Other films out this week

Twisted

Cert 15, 97 minutes

If this vaguely psychological thriller had starred Robert Mitchum and Joan Crawford, and been directed by someone like Sam Fuller, we might have had some fun. Instead, its leads are Andy Garcia and Ashley Judd and it is directed by the usually cerebral Philip Kaufman (The Unbearable Lightness of Being etc). The result is terminally silly.

Garcia and Judd are partners in the San Francisco Police homicide department investigating a series of murders, the victims of which have all been to bed with Judd. Even so, Samuel L Jackson doesn't take her off the case because that might reflect on his judgment in promoting her.

So far, so unlikely. But if I tell you what eventually happens, you would doubt the accuracy of my memory. Suffice it to say that the gamine-like Judd looks as much like a police officer as Julie Andrews, and the rest of the cast simply look desperate. True, the filming is okay. Quite atmospheric, in fact. But I can't remember seeing anything so foolishly plotted for a very long time.

Falcons

Cert 15, 95 mins

Fridrik Thor Fridriksson made the first Icelandic film ever nominated for an Oscar, but I fear this one won't have that honour. It stars Keith Carradine as an ex-con who returns to the land of his descent, perhaps to end it all. He finds, instead, a beautiful artist (Margrèt Vilhj·lmsdÛttir) to couple with and a fine falcon, which they have to sell in order to live. Then some cardboard crooks intervene. Stunning scenery, but the almost mythic quality of the story gets badly embroiled in melodrama.

Walking Tall

Cert 15, 84 mins

The Rock, again, this time coming home after service in the special forces to find his one-horse township taken over by casino crooks in cahoots with the police. A temperate man who never uses guns, he explodes at the injustice of it all and smashes the baddies up with a plank of wood and his bare hands. Verdict: a personable actor in what turns out to be an efficient but morally reprehensible vigilante movie.

Twisted
Cert: 15