BRAVE **1/2 (100 minutes) PG
Though visually beautiful to behold, this latest offering from Disney's Pixar is a curiously dark affair; surprisingly light on humour, big on deep themes about loyalty, pride and parenting, and just a little slow. Set in the dank Scottish highlands of a mythical past where castles and archery contests dominate the landscape, feisty young Merida (voiced Kelly Macdonald) is an unwilling princess-in-waiting, unhappy with the insistence from her mother (Emma Thompson) that she must put her royal duties ahead of her proto-feminist desire to do her own thing. A lover of archery, Merida defies her arranged courtships with three similarly oppressed suitor and runs off in an idealistic, self-righteous huff. A deep-woods encounter with a wonderfully witty witch (Julie Walters), however, teaches her the hard way that being so self-centred exacts a price. Reworking the old "don't wish too hard" maxim, the film's magic-tinged, slightly heightened style makes for lovely eye-candy, although the film's dark palette is exacerbated by the loss of luminescence you get with 3D. (Serious note: the film will lose nothing if seen in 2D, which will be brighter and cheaper.) Brave makes for a passable parable about teenage hubris and features a good voice performance by Billy Connolly as Merida's king-father, but it isn't as pacy or as entertaining as many of Pixar's A-grade hits.

Liam Hemsworth and Kristen Stewart in Snow White and the Huntsman. (Photo: Supplied)

SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN ***1/2 (127 minutes) M
Designed for mature audiences that demand real dramatic meat with their live-action fairy tales, this haunting, dead-straight rendering of the Snow White story casts an alabaster-pale Charlize Theron as the ice-cold Evil Queen opposite a stern Kristen Stewart (Twilight), her strong-spirited, sword-swinging step-daughter. As far removed from the Disney cartoon as possible, and a welcome negation of the recent failed Snow White comedy Mirror Mirror (with Julia Roberts), first-time feature director Rupert Sanders shows a sureness of touch when blending fantasy with earthy emotions, close-up battle sequences and giant trolls. The stylistic influence of Lord of the Rings permeates the film and effectively sells the fairy tale as a drama-driven showdown between the Evil Queen's unquenchable vanity and Snow White's uncrushable sense of honour. You even take the seven dwarfs seriously. Melbourne actor Chris Hemsworth - aka Thor - is terrific as her lesser half. The film is already a huge international hit, having taken just on a quarter of a billion, and is bound to please anyone who likes their high-end spectacles with soul.

Bob Marley. (Photo: File)

MARLEY **** (145 minutes) M
Outstanding, thorough, often moving documentary about the tragically short life and huge influence of musician Bob Marley. With the focus on humanising Marley's artistic motivations, politics and personal life - which involved many women and siring many children - director Kevin Macdonald digs deep into Marley's story via interviews with friends, collaborators and relatives while tapping into a mother lode of archival footage. Though best known as a feature director of films such as The Last King of Scotland and State of Play, Macdonald is also a respected non-fiction filmmaker, with such works as Touching the Void and Life in a Day placing emotions as front-and-centre as facts, and does so here. The manner in which he depicts Marley's demise, for instance, is especially raw. Marley is, by any fair measure, a great music documentary. 

Adam Sandler and Andy Samberg. (Photo: Supplied)

THAT'S MY BOY **1/2 (116 minutes) MA

The latest yuckfest from the Adam Sandler hit factory actually contains a major surprise - and even hardcore fans of Sandler's wildly popular, critically reviled brand of gross-out, low-brow, working-class humour will find it tough to take. Sandler plays Donny, a broke man-child who became a celebrity decades earlier when he fathered a son, Todd (Andy Samberg) with a sexy high-school teacher, who was promptly thrown in prison. Now desperate for cash, he crashes back into Todd's life shortly before his wedding. He's hoping to score money but finds himself connecting with his insecure offspring. A procession of predictable gross-outs ensues with Sandler's signature coarseness - until the film's key twist, which pushes the film squarely into the realm of black comedy. Even Donny acknowledges how disgusting it is. Say what you like about Sandler - his fans simply ignore all the critical contempt - his ability to get A-list talent to dive into his comic world is extraordinary. Just Go With It had Nicole Kidman living it up and Jack and Jill featured Al Pacino giving it his all. Here, James Caan, Susan Sarandon and even singer Tony Orlando embrace Sandler's tasteless comedy style with gusto. Most notably, "It Girl" Leighton Meester - best known for her role in Gossip Girl - deserves a special bravery award for signing up to do this. What her character does is unlikely to be what her fans expect.

A scene from A Royal Affair. (Photo: Supplied)

A ROYAL AFFAIR  *** (138 minutes; subtitled) M

In a visually ravishing, solidly acted royal court period drama from Denmark, the radical liberal ideas of the Enlightenment fight their way into the stuffy nation's culture via a most unusual means. While Queen Caroline (Alicia Vikander) endures her bumpy arranged marriage to the fun-loving, easily distracted, borderline insane King Christian (Mikkel Boe Folsgaard, in a terrific performance), she clasps eyes on his attractive German physician Struensee (Mads Mikkelsen). He, too, likes her and they inevitably embark on a secret tryst. But while doing so they crack on a plan to get the ailing country in line with the rest of progressive 18th-century Europe. Strongly directed with stately reserve by Nikolaj Arcelif, who paces the absorbing drama well across its long running time, the film's luscious-looking sets suggest the movie benefited from many heritage-protected locations.

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