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Top 20 February Movies

Here's your guide to the Top 20 February Movies – at the cinema, on DVD, or streaming instantly, these are the pick of the films that February has to offer...

Cinema:

Carnage (3 February)

Directed by: Roman Polanski

Starring: Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz

Two New York couples (Foster & John C. Reilly; Winslet & Waltz) meet for dinner to calmly discuss the spat at school between their respective sons. All very civilised... to begin with. Based on Yasmina Reza's Tony Award-winning play.

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Martha Marcy May Marlene (3 February)

Directed by: Sean Durkin

Starring: Elizabeth Olsen, Sarah Paulson, John Hawkes

Feature debut for Elizabeth - sister of child-stars Mary-Kate & Ashley - Olsen, and she's not taking the fluffy route: escaping an abusive cult in this harrowing drama, but remaining haunted by paranoia and painful memories.

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Young Adult (3 February)

Directed by: Jason Reitman

Starring: Charlize Theron, Patrick Wilson, Patton Oswalt

Acid-tongued comedy drama from Juno writer Diablo Cody, in which Charlize Theron - a 30-something divorcee and writer of teen fiction - returns to her small Minnesota hometown to steal back her ex-boyfriend, who is now married with kids.

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The Muppets (10 February)

Directed by: James Bobin

Starring: Amy Adams, Jason Segel, Chris Cooper

It's been a long wait (punctuated by most of us with annual festive viewings of Muppet Christmas Carol, of course), but after 13 years, Fozzie, Miss Piggy, the frog and all the other Muppets return to save their old theatre from destruction.

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The Woman in the Fifth (17 February)

Directed by: Pawel Pawlikowski

Starring: Ethan Hawke, Kristin Scott Thomas, Joanna Kulig

Pawlikowski's adaptation of Douglas Kennedy's book sees down-on-his-luck writer Tom Ricks (Hawke) move to Paris to be closer to his daughter, where he meets and is seduced by Margit (Scott Thomas), a woman with a mysterious past.

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The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (24 February)

Directed by: John Madden

Starring: Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Maggie Smith

The Inbetweeners for OAPs. OK, not quite, but it's a jolly ensemble of reliable British luvvies heading for japes abroad, seeking carefree retirement in India and finding the Marigold Hotel a bit less refurbished than they imagined. Dev Patel co-stars.

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Rampart (24 February)

Directed by: Oren Moverman

Starring: Woody Harrelson, Ben Foster, Sigourney Weaver

Famed for powerful crime novels set mostly in the 1940s-60s, James Ellroy here co-writes a cop drama in late-90s LA, with Harrelson as the last of the renegades - a veteran officer fighting for survival and worried about looking after his family.

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DVD:

Tyrannosaur (6 February)

Directed by: Paddy Considine

Starring: Peter Mullan, Olivia Colman, Eddie Marsan

Hard-hitting directorial debut from actor Paddy Considine (Bourne Ultimatum), which sees Mullan's angry, violent man forge an unlikely friendship with Colman's Christian charity shop worker; whose past might prove even more devastating than his.

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We Need To Talk About Kevin (13 February)

Directed by: Lynne Ramsay

Starring: Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly, Ezra Miller

Tilda Swinton plays the mother of a teenage boy who went on a high-school killing spree, trying to deal with the terrible legacy of his actions by writing to her estranged husband. Lynne Ramsay (Movern Callar) writes and directs.

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Miss Bala (20 February)

Directed by: Gerardo Naranjo

Starring: Stephanie Sigman, Noe Hernandez, Irene Azuela

A young woman from a poor family in Tijuana, Mexico, dreams of entering a beauty contest. A dream slightly hindered when she's kidnapped by a drug lord's hitmen and forced to drive for them and drug-run into America.

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Win Win (27 February)

Directed by: Thomas McCarthy

Starring: Paul Giamatti, Amy Ryan, Jeffrey Tambor

Actor McCarthy again shows his directorly skills (after The Station Agent and The Visitor) with this sports movie about Giamatti’s glum lawyer and part-time high-school wrestling team coach, who’s desperate to break a losing streak.

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Sleeping Beauty (27 February)

Directed by: Julia Leigh

Starring: Emily Browning, Rachael Blake, Ewen Leslie

About as far from pretty Disney princess action as you can get, this provocative drama sees casually reckless university student Browning (Sucker Punch) getting sucked into a murky world of some very bizarre personal services.

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Crazy Stupid Love (28 February)

Directed by: Glenn Ficarra, John Requa

Starring: Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore

When Steve Carell's "perfect" life unravels, he becomes wingman to handsome player Ryan Gosling, who opens Steve's eyes to his newfound options: flirty women, manly drinks and a sense of style that can't be found at Supercuts or The Gap.

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LOVEFiLM Instant:

Lost (until 31 May)

Created by: JJ Abrams, Jeffrey Lieber, Damon Lindelof

Starring: Jorge Garcia, Naveen Andrews, Matthew Fox

Is it time to go back to the island? Or discover it for the first time? Stream every single episode of the global phenomenon, starting with the bombshell opener as 48 survivors stagger from the wreckage of Oceanic airlines flight 815...

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Red Dwarf

Directed by: Rob Grant, Doug Naylor

Starring: Chris Barrie, Craig Charles, Danny John-Jules

Travel back to the late 80s and then into future deep space, where the last survivor of the human race awakens aboard the Red Dwarf, accompanied by an infuriating hologram, the morose ship's computer, and a highly evolved cat.

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Paranormal Activity

Directed by: Oren Peli

Starring: Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat, Mark Fredrichs

Recently moved into their new San Diego home, a young couple rig up a battery of surveillance cameras to prove they're neither mad nor paranoid, and that things really are going bump in the night. And not in a good way.

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Gnomeo & Juliet (from 11 February)

Directed by: Kelly Asbury

Starring: James McAvoy, Emily Blunt, Maggie Smith

As garden gnomes caught in a Shakespearean family feud, McAvoy and Blunt voice star-crossed lovers Gnomeo & Juliet, for whom the path of true love is crazy-paved. With the voices of Michael Caine, Jason Statham and Ozzy Osbourne.

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Zombieland (from 15 February)

Directed by: Ruben Fleischer

Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Woody Harrelson

Shaun Of The Dead-inspired road movie starring Harrelson and Eisenberg as two survivors of a zombie apocalypse thrown together in an unlikely partnership, and basing their strategy on the steps in Eisenberg's zombie survival guide.

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Attack the Block (from 19 February)

Directed by: Joe Cornish

Starring: John Boyega, Jodie Whittaker, Alex Esmail

Comedy-actioner in which the general ASBOhaviour of a teen gang in south London is somewhat interrupted by fireballs exploding out of the sky and an alien invasion. Nick Frost (Hot Fuzz) co-stars in director Joe Cornish’s (Adam & Joe) debut.

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Darren Bignell