JEREMY SMITH with a rundown of the latest releases at cinemas over the festive season.

MAIN FEATURES: * SHERLOCK HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS: Opens tomorrow The great Victorian detective is back, embodied with wit and vigour by Robert Downey Jr and aided loyally by Jude Law as Dr Watson.

This latest mystery, directed once more by Guy Ritchie, is packed with bone-crunching action as it pits the daring duo against arch foe Moriarty (Jared Harris).

* ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS: CHIPWRECKED Opens tomorrow On vacation aboard a luxury cruise ship, Alvin, Simon, Theodore and the Chipettes are up to their usual antics, until they become ‘chipwrecked’ on a desert island. As Dave Seville frantically searches for his AWOL charges, the ‘Munks’ and Chipettes do what they do best – sing, dance and wreak havoc.

* THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO Opens Boxing Day Daniel Craig, bottom right, stars as the dogged investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist who teams up with feisty computer hacker Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara) to uncover past crimes buried deep beneath the respectable facade of modern Swedish society. David Fincher directs this eagerly awaited English language adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s enormous international bestseller * MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: GHOST PROTOCOL Opens Boxing Day Tom Cruise, top right, returns as Ethan Hunt in another thrilling adventure, and faces his most daunting mission yet (no millions are spared on some of the outrageous stunt sequences either). An explosion near the Kremlin is blamed on Ethan’s IMF team, so they are publicly disbanded but covertly tasked with getting to the bottom of the mystery. Jeremy Renner and Simon Pegg co-star.

INTERMISSION: Don’t forget the classic, the magical, the ‘I’ve -watched-it-30-times-but-it-simply-isn’t-Christmas-without-it’ It’s A Wonderful Life starring James Stewart at the Phoenix Picturehouse Cinema in Walton Street, Oxford, on Christmas Eve. Starts 4.30pm.

ON RELEASE AND WORTH A LOOK...

* THE THING (15) A deadly, shape shifting alien spreads terror through a remote outpost of scientists in Antarctica when it is inadvertently freed from an icy tomb, eerily adopting human form as it kills the increasingly paranoid group one by one. This chilling prequel to the 1982 classic, directed by John Carpenter, stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Joel Edgerton.

* THE BIG YEAR (PG) Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson portray three men who face unique personal challenges, and share an uncommon passion for birdwatching. In the year’s biggest competition they undertake an unforgettable trek, fall in and out of love, engage in hilarious adventures and form friendships that will last a lifetime.

* HAPPY FEET TWO 3D (U) A welcome return to Antarctica reunites us with Mumble (voiced by Elijah Wood), the tap-dancing penguin, bottom left, who has now found love with Gloria (Pink) and has a son of his own. But while young Erik struggles to make his mark in this vast landscape greater dangers still threaten them all...

* PUSS IN BOOTS (U) If you ever wondered what Puss was up to before Shrek met him this gleeful tale fills in his hilarious backstory. Antonio Banderas voices our feline hero, as he teams up with the tough Kitty Softpaws and resourceful Humpty Dumpty to defeat a deadly threat facing their town.