Reviews

More of the best various-artist releases

Clooney and the Coens return to screwball territory

OPENS OCTOBER 24, CERT PG, 141 MINS Seabiscuit was the little horse that could—a pop culture phenomenon in Depression-era America who won the 1937 Santa Anita Handicap against all odds and beguiled an ailing nation. Written off in his early years as a grumpy, awkward loser, Seabiscuit was trained for victory by three broken men: too-tall jockey Red Pollard (Tobey Maguire), tragic millionaire Charles Howard (Jeff Bridges) and washed-up cowboy Tom Smith (Chris Cooper).

Camp Crystal Lake reopens 20 years after the tragic death of young Jason Vorhees and no one is safe from the ingenious butchery. There's no hip hockey mask and few cute one-liners—just a catalogue of slaughter and a neat double-twist ending as director Sean Cunningham attempted to replicate the success of John Carpenter's Halloween.

The latest in the excellent Classic Albums series turns to the Floyd's masterpiece—and given such dubious contenders as Meat Loaf and Judas Priest have already featured, the surprise is that it's taken this long. The hour-plus documentary follows the familiar mix of archive footage (ranging back to the early days with Syd Barrett) and current interviews, in which David Gilmour in particular comes across as hugely entertaining. And what makes it a classic album?

Star-crammed electro-mysticism from Greece's Akis Boyatzis

Former Watergirl's adventurous outing

Belated UK release for 34-year-old Liverpool-born popsmith

Lost 'Nam classic from Texan troubadour

Back in 1999, Richard Thompson was asked to name his 10 greatest tunes of the millennium. He took the request at face value and came up with a list that started with "Sumer Is Icumen In" from the 11th century and carried on through to Jerry Lee Lewis. From there came the idea of expanding the list to a couple of dozen songs and recording them live in concert.