2012’s been a jam packed year for film, what with those Avengers assembling, that Dark Knight rising, Spiderman swinging back into town and Peter Jackson taking us back to Middle Earth. Now, provided those Mayans were wrong, it looks like 2013 will be no different. It’s set to be yet another great year for film and there are so many movies to look forward to that we just can’t seem to fit all of them in. So, here’s a month by month guide to just a few of the movies to look forward to in 2013.

JANUARY
2013 gets off to a flying cinematic start and movies maven Caroline Foran has the full lowdown of the flicks you can’t miss when you’re trying to beat those January blues.

FEBRUARY
Sylvester Stallone bursts back on to cinema screens in Bullet to the Head while Denzel Washington‘s Flight strays into some dodgy territory. Nicholas Hoult stars as a zombie with the glad eye in Warm Bodies, Wreck-It Ralph, well, he wrecks the gaff, and we head behind the scenes of Psycho in Hitchcock. Some Beautiful Creatures fill the Twilight void and Bruce Willis reminds us that February 14th is most definitely a A Good Day to Die Hard, while Leslie Mann and Paul Rudd try to keep the love alive in This Is 40. Gemma Arterton and Jeremy Renner head into the woods as Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters and the Hardy Bucks are off on a European adventure in their very own movie. Finally, Tom Hanks returns for the much hyped Cloud Atlas.

MARCH
Beware the ides of March they said; they clearly didn’t think to head to the cinema. Melissa McCarthy and Jason Bateman go head to head in comedy caper Identity Thief  while James Franco heads to the Emerald City to try his luck as Oz: The Great and Powerful. We’re climbing a beanstalk with Jack The Giant Slayer and exploring the planet with The Croods, aka the world’s first family. Russell Crowe, Catherine Zeta Jones and Mark Wahlberg go through their fair share of drama in Broken City, G.I Joe: Retaliation brings the action, and our own Saoirse Ronan takes the lead in Stephanie Meyer‘s extraterrestrial offering, The Host.

APRIL
Drip drip drop little April shower, sure we’ll just catch a movie instead of heading out! Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy bring the pain in The Heat while Chloe Grace Moretz scares the bejaysus out of us in a Carrie remake. Ryan Gosling, his missus Eva Mendez and Bradley Cooper take us to The Place Beyond The Pines and Tom Cruise is on a mission in a post-apocalyptic world in Oblivion. Horror remakes are all the rage this month with the Evil Dead rear their ugly heads before Tony Stark makes a welcome return to our screens, taking on the Mandarin in Iron Man 3.

MAY
Saoirse Ronan and Gemma Arterton give the vampire thing a go in Byzantium this month, while Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne Johnson team up with Michael Bay for bodybuilding flick Pain and Gain. Things, as D:Ream would say, can only get better with Baz Luhrmann‘s Great Gatsby and Star Trek:Into Darkness both hitting our cinema screens on May 17th. There’ll be some tough decisions to make at the Box Office! The voice talents of Colin Farrell, Amanda Seyfried and Beyonce are put to the test in Epic and the Wolfpack are up to their old tricks again in The Hangover Part 3.

JUNE
The Pursuit of Happiness dream team Will and Jaden Smith team up for a flick that tells us all about Life After Earth. Speaking of men from other planets, Superman’s back this month. Henry Cavill is the Man of Steel himself in Zack Snyder and Chrisopher Nolan‘s reboot. We can’t wait to see how Amy Adams gets on as Lois Lane. Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, and Woody Harrelson are a crafty team of illusionists who steal plenty of cash in Now You See Me while Brad Pitt is taking on the undead in World War Z. PLUS, Despicable Me 2 hits cinema screens. What a nice start to the summer!

JULY
If you’re not too busy tanning yourself (during an Irish summer? ye wha?) then make sure you sit yourself down in the cinema. Mike and Sully return to the big screen in Monsters University, a flick that takes us back to the boys’ Scare School days. A very different breed of monster runs riot in Benicio Del Toro‘s Pacific Rim but never fear, once you’ve got a Jaeger handy you’ll be grand. Aaron Johnson and Chloe Moretz are back to their old tricks in Kick-Ass 2 while The Smurfs are also back in action. But there’s one return to the big screen that we’re just a little too happy about: Hugh Jackman‘s got his claws back just in time for The Wolverine.

AUGUST
Find out what Percy Jackson’s getting up to next in a Sea of Monsters when it hits Irish cinemas this month. Armie Hammer‘s stepping into the shoes of The Lone Ranger while Simon Pegg takes us to The World’s End in a flick that tells the tale of five friends who were simply trying to finish a pub crawl; Rosamund Pike co-stars. Our very own Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and Robert Sheehan represent in the latest demonic book adaptation, Mortal Instruments: City of Bones before One Direction take us home in their very first 3D Concert Movie. This is clearly what we’ll be waiting for all year.

SEPTEMBER
It’s all a bit quiet on the western front at the mo. September is a long way away but there are still a few flicks to look forward to! Jamie Foxx is Mr President himself in White House Down, an action flick focusing on a Secret Service agent (Channing Tatum) who must get the Commander in Chief to safety when his Pennsylvania Avenue pad is taken over by terrorists. Matt Damon and Jodie Foster continue the post-apocalyptic trend with Elysium, an action drama set in 2159. The rich live in space and the poor live on a ruined planet Earth but Matt Damon’s on a mission that could change all of that. So far so good September, so far so good!

OCTOBER
There’s even more Paranormal Activity in the run up to Halloween when the fifth installment in the franchise hits our screens. They’re keeping things spooky with the movie releases this month as The Seventh Son (another book adaptation about sorcery) wings its way into cinemas, with Julianne Moore, Jeff Bridges and Ben Barnes heading up the cast. Julianne’s looking mighty fierce as an evil sorceress in this one. And of courseChris Hemsworth picks his hammer and teams up with Natalie Portman once again in the much anticipated Thor: The Dark World.

NOVEMBER
If there’s one movie to catch in November then it’s got to be Catching Fire. The hotly anticipated sequel to The Hunger Games is sure to be a hit with Jennifer Lawrence taking up her bow and heading back into the arena once again. Josh Holloway aka Sawyer from Lost, is teaching Chris Brown and Josh Peck how to dance (yes, you read that right, he’s teaching them how to be B-Boys) just in time for the Battle of The Year

DECEMBER
We’ve been there and we’re heading back again; This time around we’re talking the Desolation of Smaug with Bilbo and the gang. Big word that, desolation. Sounds dramatic. If you can’t stand the head then Disney‘s Frozen will cool you down; this fairytale flicks sounds spectacular and we’re hoping we can believe the hype. Chris Pine ditches the Starfleet garb and joins Kevin Costner, Kenneth Branagh and Keira Knightley for Jack Ryan. He plays the titular young covert CIA analyst, who uncovers a Russian plot to crash the U.S. economy with a terrorist attack. And last but by no means least, Anchorman 2 will be coming to a cinema near you on December 20th, 2013. Baxter? Is that you? Bark twice if you’re in Milwaukee!

Originally published at entertainment.ie