The latest releases reviewed
AMERICAN GANGSTER ****
Directed by Ridley Scott. Starring Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Cuba Gooding Jr, Josh Brolin, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Armand Assante, Ruby Dee 16 cert
Scott is back to his best with this saga detailing the efforts of Frank Lucas, an African-American gangster of the 1970s, to import heroin directly from Asia and sell it cheap on the streets. Washington is dignified in the lead role and Crowe is attractively dishevelled as the cop pursuing him. The extended cut on the fine two-disc edition fleshes out the story satisfactorily.
INTO THE WILD ****
Directed by Sean Penn. Starring Emile Hirsch, Marcia Gay Harden, William Hurt, Jena Malone, Catherine Keener, Hal Holbrook, Vince Vaughn 15 cert
Penn's fourth film as director is his most adventurous and accomplished. It charts the factually based experiences of a complicated young college graduate, Christopher McCandless (Hirsch), who drops out of society in a quest for utopian simplicity that ends in Alaska. Visually the film is an outstanding achievement, and it features fine performances from Hirsch and Oscar-nominated Holbrook.
THE COUNTERFEITERS/DIE FALSCHER ****
Directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky. Starring Karl Markovics 15 cert
Given the Oscar for best foreign- language feature last month, this absorbing film dramatizes the true story of concentration camp prisoners forced to forge currency for the Nazis. The clash of their survival instincts with moral quandaries about what they are doing adds to the developing tension of the movie.
I DO/PRÊTE-MOI TA MAIN ***
Directed by Eric Lartigau. Starring Alain Chabat, Charlotte Gains- bourg 15 cert
Fed up with family pressures on him to marry, a 43-year- old Parisian perfumier (Chabat) pays a young woman (Gainsbourg) to pose as his fiancée and, then ditch him on their wedding day. Their plan encounters unimagined complications in this breezy, appealing comedy.
KM 31/KILÓMETRO 31 **
Directed by Rigoberto Castañeda. Starring Iliana Fox, Adrià Collado 18 cert
Mexican writer- director Castañeda exhibits a flair for conjuring ominous imagery and atmosphere in his debut feature. It follows the fates of symbiotic twin sisters, one comatose after a car accident. However, KM 31 is short on suspense and undermined by recurring imagery all-too familiar from recent Japanese horror movies.
GOOD LUCK CHUCK *
Directed by Mark Helfrich. Starring Dane Cook, Jessica Alba 18 cert
Cook is troubled by a magic spell that causes every woman he has sex with to find her ideal partner immediately after the grisly business has ended. This puerile, grossly sexist, stubbornly illogical film manages to be even more ghastly than it sounds. It might, actually, be Jessica Alba's worst yet. No, really!
