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All Those Years Ago

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With his label established in 1974 but not graced by George until 1976, Harrison's Dark Horse years should have been a bounty of unfettered Harrisongs. But as his health, outlook, business arrangements and ultimately his interest was seen to stutter, the period was mostly regarded as a continuation of the downward path Harrison's work had taken after 1970's All Things Must Pass. And the consistency of his lyrical concerns?romantic/spiritual love, the search for enlightenment, snipes at the modern world's shortcomings?palled even for avid Beatlenuts amid less-than-blue-chip musical settings. Efforts to reassess the period following his death in 2001 were foiled until now by the unavailability of the albums. Now they're back. The Dark Horse Years still resists revelatory critical repositioning, but the set is welcome?and strangely comforting. Thirty Three And 1/3 (1976) Rating Star appeared in the wake of the "My Sweet Lord"/"He's So Fine"court case, where Harrison was found guilty of unconscious plagiarism. His musical response?"This Song"?contained a wry humour masking the blow to his confidence and inspiration; the rest of this oddly ordinary album, however, conveyed it all too clearly. George Harrison (1979) Rating Star was a freshly enthused, minor treat?a fulsome acoustic rocker replete with sunshine melodies and gorgeous slide guitar. "Blow Away" perfectly conveys the breezy change of mood required to banish his sporadic blues, "Soft-Hearted Hana"jazzily details his experiences with magic mushrooms, and the bitter White Album reject "Not Guilty"is buffed into modest splendour. Somewhere In England (1981) Rating Star was another slump, however. Rejected in its original form by distributors Warners, then later a hit in the wake of Lennon's assassination and George's hastily adjusted tribute, "All Those Years Ago", the best tracks were probably a pair of old Hoagy Carmichael songs, which says it all. Gone Troppo (1982) Rating Star was a return to form of sorts?amiable, light-hearted music made by a bunch of mates with nothing to prove?but by now George had lost interest in promotion, and the album was barely noticed. For five years Harrison diversified?mainly into films and gardening?then unexpectedly exploded back onto the charts with a hit single, James Ray's "Got My Mind Set On You", and the fabulous album Cloud Nine (1987) Rating Star . Producer Jeff Lynne was probably what George needed all along; a trusted musical pal who could record his voice properly and tidy things up at the back. Cloud Nine brought out the best in both men. And that?aside from a pair of late-'80s Wilbury albums (still absent), the record of his short Japanese tour in 1991, Live In Japan Rating Star , and the posthumous Brainwashed (2002)?was that. Business problems, Beatles Anthology duties, illness and a desire to be as free from hassle as possible precluded any serious return to the music world in his lifetime. Taken as a body of work, The Dark Horse Years remains largely second division Harrison with the occasional contender for promotion, but this music is now inevitably fragrant with poignancy and, for many, that will be enough.

With his label established in 1974 but not graced by George until 1976, Harrison’s Dark Horse years should have been a bounty of unfettered Harrisongs. But as his health, outlook, business arrangements and ultimately his interest was seen to stutter, the period was mostly regarded as a continuation of the downward path Harrison’s work had taken after 1970’s All Things Must Pass. And the consistency of his lyrical concerns?romantic/spiritual love, the search for enlightenment, snipes at the modern world’s shortcomings?palled even for avid Beatlenuts amid less-than-blue-chip musical settings. Efforts to reassess the period following his death in 2001 were foiled until now by the unavailability of the albums. Now they’re back. The Dark Horse Years still resists revelatory critical repositioning, but the set is welcome?and strangely comforting.

Thirty Three And 1/3 (1976) Rating Star appeared in the wake of the “My Sweet Lord”/”He’s So Fine”court case, where Harrison was found guilty of unconscious plagiarism. His musical response?”This Song”?contained a wry humour masking the blow to his confidence and inspiration; the rest of this oddly ordinary album, however, conveyed it all too clearly.

George Harrison (1979) Rating Star was a freshly enthused, minor treat?a fulsome acoustic rocker replete with sunshine melodies and gorgeous slide guitar. “Blow Away” perfectly conveys the breezy change of mood required to banish his sporadic blues, “Soft-Hearted Hana”jazzily details his experiences with magic mushrooms, and the bitter White Album reject “Not Guilty”is buffed into modest splendour.

Somewhere In England (1981) Rating Star was another slump, however. Rejected in its original form by distributors Warners, then later a hit in the wake of Lennon’s assassination and George’s hastily adjusted tribute, “All Those Years Ago”, the best tracks were probably a pair of old Hoagy Carmichael songs, which says it all. Gone Troppo (1982) Rating Star was a return to form of sorts?amiable, light-hearted music made by a bunch of mates with nothing to prove?but by now George had lost interest in promotion, and the album was barely noticed.

