Other films out this week

SAVE THE GREEN PLANET

Cert 18, 116 mins

A young man believes that aliens are causing all the world's ills and manages to capture one masquerading as a high-flown business executive. In fact, the aliens are trying to save the world from itself in this eccentrically inventive debut from South Korean Jang Jun-Hwan. Everything bar the kitchen sink is thrown at the screen, with copious references to Western sci-fi and horror filmmakers. About 15 minutes too long, but very lively.

THE ISTER

NC, 189 mins

The Ister is a famous poem about the Danube by Friedrich Holderlin, which inspired an equally well-known lecture course by philosopher Martin Heidegger delivered at a time in 1942 when the Nazis were preparing the Final Solution.

This three-hour documentary from David Barison and Daniel Ross takes three contemporary philosophers and Hans-J¸rgen Syberberg, the German filmmaker, on a journey up the Danube, from the Black Sea delta in Romania to its Black Forest source. They discuss the poem, Heidegger and the course of Western civilisation on the way. Fascinating, but not for those wanting to shut off tired brains in the cinema.

SWITCHBLADE ROMANCE

Cert 18, 85 mins

Stylish, but rather silly, slasher movie from Frenchman Alexandre Aja. There's an old farmhouse, two girlfriends arriving there to study quietly, and an axe, razor and woodcutterwielding maniac at the door.

The silliness comes with the final twist, but the rest is watchably bloody if you like that sort of thing.

CELLULAR

Cert 15, 90 mins

A beach bum in LA (Chris Evans, no relation to our ginger) receives a call on his mobile from Kim Basinger. She has been kidnapped, and so has her young son. He tells the police but William H Macy's kindly inspector is too busy to help much.

As Jason Statham's kidnapper becomes more and more threatening, Evans takes matters into his own hands.

Director David R Ellis does his best with a mundane screenplay and Basinger, still looking good, gives sweating terror a fine work-out.

SPIVS

Cert 15, 91 mins

A totally misjudged British comedy thriller, set in the East End, about petty crooks who get mixed up in real trouble - the illegal import of children for the sex business. Not at all funny. Even Ken Stott's decent turn, as a conman who takes pity on two children, can't save it. Nor can Jack Dee as a stuttering businessman quickly out of his depth. Colin Teague's film is like a television pilot gone wrong.

THE PUNISHER

Cert 18, 123 mins

A Marvel Comics adaptation, already the subject of a very moderate Dolph Lundgren actioner of the same name, starring Tom Jane as retired FBI agent Frank Castle who ditches his gentler life to become a vigilante.