Alan Dee’s movie preview: Are you game for a slice of sci-fi, or another helping of meatballs?

With half-term on the horizon there’s a predictable push for family-friendly films, with a string of options on offer.
Enders GameEnders Game
Enders Game

The big bucks have been spent on Ender’s Game, another movie makeover for a hit teen novel which boasts Harrison Ford venturing back into outer space as an older, grumpier version of his Star Wars hero.

But he’s not centre stage – this is all about young computer game whizzkids being recruited to be the first line of defence against alien invaders. Asa Butterfield is the shy kid being groomed for great things in a glossy but not very engrossing slice of sci-fi from X-Men Origins: Wolverine director director Gavin Hood

A clear winner of the category for longest title of the week is Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs: Revenge Of The Leftovers, a follow-up to the warm and whimsical 2009 animation hit about a dotty inventor who creates a machine to turn water into food – sounds like a great idea, but there are all sorts of problems, which continue in this cheery second chapter featuring the voice talents of, among others, James Caan, Al Pacino and Neil Patrick Harris.

Enders GameEnders Game
Enders Game

Definitely not on the family fare list is Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa, a grossout road trip for a small boy, his grandad and a hidden camera.

Johnny Knoxville adopts the guise of an 86-year-plod reprobate cutting a swathe across America. It wasn’t funny when Jackass was a cult hit, now it’s just embarrassing.

For grown-ups, there’s Closed Circuit in which lawyers Eric Bana and Rebecca Hall find their lives in danger during a terrorism trial.

The indefatigable Jim Broadbent pops up as a legal bigwig in this provocative paranoid conspiracy thriller from Eastern Promises writer Steven Knight.

Feelgood film of the week is One Chance, with James Corden leading a distinguished Brit cast (Colm Meaney, Julie Walters) in the true-life tale of TV talent contest star Paul Potts, who went from flogging mobile phones to belting out arias in grand opera. Simon Cowell is co-producer, as you might expect.

See what some of the stars of the film have to say about the Paul Potts story in our video report

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