IT has been 25 years since Bruce Willis first donned a white vest and gleefully laid waste to an army of bad guys in the original Die Hard, thereby creating one of action cinema's true icons. But while the ensuing films have offered diminishing returns, none have been as wretched as this.
A Good Day To Die Hard, the fifth instalment, is symptomatic of all that's bad about franchise moviemaking. It's a desperate entry that tramples over the memory of what made the original so great. The plot finds John McClane (Bruce Willis) heading to Russia to track down his son (Jai Courtney) and teaming up with him to stop a group of terrorists with a nuclear agenda. John Moore directs the carnage but with such a lame premise, half-hearted father-son bonding and a lacklustre villain, it's past time to call it a day.
Reviewed by Rob Carnevale.
Beautiful Creatures (12A)
HHH
Dir: Richard LaGravenese
With: Alden Ehrenreich, Alice Englert
Runtime: 124 minutes
KAMI Garcia and Margaret Stohl's cult young adult novel is given a lavish big screen treatment which should leave its teen fans skipping with joy (inwardly). The bible-loving small town of Gatlin in America's south is shaken by the arrival of the mysterious Lena (Alice Englert), but young Ethan (Alden Ehrenreich) rather likes her moody style. Emma Thompson and Jeremy Irons are among those wielding southern accents with giddy abandon in a film about the supernatural that's nicely strange, even if it does go on for an eternity.
Moulin Rouge R/I (12A)
HHHH
Dir: Baz Luhrmann
With: Ewan McGregor, Nicole Kidman
Runtime: 127 minutes
GOING to the cinema on Valentine's Day is the new going out to a restaurant, judging by the number of special one night only screenings.
Baz Luhrmann's romantic whirl of colour, sex and pop songs was first released in 2001 and forms the last of his "red curtain trilogy" with Strictly Ballroom and Romeo and Juliet (showing at Vue cinemas).
Ewan McGregor holds a tune as the writer who falls heavily for the tragic Santine (Nicole Kidman). Tres, tres gorgeous on the big screen.
Tonight only, Cineworlds Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Dundee, Falkirk.
Breakfast at Tiffany's (PG)
HHHH
Dir: Blake Edwards
With: Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard
Runtime: 115 minutes
FOR those who like their romance bittersweet there is Truman Capote's New York tale. Audrey Hepburn turns in a funny, heartbreaking performance as Holly Golightly, the good-time girl who is not having such a good time really. Won two Oscars after its 1961 release, no prizes from Tiffany's for guessing for which song.
Tonight, Cameo, Edinburgh, and Belmont, Aberdeen.
This is 40 (15)
HHH
Dir: Judd Apatow
With: Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann
Runtime: 134 minutes
BILLED as a "sort of sequel" to Knocked Up, Judd Apatow's comedy catches up with warring couple Pete and Debbie (Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann). They're older, a little wiser, and still rowing. There are some clever lines and riffs about marriage, family life and getting older. But as is frequently the case with Apatow, what starts off as razor sharp becomes baggy, overlong and, given the amount of shouting, headache-inducing.
Run for Your Wife (12A)
H
Dirs: Ray Cooney, John Luton
With: Danny Dyer, Denis Van Outen
Runtime: 94 minutes
RAY Cooney brings his stage farce to the screen with trouser-dropping, jaw-clattering results. Danny Dyer plays the cabbie with wives in norf and sarf London whose bigamist ways are about to be rumbled. Courtesy of Cooney's theatre connections, lots of famous faces turn out to help – from Dame Judi Dench to Barry Cryer – but the main business is unwisely left to Dyer, Denise Van Outen and the rest, who girn and mug as if their lives and mortgages depended on it. Run for the hills.
Sammy's Great Escape (U)
HH
Dirs: Vincent Kesteloot, Ben Stassen
Voices: Wesley Johnny, Douglas Ryan Roth
Runtime: 93 minutes
SAMMY the turtle is on the move again, after his first outing into the big wide ocean world in A Turtle's Tale. There is not much to the 3D, and even less to the story, as Sammy and his grandpas are separated from the rest of the family and end up in an aquarium. Only for the very wee, or those who fancy staring at fish for 93 minutes and can't be bothered with the upkeep of a tank.
We Are Northern Lights (12A)
HHH
Dir: Nick Higgins
Runtime: 98 minutes
NICK Higgin's documentary takes a Kevin Macdonald/Life in a Day-style approach to life in Scotland with this lively piece, shot by the public. Ranging from a sore-footed wanderer on the West Highland Way to someone whose life has been transformed by a cochlear implant, all Scottish life is here – funny, sometimes sad, always interesting.
GFT, February 16; Filmhouse, Edinburgh, March 3; Belmont, Aberdeen, March 10; Eden Court, Inverness, March 17; DCA, Dundee, March 24; Robert Burns Centre, March 25.
West of Memphis (15)
HHHH
Dir: Amy Berg
Runtime: 147 minutes
AMY Berg (Deliver Us From Evil) takes her Oscar-nominated talents as a documentary maker and applies them to the case of the West Memphis Three. Berg takes the story back to the the original conviction of three teenagers for a triple murder and traces it twist by twist from there. A long, complex tale, but it is never less than riveting.
Filmhouse, Edinburgh, February 18-21.
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