Knuckleheaded thriller as thick as Arnie's neck

Dir: David Ayer

With: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Olivia Williams

Runtime: 109 minutes

DAVID "Training Day" Ayer pumps up the machismo volume to 11 in this knuckleheaded actioner about an elite law enforcement squad taking on the drugs cartels.

With nicknames such as "Monster" and "Grinder", this lot, led by Arnold Schwarzenegger's Breacher, are meant to be as mad and bad as the hoodlums they hunt.

But don't think they have a problem with women.

They have one on the squad (Mireille Enos) and a chick detective (Olivia Williams, slumming it) is helping them with their latest case, a tricky number which involves a direct attack on the team. Starts promisingly, but the ridiculous level of shoot-em-up and bone crunching, plus a story that does not know when to quit, ultimately makes Sabotage as thick as Arnie's neck.

Before The Winter Chill (15)

Dir: Philippe Claudel

With: Kristin Scott Thomas, Daniel Auteuil

Runtime: 103 minutes

THERE is no-one like the French to make a tasteful mid-life crisis drama, and none so classy as Kristin Scott Thomas and Daniel Auteuil to play the couple in question. KST plays Lucie, who lives with her surgeon husband Paul in a dream home.

When a young woman enters Paul's life claiming to have known him before, he is initially rattled then intrigued.

Director Philippe Claudel (I've Loved You So Long) allows the story to tick along smoothy, and Scott Thomas is her usual watchable self, but despite attempts to inject new twists the subject matter is showing its age.

Glasgow Film Theatre and Filmhouse, Edinburgh, tomorrow-May 22.

Next Goal Wins (15)

Dirs: Steve Jamison, Mike Brett

Runtime: 98 minutes

THE run-up to the World Cup starts here with this breezy charmer of a documentary about American Samoa, the football team that makes Scotland look like Brazil. Gubbed 31-0 by Australia, the part-timers resolve to never be humiliated that way again. Steve Jamison and Mike Brett's documentary is rather by the numbers but it is hard not to be won over by both the place and the players.

Odeon, Braehead; Vue Glasgow Fort; Cineworld Renfrew Street, Glasgow.

The Wind Rises (PG)

Dir: Hayao Miyazaki

Runtime: 127 minutes

STUDIO Ghibli legend Hayao Miyazaki (Howl's Moving Castle, Spirited Away) chooses for his final film the story of a young boy, Jiro, who dreams of flying planes.

Short sight rules that out, so he resolves to design and build them instead. The Wind Rises is as much a history of early 20th-century Japan and its aviation industry as it is the story of Jiro.

As such, it is a sprawling, overlong affair at times, and it ends, frustratingly, at a crucial part of the story. For all that, it is a wonder to behold.

Glasgow Film Theatre and Cameo, Edinburgh, from tomorrow. Edinburgh, Filmhouse, June 6-12

Exhibition (15)

Dir: Joanna Hogg

With: Viv Albertine, Tom Hiddleston

Runtime: 105 minutes

JOANNA Hogg (Unrelated, Archipelago) has made her name with exquisitely crafted dramas set among the middle classes.

So far, her films have performed minor miracles in turning seemingly inconsequential events into riveting pieces.

Though a fan, I found this story of "D" and "H", two creative types living in a designer home in London while agonising over whether to sell, a gaze too far at the navel of the privileged.

Tom Hiddleston, playing an estate agent, provides light relief from the wall-to-wall smugness.

Filmhouse, Edinburgh, tomorrow-May 15; Cameo, Edinburgh, May 20.

Bad Neighbours (15)

Dir: Nicholas Stoller

With: Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne

Runtime: 97 minutes

SETH Rogen and Rose Byrne are the new parents who find the house next door has been taken over by frat boys led by Zac Efron's party animal, Teddy.

Although determined not to be seen as old fogeys, Mac and Kelly soon find themselves at war with the young newcomers.

Nicholas Stoller's riotous comedy manages to strike a nice balance between horribly crude and cute.

Having a delightful young star (the baby, that is, not Efron) helps enormously.