Leatherheads

I'd been won over by Renee Zellweger's hair in the posters on the side of buses and the mere sight of the Lovely Liberal George Clooney (TM), but then I found out Leatherheads was actually about sport. It's always the way, isn't it?

Time Out 3/6: "The movie gets lots of things right, yet it fumbles key facets so badly that you simply can't christen it the gridiron version of His Girl Friday... Playing a Hildy Johnson-style reporter, Renée Zellweger can't reach screwball speed: she's no Miriam Hopkins, much less Barbara Stanwyck or Carole Lombard."

Rolling Stone 3/4: "In his [Clooney's] third shot at directing, following two savvy meditations on media and politics (Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Good Night, and Good Luck), Clooney throws us a rowdy party of a movie. Or does he?"

Empire 2/5: "On paper it looks like a gem; roaring 20s setting, verbal fireworks and a silly sport in its rude infancy. In practice, it's way off the pace, far too slow for its screwball pretensions and the kind of film that confuses pastiche with period detail."

Shine A Light

Bless, here's a nice bit of promotion for a gang of young chaps with a dream who'd probably still be playing the back rooms of Firkin chain pubs if it wasn't for Martin Scorsese giving them a helping hand. Good man. We're still not sure if the name 'The Rolling Stones' will ever catch on, though…

Empire 4/5: "A triumph for Scorsese and a document for the band, Shine A Light is a five-star experience for Stones fans. For those less enamoured with the ageing rockers, it goes a long way to explaining their longevity."

Time Out 3/6: " Cinema has licked the boots of the Rolling Stones so many times over the years that Scorsese's slick new doc about the band, produced by the foursome themselves, struggles to say anything new, especially as the doors remain shut on their off-stage personas."

Entertainment Weekly B+: "In Shine A Light, a crackling concert movie directed by Martin Scorsese, the Rolling Stones are now so old that they seem new again."

21

Counting cards! Counting cards! Far more interesting than the plot of this gambling flick is the fact that in the US version of Big Brother, a screening of this film was given away to a housemates who played a blackjack game, and the winner got to go to Vegas, baby!

Empire 3/5: "The Ocean's Eleven: The College Years mood makes for a breezy good time, even if there is, like Vegas, precious little substance beneath the glitz."

Rolling Stone 3/4: "Loosely adapted from Ben Mezrich's best-selling Bringing Down The House, the movie stretches facts like taffy but never shirks its responsibility to entertain. And, jeez, it's a kick to see Kevin Spacey up to his old tricks as the sultan of snark."

Time Out 2/6: "...this is a great idea for a movie but not a great movie."

Lonesome Jim

Directed by Steve 'I wish he was my funny uncle' Buscemi, Lonesome Jim's a black comedy starring Liv Tyler and Casey Affleck. I think that makes it a must-see, surely?

Time Out 4/6: "If John Cassavetes had lived to make one of the American Pie films, chances are it would have come out a bit like this, Steve Buscemi's third film as director, which he made before last year's tepid, over-stagey Interview."

The Times 2/5: "...the central character's deflated lack of purpose infuses the whole film, leaving the audience ultimately indifferent to his self-absorbed melancholia."

Rolling Stone 3/4: "Buscemi does not act in Lonesome Jim, but his sly humor and keen eye for nuance resonate in every frame. I can't recall having a better time at a movie about depression."