Selene’s return is a welcome one, and if the Death Dealer feels the need to dole out some more justice a couple of years hence that possibility wouldn’t bother me in the least bit whatsoever.

Haywire is a total kick in the pants, this thriller an enjoyable freestyle winner that swings aggressively back and forth with raucous enthusiasm. Mark my words, I’ll be rhapsodically waxing poetic about this one for all of 2012.

As a history lesson Red Tails simply doesn’t rise to the occasion, and while bits and pieces are adequate on the whole this is one flight into the wild blue yonder that never achieves liftoff.

The movie doesn’t need to be in 3-D, and I can’t say the process adds or subtracts anything one way or the other. But the bottom line is that Beauty and the Beast, as good as it looks on Blu-ray, as superbly as it plays at home, deserves to be seen in a movie theatre.

I won’t say Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is perfect but I will say I adored and loved it with all my being nonetheless. This is the type of film that might take a while to catch on with the masses, might need more years to marinate in the psyche before it breaks through as the instant classic I suspect it might be, my euphoria for Daldry’s latest virtually without end.

I’m sorry but none of that is enough, and for a woman who changed the face of international politics forever, for a figure who challenged the very notion of what a leader could be, I wanted more. More importantly, she deserved more, and on that point alone The Iron Lady is a staggering misfire difficult for me to even partially recommend.

When Joyful Noise does sing it hits a number of heavenly notes. Sadly it just doesn’t hit enough of them to make the movie as a whole anything more than a musical prayer that’s vexingly left unanswered.

Alike’s journey is a harrowing one, filled with victories and setbacks, heartbreak and heroism, forgiveness and despair. Most of all, however, there is hope and there is love, and no matter how dark the night the light streaming from the horizon at dawn will almost certainly warm the cockles of even the most miserly heart.

Put simply, A Separation is one of the great cinematic achievements I’ve ever seen, and in my opinion is the best film I saw in 2011.