For five years Harrison diversified?mainly into films and gardening?then unexpectedly exploded back onto the charts with a hit single, James Ray’s “Got My Mind Set On You”, and the fabulous album Cloud Nine (1987) Rating Star . Producer Jeff Lynne was probably what George needed all along; a trusted musical pal who could record his voice properly and tidy things up at the back. Cloud Nine brought out the best in both men.

And that?aside from a pair of late-’80s Wilbury albums (still absent), the record of his short Japanese tour in 1991, Live In Japan Rating Star , and the posthumous Brainwashed (2002)?was that. Business problems, Beatles Anthology duties, illness and a desire to be as free from hassle as possible precluded any serious return to the music world in his lifetime. Taken as a body of work, The Dark Horse Years remains largely second division Harrison with the occasional contender for promotion, but this music is now inevitably fragrant with poignancy and, for many, that will be enough.

The Fall

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Discounting the exhausted, Groundhog Day-like apathy most fans must now feel where The Fall's reissue avalanche is concerned, a 25th anniversary seems good cause to celebrate Mark E Smith's opening brace; the yelping, cynical Bontempipunk of Live At The Witch Trials and the coarse, post-Beefheart sermonising of Dragnet. Originally released at opposite ends of 1979, both witnessed the steady fermentation of the smart, secular Northern detachment Smith later perfected on his first real masterpiece, 1980's Grotesque. Extras include the usual nonalbum, Peel session and live tracks; all fabulous, but even a card-carrying Fall disciple like myself can see that, played consecutively, the four alternate takes of "Rowche Rumble" on the latter are akin to some Salford equivalent of Chinese water torture.

Discounting the exhausted, Groundhog Day-like apathy most fans must now feel where The Fall’s reissue avalanche is concerned, a 25th anniversary seems good cause to celebrate Mark E Smith’s opening brace; the yelping, cynical Bontempipunk of Live At The Witch Trials and the coarse, post-Beefheart sermonising of Dragnet. Originally released at opposite ends of 1979, both witnessed the steady fermentation of the smart, secular Northern detachment Smith later perfected on his first real masterpiece, 1980’s Grotesque.

Extras include the usual nonalbum, Peel session and live tracks; all fabulous, but even a card-carrying Fall disciple like myself can see that, played consecutively, the four alternate takes of “Rowche Rumble” on the latter are akin to some Salford equivalent of Chinese water torture.

Black Devil – Disco Club

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A copy of Black Devil's marvellous Disco Club seldom surfaces on eBay, but when it does eagle-eyed collectors happily shell out...

A copy of Black Devil’s marvellous Disco Club seldom surfaces on eBay, but when it does eagle-eyed collectors happily shell out

Gary Jules – Greetings From The Side

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It's almost a pity that recent No 1 hit "Mad World" associated Gary Jules forever with such a freak anthem, as critics will now be forever sniffy about this warm, consummate singer/songwriter. Hot on the cash-in heels of new album Trading Snakeoil For Wolftickets comes this re-release of his debut from 1998, another collaboration with Donnie Darko soundtrack producer Michael Andrews. With Counting Crows' engineer on board, it's less tingly than the more recent effort, playing safer, but Jules has a real talent for fusing his tales of losers, boozers, beauty and violence to his gently weary, rich coffee voice. "Barstool"?present on both albums?refuses to pass judgement on the character claiming, "Love is for sissies, it's whiskey that makes you a man." Other vignettes about drug doom are keen-eyed, not vulgar. Sapphire-blue.

It’s almost a pity that recent No 1 hit “Mad World” associated Gary Jules forever with such a freak anthem, as critics will now be forever sniffy about this warm, consummate singer/songwriter. Hot on the cash-in heels of new album Trading Snakeoil For Wolftickets comes this re-release of his debut from 1998, another collaboration with Donnie Darko soundtrack producer Michael Andrews. With Counting Crows’ engineer on board, it’s less tingly than the more recent effort, playing safer, but Jules has a real talent for fusing his tales of losers, boozers, beauty and violence to his gently weary, rich coffee voice. “Barstool”?present on both albums?refuses to pass judgement on the character claiming, “Love is for sissies, it’s whiskey that makes you a man.” Other vignettes about drug doom are keen-eyed, not vulgar. Sapphire-blue.

The Future Sound Of London Present – Amorphous Androgynous: The Isness And The Otherness

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Somewhat overlooked and critically undervalued when it was originally released in 2002, The Isness was a tabla-driven, sitar-wielding psychedelic behemoth of a record that proved once and for all that The Future Sound Of London had soared way beyond their dance music peers. For devotees, the album's only flaw was that it wasn't twice as long. Well, now it is. The abundance of extra mixes that accumulated during Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans' five years of obsessive tinkering have now been gathered together as The Otherness, and they display the same interstellar dynamics and richness of texture as the original did, never more so than on the fully restored version of "Morning Sky", which out-brasses even "Penny Lane". Music for modernists.

