Taking on the witch-hunters

George Clooney stars in and directs in Good Night, And Good Luck, Jeff Bridges is perfectly cast as a sweetly shambling, would-be porn baron in The Moguls and Zathura is a delightful family adventure that is whimsical but never icky...

Good Night, And Good Luck
****
George Clooney's second big-screen directing effort Good Night, And Good Luck really gives the measure of the man. The true story of investigative TV journalist Edward R Murrow's battle against Senator Joe McCarthy and his anti-Communist witch-hunt, it's a relentlessly political, beautifully acted morality tale, filmed in black and white.

Clooney, who co-wrote it and plays Fred Friendly, Murrow's producer, has put his knowledge of 1950s TV studios to excellent use (his father was a journalist then). The hero of the hour is David Strathairn, Oscarnominated for his understated portrayal of Murrow.

The eagle-eyed emphasis on politics is leavened by languid shots into the recording studio next door, where jazz diva Dianne Reeves performs a gorgeous score that does as much as Murrow's on-screen smoking to evoke a romantic but rigorous spirit of the age.

Extras: Clooney audio commentary and behind-the-scenes featurette.

The Moguls
***
Jeff Bridges is perfectly cast as a sweetly shambling, would-be porn baron in The Moguls, a film that rejects sleaze in favour of down-home cuteness - occasionally you have to kick yourself to remember this is nominally about filmed sex. Andy (Bridges) is upset that his ex has married a rich guy and his son now has a basketball courtsized room - with an actual court in it. Andy is, of course, a loser.

He needs cash and a career, and what could be better than a porn film to get him both? But it's not that simple: even the town's men are camera shy, never mind the babes. There's a lot here that's predictable - male bonding, paternal devotion - but a fair few corkingly unexpected jokes, too, and it's hard not to like a film that has absolutely no interest in the moral issues around porn.

Extras: Deleted scenes, behind-thescenes featurette.

The Hills Have Eyes
***
Meet the Carters, a cosy, squabbling, all-American Christian family on a nice sunny road trip... until Pop takes a short cut across the desert. And, before you can say Wolf Creek, they are ambushed by a bunch of sadistic mutants. That Scream director Wes Craven produced this shiny remake of his 1977 original The Hills Have Eyes suggests a seal of approval.

But, although hot French horror newcomer Alexandre Aja (who directs) creates excellent family dynamics and a few good jolts of fear, he adds little to Craven's rustier-edged nasty beyond a smoother pace, pimped-up PSP-era action pieces and an unnecessary nuclear testing subtext.

Extras: Bonus footage, making-of doc and commentaries. Larushka Ivan-Zadeh

Zathura: A Space Adventure
****
Zathura is a delightful family adventure about two neglected young brothers who play a battered board game only to find it mysteriously rockets them, their house and their stroppy big teen sis into deep space and possible extinction by meteor/killer robot/their own selfishness.

It's the sort of weird little movie you'd hope to stumble across as a child, then rewatch as an adult and find it just as terrific. Whimsical but never icky, it pulls off that (original) Star Wars trick of being both whizbang and perfectly old-fashioned. A must for the seven to 12-year-olds in your life - so you can watch, too.