Director: Marc Forster
Cast: Brad Pitt
Certificate: 15

“Movement is life,” says Brad Pitt to a family holed up in an apartment block after World War Z breaks out. Break out is the operative word: after Brad’s everyday dad, Gerry, has the morning school run disrupted by a rabid nibble, the contagion batters the population, seemingly wiping out the city in seconds. Not even 28 Days Later’s zombies moved that fast.

A former UN investigator, Gerry is tasked with the Messianic mission of locating patient zero, deducing a cure and saving the whole human race. It’s a big ask, a point that’s driven home by functional scenes featuring his wife and kids. After an operation goes awry – including a brief cameo from Hollywood’s most enthusiastic scientist – Gerry finds himself facing impossible odds. So he does what any average father would do: turns into an invincible action hero who looks a lot like Brad Pitt.

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Director: Pablo Lorrain
Cast: Gael Garcia Bernal
Out on DVD: Monday 17th June

Director Pablo Lorrain followed his lead character, advertising agent René Saavedra (Bernal), and took a serious risk with NO.

Based on an unpublished play, he shot the film on old 3:4 U-matic cameras. The low-def tape is used to great effect, blending the shots of Gael Garcia Bernal’s cool, thoughtful ad guy with unsettling footage from 1980s Chilean news. The grainy police-conducted violence contrasts beautifully with Bernal’s collected yet determined opposition to the Pinochet regime.

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Director: Richard Linklater
Cast: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy
Certificate: 15
Trailer (possibly a bit spoilery)

"It's still there. It's still there..."

That's Celine (Delpy), as she sits with Jesse (Hawke) watching a sun set behind Greek mountains. Nine years on from their last fling in Paris, the couple is clinging on to that first spark of romance, even as it floats away from them. It may sound forced but Richard Linklater’s latest Before entry feels as real as ever. After seeing Jesse and Celine meet on a train in 1995, then reconnect in France in 2004, Before Midnight isn’t just the next chapter in their relationship – it’s like catching up with old friends.

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Director: Zack Snyder
Cast: Henry Cavill, Michael Shannon, Amy Adams, Kevin Coster, Russell Crowe
Certificate: 12A
Trailer

First thing's first. He's clearly not made of steel. If he was, he'd be shiny and grey, scraping against things all the time and getting stuck to inconveniently-placed electromagnets. He's closer to Man of Indestructible Carbon-like Substance. Of course, that’s always been the problem with Superman. He's impossible to destroy. He's hot, yes, fast, yes, strong, yes, but also, well, kind of dull. Credit to Henry Cavill and Zack Snyder, then, for trying something new. Together, they produce a rousing origins story that's big, loud and, you guessed it, kind of dull.

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Director: Director: Joss Whedon
Cast: Alexis Denisof, Amy Acker, Clark Gregg
Certificate: 15
Trailer

“You are thought here to the most senseless and fit man for the job.”

A man wakes up in a woman’s bedroom. He collects his clothes and leaves quietly. She pretends to be asleep. That’s how we meet Benedick (Denisof) and Beatrice (Acker) in Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing – in a scene that isn’t even in the play.

The couple, who spend most of their lives bickering with (and hating) each other, briefly allude to a past fling in Shakespeare’s original play, but it’s never fully explained. From the off, Joss makes it clear that he wants to do just that. It’s a brazen opening step that could easily remove the ambiguity from their relationship, but it manages the exact opposite: this is Shakespeare, but with a splash of vice. Sex happens and we see it. Drinking happens and boy, do we see that – in Whedon’s modern Much Ado, the heightened folly of Elizabethan comedy is simply because everyone is full of booze. No wonder that guy’s in the swimming pool with a cocktail; he's off his face.

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How do you sum up Behind the Candelabra, a film in which Michael Douglas is so camp you could erect a tent on his wig? A film where Matt Damon dresses up like Parker from Thunderbirds? A film where playing the piano is the coolest thing in the world, second only to sequins?

I managed it in two words:

Seriously, Steven Soderbergh's final film is the shiniest movie ever made. It's a good job J.J. Abrams didn't direct it. We wouldn't be able to see for weeks.

Artist's impression:

I'll be honest, though, it's not as good as my three-word review of Behind the Candelabra.

Director: Claude Miller
Cast: Audrey Tautou, Gilles Lellouche, Anaïs Demoustier, Catherine Arditi
 Watch online

Chosen to close the 2012 Cannes Film Festival in honour of its director, the late Claude Miller, Thérèse Desqueyroux is a beautifully shot, but sadly stale, piece of French drama based on the celebrated novel by François Mauriac.

Director: Kenji Kamiyama
Cast: Mamoru Miyano, Hisao Egawa, Toshiko Fujita, Hiroshi Kamiya
Runtime: 103 minutes

As the old saying goes, if you’re going to make a crazy film, at least make one that involves a telepathic baby with green hair called Ivan. If that saying doesn’t exist, then 009 Re: Cyborg certainly invents it. And how.

Director: Nick Murphy
Cast: Paul Bettany, Stephen Graham, Brian Cox, Mark Strong
Certificate: 15
Trailer

“Sometimes we can mistake anger for caring.” That’s sensible policeman Robert (Strong) to worked-up copper Joe (Bettany). And who can blame Joe for being tetchy? He’s got a lot to be worked up about. His father (Cox) was a ball-busting police chief and now has Alzheimer’s. His younger brother, Chrissie (Graham), keeps cheating on his partner. And they’ve got a killer to find after a 12 year old girl is brutally murdered.

Director: Todd Phillips
Cast: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Justin Bartha, Zach Galifianakis, Ken Jeong
Certificate: TBC
Trailer

“Who gives a fuck?” That’s Academy Award nominee Bradley Cooper after a giraffe gets killed in The Hangover Part III. Then he laughs. You’ll have exactly the same response to the film. Except for the laughing part.