Somewhat overlooked and critically undervalued when it was originally released in 2002, The Isness was a tabla-driven, sitar-wielding psychedelic behemoth of a record that proved once and for all that The Future Sound Of London had soared way beyond their dance music peers. For devotees, the album’s only flaw was that it wasn’t twice as long. Well, now it is. The abundance of extra mixes that accumulated during Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans’ five years of obsessive tinkering have now been gathered together as The Otherness, and they display the same interstellar dynamics and richness of texture as the original did, never more so than on the fully restored version of “Morning Sky”, which out-brasses even “Penny Lane”. Music for modernists.

Fantastic Voyage

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If early-'80s new pop showed one route out of the scuffed idealism and local concerns of post-punk, The Waterboys hoped for a more romantic, royal road. Indeed "The Big Music", from 1984's A Pagan Place, was a clarion call for a certain strain of mid-'80s would-be British Cosmic Music. Like Celtic soul brother Kevin Rowland, Scott was an inveterate manifesto writer. The first two Waterboys records are full of promises of paganism and immensity, like an evangelist heralding the promised land...but, first: another sermon. This Is The Sea, the band's third album, may be as close as anyone is likely to get to the music of his dreams. It begins portentously enough, with widescreen Morricone atmospherics, before erupting into "Don't Bang The Drum". It's another manifesto: you can't help but read it as a dig at the flag-waving of early U2. Scott was after a sweeter, questing, spontaneous pop prosody, and on "The Whole Of The Moon" he kind of delivered. A jukebox fixture for years, it remains a magnificent folly, a glimpse into a pop Narnia where Prince OD'd on Van, not Joni. It's the only song on the record that attempts to reinvent the '80s rather than escape them. It's a brief interlude. "Spirit" and "The Pan Within" continue Scott's quest for the old spirits of the islands, evoking wide-eyed rapture at a very benign paganism (there's nothing as daemonic as The Wicker Man's Summerisle here). Scott's infatuation with the Orphic charms of Dylan ("Be My Enemy"), Patti Smith and Springsteen leads him up strange roads. While they were romantics, they were also instinctively modernists, welding glamour from the facts of American life. In search of a similar romantic hit, Scott ends up with a song like "Medicine Bow", a dream of stowing away to sea, like something The Boss might have written in the late 18th century. In the new sleevenotes, Scott writes of being inspired by "the holy triumvirate" of the Velvets, Astral Weeks and Steve Reich. This sounds like an admirable programme, but for all the record's pleasures, you don't get much sense of it from This Is The Sea. Instead, it makes you think of The Blue Nile: compare "The Whole Of The Moon"'s delirious litany ("Unicorns and cannonballs, palaces and piers, trumpets, towers and tenements...") with its sober echo in "Downtown Lights" ("Chimney tops and trumpets, the golden lights, the loving prayers, the coloured shoes, the empty trains"). You get a glimpse of a road untaken on the extra disc, with synthetic instrumentals like "The Waves", but with the departure of keyboardist Karl Wallinger to form World Party, there was nowhere for Scott to go but..."This Is The Sea", the closing track, a gorgeously lush cinemascope swim through Van's "Sweet Thing". And then over ever stranger seas, a pop Ancient Mariner, before washing up on the far folk shores of "Fisherman's Blues".

If early-’80s new pop showed one route out of the scuffed idealism and local concerns of post-punk, The Waterboys hoped for a more romantic, royal road. Indeed “The Big Music”, from 1984’s A Pagan Place, was a clarion call for a certain strain of mid-’80s would-be British Cosmic Music. Like Celtic soul brother Kevin Rowland, Scott was an inveterate manifesto writer. The first two Waterboys records are full of promises of paganism and immensity, like an evangelist heralding the promised land…but, first: another sermon. This Is The Sea, the band’s third album, may be as close as anyone is likely to get to the music of his dreams.

It begins portentously enough, with widescreen Morricone atmospherics, before erupting into “Don’t Bang The Drum”. It’s another manifesto: you can’t help but read it as a dig at the flag-waving of early U2. Scott was after a sweeter, questing, spontaneous pop prosody, and on “The Whole Of The Moon” he kind of delivered. A jukebox fixture for years, it remains a magnificent folly, a glimpse into a pop Narnia where Prince OD’d on Van, not Joni. It’s the only song on the record that attempts to reinvent the ’80s rather than escape them.

It’s a brief interlude. “Spirit” and “The Pan Within” continue Scott’s quest for the old spirits of the islands, evoking wide-eyed rapture at a very benign paganism (there’s nothing as daemonic as The Wicker Man’s Summerisle here). Scott’s infatuation with the Orphic charms of Dylan (“Be My Enemy”), Patti Smith and Springsteen leads him up strange roads. While they were romantics, they were also instinctively modernists, welding glamour from the facts of American life. In search of a similar romantic hit, Scott ends up with a song like “Medicine Bow”, a dream of stowing away to sea, like something The Boss might have written in the late 18th century.

