THE Green Lantern is, of course, yet another comic strip given the Hollywood treatment, which means here is a movie with a big budget, loads of special effects and a good looking hero with muscles played by Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds, last seen buried alive in Iraq in the 2010 movie, Buried.
In the Green Lantern (rated M) and screening in 3D and 2D, our hero meets a nasty intergalactic demon called Parallax who makes the parallax error of taking on our hero.
Actually, there are many Green Lanterns! We learn they are all over the universe, a brotherhood of warriors sworn to keep peace and order.
Reynolds's character is a test pilot called Hal Jordon who is destined to become the first human selected to join the Green Lantern corps and who will receive a magical green ring which gives him super powers.
There is a girlfriend, of course, a fellow jet pilot and childhood sweetheart called Carol Ferris played by Blake Lively from the American television series, Gossip Girl whose daddy is the tycoon who owns the jet factory. Also memorable in The Green Lantern is Peter Sarsgaard as a nerdy scientist Hector Hammond.
¦ Where, one wonders, would the film industry be today if it had not been for great Victorian novelists such as Charles Dickens, Jane Austin and the Bronte Sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne, whose books keep on keeping on the silver screen?
Charlotte's great masterpiece was Jane Eyre, arriving for the umpteenth time in cinemas today and rated M.
It's really hard to believe that there have so far been 18 film versions of Jane Eyre, and a check on the internet lists nine television versions.
Most recently Ruth Wilson played the title role in a 2006 mini-series while Anna Paquin and Charlotte Gainsbourg in young and old versons shared the role in the Franco Zeffirelli film version in 1996.
This fresh new version by American director, Cary Fukunaga, stars Mia Wasikowska (from last year's Alice in Wonderland) as Jane, and German/Irish actor Michael Fassbender as the mysterious lord of the manor, Rochester, plus the wonderful Judi Dench as Mrs Fairfax.
Jane Eyre is the story of an orphan who becomes a governess in a creaky old homestead called Thornfield Hall.
¦ Revered almost as a saint in his native Brazil, Ayrton Senna was the formula one motor-racing champion whose great rival on international race-tracks was the French driver, Alain Prost.
The documentary, Senna (M), shows the Brazilian ace starting his career which was to end with his death in a spectacular crash just 10 years later — seen live on television by 300 million viewers.
¦ The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (M) is a clever, funny, insightful documentary by filmmaker Morgan Spurlock exploring the world of product placement — Hollywood's use of brand names in practically every movie you see including this one!
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