Films seen so far this year: 348
Films seen this week: The House Bunny, Fly Me To The Moon (3D), Righteous Kill, Swing Vote, Alexandra, Nights at Rodanthe

Casting news: Sherlock Holmes, The Lone Ranger and Alice in Wonderland
While scouring the film blogs to see if they've cast Captain America yet (they haven't), I came across the news from comingsoon.net that the lovely Rachel McAdams has been cast in Guy Ritchie's upcoming reimagining of Sherlock Holmes, opposite Robert Downey Jr as The World's Greatest Detective. Apparently she's playing Holmes' “enigmatic love interest”, which should be interesting. Comingsoon also state that Jude Law is playing Watson, which seems like bad casting to me – hopefully, that'll turn out to be just a rumour. Meanwhile, in other casting news, Johnny Depp has confirmed that he will indeed be playing The Mad Hatter in Tim Burton's upcoming adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. However, he's also announced that he'll be playing Tonto in a forthcoming Lone Ranger movie, which seems a bit harsh on any Native American actors hoping to land that particular gig. No word yet on who'll be playing the Lone Ranger himself. Brad Pitt, perhaps? Matthew McConaughey? George Clooney? Who IS that masked man? Etc.

Films I'm Looking Forward To: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Cards on the table time: Fight Club would be in my Top Ten of the 90s and I thought Zodiac was one of the best films of last year, so David Fincher's one of my favourite directors and I'm always excited to see what he's going to do next. That said, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (based on a story by F. Scott Fitzgerald) looks mighty strange indeed. On the one hand, I love this trailer, particularly the use of Camille Saint-Saens' The Carnival of the Animals (The Aquarium) on the soundtrack. On the other hand, it does rather look as if the trailer gives away the entire film. Still, the Pitt-Fincher reunion is extremely exciting and Pitt looks like he's on good form here. On a lighter note, I'm intrigued to see that the film has both Tilda Swinton and Cate Blanchett in it, not least because -at least to me- they always seem very similar and I wouldn't be surprised if they frequently went after the same roles. I wonder if they'll appear on screen at the same time?

Top 10 Films On Release This Week (as recommended by me):
Three new entries this week, with Kristin Scott-Thomas' French drama I've Loved You So Long, Ed Harris' Western Appaloosa and Liam Neeson's action thriller Taken all making it into the top ten.

1. The Dark Knight
2. I've Loved You So Long
3. Appaloosa
4. Man On Wire
5. Eden Lake
6. Pineapple Express
7. The Wave
8. Mamma Mia
9. Taken
10. The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas

DVD of the Week: Lars and the Real Girl (out now, RRP £19.99)This week's DVD of the Week is Lars and the Real Girl, an indie drama starring Ryan Gosling as Lars, a shy young man who orders a life-like sex doll off the internet and introduces her to his horrified family (Emily Mortimer and Paul Schneider) as his girlfriend. This is the textbook definition of a film that's likely to find a more appreciative audience on DVD, particularly as it didn't seem to receive much attention on its theatrical release. It's well worth seeking out, as it's a beautifully acted, superbly written and sweet natured little film that gets the tone exactly right. The extras are a bit disappointing though – they include: one deleted scene, the trailer, a ten minute Making Of featurette (worth watching for Gosling's story about going too far into character) and a mildly amusing featurette where the cast and crew all give interviews pretending that the doll (Bianca) was a real actress.