The movie industry is buzzing with excitement this week, as the Oscars move ever closer, news of the new Star Wars movies starts to break and the Sundance Film Festival is in full swing out there in Utah.

One of the biggest talking points of Sundance so far has been the movie jOBS. Starring Ashton Kutcher as Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, there’s been much debate over whether or not Kutcher’s lightweight acting style is going to be strong enough to lend jOBS any gravitas. A clip of the movie has been released, featuring Kutcher and Josh Gad (who plays co-founder Steve Wozniak) but no full trailer as yet. The movie opens today (January 25, 2013) and we’re predicting that the reviews are going to be a mixed bag. Gad insists that Kutcher’s performance in this movie is going to be the stuff that dreams are made of. We’ll wait and see what the experts think.

Watch the trailer for jOBS

Now then. We’ll move on to Movie 43. The promo for Movie 43 contains the phrase “WTF.” We all know what that stands for, and frankly, it has never been more aptly applied to anything than being tagged on to the promo for the movie. If you like your comedy low-brow then you may well find yourself attracted to this inexplicably star-studded line-up.

We’re not entirely sure that we understand exactly why Emma Stone, Kate Winslet and Hugh Jackman signed up for this film (though, for the record, we find the presence of Sean William Scott slightly easier to understand). There must be some hidden appeal, beyond the playground humour displayed in the trailer. It must be pretty well hidden though, because the Rotten Tomatoes reviewers that have cast forth their opinions have not been kind to this movie. “The only thing worse than a comedy missing a punchline is a comedy of shorts missing eleven separate punchlines,” writes Dustin Putman. A damning start for this bizarre movie. 

Watch the trailer for Movie 43

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is most probably going to be one of those movies that everyone seems to hate, yet somehow soars to the top of the box office chart – a little bit like what happened with Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D just a few weeks ago. We’ll forgive you, the US movie going public, for that one, as it was just after Christmas, it’s a funny time of year and everyone’s still giddy with the excitement of the festive period. We’re nearly out of January now, though and surely… surely there’s no excuse for going to see this movie? Even starting out with the premise of being a spoof, Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton can’t save this movie, which Steven Farber of The Hollywood Reporter describes as having “lots of anachronisms and tongue-in-cheek dialogue (which) establish the spoofy nature of this violent venture. All that's missing is a genuine sense of wit.” The trailer reveals an action-packed, but overly-hammy adaptation of the well-known Grimm Fairytale. One to miss. 

Rounding off this week’s selection is Parker, starring Jennifer Lopez and Jason Statham. Yes. Sorry about that. Parker sees Statham doing what he knows best (we’re starting to think that this is probably the ONLY he knows). He plays a bad guy, with a strong, if dubious ethical code, looking to hijack someone else’s heist. Jennifer Lopez plays his unlikely alliance. We can only imagine that the screenwriters wrote this on an off-day, if the most sparkling display of wit has been reserved for the trailer. Sample: (Jennifer Lopez) “I don’t know how you sleep at night.” (Jason Statham) “I don’t drink coffee after seven.” Hardly one for the Oscars voters to look out for, this one. All in all, hardly a classic week in cinema history. Feel free to stay home and watch a DVD instead. We won’t judge you. 

Watch the trailer for Parker