For the first time since 1999’s Muppets from Space, the madcap Muppets are back on the big screen with their trademark blend of innocent wonder, gleeful musical spoofs and knowingly cheesy jokes in their new movie The Muppets.

But the world has moved on since the Muppets’ heyday. Can they still work their magic in a harder, more cynical age? That’s what overgrown Muppets fan Gary, played by the film’s co-writer, Jason Segal, sets out to discover when he travels from Smalltown, USA to Hollywood with his chirpy girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams) and shy brother Walter (who resembles a Muppet himself) to find out what has happened to their heroes. Learning that a wicked oil tycoon (Chris Cooper) is planning to tear dawn the Muppet Studios, they strive to rally the old gang to save the day. They find Kermit living in seclusion in his Bel Air mansion; Fozzie Bear performing with a dreadful Muppets tribute band, the Moopets, in Reno; and Miss Piggy in Paris, working as the Plus-Size Editor of French Vogue (Emily Blunt, in a nod to The Devil’s Wears Prada, plays her receptionist).

Soon enough, the former colleagues are back together, preparing to stage a telethon in the Muppets’ old theatre to raise the $10million they need. Along the way, there are scores of knowing in-jokes, fleeting 1980s references and witty cameos (Neil Patrick Harris and Whoopi Goldberg are among those staffing the telethon phones; and Mickey Rooney, archetype of the putting-on-a-show-to-save-the-day cliché, briefly pops up too), but beneath the cleverness you’ll find warmth, sweetness and real affection for our fine felt friends.

On general release from Friday 10th February 2012.

To activate the sound in the trailer: hold your cursor over the screen to reveal the control panel and click on the volume control in the bottom right-hand corner.

Movie Talk is putting its reputation on the line and making a few brilliantly inspired predictions about who is going to be walking out of the British Academy Film Awards on  Sunday night with a great big smile on their face. And who will be left in their seat with a great big cheesy fake smile on their face… Are we the descendants of greatness or do we need to talk about getting a new job? Give us your verdict in the comments…

Best Film

Who would have thought a silent black and white comedy would be an odds-on BAFTA favourite? Yet The Artist, French director Michel Hazanavicius’s charming valentine to the early days of Hollywood, looks set for victory, with rivals The Descendants (too low-key), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (too drab), Drive (too violent) and The Help (too schmaltzy) all trailing in its wake.

Verdict: The Artist

Outstanding British Film

We Need To Talk About Kevin and Shame both won critical acclaim, but BAFTA voters will probably shy away from their dark subjects (a teen killer and a sex addict respectively). The enormously entertaining My Week with Marilyn would be a popular choice, but espionage drama Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is most likely to carry off this category.

Verdict: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Best Director

Martin Scorsese charmed viewers with Hugo; Lynne Ramsay’s screen version of We Need To Talk About Kevin was scarily effective; and Tomas Alfredson did an impressive job adapting John le Carré’s complex Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy; but the BAFTA prize-givers had better start practising how to pronounce the name of The Artist director Michel Hazanavicius.

Verdict: Michel Hazanavicius, for The Artist

Best Actor in a Leading Role

George Clooney has been a BAFTA acting nominee four times before but never a winner. With its mix of comedy and pathos, his portrayal of a grief-stricken father in The Descendants could see him finally triumph this year, but he’ll face stiff competition from Gary Oldman for his subtle performance as spymaster George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

Verdict: Gary Oldman, in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Best Actress in a Leading Role

Any other year, Michelle Williams’s enchanting performance as Marilyn Monroe in My Week with Marilyn might well sway BAFTA voters, but she’s almost certain to lose out to a portrayal of another famous blonde. Meryl Streep goes beyond impersonation to get under the skin of Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady and looks set to claim victory.

Verdict: Meryl Streep, in The Iron Lady

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

Kenneth Branagh was enjoyably waspish as Laurence Olivier in My Week with Marilyn and Jim Broadbent proved surprisingly charming as Denis Thatcher in The Iron Lady. Yet they’re likely to lose out to Beginners’ co-star 82-year-old Christopher Plummer for his moving role as an elderly father who comes out as gay at the age of 72.

Verdict: Christopher Plummer, in Beginners

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Six-time BAFTA film acting winner Judi Dench could add to her collection for her portrayal in My Week with Marilyn of another acting legend, Dame Sybil Thorndike. This year, however, she’ll probably lose out to relative unknown Octavia Spencer for her acclaimed performance as a sassy outspoken maid in the 1960s Deep South in The Help.

Verdict: Octavia Spencer, in The Help

Orange Rising Star

It’s toffs versus hoodie this year as Old Etonian actors Tom Hiddleston (War Horse) and Eddie Redmayne (My Week with Marilyn) go up against Kidulthood actor Adam Deacon. Thor star Chris Hemsworth and The IT Crowd’s Chris O’Dowd (Bridesmaids) are also in contention, but Hiddleston’s impressive range – from The Deep Blue Sea to Thor – should see him win.

