Movies to look out for

Coming soon to a multiplex near you

Will Smith is Alex "Hitch" Hitchens in this romantic comedy, a matchmaker (or "professional date doctor", what will they come up with next) who has been responsible for many weddings but has never (you guessed it) taken the plunge himself.

Eva Mendes is Sara, a gossip columnist who is trying to break a story by exposing Smith as a fraud "" he, meanwhile has actually fallen for her. Slightly formulaic, but with Will Smith, how far wrong can you go?

If you liked How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days or Two Weeks Notice , or pretty much any chick flick ever made, you'll probably like this one, so go take a look.

Shall We Dance?
(Richard Gere, Jennifer Lopez, Susan Sarandon)

Opening next weekend, Shall We Dance? is a chick flick, but with a slight twist. A remake of a Japanese film released in 1995, it stars Richard Gere as an increasingly disillusioned lawyer entering middle age who spies a young woman (Jennifer Lopez) in a window and wants to find out more about her.

The American version, by all accounts, is less sharp and more (true to Hollywood fashion) candy-coated, and has the added burden of Jennifer Lopez (Angel Eyes? Gigli?), but should be a fun watch nevertheless.

Pacifier
(Vin Diesel)

You may have a certain picture in your mind when you find out that this is a Vin Diesel film, but actually (as the title of the film may hint) it is a very different kind of film to XXX or 2 Fast 2 Furious; think more Arnold Schwarzenegger's tentative foray into comedy with Kindergarten Cop.

With an able supporting cast, and a message that should come as a welcome surprise after all the incredibly spoilt and bratty kids we encounter on the silver screen ("We're gonna do it my way "" no highway option"), this should be a good way to kill an afternoon.

2046 dir.
Wong Kar Wei

Referring to huge crowds swamping tiny auditoria during last year's edition of the Cinemaya film festival in Delhi, Aruna Vasudev suggested that multiplexes might be ready for these "niche" films.

The films directed by Hong Kong's Wong Kar-Wai had by far the largest attendance at Cinemaya, so it's fitting that Kar-Wai's latest, 2046, will soon make it to a PVR near you.

One of his quirkiest projects, 2046 features the usual Kar-Wai themes "" romantic relationships and lost memories "" but places them in the framework of a time-travel story.