"Michael Collins" (12) (Neil Jordan, 1996; on release from Friday))
The biggest box-office success ever at Irish cinemas, it goes on rental release here next Friday. After all the many thousands of words published about it, suffice to say that it's a riveting, moving and richly accomplished film.
"Breaking The Waves" (18) (Lars Von Trier; on release from Wednesday)
Winner of the jury's runner-up prize at last year's Cannes Film Festival, this heartfelt, emotionally-wrenching drama is set in a remote Scottish coastal village in the early 1970s and features Emily Watson in an astonishing performance as a naive young local woman whose life is transformed by marriage to an oil rig worker.
"Antonia's Line" (15) (Marleen Gorris)
This elegiac Dutch film, which chronicles one woman's eventful life through the decades of the late 20th century, won last year's best foreign film Oscar.
"When The Cat's Away" (15) (Cedric Klapisch; on release from Monday)
A subtle and charming comedy from French writer-director Cedric Klapisch, which follows the misadventures of a lonely young make-up artiste (Grance Clavel) in search of her beloved cat.
"Tin Cup" (15) (Ron Shelton)
Kevin Costner plays a washed-up golfer inspired back into action - and into the US Open - by a psychologist (Rene Russo) in this amiable, well-acted comedy which actually makes golf dramatically interesting.
"Lone Star" (15) (John Sayles; on release from Wednesday)
An accomplished and involving drama which ambitiously cuts between events in a present-day Texas border town and flashbacks to 40 years ago, as a sheriff (Chris Cooper) pieces together a story of corruption and murder involving his father (Matthew McConaughey) and a brutal, racist sheriff (Kris Kristofferson).
"The Secret Of Roan Inish" (PG) (John Sayles); on release from Monday
Well-intentioned but unusually dull and slight by Sayle's standards, this film, which was made in Co Donegal, features Mick Lally and Eileen Colgan as displaced islanders whose young grand-daughter (Jeni Courtney) becomes convinced that her brother, who disappeared as a baby, is being raised by seals.
"Last Dance" (18) (Bruce Beresford)
This less-than-compelling drama features a deglamourised Sharon Stone in an earnest performance as a convicted killer facing the inevitable.
"Chain Reaction" (12) (Andrew Davis); on release from Monday)
A feeble and predictable pursuit picture with Keanu Reeves as a student machinist at a Chicago research lab and Rachel Weisz as the scientist who goes on the run with him when they are framed for the murder of their mentor.
"A Time To Kill" (15) (Joel Schumacher)
Sandra Bullock gets top billing but has little to do in this meretricious film based on yet another John Grisham novel, which opens with a horrific sequence of a 10-year-old black girl being beaten and raped by redneck racists in the US Deep South; when her father (Samuel L. Jackson) shoots them, he is defended by a liberal - and remarkably naive - white lawyer.
"Courage Under Fire" (15) (Ed Zwick)
This cliche-ridden military drama features Denzel Washington as a US officer who is under investigation in a friendly fire incident.
"The Fan" (15) (Tony Scott)
This absurdly overblown film features Robert De Niro wildly over the top as a psychopath stalking the sports star (Wesley Snipes) he admires.
"The Nutty Professor" (12)
A crude, vulgar effort starring Eddie Murphy, suffused with farting jokes and based on the old Jerry Lewis comedy.
"Jack" (PG) (Francis Ford Coppola)
This ludicrous, meandering and saccharine yarn stars Robin Williams as a boy with a fictitious genetic disorder which causes him to age physically at four times the rate of other children.
Videos to buy:
Commendable retail releases available on widescreen include the riveting, stylish and truly scary Stephen King adaptation, Carrie (Brian de Palma, 1978) with Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie and John Travolta; the unsettling movie of John Wyndham's The Day Of The Triffids (Steve Sekely, 1962); the good-natured coming-of-age movie, The Outsiders, (Francis Ford Coppola, 1983) featuring a then-youthful cast led by Matt Dillon, Tom Cruise, Rob Lowe and Patrick Swayze; the fascinating and highly imaginative Brazil (Terry Gilliam, 1985) with Jonathan Pryce and Robert De Niro; and the witty screen comedy, Mike Nichols's Americanisation of La Cage Aux Folles in the aforementioned The Birdcage (1996) with Robin Williams, Nathan Lane, Gene Hackman and Dianne Wiest all on top form.