Verdict: Tom Hiddleston

Without doubt the coolest movie of last year was the Ryan Gosling actioner Drive, which is now out on Blu-ray, DVD and Dual Layer.

Courtesy of Icon Home Entertainment, we had three copies of the DVD for you to win and all you had to do is tell us what your dream car would be. Thanks to everyone else who entered into the spirit of the competition. We really loved all your comments. Out of our competition hat we picked – at random – Noelle Ludiwg who favours a 1973 Chevelle, Scott Caldon who desires a Jaguar E Type in British Racing Green and Sean Neylon who still loves his Beetle.

Please email us at movietalk@ipcmedia.com with your address and we will send your prize out to you.

• Please note that any prize unclaimed within one month of notification will be withdrawn and a new winner selected at random.

And don’t forget to check out Jason’s review (just click here).

Daniel Radcliffe may have put the cares of Harry Potter behind him to star in The Woman in Black, but this chilling screen adaptation of Susan Hill‘s hit ghost story finds him once more contending with supernatural evil.

Again brimming with deep grief and honest pluck, Radcliffe plays a widowed young solicitor sent by his London law firm to a remote country village to settle the affairs of a recently deceased client. He immediately encounters hostility from the locals, who are extremely reluctant to take him to the dead woman’s gloomy mansion, Eel Marsh House, cut off from the mainland by marshes and only accessible by a causeway that floods at high tide.

What happened there? Why are the villagers afraid? And who is the veiled figure in black he glimpses when he finally gains access to the house? You’ll get goosebumps finding out, even if you’ve read the book or seen the long-running play.

Brace yourself for shocks and scares as doors slam shut of their own accord, an empty rocking horse tips furiously back and forth on its own, and a ghostly handprint appears and disappears on a windowpane.

There’s something reassuringly old-fashioned about all this, with screenwriter Jane Goldman and director James Watkins pinning their trust on eeriness rather than gore to spook the viewer. In re-jigging the book for the screen, they’ve taken considerable liberties with Hill’s story but have stayed true to its Victorian-Gothic spirit, shrouding the mystery in a pervasive mood of melancholy and loss.

Radcliffe looks perfectly at home in this setting and manfully shoulders most of the film’s acting burdens, notwithstanding vivid turns from Ciarán Hinds and Janet McTeer as a bereaved local couple. Indeed, Radcliffe’s casting throws up yet another eerie touch – when The Woman in Black was filmed for TV in 1989, his role was taken by Adrian Rawlins, who played his screen father, James Potter, in the Harry Potter movies.

On general release from Friday 10th February 2012.

To activate the sound in the trailer: hold your cursor over the screen to reveal the control panel and click on the volume control in the bottom right-hand corner.

Power outage… With great power comes no responsibility in this fly-on-the-wall-style sci-fi fantasy about three teenagers who mysteriously gain superhuman abilities.

Curious quest… Dwayne Johnson and Vanessa Hudgens are among those who crash-land on an incredible island in this family adventure sequel.

Family ties… Sideways director Alexander Payne helms this comedy drama about a middle-aged lawyer (George Clooney) who attempts to reconnect with his daughters when his wife is involved in a boating accident.

Emotional hurdles… Steven Spielberg holds the reins of this war epic, based on the Michael Morpurgo novel of the same name, which charts the bond between a man and the horse he tamed and trained.

Double trouble… Adam Sandler plays both advertising executive Jack and his passive-aggressive sister Jill in this US comedy.

Cunning stunt… A fugitive ex-cop looks poised to leap from a high-rise ledge in this crime thriller, but is his threat merely a distraction from something bigger?

Frost bite… Liam Neeson has a vicious pack of wolves nipping at his heels as he leads a group of plane crash-survivors through the freezing Alaskan wilderness in this survival thriller.

Heart of the matter… This Paris-set 3D family animation tells the story of a monster’s love for a beautiful French singer.

Silence is golden… This black-and-white French romance focuses on a fading silent film male star and a rising actress – plus a scene-stealing dog!

Practical parenting..? Roman Polanski’s latest offering pits Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly against Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz, as the respective parents of two warring school boys.