In the new sleevenotes, Scott writes of being inspired by “the holy triumvirate” of the Velvets, Astral Weeks and Steve Reich. This sounds like an admirable programme, but for all the record’s pleasures, you don’t get much sense of it from This Is The Sea. Instead, it makes you think of The Blue Nile: compare “The Whole Of The Moon”‘s delirious litany (“Unicorns and cannonballs, palaces and piers, trumpets, towers and tenements…”) with its sober echo in “Downtown Lights” (“Chimney tops and trumpets, the golden lights, the loving prayers, the coloured shoes, the empty trains”).

You get a glimpse of a road untaken on the extra disc, with synthetic instrumentals like “The Waves”, but with the departure of keyboardist Karl Wallinger to form World Party, there was nowhere for Scott to go but…”This Is The Sea”, the closing track, a gorgeously lush cinemascope swim through Van’s “Sweet Thing”. And then over ever stranger seas, a pop Ancient Mariner, before washing up on the far folk shores of “Fisherman’s Blues”.

Papa M – Hole Of Burning Alms

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Strangely for such a revered guitarist, David Pajo's style remains hard to pinpoint. Unlike most guitar heroes, his virtuosity is often masked by understatement, which is the keynote of this singles and rarities compilation. Pajo's innovations, as he shifts nomenclature from M to Aerial M to Papa M, have been dulled a little by his imitators, most obviously Mogwai. No one, though, can negotiate an entente between hardcore punctuation and pastoral ripple quite so well, or organise slow, dry, methodical chord progressions with such discretion. Better yet, occasional subversive detours?"Travels In Constants" is, partially, cod-techno?nestle alongside signature pieces like Pajo's harmonic extrapolation of "Turn Turn Turn"?conceivably post-rock's loveliest 16 minutes.

Strangely for such a revered guitarist, David Pajo’s style remains hard to pinpoint. Unlike most guitar heroes, his virtuosity is often masked by understatement, which is the keynote of this singles and rarities compilation. Pajo’s innovations, as he shifts nomenclature from M to Aerial M to Papa M, have been dulled a little by his imitators, most obviously Mogwai. No one, though, can negotiate an entente between hardcore punctuation and pastoral ripple quite so well, or organise slow, dry, methodical chord progressions with such discretion. Better yet, occasional subversive detours?”Travels In Constants” is, partially, cod-techno?nestle alongside signature pieces like Pajo’s harmonic extrapolation of “Turn Turn Turn”?conceivably post-rock’s loveliest 16 minutes.

Heavy Soul

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DIRECTED BY Alejandro Gonz...

DIRECTED BY Alejandro Gonz

Starsky & Hutch

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OPENS MARCH 19, CERT 12A, 105 MINS David Starsky and Ken Hutchinson are back in a brilliantly inventive spoof-cum-homage from Old School director Todd Phillips. So we get Ben Stiller's uptight, perma-curled Starsky and Owen Wilson's laid-back Hutch jumping behind the wheel of the regulation white-striped scarlet Ford Torino in pursuit of cocaine dealer Vince Vaughn. As with the TV show, plot doesn't count for much?what matters is fast cars, hip threads and plenty of badass attitude. Everything about Starsky & Hutch screams 1975, from the wah-wah guitar riffs to the beige'n'brown set design and snappy wardrobe. Stiller and Wilson become the stunt-loving cop duo with ease, and stamp comic ownership on every frame, despite some stiff competition from Vaughn?sporting an hilariously camp droopy moustache?and a way cool Snoop Dogg, perfectly cast as (of course) Huggy Bear. It all makes for a satisfying, entertaining ride. Phillips has made a fast-paced, laugh-out-loud, groovy movie that manages to both lampoon and celebrate its source material. Why aren't all movies this much fun?

OPENS MARCH 19, CERT 12A, 105 MINS

David Starsky and Ken Hutchinson are back in a brilliantly inventive spoof-cum-homage from Old School director Todd Phillips. So we get Ben Stiller’s uptight, perma-curled Starsky and Owen Wilson’s laid-back Hutch jumping behind the wheel of the regulation white-striped scarlet Ford Torino in pursuit of cocaine dealer Vince Vaughn.

As with the TV show, plot doesn’t count for much?what matters is fast cars, hip threads and plenty of badass attitude. Everything about Starsky & Hutch screams 1975, from the wah-wah guitar riffs to the beige’n’brown set design and snappy wardrobe. Stiller and Wilson become the stunt-loving cop duo with ease, and stamp comic ownership on every frame, despite some stiff competition from Vaughn?sporting an hilariously camp droopy moustache?and a way cool Snoop Dogg, perfectly cast as (of course) Huggy Bear.

It all makes for a satisfying, entertaining ride. Phillips has made a fast-paced, laugh-out-loud, groovy movie that manages to both lampoon and celebrate its source material. Why aren’t all movies this much fun?

