The latest releases reviewed
BEOWULF **
Directed by Robert Zemeckis. Voices of Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, John Malkovich, Robin Wright Penn, Brendan Gleeson, Angelina Jolie 12A cert
Scarily unreal, digitally animated version of the ancient poem detailing a warrior's attempts to dispense with a proto-Hulk, a dragon and a shiny, nipple-free Angelina Jolie. The 3-D version was technically stunning, but, now flat and reduced, the picture seems sillier than ever. An extended cut is available on the two-disc package for those who care. DONALD CLARKE
BRICK LANE ***
Directed by Sarah Gavron. Starring Tannishtha Chatterjee, Christopher Simpson 15 cert
Gavron's low-key film jettisons large sections of Monica Ali's novel and compresses its principal events into one eventful year, 2001. Chatterjee portrays a Bangladeshi immigrant in London's East End where she feels trapped in a loveless arranged marriage. Irish actor Simpson plays the charming young radical who opens her eyes to another world. MICHAEL DWYER
RENDITION **
Directed by Gavin Hood. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Reese Witherspoon, Peter Sarsgaard, Meryl Streep, Alan Arkin 15 cert
Tsotsi director Hood's film follows an American (Witherspoon) attempting to find her Egyptian-born husband, who has been "rendered" to a "detention centre" in north Africa. Streep is glacial as the CIA chief who orders his torture in a political thriller that is thoroughly intriguing up to the point where it misguidedly lurches into melodrama and grows increasingly unconvincing. MICHAEL DWYER
THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB **
Directed by Robin Swicord. Starring Kathy Baker, Maria Bello, Emily Blunt, Amy Brenneman, Hugh Dancy, Lynn Redgrave, Jimmy Smits, Kevin Zegers PG cert
Set in California, this throws together six characters - one for each Austen novel - in a book club that becomes a support group for them. This cloying movie is all too eager to please as it views its characters through a rose-tinted lens. MICHAEL DWYER
