Reviews

Nothing dates faster than camp, and here The Fifth Element (aka David LaChappelle does Blade Runner), barely six years old, is already fraying around its fluorescent edges. The plot is nonsensical (Gary Oldman's Zorg aiding giant ball of evil etc), the model work is ropey, and the production design very Munchkinland. Thankfully, Bruce Willis' taciturn hero and Milla Jovovich's super-femme still hold firm at the heart.

Solo album by big-in-US band leader

Unheralded Pennsylvanian trio conjure up more quiet magic

Delightful tribute to country womanhood

Live mini-album debut by widely-tipped young blues fans

Avant-ambient landmark

Lord Percival surveys his manor of song and declares it most fine

Stephen Fry's take on Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies

Bizarre variation on The Phantom Of The Opera, with Vincent Price as a deformed musician seeking revenge on the doctors who accidentally killed his wife, and achieving it by murdering them in a spectacularly imaginative series of set-pieces. A truly mixed supporting cast (Joseph Cotton, Terry-Thomas) and a memorably stylish approach, with Price on monstrously hammy form.

This sequel to 2001's The Fast And The Furious delivers the same brand of out-and-out nonsense as the first instalment without ever pausing to miss Vin Diesel or Rob Cohen, the breakthrough star/director combo who went on to deliver the less entertaining XXX. Shaft director John Singleton is on hand to whip up some hip hop flavour. Enjoyably brain-dead tripe.