The Good Old Naughty Days

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OPENS MARCH 26, CERT R18, 69 MINS Ah, porn! We tend to think of it as pushing the envelope every year like, say, mobile phones or computer games with different (ahem) knobs on. But here comes The Good Old Naughty Days, a compilation of mostly French one-reel porn shorts made in the 1920s to illustrate just how wrong that assumption is. Although in black and white and featuring rather more cellulite than is fashionable now, these mini films prove the lexicon of on-screen shagging has barely changed in 80 years. S&M, gay sex, anal, fellatio, threesomes and foursomes, it's all there folks, plus bestiality (with a sweet-looking pooch), which you'd never get away with these days. The only thing that's really different from current porn is that the women don't fake big noisy orgasms and mostly smile rather wanly while being pleasured. This is basically hardcore stuff?being shown in the UK only in appropriately licensed venues.

OPENS MARCH 26, CERT R18, 69 MINS

Ah, porn! We tend to think of it as pushing the envelope every year like, say, mobile phones or computer games with different (ahem) knobs on. But here comes The Good Old Naughty Days, a compilation of mostly French one-reel porn shorts made in the 1920s to illustrate just how wrong that assumption is. Although in black and white and featuring rather more cellulite than is fashionable now, these mini films prove the lexicon of on-screen shagging has barely changed in 80 years. S&M, gay sex, anal, fellatio, threesomes and foursomes, it’s all there folks, plus bestiality (with a sweet-looking pooch), which you’d never get away with these days. The only thing that’s really different from current porn is that the women don’t fake big noisy orgasms and mostly smile rather wanly while being pleasured. This is basically hardcore stuff?being shown in the UK only in appropriately licensed venues.

Leo

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OPENS MARCH 12, CERT 15, 104 MINS Parallel tales in different decades eventually connect with a live-wire jolt in this slow-burning curio, superbly acted by a starry cast. In modern Mississippi we meet Stephen (Joseph Fiennes) who, paroled after 15 years in jail, starts work at a diner terrorised by redneck regular Horace (Dennis Hopper). Thirty-three years earlier, Mary (Elisabeth Shue), the clever young wife of an inattentive husband, despairingly fucks their house-painter, giving birth to Leo eight months later, the night her husband and first child violently die. Raised loveless by his guilt-savaged mum, Leo cruises through the years towards Stephen's intercut tale. Debut Brit director Mehdi Norowzian lets the twin stories simmer in the Mississippi heat, and draws out perfect performances. Shue seizes the chance to equal her performance in Leaving Las Vegas as a mother whose heart is torn out by frustration and guilt, making her a tragic monster. Fiennes is almost retardedly repressed, while Hopper is at his most poisonous since Paris Trout. A fascinating fable.

OPENS MARCH 12, CERT 15, 104 MINS

Parallel tales in different decades eventually connect with a live-wire jolt in this slow-burning curio, superbly acted by a starry cast. In modern Mississippi we meet Stephen (Joseph Fiennes) who, paroled after 15 years in jail, starts work at a diner terrorised by redneck regular Horace (Dennis Hopper). Thirty-three years earlier, Mary (Elisabeth Shue), the clever young wife of an inattentive husband, despairingly fucks their house-painter, giving birth to Leo eight months later, the night her husband and first child violently die. Raised loveless by his guilt-savaged mum, Leo cruises through the years towards Stephen’s intercut tale.

Debut Brit director Mehdi Norowzian lets the twin stories simmer in the Mississippi heat, and draws out perfect performances. Shue seizes the chance to equal her performance in Leaving Las Vegas as a mother whose heart is torn out by frustration and guilt, making her a tragic monster. Fiennes is almost retardedly repressed, while Hopper is at his most poisonous since Paris Trout. A fascinating fable.

Along Came Polly

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OPENED FEBRUARY 27, CERT 12A, 90 MINS Frequent Ben Stiller collaborator John Hamburg (he co-scripted Meet The Parents and Zoolander) assumes writing/directing duties for his pal's latest, another in the genre of contemporary romantic farce that Stiller has made his own. The wafer-thin plot has Ben starring as deeply cautious risk assessor Reuben Feffer, cuckolded on his honeymoon by new bride Lisa (Will & Grace's Debra Messing) and forced to return to New York, where he enters into a relationship with free-spirited school pal Polly Prince (Jennifer Aniston). And that's about it. Nothing exceptional happens but what does happen is very, very funny. Nobody portrays comic embarrassment better than Stiller, and Hamburg gives him free rein to indulge himself with numerous pratfalls and close encounters of the horrifically unhygienic kind. Aniston once again proves she's a gifted, natural comedienne, old pros Philip Seymour Hoffman and Alec Baldwin lend solid support, and the deeply underrated Hank Azaria almost steals the film as Reuben's priapic French scuba instructor nemesis. Gloriously juvenile fun.

