"The Funeral" (18) The latest Abel Ferrara movie is both an intriguing and violent gangster saga set in 1930s New York and a moral tale populated by amoral characters who share a hypocritical avowal of Catholicism. The fine cast features Christopher Walken in an edgy and electrifying performance, along with Chris Penn, Vincent Gallo, Annabella Sciorra, Isabella Rossellini and Benicio Del Toro.
"The People Vs Larry Flynt" (18) Not surprisingly, Milos Forman's factually-based drama proved controversial for depicting Larry Flynt, the pornographer who set up Hustler magazine, as a symbol of free speech. Sharp and entertaining for much of the way and with strong performances from Woody Harrelson (as Flynt), Courtney Love and Edward Norton, it falters when it turns glib and self-important.
"A Self-Made Hero" (15)
The versatile Mathieu Kassovitz, who directed La Haine, is wonderfully expressive in this clever, caustic and immensely entertaining film directed by Jacques Audiard which recalls Being There and The Front in its account of an impostor who becomes a hero in a war in which he has not fought. In French with English sub-titles.
"Fever Pitch" (15) Nick Hornby's book of an Arsenal supporter with romantic problems comes to the cinema screen with disappointing results. Colin Firth fails to convince in the central role of this tepid romantic comedy directed with no great conviction by David Evans.
"Space Truckers" (12) Filmed entirely in Ireland and set in Deep Space in the 22nd century, this risible effects-driven science-fiction film features Dennis Hopper as a long distance trucker travelling the solar system and struggling to stay in business with the help of Stephen Dorff and Debi Mazar. Directed by Stuart Gordon.
"The Saint" (12) Val Kilmer plays Simon Templar, master of theft and disguise, in this glossy, convoluted and preposterous big-screen treatment in which he is hired to steal the life work of a scientist uncomfortably played by Elisabeth Shue. Phillip Noyce directs.
"Kansas City" (15)
Set in 1934, Robert Altman's latest movie is capsized by the shrill, painfully mannered performance of Jennifer Jason Leigh as a disturbed young woman who kidnaps a politician's wife (Miranda Richardson) in the hope of freeing her con-man husband (Dermot Mulroney) from a notorious gangster (Harry Belafonte). The fine jazz score compensates.
"The Addiction" (18) Shot in stark black-and-white, Abel Ferrara's belatedly arrived 1995 movie is a cold and gory contemporary horror movie of vampires in New York City. It features Lili Taylor, Annabella Sciorra, and all too briefly, Christopher Walken, but it doesn't compare with The Funeral (see above).
"Jungle 2 Jungle" (PG) Disney's Americanisation of the French film, Un Indien Dans La Ville, is corny and predictable in its stock tale of father-son bonding. Tim Allen plays a stockbroker who learns he has a 13-year-old son living in the Amazon jungle and brings him home to New York. John Pasquin directs.
"Powder" (15)
A strained fable on the pointlessness of prejudice, Victor Salva's heavy-handed yarn features Sean Patrick Flannery as a hairless young man with startlingly white skin - and telekinetic powers which help him deal with oppression. The creepiest thing about the movie is not what the special effects wreak but how the young man with his pallor, hat and tremulous voice, eerily resembles Michael Jackson.
"Eddie" (PG) Whoopi Goldberg is shamelessly on auto-pilot as a loudmouthed basketball fan and Frank Langella is no more impressive as the new owner of the New York Knicks who hires her as their new coach. Everything that follows is tiresomely predictable in this stodgy, blandly formulaic yarn directed by Steve Rash.
Neil Jordan's Michael Collins, the all-time box-office champion at Irish cinemas is now available on sell-through for £14.99. A special limited edition boxed set - containing a wide-screen video of the movie, a one-hour documentary and Jordan's screenplay - is available for £19.99.
