Angel and Sakuran

3:24pm Wednesday 27th August 2008

Two spirited women attempting to breach the conventions of their times dominate this week's minor releases. But neither François Ozon nor Mika Ninagawa wholly succeeds in making us warm to their unconventional heroines.

	Somers Town. Zero: An Investigation into 9/11
	3:16pm Wed 27 Aug 08
	Having skirted the issue of post-9/11 attitudes to Islam by setting This Is England in the 1980s, Shane Meadows similarly ducks the true realities of being a Polish immigrant in New Labour London in Somers Town. However, the lack of socio-political depth is more justifiable in this genial, if slight saga, as neglected 15-year-old Piotr Jagiello and runaway orphan Thomas Turgoose are so untutored in the ways of life that any agit-prop agenda would be wholly inappropriate.

Jimmy Carter Man from Plains, The Banishment and Death Defying Acts

5:01pm Wednesday 20th August 2008

he central premise of Jonathan Demme's documentary Jimmy Carter Man From Plains is that the US made a big mistake in not re-electing its 39th President, as not only were so many of his policies ahead of their time, but the world would also have been spared 20 years of Ronald Reagan and the Bush dynasty. Yet in following the 82-year-old on a nationwide tour promoting his book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, Demme is too often guilty of canonising Carter and trivialising complex issues.

	Hellboy II: The Golden Army
	4:59pm Wed 20 Aug 08
	Hellboy II: The Golden Army, the sequel to Guillermo del Toro's 2004 fantasy based on Mike Mignola's comics series, is every bit as fast and furious as its predecessor, melding dazzling production design with wry humour and explosive action sequences. Having sketched the origins of the characters in the first film, del Toro is given free rein here to let his imagination run amok, concocting a dark and bloody fairy-tale full of trolls, goblins and a 9ft tall Angel of Death.

	The Cool School, A Walk into the Sea, Black and White + Gray, and Little Box of Sweets
	2:37pm Wed 13 Aug 08
	The Institute of Contemporary Arts in London has teamed with Revolver Entertainment to premiere a trio of highbrow documentaries that will transfer to DVD at the end of August. Given that the school holidays have increasingly become a dumping ground for crass comedies and mediocre melodramas that the despondant shruggingly patronise after being turned away from a sold-out blockbuster, it's refreshing to find films of such serious intent restoring a little intellectual credibility to the summer schedule.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

2:35pm Wednesday 13th August 2008

Just when you thought George Lucas had milked his intergalactic cash cow dry with endless re-issues of the Star Wars saga on DVD, he executive produces a computer-animated adventure that slips neatly into the narrative divide between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.

	The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon and The Fox and the Child
	4:20pm Wed 6 Aug 08
	Stephen Sommers, writer-director of The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, and leading lady Rachel Weisz sensibly bailed on the dull third chapter of the globetrotting adventure series. The rest of the cast returns for replacement helmsman Rob Cohen, plus a new faces including martial arts superstar Jet Li, as the flimsy storyline gallops from the catacombs of China to the snow-laden peaks of the Himalayas.

	Blindsight, Man on Wire, Berlin and A Letter to True
	8:52am Thu 31 Jul 08
	Not a Friday seems to go by without another impressive documentary receiving a theatrical release. The four on offer this week are a decidedly mixed bunch. But there's more to intrigue here than the sorry summer dross emanating from Hollywood.

	The X-Files: I Want To Believe
	8:50am Thu 31 Jul 08
	If absence makes the heart grow fonder, then we should be ready to fall in love again with FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gilliam Anderson). It's been six years since the intrepid double-act concluded their groundbreaking investigations into the paranormal in the award-winning TV series, The X-Files, which ended tantalisingly with the characters cuddling up together in a Roswell hotel room.

	The Dark Knight
	10:04am Thu 24 Jul 08
	Christopher Nolan's dark, brooding Batman sequel swoops in amid a storm of hype and feverish anticipation. No film could live up to such expectations but The Dark Knight soars tantalisingly close, probing the inner demons of Gotham's favourite crime-fighter as he duels with his most famous adversary.

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