OPENED FEBRUARY 27, CERT 12A, 90 MINS

Frequent Ben Stiller collaborator John Hamburg (he co-scripted Meet The Parents and Zoolander) assumes writing/directing duties for his pal’s latest, another in the genre of contemporary romantic farce that Stiller has made his own.

The wafer-thin plot has Ben starring as deeply cautious risk assessor Reuben Feffer, cuckolded on his honeymoon by new bride Lisa (Will & Grace’s Debra Messing) and forced to return to New York, where he enters into a relationship with free-spirited school pal Polly Prince (Jennifer Aniston). And that’s about it. Nothing exceptional happens but what does happen is very, very funny. Nobody portrays comic embarrassment better than Stiller, and Hamburg gives him free rein to indulge himself with numerous pratfalls and close encounters of the horrifically unhygienic kind. Aniston once again proves she’s a gifted, natural comedienne, old pros Philip Seymour Hoffman and Alec Baldwin lend solid support, and the deeply underrated Hank Azaria almost steals the film as Reuben’s priapic French scuba instructor nemesis. Gloriously juvenile fun.

Blind Ambition

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The summer of 2004 promises to be all swords'n'sandals, but right now swords'n'sake is where it's at. A multiple award-winner at last year's Venice Film Festival, its UK release is well-timed, Kill Bill and The Last Samurai having whet our appetites for all things bushido. This beautiful, violent fi...

The summer of 2004 promises to be all swords’n’sandals, but right now swords’n’sake is where it’s at. A multiple award-winner at last year’s Venice Film Festival, its UK release is well-timed, Kill Bill and The Last Samurai having whet our appetites for all things bushido. This beautiful, violent film not only equals the best of Takeshi’s output but, in terms of tone and composition, surpasses it. It’s his Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon?albeit with spurting arteries in place of mid-air ballet.

Although relatively unknown to western audiences, Zatoichi is one of Japan’s longest-running franchises, lasting from 1962 to 1989 through 26 films and a TV series, which made a pop-culture icon out of star Shintar

Orphée

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DIRECTED BY Jean Cocteau STARRING Jean Marais, Maria Casar...

DIRECTED BY Jean Cocteau

STARRING Jean Marais, Maria Casar

The Last Emperor: The Director’s Cut

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OPENS MARCH 12, CERT 15, 218 MINS The Last Emperor tells the story of Pu Yi, installed as Lord Of Ten Thousand Years in 1908 at age three, only for Imperial China to become a republic a few years later. His journey takes him from a cosseted adolescence, walled up in the Forbidden City, to a playboy existence in Tientsin, reinstatement as puppet emperor of Manchuria, then post-war incarceration and eventual rehabilitation as a gardener in Red China. The story is largely told in colours?the fabulous maroons, golds and yellows of his childhood, the blue-washed near-monochrome of his detention. It's rich in irony and poignancy. All the same, Pu Yi is too weak, self-centred and uncomprehending a character to fully engage. The attempts to intensify our sympathy for his fate are burdensome. Nearly four hours is, frankly, a bloody long time to wait for the guy to come to his moral senses. The relatively minimalist dialogue doesn't help, either. Finally, you're only grateful there's no sequel.

OPENS MARCH 12, CERT 15, 218 MINS

The Last Emperor tells the story of Pu Yi, installed as Lord Of Ten Thousand Years in 1908 at age three, only for Imperial China to become a republic a few years later. His journey takes him from a cosseted adolescence, walled up in the Forbidden City, to a playboy existence in Tientsin, reinstatement as puppet emperor of Manchuria, then post-war incarceration and eventual rehabilitation as a gardener in Red China.

The story is largely told in colours?the fabulous maroons, golds and yellows of his childhood, the blue-washed near-monochrome of his detention. It’s rich in irony and poignancy. All the same, Pu Yi is too weak, self-centred and uncomprehending a character to fully engage. The attempts to intensify our sympathy for his fate are burdensome. Nearly four hours is, frankly, a bloody long time to wait for the guy to come to his moral senses. The relatively minimalist dialogue doesn’t help, either. Finally, you’re only grateful there’s no sequel.

Welcome To The Jungle

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OPENS MARCH 10, CERT PG, 105 MINS The Rock's grounding as a man in lycra pants swapping sweat with mullet-topped behemoths for the entertainment of WWF crowds has stood him in good stead. He has enough showmanship to win over a fractious audience with little more than a camply arched eyebrow, and he's not afraid of making a tit of himself. This is an underrated trait in an action movie star, and one that injects immense appeal into this otherwise routine rumble in the jungle. The Rock plays a bounty hunter sent to retrieve a mobster's troublesome son (Seann William Scott) from the Brazilian jungle. But the pair are soon caught up in a rebellion against the local despot (Christopher Walken, at his most entertainingly deranged). Avoiding guns?at least until the climax of the film?The Rock creates havoc in some impressively choreographed, imaginative fight scenes. He also collects recipes and gets his ass whupped by an eight-stone South American Indian. I can't imagine that humourless lunk Vin Diesel doing anything like that.

