This week’s movie releases

The seed of a potential new franchise, The Host is based on a novel by The Twilight Saga author Stephenie Meyer, who plans to add two more to the series. This time, instead of reworking vampire lore, the inspiration is Invasion of the Body Snatchers-style 1950s sci-fi, as Earth is overrun by parasitic aliens who take over the minds of humans. Gattaca director Andrew Niccol’s movie stars young talent Saoirse Ronan (Hanna) as a teenager who fights back against the alien “soul” inside her, forming a bond with her invader.

Sylvester Stallone makes his umpteenth comeback in Bullet to the Head, an adaptation of French graphic novel Du plomb dans la tête, which also marks the first feature from director Walter Hill (Southern Comfort) in over a decade. Sly stars as a New Orleans assassin who hooks up with a cop (Sung Kang) to avenge the killings of their respective partners.

A chip off the Flintstones’ block, The Croods is an animated 3D comedy about a stone-age family’s road trip to find a new home after their cave is destroyed. Nicolas Cage and Ryan Reynolds provide voices.

Also hitting the road is Jason Bateman in comedy Identity Thief. He stars as an accounts rep forced to schlep halfway across the US to track down the con artist (Bridesmaids’ Melissa McCarthy) living it up in Miami on his good name.

Lastly, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia is the latest from Turkish master Nuri Bilge Ceylan, director of the brilliant Uzak (2002) and Climates (2006). The film follows a cop, a doctor and a murder suspect, among others, as they spend a night searching for a dead body. As events progress, it becomes clear things are not what they seem.