Review

Made in 1960, the first big-screen outing for Patricia Highsmith’s talented Tom Ripley introduced audiences to one of crime fiction’s great anti-heroes – and made a star out of Alain Delon. The shape of the plot, in which Ripley schemes to usurp the identity of a wealthy acquaintance, will be …

“Clown or Frankie?” says Mark Wahlberg to Denzel Washington in 2 Guns as they get ready to rob a bank in Bozo the clown and Frankenstein’s Monster masks respectively. Iceland’s Baltasar Kormákur ( Contraband ) faces a parallel quandary in this action caper, which struggles to balance its jokey tone …

Movies tell us the life of a successful criminal needs to be free from attachment. Unless you want to end up doing a dime in last season’s orange jumpsuit, don’t cozy up to anything you can’t drop in thirty seconds when you smell those handcuffs coming around the corner. Being …

With Cars and its sequel remaining Pixar’s least-loved films to date, the fact that the studio isn’t even involved with this Disney spin-off should ring alarm bells. The tale of a plucky crop-duster – named, um, Dusty (Dane Cook) – overcoming his fear of heights and lowly status to take …

What’s fundamentally wrong with The Lone Ranger is precisely that: the fundamentals. Where to start? How about an eponymous hero (Armie Hammer) whose origin journey from lawyer to avenger is as misconceived as it is unengaging? Then there’s the slog of a story, centred on the construction of a train …

The Returned 1.08 “The Horde” review . Episode 1.08 Writer: Fabrice Gobert Director: THE ONE WHERE A group of 100 or more Returned advance on The Helping Hand. VERDICT You didn’t really think we were going to get all the answers this week, did you? Okay, we do get a …

“This isn’t going to end well!” says a ghostly Jean Grey during one of the nocturnal visits she makes to Hugh Jackman’s subconscious in this latest outing for his hairy, claw-baring X-Man. Ironic, then, that the ending to Marvel’s sixth mutant opus – a terrific final flourish which tantalisingly trails …

Goro ‘son of Hayao’ Miyazaki’s second Studio Ghibli film lands on surer narrative turf than his over-reaching debut, Tales From Earthsea (2006). But the vote’s still out on whether he’s the ani-magician his father is. In truth, Goro doesn’t try to hit his dad’s fantastical highs, drawing instead on the …

If modern Japan is being invaded by demonic creatures and only angsty teens can save the day, then you’re probably playing one of the many Shin Megami Tensei games. The franchise is known for its hardcore JRPG gameplay and mature storytelling, and the fourth core Shin Megami Tensei adventure brings …

Joining Scandinavia’s impressive array of crime thrillers is Daniel Esponosia’s Easy Money (aka Snabba Cash): the 2010 film that preceded the Swedish director’s US Denzel-starring debut Safe House . Stockholm-set, it follows poor, money-obsessed business student Johan (Joel Kinnaman), whose shallow double life as a high-society playboy is only supported …