If last year's film version of Hairspray put a spring in your step, then dust off your dancing shoes - Mamma Mia! is a delight. Director Phyllida Lloyd and writer Catherine Johnson, who masterminded the smash-hit stage version of the all-singing all-dancing musical, work their magic here too with an all-star cast including Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth.

From the opening strains of I Have A Dream to the full-cast rendition of Waterloo in glittery catsuits and platform boots, this rollicking romance set to the ABBA songbook is 108 minutes of pure, undiluted joy. It's so much fun, Mamma Mia! should be prescribed on the NHS. You'll leave the cinema elated - and perhaps a little tearful after Streep's heartbreaking solo on Winner Takes It All - and it doesn't matter a jot that most of the male cast can't hold a melody. Indeed, it adds to the film's boundless charm as the cast throw themselves with unrestrained gusto into each brilliantly choreographed number, including impressive mid-air splits from Streep as she bounces on a bed singing the anthemic Dancing Queen with co-stars Christine Baranski and Julie Walters, the latter scene-stealing with her comic exploits.

The Greek islands of Skiathos and Skopelos provide a breathtaking backdrop to the fun and games, with crystal blue waters where Amanda Seyfried and Dominic Cooper frolic for their duet, Lay All Your Love On Me. You'll wish you were here.

Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) is poised to marry her hunky fiancé Sky (Dominic Cooper) on an idyllic island where her mother Donna (Streep) runs a decrepit taverna. Unfortunately, the blushing bride-to-be has no one to give her away because Donna refuses to reveal the identity of Sophie's father. So Sophie invites the three old flames who could be her old man - divorced architect Sam (Brosnan), intrepid travel writer and explorer Bill (Stellan Skarsgard) and steadfast banker Harry (Colin Firth) - in the hope that one of them will be able to walk her down the aisle. Their sudden arrival throws Donna into an emotional whirl, leaving ballsy childhood mates Tanya (Christine Baranski) and Rosie (Walters) to pick up the pieces.

Mamma Mia! skips merrily through ABBA's greatest hits, including Gimme Gimme Gimme, Super Trooper and Take a Chance On Me. Sadly, screenwriter Johnson excises a number of songs (Knowing Me, Knowing You, The Name of the Game and One of Us) from the stage show to keep the running time trim, consigning Thank You for the Music to the end credits.

Streep is marvellous as a mother on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and Brosnan, Firth and Skarsgard embrace their roles without restraint, having as much fun making the film as we do watching it. Their infectious energy reaches a giddy high when we're encouraged to sing and dance like lunatics in the aisles to an uproarious reprise of Dancing Queen. Resistance is futile.

Martial arts titans Jet Li and Jackie Chan share the screen for the very first time in Rob Minkoff's chop socky adventure The Forbidden Kingdom, a lively East meets West smackdown filmed on location in China. Fight choreographer Yuen Woo-ping orchestrates a series of dazzling, gravity-defying action set pieces, including a skirmish on a mountaintop and the long awaited face-off between the iconic Chinese and Hong Kong leads. A picturesque bamboo forest recalls a pivotal sequence from House of Flying Daggers, closely following the obligatory skirmish in a busy teahouse, which lies in tatters by the end of the fast-paced confrontation. The film is hugely entertaining and self-consciously daft, hung loosely on a fantastical yarn that incorporates elements from various well-known legends and novels.

After a prologue to explain the mythology of The Monkey King (Li), the film begins in Chinatown, New York, where kung fu crazy misfit Jason (Michael Angarano) often goes to rifle through DVDs at a pawn shop run by doddering Old Hop (Chan). "You watch too much Hong Kong phooey," jokes the owner, amused by the schoolboy's passion for obscure martial arts films. Unfortunately, weakling Jason is a prime target for a gang of bullies who use the youngster as bait to force their way into Old Hop's shop, fatally wounding the owner. With his dying breath, Old Hop instructs Jason to return one item - a golden staff - to its rightful owner, the legendary Monkey King.

The boy flees with the staff and in the ensuing chase across the rooftops, Jason is magically transported to ancient China where the Jade Warlord (Collin Chou) seeks the talisman in the boy's possession. Thankfully, drunken master Lu Yan (Chan again) rescues Jason from the warlord's minions and begins to tutor the schoolboy in the art of fighting so that he can fulfill a prophecy and deliver the staff to Five Elements Mountain.

The unlikely friends are joined by the enigmatic, dart-wielding Golden Sparrow (Yifei Liu) and the Silent Monk (Li again), who also hopes to release The Monkey King from incarceration. Meanwhile, the Jade Warlord promises an elixir of immortality to the White-Haired Demoness (LI Bingbing) if she can thwart Jason and his merry band, and retrieve the staff.

The Forbidden Kingdom is a rollicking romp for the whole family, playing Jason's Rocky-style training under Lu Yan and the Silent Monk for laughs.

These sequences are interspersed with some lively banter between Chan's mentor and Angarano's wet-behind-the-ears protege, who is summarily dismissed by the Silent Monk because of his skin colour.

"We are all the same inside aren't we?" counters Lu Yan angrily, emphasising the film's central message about finding the hero within.

Director Minkoff barely pauses for breath between the fights, building to a spectacular final showdown awash with clashing swords, gravity-defying acrobatics and explosive computer effects.