WEEKEND PIC - March 21-23 2008

Your Guide to the Weekend Viewing

1. GONE BABY GONE (mystery thriller with Casey Affleck, Amy Ryan, Morgan Freeman dna Ed Harris) Rated * * * 1/2 (out of 4): A mentally and emotionally provoking movie by first-time director Ben Affleck. The missing girl tale will grab us and take us through a rollercoaster ride of intensed emotions. (Reviewed below).

2. THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES (fantasy thriller with Freddie Highmore (right), Sarah Bolger, Mary-Louise Parker and David Strathairn) Rating * * * (3 stars): Just like the Chronicles of Narnia, this one takes us to the fantasy realm of goblins, hobgoblins, trolls, and an ogre. More 'meaty' than "The Golden Compass" although not as stylish.

3. 27 DRESSES (romantic comedy with Katherine Heigl, James Marsden, Edward Burns and Malin Akerman) Rating * * 1/2 (2.5 stars): A very predictable romantic comedy about a 'serial bridesmaid' (Heigl) who finally realises her loved one only to lose him to her sister. Good show by Heigl too.

4. Dr SEUSS' HORTON HEARS A WHO (fantasy comedy with voices of Jim Carrey, Steve Carrell and Carol Burnett) Rating * * 1/2 (2.5 stars): A kiddie treat just like "How The Grinch Stole Christmas", this fantasy tale about Horton the elephant (Carrey) may be rather tedious for adults. The animation is great though.

5. AH LONG PTE LTD (Singaporean comedy with Fann Wong and Mark Lee) Rating * * 1/2: This Jack Neo outing must have been inspired by the HK series "My Girlfriend Is A Gangster" with Fann Wong doing the honours as a gang moll in this spoof about illegal money-lenders (Ah Long) and even Malaysian politics.

6. 10,000 BC (prehistoric actioner with Camilla Belle, Steven Strait, Cliff Curtis and Reece Ritchie) Rating * * (2 stars): Even in the days if the wooly mammoth, men fight over a woman - in this case a blue-eyed Belle - in Roland Emmerich's derivative tale of a lost civilisation that seems to be a rip-off of 'Apocalypto'. (Reviewed below)