P-p-p-pick up these penguins (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

P-p-p-pick up these penguins

9:25am Monday 19th December 2011 in DVD reviews By Telegraph & Argus

Mr Popper's Penguins (PG, 90 mins) Starring Jim Carrey, Carla Gugino, Angela Lansbury, Madeline Carroll, Maxwell Perry Cotton, Ophelia Lovibond

Thomas Popper (Carrey) is a workaholic real estate developer who receives an unusual inheritance from his late father: six Gentoo penguins. The birds take over his life but magically help him rebuild bridges with ex-wife Amanda (Gugino) and children Janie (Carroll) and Billy (Cotton). Mr Popper's Penguins is a saccharine family-oriented comedy, which hammers home the central message about parental responsibility with all the tenderness of a nasty case of frostbite.

Super 8 (12, 107 mins) Starring Joel Courtney, Elle Fanning, Riley Griffiths, Ryan Lee, Gabriel Basso, Zach Mills, Kyle Chandler, Ron Eldard ****

In the sleepy industrial town of Lillian, Ohio, teenager Joe Lamb (Courtney) is making a low-budget zombie film with friends Alice (Fanning), Cary (Lee), Charles (Griffiths), Martin (Basso) and Preston (Mills). As the camera starts rolling, the youngsters witness a being train derailed. As they make a hasty escape, the trespassing teens are oblivious to a monstrous creature crawling free from the twisted wreckage. Super 8 is a rollicking adventure set in 1970s rural America that pays homage to E.T. with echoes of The Goonies.

Spy Kids: All The Time In The World (PG, 89 mins)Starring Jessica Alba, Joel McHale, Rowan Blanchard, Mason Cook, Jeremy Piven, Antonio Banderas **

Secret agent Marissa Cortez Wilson (Alba) has retired from active duty in order to be a doting wife for her husband Wilbur (McHale) and stepchildren Rebecca (Blanchard) and Cecil (Cook). When the fate of the entire planet is jeopardised by the diabolical Timekeeper (Piven), Marissa reluctantly heads back into the field with Rebecca and Cecil in tow, bolstered by help from dashing Gregorio Cortez (Banderas) and his high-kicking offspring.

Frozen Planet (Cert E, 420 mins) *** Sir David Attenborough narrates this acclaimed seven-part natural history series, which uses state-of-the-art filming techniques to reveal the life that exists in the most inhospitable regions of the world. The team captures stunning images including an erupting volcano, and lays bare the entwined life cycles of orcas, penguins, polar bears and wolves.