[View with PicLens]

While the screening for The Woman In Black sold out weeks ago, there’s still a feast for fans, with special guests like novelist/film critic Kim Newman, historian Marcus Hearn and Hammer veteran Madeline Smith treating attendees with readings and introductions, plus there’s the world premiere of the new HD version of Dracula that’s not be missed.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Saturday 11 February
3pm Twins Of Evil
7.30pm Vampire Circus (HD screening)

Sunday 12 February
3pm Hands Of the Ripper
7.30pm The Hound Of the Baskervilles

Thursday 16 February
7.30pm The Lost Continent

Friday 17 February
7.30pm The Vampire Lovers (HD screening)

Saturday 18 February
3pm Dracula (HD world premiere)
7.30pm Quatermass And The Pit (HD screening)

Sunday 19 February
3pm The Reptile (HD screening)
7.30pm The Plague Of The Zombies (HD screening)

Thursday 23 February
7.30pm The Witches

Friday 24 February
7.30pm Dracula Prince Of Darkness (HD screening)

Saturday 25 February
3pm Frankenstein And The Monster From Hell
7.30pm Frankenstein Created Woman

Sunday 26 February
3pm Wake Wood (HD screening)
7.30pm Let Me In (HD screening)

To book tickets online, click here.

WIN!  THE HAMMER VAULT
Courtesy of Titan Books we have one copy of Marcus Hearn’s The Hammer Vault for you to win. This book tells the story of Hammer Films through previously unseen treasures from the company’s archive including original correspondence, lobby cards, script pages and rare photographs alongside a commentary from the people who made some of the company’s greatest films.
 Highlights include pages from Peter Cushing’s scrapbook and poster artwork from films that were never made, making this the
 greatest scrapbook of Hammer collectibles ever assembled.

TO ENTER: ‘Like and share’ this post and leave a comment by clicking here, telling us who your favourite horror star is and why. Competition closes 5pm Wednesday 15 February.

Who is this glamourously dressed star with the peculiarly spongey flesh?

‘snout too difficult this week.

Did you guess the owner of last week’s mystery chest – the one clad in pretty period dress?

Click here to see this star in her finery.

Discuss these chests on our Movie Talk Facebook page or Movie Talk Twitter stream

Albatross is a fresh, modern-day coming-of-age tale about 17-year-old Emelia (Jessica Brown Findlay), who is a force of nature that bursts into the lives of the dysfunctional Fischer family when she is hired to work in their guest house in a sleepy south coast town.

Beth Fischer (Felicity Jones), also 17, is cramming for her A-Levels in a desperate bid to escape to university, whilst dad Jonathan (Sebastian Koch), once a best-selling author, is suffering from writer’s block much to the annoyance of frustrated mum Joa (Julia Ormond) who runs the hotel and laments the promising acting career she once left behind.

Aspiring writer Emelia has been brought up by her grandparents and is under the impression that she is the great granddaughter of renowned novelist Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Jonathan sees promise in Emelia and begins to tutor her, as Beth becomes enamoured with her forthright friend and decides to take her along on a visit to Oxford University – with hilariously raucous results.

As Emelia’s confidence and free-spirit help Beth learn to enjoy life beyond, Emelia too is inspired by Beth’s determination to focus and she begins to see a way to break through her self-destructive  tendencies.  However, when Emelia and Jonathan begin an illicit affair, the girls’ friendship is threatened.

Can Emelia escape the ties of small town existence and free herself of the albatross around her neck?

To celebrate the movie’s DVD release (6 February), we have three copies to give away, courtesy of Entertainment One. All you need to do is tell us who is your all-time favourite destructive and/or troubled movie character and why.

Simply leave a comment below (click here if you don’t see the comment box), remember to motivate your answer, and you could be one of the three winners.

This competition closes at 4pm on 14 February 2012.

Jessica Brown Findlay’s spunky seaside rebel comes of age…Read Movie Talk’s review!

Best known for her role as Downton Abbey’s aristocratic rebel, Jessica Brown Findlay slips down the social scale to play an even spunkier heroine in British coming-of-age drama Albatross. Emelia is a wayward 17-year-old orphan who explodes like an incendiary bomb in the household of blocked writer Jonathan (Sebastian Koch), his bitter wife (Julia Ormond) and their brainy but shy daughter (Felicity Jones) when she takes a job as a cleaner at the seaside hotel they own. In the fallout, everyone’s life gets shaken up, including aspiring author Emelia’s. We’ve seen this sort of rites-of-passage movie many times before, of course, but Brown Findlay’s feisty livewire gives the film the spark lacking in the routine plot.

Released on DVD on Monday 6th February by Entertainment One.

To activate the sound in the trailer: hold your cursor over the screen to reveal the control panel and click on the volume control in the bottom right-hand corner.

An urban legend materialised back in the early 1990s around the blurry apparition that can be seen in one scene featuring Ted Danson‘s character Jack walking through the flat with his mother. A rumour began that this was the ghost of a boy who shot himself in the house where this 80s movie was filmed.

It’s nonsense though (sorry to disappoint). The figure is actually a life-size cardboard cut-out of Jack – who’s an actor in the film – trussed up in a tuxedo.

To see what all the fuss was about, check out this cool video break-down of the scene:

3 Men and a Baby is showing tonight – Tuesday 7th February – on Film 4 at 7pm

Discuss this film on our Movie Talk Facebook page or Movie Talk Twitter stream