OPENS MARCH 10, CERT PG, 105 MINS

The Rock’s grounding as a man in lycra pants swapping sweat with mullet-topped behemoths for the entertainment of WWF crowds has stood him in good stead. He has enough showmanship to win over a fractious audience with little more than a camply arched eyebrow, and he’s not afraid of making a tit of himself. This is an underrated trait in an action movie star, and one that injects immense appeal into this otherwise routine rumble in the jungle. The Rock plays a bounty hunter sent to retrieve a mobster’s troublesome son (Seann William Scott) from the Brazilian jungle. But the pair are soon caught up in a rebellion against the local despot (Christopher Walken, at his most entertainingly deranged). Avoiding guns?at least until the climax of the film?The Rock creates havoc in some impressively choreographed, imaginative fight scenes. He also collects recipes and gets his ass whupped by an eight-stone South American Indian. I can’t imagine that humourless lunk Vin Diesel doing anything like that.

Carnages

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OPENS MARCH 12, CERT 15, 130 MINS Young writer-director Delphine Gleize is tipped to be one of the most important French film-makers of her generation. On the evidence of her debut, already a multiple award-winner, it's easy to see why. She has vivid visual command: this complex story is marked by ...

OPENS MARCH 12, CERT 15, 130 MINS

Young writer-director Delphine Gleize is tipped to be one of the most important French film-makers of her generation. On the evidence of her debut, already a multiple award-winner, it’s easy to see why. She has vivid visual command: this complex story is marked by fresh, often startling imagery, from visceral bullfighting to grisly taxidermy to surreal flights of romanticism.

Set largely in Andalusia, it feels more Spanish than French. When a bull is killed (having gored a matador), its chopped-up pieces touch down in many different lives. A bone causes trauma for a little girl on Valium and a big dog; the eyes build a bridge for a philandering scientist and his pregnant wife; the horns effect a reunion of sorts for a creepy taxidermist and his family. Former Bu

Torque

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OPENS MARCH 5, CERT 15, 86 MINS More of the same from the producers of auto derbies like The Fast And The Furious, this time with bikes. The plot could fit on a postage stamp, involving the framing of biker hunk Cary (Martin Henderson) by snake-mean drug dealer Henry James (yep) for the murder of the brother of black biker lord Trey (Ice Cube), leading to a film-long chase through California's desert back-roads. It's the feature film debut for Eminem video director Joseph Kahn, who injects enough gaudy touches and good-humoured fizz to keep your brain out of neutral. The cast wear Stones and Ramones T-shirts, and Cube shamelessly barks "Fuck tha police" down an uber-bling mobile magnetically attached to his headgear. Computer game CGI mixes with bruising bike-straddling stuntwork for a final dockside punch-up, while Henderson's anaemic hero is compensated for by Monet Mazur's knowing tough-chick girlfriend. As for the full-speed bike chase through a passenger train?please don't try this at home.

OPENS MARCH 5, CERT 15, 86 MINS

More of the same from the producers of auto derbies like The Fast And The Furious, this time with bikes. The plot could fit on a postage stamp, involving the framing of biker hunk Cary (Martin Henderson) by snake-mean drug dealer Henry James (yep) for the murder of the brother of black biker lord Trey (Ice Cube), leading to a film-long chase through California’s desert back-roads.

It’s the feature film debut for Eminem video director Joseph Kahn, who injects enough gaudy touches and good-humoured fizz to keep your brain out of neutral. The cast wear Stones and Ramones T-shirts, and Cube shamelessly barks “Fuck tha police” down an uber-bling mobile magnetically attached to his headgear. Computer game CGI mixes with bruising bike-straddling stuntwork for a final dockside punch-up, while Henderson’s anaemic hero is compensated for by Monet Mazur’s knowing tough-chick girlfriend. As for the full-speed bike chase through a passenger train?please don’t try this at home.

Spare Parts

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OPENS MARCH 12, CERT 15, 87 MINS A companion piece to In This World and Dirty Pretty Things, director Damjan Kozole tackles the issue of human smuggling, from the point of view of the traffickers rather than their human cargo. Its setting is Krsko, a grim municipality in Slovenia that's stained toxic brown and plays home to the country's only nuclear processing plant?a potent metaphor for the decaying infrastructures and crippled economies at the heart of the problem. Former speedway champion Ludvik Zajc (Peter Musevski) is the town hero, now reduced to smuggling immigrants through to Italy and stoking his own faltering mythology by constantly recounting tales of past glories. Kozole does an impressive job of humanising reprehensible characters like Ludvik and his apprentice Rudi. And, more unexpectedly, the brusque friendship that develops between these two lonely deadbeats, in their twilight world of sodium-lit diners and cheap lives, proves to be genuinely affecting.

