications arrive when he falls for the wife of a Chinese gangster (which happens a lot in the movies…). This is a lavish production, ravishing in its depiction of old Shanghai, with the strong cast including Ken Watanabe and Chow Yun Fat. And the story is good, complex and engrossing, though the central mystery will be less so for those with a knowledge of history.

The always-watchable Willem Defoe heads Downunder in The Hunter, searching for the last surviving Tasmanian tiger. He's been hired by a military bio-tech company and it's very hush-hush. But staying with a young family – still suffering after the husband's mysterious disappearance – he finds himself drawn to them and into the conflict between loggers and conservationists, while his employers become increasingly threatening. Beautifully shot in the vast Tassie bush this is a very well-made film, a slow-burning wilderness drama that gradually ramps up the tension, with great work from Dafoe, a suspicious Sam Neill and Frances O'Connor (AI).