Desperately seeking Osama

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS OSAMA BIN LADEN? DIRECTOR: MORGAN SPURLOCK RATING: Where In The World Is Osama Bin Laden? has a broadly similar proposition to the earlier film. Spurlock again identifies a serious flaw in American society - this time a foreign policy dominated by "the war on terror" - and again contrives a scenario by which he puts his life at risk (in a manner of speaking) to solve it.

Of course, Spurlock never expects to find the world's most wanted terrorist. But in feigning a search for him (and, in fact, going into some very dangerous places), he draws attention to terrible iniquities and uncomfortable home truths.

His travels take him to Egypt, Palestine, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and finally Pakistan, during which his handlebar moustache grows into a fuller beard more acceptable in the region. Along the way, he speaks to ordinary people in the streets, as well as journalists, academics and occasionally people close to Bin Laden and al-Qaeda.

Slowly, patterns form. In Egypt, people rile against the US for propping up their repressive government; Palestinians hate Bin Laden for using their plight as an excuse for his own agenda; when an ageing Afghan villager is asked about the al-Qaeda chief, the answer is: "F*** him. And f*** America." In other words, apart from the radical sympathisers on both sides, here are people who feel trapped between two evils.

Though he superficially represents one of these oppressors, many sweetly welcome Spurlock into their homes. The exceptions, interestingly, live without occupation or immediate danger: in Israel, Hasidic Jews hurl hate at the American; in Saudi Arabia, he encounters a chilling Stepford Wives atmosphere of uncommunicative courtesy.

There is another parallel with Super Size Me. Back then, Spurlock's partner Alexandra waited in the wings with a detox diet. This time she's pregnant, and the impending parenthood is what prompts Spurlock to ponder the world his child will be born into. In between interviewing strangers about terrorism, poverty and fear, he's on the phone, homesick, thinking of the joyous event he's missing.

Spurlock's rhetorical devices are rarely empty. Throughout the film he exudes warmth and a deep interest in the people he meets. His smart denouement epitomises a deeply humanist piece of work.

SPEED RACER Click here to see more film trailers

SPEED RACER DIRECTOR: ANDY WACHOWSKI, LARRY WACHOWSKI RATING: Speed Racer is a family film by Larry and Andy Wachowski, the brothers who gave us The Matrix. It needs to be seen for the almost visionary brilliance of their special effects. At the same time, it comes close to stalling more than once, due to their customary, congested storytelling.

Based on the Japanese cartoon series from the 1960s, the film sports the dense, pop-arty, candy-coloured palette and retro-futuristic sensibility that still pervades anime. That this is animation with live actors placed within it, who on the race track take part in the sort of gravity and death-defying moves that are usually the province of cartoon characters, heightens its strangeness.

Speed Racer is the story's hero, played by Emile Hirsch, living in the shadow of his dead brother, a former racing star who died in disgrace. Speed now faces the same problems: namely corrupt corporate sponsors and the shadowy world of match-fixing.

That is the simplified version. The Wachowskis lose their heads over the narrative, constantly shifting between Speed's childhood and the present day, between a multitude of villains and glamorous locations, between banal, kid-friendly humour that will alienate adults and vicious corporate-speak that will baffle the kids. The races - a mix of grand prix and stock car, taking place on big-dipper tracks - are, like the plot, far too frantic.

But whenever the going gets tough, something wondrous happens, visually, to move the film back up the gears. And then there's the likeable human factor, which includes John Goodman and Susan Sarandon as Speed's parents, and Christina Ricci as his zestfully costumed girlfriend, the frisky Trixie.

XXY Click here to see more film trailers

XXY DIRECTOR: LUCIA PUENZO RATING: As its title suggests, the intriguing Argentine drama XXY is about genes, namely the complicated genes of a young person on the threshold of an unusual coming-of-age decision.

At first glance, Alex is a tomboyish 15-year-old girl. But there is a reason why her parents, biologist dad Kraken and sullen Suli, have left a life in Buenos Aires for a quiet Uruguayan coastal town. And it's no coincidence that their new house guests include a plastic surgeon.

Once, Alex would have been known as an hermaphrodite; now it's an "intersexual". After years of avoiding the subject of their child's indeterminate gender - pills keeping Alex's male hormones in check and a discussion on the back burner - the folks feel it's time to decide whether their child is to grow up a man or a woman. For her part, defiant Alex is content to stay as she is.

In a subtle debut, Lucia Puenzo turns Alex's situation into the canvas for a psychological drama that, with the minimum of fuss, encapsulates family relations, adult power games and - as Alex homes in on their guests' closeted gay son - teenage sexual awakening. The acting is excellent, not least from Ines Efron, who brilliantly conveys Alex's sexual and emotional ambiguities.

WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS Click here to see more film trailers

WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS DIRECTOR: TOM VAUGHAN RATING: After last week's Made Of Honour comes another dire Hollywood romantic comedy, What Happens In Vegas. Concerning a chalk and cheese pair - uptight Cameron Diaz, jack-the-lad Ashton Kutcher - who meet and drunkenly marry in Vegas, then struggle with the consequences in New York, the film is a cacophonous and mean-spirited affair, mistiming its sweetening until long after we've stopped caring. But its major flaw is Diaz, once so charming, nowadays so very shrill. One has the strange sensation of not being able to settle one's gaze upon her. The permatan doesn't help.

CASHBACK Click here to see more film trailers

CASHBACK DIRECTOR: SEAN ELLIS RATING: More effective is the British romcom, Cashback, in which a lovesick insomniac working in a late-night supermarket discovers he has a special gift - not for shelf-stacking, but for freezing time.

The film has problems (a dull lead, a tiresome voiceover, a voyeuristic bent) but also considerable charm. Writer-director Sean Ellis has a gift behind the camera. He orchestrates his fantasy set pieces - his hero moving among the motionless, inexplicably naked shoppers - with imagination and polish.

DOOMSDAY Click here to see more film trailers

DOOMSDAY DIRECTOR: NEIL MARSHALL RATING: The ultra-gory Doomsday is a movie that lurches so violently towards being terrible that the dial almost hits good again, writes Jamie Lafferty. A deadly virus breaks out in Scotland, prompting the British government to rebuild Hadrian's Wall and effectively wipe out the entire Scottish population. Unfortunately for the London suits, the virus appears in their home town 25 years later.

But what's this? Satellite imaging picks up traces of survivors in Glasgow, and so the acting prime minister (played by David O'Hara) sends one-eyed commando Eden Sinclair (Rhona Mitra) and a small squad back over the wall to try and find the cure. What follows leaves itself open to gags about this being a documentary of modern Glasgow life: uber-radge cannibals run amok, partying hard and eating their visitors as the dear green place lies in ruin.

Doomsday isn't very original, nor does it make a great deal of sense, but then this isn't a movie to examine under the continuity microscope. Part Mad Max, part Escape From New York, all nonsense fingers crossed that director Neil Marshall (Dog Soldiers, The Descent) had at least part of his tongue in his cheek while making this - the alternative is almost too awful to imagine.