Top Five (15) directed by Chris Rock

THIS rollicking tale of black film star Andre Allen, desperate to prove that there is a lot more to him than his famous talking-bear film character, is lewd and crude.

It’s also very, very funny.

Chris Rock — who writes, directs and stars in it — has produced a scabrously funny yet all too credible take on the place of a successful black comedian in contemporary US society which is witty, informed and ultimately illuminating.

The plot turns around Allen (Rock), who is about to marry self-loving diva Erica Long (Gabrielle Union) when a prolonged interview with reporter Chelsea Brown (Rosario Dawson) to coincide with his failing film about rebelling slaves in Cuba forces him to reassess his life and career with unexpected consequences.

There are startling sex scenes, constant crudity and a non-stop cascade of four-letter words but Rock knows what he’s doing, creating more powerful social satire than most po-faced sociologically driven films deliver.

Alan Frank

Rosewater (15) directed by Jon Stewart

THE HARROWING story of London-based journalist Maziar Bahari, incarcerated and tortured for 118 days on spy charges by the Iranian authorities, seems an unusual choice for the directorial debut by The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart.

Iranian-born Bahari (Gael Garcia Bernal) travelled to Iran to cover the 2009 elections for Newsweek magazine.

He bore witness to people being shot by Iranian forces during massive demonstrations against the regime and produced the footage which led to his arrest.

Stewart says it was his feelings of guilt and atonement for what happened to Bahari that spurred him on because the latter’s captors used a spoof interview he gave to The Daily Show’s Jason Jones, pretending to be a spy, as proof that Bahari was indeed spying for the US. They didn’t get the joke.

Based on the journalist’s best-selling memoir, Stewart recreates his agonising ordeal with poignancy, humour and an intelligent script which doesn’t revert to torture porn.

Instead it concentrates on the psychological terrors Bahari underwent at the hands of his interrogator (Kim Bodnia) whom he dubbed Rosewater. He was blindfolded and interrogated for four months while placed in solitary confinement in a tiny bare cell throughout his stay.

Bernal leads an international cast with a superlative performance, while Danish actor Kim Bodnia is both chilling and intense as Rosewater, desperate to impress his bosses and break the journalist.

Stewart shows flair and promise behind the camera in a film which highlights the importance of defending freedom of speech and the bravery of journalists trying to report the truth in dangerous regions.

Maria Duarte

Big Game (12) directed by Jalmari Helander

IN BIG Game the Canadian Victor Garber plays the US vice-president and Englishman Jim Broadbent portrays a Pentagon CIA terrorist expert.

So it’s safe to assume that this entertaining adventure should simply be savoured for action and suspense rather than credibility.

It centres on 13-year-old Finnish boy Oskari (Onni Tommila) who, with his bow and arrow, sets out to save the life of the US President (Samuel L Jackson) after mercenaries shoot down Air Force One over the snowy wilds of the Finnish mountains.

It’s kid-friendly fun, in which the ever-resourceful Oskari’s traditional rites of passage — spending a night and a day in the wilderness — is transformed into saving the Western world when the president lands in the snow in an escape pod.

The boy morphs into an ever-resourceful modern-day Huckleberry Finn and light-hearted fun is had as the distinctly odd couple, with Jackson a funnier president than any of the real ones, carry on regardless.

Alan Frank

Phoenix directed by Christian Petzold

A DISFIGURED Auschwitz survivor returns home to Berlin after major reconstructive surgery in search of her beloved husband who may or may not have betrayed her to the nazis in this stylish film-noir drama set in 1945.

But Christian Petzold’s exquisitely shot and slow-burning thriller only works if you suspend complete disbelief.

Once Nelly (Nina Hoss) tracks down the love of her life Johnny (Ronald Zehrfeld) he enlists her to impersonate his dead wife so he can inherit all her fortune.

Despite the excellent advice of her friend Lene (Nina Kunzendorf), and the mounting evidence, Nelly refuses to believe Johnny is rotten to the core.

Revenge is certainly a dish best served cold as the finale of this satisfying chiller proves.

Maria Duarte

The Age of Adaline (12A) directed by Lee Toland Krieger

THERE are no opening credits as we plunge straight into the strange story of Adaline Bowman, engagingly played by Blake Lively.

After a freak accident involving a Frankenstein-style lightning bolt, she remains 29 years old for almost 80 years.

And without a portrait, too. In fact, she refuses to be photographed — eat your heart out, Dorian Gray.

Inevitably her unchanging looks force Adaline to live a peripatetic life, during which she introduces her ageing daughter Flemming (Ellen Burstyn) as her mother.

But then she meets philanthropist Ellis Jones (Michiel Hutsman) and true romance blossoms.

What ensues is romantic fantasy and had director Lee Toland Krieger made the film in, say, subtitled Romanian I suspect it might have been critically hailed.

That may not be the case with this fairytale but while it’s no groundbreaker. it has an infectious warmth and attractive performances which make it unexpectedly charming.

Alan Frank

Spooks: The Greater Good (15) directed by Bharat Nalluri

THE BBC TV series Spooks which ended in 2011 has been revived for a feature-length spy thriller that, despite its wide-screen production, rarely succeeds in shaking off its small-screen origins.

Series star Peter Firth returns as head of counter-terrorism Harry Pearce but, after being blamed for the escape of a top terrorist, he is forced to resign and vanishes. Agent Kit Harrington (Will Holloway) is summoned from Moscow to investigate.

Given his top billing, its predictable that Firth turns out to be alive, leaving he and Game of Thrones star Holloway to clean up MI5 and save the day.

If director Bharat Nalluri and screenwriters Sam Vincent and Jonathan Brackley were hoping to create yet another spy-action thriller in the vein of the Bourne franchise, they’ve missed their target.

There are some effective action sequences but ultimately this comes across like a typical television pilot, and one unlikely to spawn a sequel.

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