WEEKEND PIC March 7 - 9 2008

Your Guide To The Weekend Viewing:

1. THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES (fantasy thriller with Freddie Highmore (right), Sarah Bolger, Mary-Louise Parker and David Strathairn) Rating * * * (out of 4): 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.

2. CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR (drama with Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman) Rated * * * 1/2 (3.5 stars): This one is a winner among the so-called 'war on terror'-type movies of 2007. It has three Oscar-winning stars - and a powerful, humorous script. (Reviewed below)

3. THERE WILL BE BLOOD (drama with Daniel Day-Lewis, Mary Elizabeth Barrett and Paul Dano) Rated * * * 1/2 (3.5 stars): An epic tale of family, newfound wealth, power and greed - with a fiercely intense perf by Day Lewis as an oil tycoon who gradually loses his soul. (Reviewed below)

4. THE MIST (Stephen King thriller with Thomas Jane, Andre Braugher and Marcia Gay Harden) Rating * * * (3 stars) Director Frank Darabont is back in his element with this King novella about a town under siege by mutant insects and religious zealots.

5. VANTAGE POINT (action thriller with William Hurt, Dennis Quaid (pictured, left), Forrest Whitaker and Sigourney Weaver) Rating * * 1/2 (2.5 stars): A terrorist attack on the US Prez in Spain, seen from six perspectives, provides the usual twists and turns but a rather predictable movie. There's an ironical touch to the ending, though.

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.

7. PARIS JE T'AIME (Anthology of short films about romance, set in Paris, directed and starring various international celebs) Rated * * 1/2 (2.5 stars): This compilation of 18 vignettes by some of the top directors offers a mixed set of tidbits but nothing filling. Quite an interesting tour de force of Paris, too. (Reviewed below)