Welcome to the Punch (15)
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Dir: Eran Creevy
With: James McAvoy, Mark Strong
Runtime: 99 minutes
ERAN Creevy, director of acclaimed low-budget British drama Shifty, goes to the other end of the glamour scale with this tasty crime thriller. Starring James McAvoy as a Met detective nursing a grudge against career criminal Jacob Sternwood (Mark Strong), Welcome to the Punch invites comparisons with Michael Mann (Heat) and John Woo (Face/Off, Mission: Impossible 2) with its use of freewheeling, high-octane action and the way it makes night-time London look like one big fabulous movie set. Though the story of revenge and redemption becomes confused towards the end, this is a gutsy, ambitious movie, with McAvoy showing his action man stint in Wanted was no fluke.
Beyond the Hills (12A)
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Dir: Cristian Mungiu
With: Cosmina Stratan, Cristina Flutur
Runtime: 152 minutes
ROMANIAN director Cristian Mungiu knows his way around the prize-winners' podium in Cannes. His abortion drama 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days, picked up the Palme d'Or and this new drama won awards for its actresses, and for Mungiu for best screenplay. Cosmina Stratan plays Voichita, who has chosen to retreat from the world to a monastery in Moldavia. Her best friend from her old life comes to visit, and is troubled by the change in Voichita. So begins a tale of friendship versus conformity, order versus freedom. While magnificently shot, the initially slow-burn style of the drama makes for a gruelling watch.
Filmhouse, Edinburgh, March 15- 28; Glasgow Film Theatre, March 17-20.
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (15)
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Dir: Don Scardino
With: Steve Carell, Jim Carrey
Runtime: 100 minutes
VEGAS musicians are ripe for an Anchorman-style ribbing, and that is just what Don Scardino's picture aims to deliver. Admittedly, it is far more smileworthy than laugh-out-loud Anchorman, and it takes forever to get going, but there are plenty of nice moments. Steve Carell and Steve Buscemi play a magic act that has been together for too long. New on the scene is street magician Steve Gray (Jim Carrey), an entertainer out to shock. Is the town big enough for the lot of them, never mind their doves? The likeable Carell, Buscemi, and Olivia Wilde as a magicians' assistant do the comic business, but the real star turns are Carrey on eye-swivellingly crazy form and James Gandolfini as a grasping hotel boss.
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