The latest releases reviewed
A SCANNER DARKLY ****
Directed by Richard Linklater. Starring Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr, Woody Harrelson, Winona Ryder, Mitch Baker, Rory Cochrane 16 cert
Bewildering, but effective adaptation of a much puzzled-over Philip K Dick novel, set in a California addicted to a mysteriously powerful drug. Returning to the blend of live action and animation he pioneered for Waking Life, Linklater invests every frame with paranoia and unease. The DVD commentary, featuring, among others, Dick's daughter, is passable, as are the featurettes. Donald Clarke
ZIDANE: A 21ST CENTURY PORTRAIT ****
Directed by Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno PG cert
If ever a film divided audiences, it was Gordon and Parreno's experimental study of Zinédine Zidane. Following the great man though one game without adding commentary or context, the picture is either a pretentious bore or - and this is our view - a gorgeous throb of audiovisual ambience. The DVD, though rich with extras, may, offer a less than impressive experience on tellies smaller than tennis courts. Donald Clarke
THE BLACK DAHLIA ***
Directed by Brian De Palma. Starring Josh Hartnett, Aaron Eckhart, Scarlett Johansson, Hilary Swank, Mia Kirshner, Fiona Shaw 16 cert
De Palma barely maintains control of James Ellroy's dense, dark novel, and comparisons with Curtis Hanson's adaptation of Ellroy's LA Confidential are inevitable - and unflattering. It doesn't help that the film's focus narrows increasingly onto the bland and inexpressive Hartnett. But despite this, and unlike everything else De Palma has done for the last 20 years, this is really not too terrible. Hugh Linehan
ANGEL-A ***
Directed by Luc Besson. Starring Jamel Debbouze, Rie Rasmussen, Gilbert Melki, Serge Riaboukine 15 cert
Besson returns to his minimalist roots with a sweet and tender morality tale in which a chain-smoking guardian angel (Rasmussen) comes to the rescue of a suicidal Algerian immigrant (Debouzze) who's up to his neck in debt. The film is handsomely photographed as a monochrome valentine to Besson's native Paris. Michael Dwyer
WORLD TRADE CENTER **
Directed by Oliver Stone. Starring Nicolas Cage, Michael Pena, Maria Bello, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jay Hernandez, Stephen Dorff, Frank Whaley, Michael Shannon 15 cert
Stone takes one of the few good news stories from 9/11 - the survival of two dedicated police officers trapped under the rubble - and treats it with the sentimentality of a soap opera. His unsubtle, untypically apolitical picture later takes an unexpected turn, implicitly connecting the invasion of Iraq with the terrorist attack on New York. Michael Dwyer
CLICK **
Directed by Frank Coraci. Starring Adam Sandler, Kate Beckinsale, Christopher Walken, Sean Astin, David Hasselhoff, Henry Winkler, Julie Kavner 12 cert
Sandler, a fraught architect, acquires a remote control that freezes, speeds-up and mutes real life. Though classier than Sandler's usual scrappy romps, Click - released in a distinctly under-appointed DVD - ends up being far too sentimental and hypocritical for its own good. Donald Clarke
TIDELAND **
Directed by Terry Gilliam. Starring Jodelle Ferland, Brendan Fletcher, Janet McTeer, Jeff Bridges, Jennifer Tilly 18 cert
In what Gilliam describes as Alice in Wonderland meets Psycho, the Alice surrogate is a 10-year-old girl (played by gifted Ferland), who survives in a fantasy world when her junkie parents fatally overdose. As her father, Bridges is wasted in more ways than one. Gilliam's visual flair sustains his lugubrious movie to a certain extent. Michael Dwyer
THE SENTINEL *
Directed by Clark Johnson. Starring Michael Douglas, Kiefer Sutherland, Eva Longoria, Kim Basinger, Martin Donovan, Blair Brown, David Rasche 12 cert
Douglas, now as jowly as a 15-year-old beagle, plays a secret service agent compromised by his unprofessionally sweaty relationship with Basinger's first lady. When a threat to her life emerges, he falls under suspicion. One of the worst thrillers released last year, this farrago of implausibility brings shame - shame, I tell you! - on everyone involved. Donald Clarke
HOODWINKED! *
Directed by Cory Edwards. Voices of Anne Hathaway, Glenn Close, Jim Belushi, Patrick Warburton, Anthony Anderson, David Ogden Stiers, Chazz Palminteri Gen cert
The Little Red Riding Hood tale gets an irreverent CGI-animated makeover in a knowing contemporary treatment. The animation is bland, the humour hopelessly strained, the puns cringe-inducing, and the songs awful. Michael Dwyer
LITTLE MAN *
Directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans. Starring Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans, Kerry Washington, John Witherspoon, Chazz Palminteri, Brittany Daniel, Tracy Morgan 12 cert
Anybody unfortunate enough to have sat through White Chicks may quite reasonably feel the Wayans brothers had sunk as low as they could go. Think again. Little Man, in which one Wayans, rendered tiny by cheap computers, plays a dishonest midget posing as a baby to retrieve a large jewel, drags their misogynistic humour deep beneath the sewers and onwards to the earth's core. Donald Clarke
