Breaking In (15)

Directed by James McTeigue

4*

A DIFFERENT way to celebrate Mother's Day, which is marked in the US on May 13, might be by getting along to this nerve-shredding thriller.

It revamps the standard suspense-film trope of an all-American family subjected to a vicious house invasion by conscience-free criminals.

This relatively short take on an apparently worn-out storyline grabs you by the throat early and keeps you throttled right the way through.

Director James McTeigue starts as he means to go on at the opening, with a man being run down and killed. We then see his widow Shaun Russell, potently played as a stop-at-nothing avenger by Gabrielle Union, driving to her late husband’s home with their two young children Jasmine and Seth.

They soon get an unfriendly reception from the house's hostile burglar alarm and worse is to come when Eddie (Billy Burke) and his grisly gang break in, seeking a safe containing $4 million.

Suspense builds inexorably as Russell goes determinedly on the attack to rescue her kids. “Moms don’t run, not with babies in the nest,” she declares, proving that nothing is a terrifying as a determined mother on a bloody murderous rampage.

Excellent widescreen cinematography and an appropriately scary score add power to a classy chiller.

Alan Frank

Entebbe (12A)

Directed by Jose Padilha

3*

IN THE words of Mark Twain, never let the truth get in the way of a good story, but, in this case, it's more don't let cinematic licence and pretentiousness ruin a perfectly compelling and thrilling tale.

Entebbe is inspired by the real-life 1976 hijacking of an Air France flight from Tel Aviv to Paris with 248 passengers on board and the daring rescue attempt that followed by the Israelis.

The four hijackers, two Palestinian and two left-wing German radicals (played superbly by Daniel Bruhl and Rosamund Pike) captured the jet in mid-air and diverted it to Entebbe Airport in Uganda where it was met by the country's leader Idi Amin (Nonso Anozie). The ransom demand was $5 million and the release of 50 pro-Palestinian militants imprisoned around the world.

All the Israeli and Jewish passengers were identified and separated by the German captors in a powerful scene which is a painful reminder of the nazi period.

Director Jose Padilha captures the look and tone of the time perfectly in what is a masterclass in how to turn a riveting complex tale full of political intrigue and drama into a dull and mundane made-for-TV-style film.

Its major problem lies in the modern contemporary dance sequence which pops up throughout, destroying the narrative flow and the mounting tension in this race-against-time thriller. It proves an unnecessary distraction, somewhat mediated by the sterling performances from Bruhl and Pike along with Eddie Marsan's powerhouse turn as Israeli Defence Minister Shimon Peres.

The film explores the contradictory ideas of heroism as all parties involved wanted to emerge the heroes — the hijackers, the Israeli soldiers involved in the rescue mission led by Colonel Yonatan Netanyahu and the Israeli politicians who were trying to resolve the situation diplomatically at first before opting for radical action.

It was Netanyahu's death in action that reportedly spurred his younger brother Benjamin to return home from the US and enter politics. The rest is history.

Maria Duarte

Jayne Mansfield 66/67 (15)

Directed by P David Ebersole and Todd Hughes

4*

JAYNE MANSFIELD, Hollywood’s second most-celebrated “blonde bombshell” — Marilyn Monroe was the first — was only 34 when she died in a car crash in 1967.

According to directors and screenwriters P David Ebersole and Todd Hughes, theirs is a true story “based on rumour and hearsay” which inspired them to employ “emotional dance numbers and experimental film and performance sketches.”

Yet daffy dances add little depth to watching Mansfield’s (Ann Magnuson) rise to fame as an aspirant sex-symbol in big-screen appearances with the likes of Edward G Robinson and Mickey Rooney and on TV with Groucho Marx.

John Waters, Kenneth Anger, Mamie Van Doren, Tippy Hedren and self-admiring academics add apparently profound comments.

Mansfield’s marriages, romances and short life are vividly charted, establishing her as no brainless blonde bombshell, promoted as a rival and box-office stand-in for Monroe. She spoke five languages and was intelligently self-aware.

We see her falling under the malign influence of Church of Satan founder Anton LaVay who, bizarrely, may have diabolically “initiated“ her fatal crash in order to “rescue” her from her then boyfriend, lawyer Sam Brody.

A fascinating and seriously idiosyncratic biopic that's worth catching.

AF

Sherlock Gnomes (U)

Directed by John Stevenson

3*

GARDEN gnomes Gnomeo and Juliet unite once more for another action-filled adventure which is as fun and as quirky as the original.

The pair (voiced again by James McAvoy and Emily Blunt) have moved from Stratford to London with their respective families but, when the latter mysteriously disappear, they recruit the renowned Sherlock Gnomes (Johnny Depp) and Dr Watson (Chiwetel Ejiofor) to help find them.

Gnomeo soon allies himself with Dr Watson as they realise they are being sidelined by their better halves who treat them increasingly more like idiots.

Featuring another great soundtrack by Elton John, who also produced the film, it had the youngsters around me dancing in the aisles.

The Sherlock Holmes references, aimed squarely at the adults, clearly went over the youngsters’ heads, but they were mesmerised by the gnomes' antics, particularly the surreal light relief provided by Mankini.

There is nothing groundbreaking about this sequel, although there are a few surprising twists. The film's target audience obviously loved it, so who am I to quibble?

MD