Reviews

John Carpenter was 24 when he shot one of the most influential films in movie history in just 20 days, on a budget of just over $300,000, for the apparently meagre salary of $10,000, a cut of the profits and his name above the title. Looking back, a quarter of a century on, it was probably the best deal he ever made. After a faltering opening run, Halloween quickly became a critically acclaimed box-office smash that went on to gross over $50 million and spawned a raft of sequels and an entire industry of mostly inferior slasher movies.

If Jim Carrey was suddenly declared God, what would he do? That's the premise, and only the easy, obvious routes are taken. But, as he did in Liar Liar, Carrey makes them funny even if you're determined he won't. Thus he enlarges Jennifer Aniston's breasts and you guffaw like a goon because the man is a comedy giant: you want him to fall on his ass, he does, you laugh again.

Cherished US singer-songwriter back on form

The legend behind such blaxploitation classics as Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, an incalculable influence on Tarantino and Spike Lee, recorded this in 1974. Fundamentally, it's him growling over "funky grooves". A born philosopher, he opines that "A Birth Certificate Ain't Nuthin' But A Death Warrant Anyway", and, after bemoaning the fact that he'll never visit every bar in the world, claims that "between a woman's breast is the thickest thorns you can ever lay your head on". We'll look out for that, Melv. Godlike, of course.

Debut by improvisational guitar god Derek Bailey's new five-piece band

Machine dance from (mostly) European eggheads

The seedbed of punk

Expanded '66 debut by Andover's finest

Frances McDormand impresses in triangular love story set amid the West Coast rock fraternity

Ravaged Irish immigrant family up sticks to New York