OPENS MARCH 12, CERT 15, 87 MINS

A companion piece to In This World and Dirty Pretty Things, director Damjan Kozole tackles the issue of human smuggling, from the point of view of the traffickers rather than their human cargo. Its setting is Krsko, a grim municipality in Slovenia that’s stained toxic brown and plays home to the country’s only nuclear processing plant?a potent metaphor for the decaying infrastructures and crippled economies at the heart of the problem.

Former speedway champion Ludvik Zajc (Peter Musevski) is the town hero, now reduced to smuggling immigrants through to Italy and stoking his own faltering mythology by constantly recounting tales of past glories. Kozole does an impressive job of humanising reprehensible characters like Ludvik and his apprentice Rudi. And, more unexpectedly, the brusque friendship that develops between these two lonely deadbeats, in their twilight world of sodium-lit diners and cheap lives, proves to be genuinely affecting.

Amazing Graze

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DIRECTED BY Kevin Costner STARRING Robert Duvall, Kevin Costner, Annette Bening Opens March 19, Cert 12A, 145 mins Seven years after The Postman conclusively destroyed his golden-boy status in Hollywood, Kevin Costner has turned his back on post-apocalyptic blockbusters and returned to his prairie roots. Open Range stars Duvall and Costner as Boss Spearman and Charley Waite, two "free grazers" in the 1880s, dedicated to raising their cattle on the American Midwest's freely available grasslands. When bad weather forces them to make camp outside a frontier town, Boss and Charley find themselves on the wrong side of murderous cattle boss Denton Baxter (Michael Gambon) and his corrupt lackey Sheriff Poole (James Russo). As the conflict escalates, ex-Civil War assassin Charley is forced to embrace the lethal past he's been running away from, setting the stage for a brutal showdown between our grizzled heroes and Baxter's ruthless private army. This is a deeply satisfying cowboy flick that recalls Anthony Mann classics like The Naked Spur and The Far Country, with a back-on-form Costner revelling in James Stewart's signature role as an awkward, flawed western hero searching for redemption. Craig Storper's screenplay (adapted from the novel by Lauran Paine) is a masterpiece of careful pacing, and Costner entices beautifully understated performances from his fellow leads. Duvall is outstanding as Boss, a world-weary man of principle who has no taste for the fatal conflict with Baxter but embraces it without hesitation because he knows it's the right thing to do. Bening is equally convincing as Sue Barlow, Charley's mature love interest, and Costner's handling of their awkward, grown-up romance is quite beautiful. All of these elements add up to a great period frontier drama, but what makes this an outstanding western are the opening cattle-droving scenes?the best depiction of jobbing cowboy life since Dick Richards' underrated 1972 masterpiece The Culpepper Cattle Company?and the glorious climactic gun battle, which has to be seen/heard to be believed. It's a masterpiece of slow, deliberate violent conflict that recalls Eastwood at his directorial best, and qualifies Open Range as not just a great movie but one of the great contemporary westerns.

DIRECTED BY Kevin Costner

STARRING Robert Duvall, Kevin Costner, Annette Bening

Opens March 19, Cert 12A, 145 mins

Seven years after The Postman conclusively destroyed his golden-boy status in Hollywood, Kevin Costner has turned his back on post-apocalyptic blockbusters and returned to his prairie roots.

Open Range stars Duvall and Costner as Boss Spearman and Charley Waite, two “free grazers” in the 1880s, dedicated to raising their cattle on the American Midwest’s freely available grasslands. When bad weather forces them to make camp outside a frontier town, Boss and Charley find themselves on the wrong side of murderous cattle boss Denton Baxter (Michael Gambon) and his corrupt lackey Sheriff Poole (James Russo). As the conflict escalates, ex-Civil War assassin Charley is forced to embrace the lethal past he’s been running away from, setting the stage for a brutal showdown between our grizzled heroes and Baxter’s ruthless private army.

This is a deeply satisfying cowboy flick that recalls Anthony Mann classics like The Naked Spur and The Far Country, with a back-on-form Costner revelling in James Stewart’s signature role as an awkward, flawed western hero searching for redemption. Craig Storper’s screenplay (adapted from the novel by Lauran Paine) is a masterpiece of careful pacing, and Costner entices beautifully understated performances from his fellow leads. Duvall is outstanding as Boss, a world-weary man of principle who has no taste for the fatal conflict with Baxter but embraces it without hesitation because he knows it’s the right thing to do. Bening is equally convincing as Sue Barlow, Charley’s mature love interest, and Costner’s handling of their awkward, grown-up romance is quite beautiful.

All of these elements add up to a great period frontier drama, but what makes this an outstanding western are the opening cattle-droving scenes?the best depiction of jobbing cowboy life since Dick Richards’ underrated 1972 masterpiece The Culpepper Cattle Company?and the glorious climactic gun battle, which has to be seen/heard to be believed. It’s a masterpiece of slow, deliberate violent conflict that recalls Eastwood at his directorial best, and qualifies Open Range as not just a great movie but one of the great contemporary westerns.

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