Evil Surfer

Here, entering the story in medias res, the director is enigmatic about Keane’s mental derangement: has it been triggered by his loss, or is this a long-term affliction that’s been exacerbated? Either way, with the camera tight on his face, it becomes a harrowing and piteous sight Everything he does seems to tremble on the verge of mania. In between them Steven Soderbergh offers a monochrome jeu d’esprit about a shrink (Alan Arkin) and a client (Robert Downey Jr) trying to parse a recurring erotic dream, though paper planes and toupees complicate the mix Intriguing – and inconsequential.. William Keane (Damian Lewis) bears the classic symptoms, exuding pure anxiety as he prowls through the Port Authority bus terminal in New York, talking to himself and beseeching passers-by with questions about his seven-year-old daughter. She disappeared there six months ago while in his care, and Keane returns obsessively to the station to replay the events of that day.

It gradually dawns that we are in the company of a man not merely distraught but disturbed. Lodge Kerrigan’s remarkable Keane is a film to make you feel guilty about sidestepping those random, jabbering, strangers who accost you on the street Nutters, I suppose, is how they would usually be described. A portmanteau movie straight from the house marked “art”, this triptych purports to explore the elusive nature of sexual attraction. The less said about Michelangelo Antonioni’s soft-core squib the better; Wong Kar-Wai’s tale of unrequited love between a young tailor (Chang Chen) and a high-class courtesan (Gong Li) features some beautiful clothes, comes wrapped in Christopher Doyle’s gloomily elegant cinematography, and dissolves as quickly as a smoke ring. Indeed, given their appetite for humiliation, a one-star review might be to inflict on them exactly what they want.. Bad enough to watch the liposuction performed live on camera; seeing how they dispose of the drained-off fat is so much worse.

This lot just lap up the pain, so calling them exhibitionist morons and dismissing their lame movie is roughly equivalent to a Chinese burn. While the plot – should Dante make a clean break and head for Florida with his controlling fianc? – is as limp as week-old lettuce, the script mixes in some genuine laughs with his trademark slacker nihilism, including spot-on Lord of The Rings spoofs and a running joke about Helen Keller and Anne Frank.. A Welsh version of Jackass is surely one of those things the world didn’t need, but here it is anyway. Four “boyos” tour the world testing the acceptable limits of masochism and shoot way, way beyond their stunts, mostly involving exposure and mutilation of their tenderest parts – tongues, testicles, foreskins, fingernails – all of them soundtracked by their manic hyena cackles. The John Tavener score adds a portentous solemnity I could also have lived without.. Most weeks the scatological profanity of Kevin Smith’s belated sequel to Clerks would be tipped straight down the dumpster, but after Rabbit Fever, Dirty Sanchez and Trust The Man it seems almost likeable.

Brian O’Halloran and Jeff Anderson play shiftless duo Dante and Randal, now doing time in a burger joint after their convenience store burns down “Terrorists?” speculates Randal (No, he’d left the sandwich toaster on again). It transpires she’s no ordinary woman, either, being the first to fall pregnant in 18 years. But the British gangster film never quite scaled the same heights again. Mediocrity beset the genre after Guy Ritchie’s Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels inspired copycat film-makers to deliver cheeky post-modern movies that saw public school boys playing with shooters.While there has never been a gangster film quite like The Long Good Friday again, you might argue that this is because it’s a product of its time. These days, Harold Shand would probably be running a blue-chip company.’The Long Good Friday – 25th Anniversary Edition’ is out now on DVD, £15.99.

Set in a dystopian future – is there any other kind these days? – this lugubrious thriller posits the idea of mankind’s extinction after an infertility pandemic. As the world descends into chaos, Britain turns into a police state, imprisoning immigrants and cracking down on dissidents. Clive Owen plays former radical turned whisky-supping bureaucrat Theo, who is bribed by his ex-partner (Julianne Moore) and leader of a resistance unit to help smuggle a young refugee woman (Clare-Hope Ashitey) out of the country. Thankfully Hoskins, who went on to play thugs in everything from The Cotton Club to Mona Lisa, backed out. When it finally came out, Hoskins was hailed by those that he portrayed. “I met some top gangsters after filming, who said ‘I’ve seen the film and I’m glad to say we’re so proud one of our own is doing so well.’ I’ve had letters from Freddie Foreman, Frankie Fraser – all the guys that are telling their stories now and want films made of their lives – saying I should do it!”As it happens, rumours circulated that there was to be a sequel – despite the ending of the original, which left Shand at the mercy of the IRA.