G-Force posterFreakin’ school hol­i­days. 9 — count ’em — new films are open­ing this week and most of them are designed to keep rest­less young peo­ple out of the hair of their elders and bet­ters. Time is short so I’m just going to list them here:

  • G‑Force. Talk­ing cute rodents audi­tion to be spe­cial agents by tak­ing down super-vil­lain Bill Nighy. Read­ings (3D), Empire (2D), Sky City Queens­gate (3D).
  • Fame. The re-hash­ing of beloved 80s pop­u­lar trash con­tin­ues (Foot­loose is next). Read­ings, Empire, Embassy, Sky City Queens­gate
  • Shorts. Robert Rodriguez puts togeth­er anoth­er vir­tu­al­ly home­made dig­i­tal fan­ta­sy for kids — in the spir­it of Shark Boy and Lava Girl and we all know how much we loved them. Read­ings, Sky City Queens­gate
  • The Secret of Moonacre. For­mer ani­ma­tor Gabor Csupo made the smart Bridge to Ter­abithia the year before last and this is aimed at a sim­i­lar age group. Read­ings, Para­mount.

  • Ponyo. If the kids have already seen Up, or their par­ents are par­tic­u­lar­ly pre­ten­tious, this looks like the one. Acclaimed direc­tor Hayao Miyaza­ki (Spir­it­ed Away, Howl’s Mov­ing Cas­tle) tells a sto­ry inspired by The Lit­tle Mer­maid fable. Para­mount exclu­sive.
  • Year One. Ghost­busters’ Harold Ramis directs a broad com­e­dy about pre­his­toric hijinks that stars Michael Cera and Jack Black, both like­able in their own way. Read­ings, Empire, Sky City Queens­gate
  • North Face. This week’s grown-up films are all Fes­ti­val returns. North Face is a grip­ping Ger­man film about two sets of climbers in the 1930s attempt­ing to be the first to climb the Eiger by the treach­er­ous North Face. Read­ings (stak­ing their claim to the art­house with this exclu­sive).
  • Dis­grace. JM Coet­zee’s Book­er Prize win­ning nov­el is brought to the screen with John Malkovich in the lead. Pent­house, Light­house.
  • Every Lit­tle Step. Anoth­er doco about a quin­tes­sen­tial­ly New York sub­ject (after The Sep­tem­ber Issue last week), this is about the cast­ing of a revival of the Broad­way musi­cal A Cho­rus Line, which is in turn about the cast­ing of a Broad­way show. Pent­house exclu­sive.

All of the above will be reviewed in next week’s Cap­i­tal Times. Get your opin­ions, and your cor­rec­tions, in ear­ly in the com­ments.