The Visit (15), directed by M Night Shyamalan

1/5

SIXTEEN years after The Blair Witch Project made found footage all the rage, M Night Shyamalan has finally jumped on the bandwagon.

But it is too little, too late. Shyamalan fails to employ any groundbreaking effects in this supposedly terrifying story about a brother and sister who are sent to stay for a week with their estranged grandparents at their remote Pennsylvania farm.

As budding film-maker Rebecca (Olivia Dejonge) records their stay, Nana (Deanna Dunagan) and Pop Pop (Peter McRobbie) beging to act very creepily indeed.

The fact that he tells the kids bedtime is at 9.30pm and it is best they stay in their rooms, plus Nana asking Rebecca to get into the oven to clean it Hansel and Gretel style, should have sounded alarm bells.

Could they just be old and senile or not what they appear?

It’s a promising premise which ends in disappointing results in this predictable found-footage comedy-horror which is unsure exactly what genre it belongs to.

Another painfully disheartening film by Shyamalan.

Maria Duarte

Legend (18), directed by Brian Helgeland

5/5

“EVERYBODY had a story about the Krays”.

That line from this extraordinary saga of the rise and fall of gangster twins Reggie and Ronnie sums up this riveting biopic.

A legend is also a myth and writer-director Brian Helgeland’s saga of the rise and fall of identical twin gangsters Reggie and Ronald Kray in 1960s London contains many qualities of a mythical saga, although claiming to be their true story.

The Krays aspired to be US-style hoodlums and they were involved with mafioso Meyer Lansky, who believed that “London’s going to be the Las Vegas of Europe,” which might explain why the US-born Helgeland was drawn to this project.

The period backgrounds never seem fake and there’s some great dialogue as when a cop states bitterly of Reggie’s friendship with the locals: “East Enders — won’t talk to a policeman but they’ll kiss a gangster.”

The film vividly charts criminal empire-building and the brothers’ comeuppance with brilliant storytelling that holds you without a weak performance diluting its potent impact.

Two Oscar-worthy performances dominate. Tom Hardy’s magnificent as the murderously psychotic Ronnie and equally so as the ruthless and shameless Reggie.

A unique double-whammy which alone makes Legend unmissable.

Alan Frank

La Famille Belier (12A), directed by Eric Lartigau

4/5

NEWCOMER Louane Emera, who appeared on France’s version of The Voice two years ago, proves she is a natural in front of the camera in this quirky but predictably uplifting French comedy drama about a girl who lives with her deaf parents.

Emera is captivating as Paula who, as she can hear, spends her life translating for her parents (Karian Viard and Francois Damiens) and helping them run their dairy farm.

When she signs up for the school choir because of a cute boy Gabriel (Ilian Bergala), she discovers that she has a gift for singing and wins a shot at joining an elite choir in Paris. But her parents take the news badly.

Emera delivers an impressively convincing natural debut performance putting Viard and Damiens to shame as they gesticulate madly throughout in over-the-top performances.

It does beg the question why deaf actors weren’t cast in the roles, as is the case with Luca Gelberg as Paula’s annoying younger brother.

It is a bizarre, touching film. The singing is sublime and Paula’s heartrending audition at the end is genuinely affecting.

Maria Duarte

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (12A), directed by Wes Ball

4/5

I CAN’T pretend that I could completely follow the storyline of this sequel to 2014’s sci-fi action thriller.

But since thrills, action and suspense are essential audience motivators it doesn’t really matter too much.

After opening with a furious recap of the first film, director Wes Ball vigorously gets down to business, in which the surviving Gladers, led by teenager Thomas (Dylan O’Brien), escape from the underground facility where they are held captive and boldly go to seek the secrets of the mysterious organisation WICKED. They need the Gladers’ vital fluids to create an antidote for a worldwide epidemic and, from then on, the plot thickens.

Thanks to fast-paced direction, excellent special effects that create chilling wrecked cities and an all too credibly bleak future, this definitely does the action-addicted business.

Alan Frank

Irrational Man (12A), directed by Woody Allen

0/5

ANOTHER Woody Allen film with a story that’s simple, not to say simple-minded, especially its badly staged cliche ending.

In it, hard-drinking, burned-out philosophy professor Abe, played with no apparent interest by Joaquin Phoenix, lectures at a small-town college.

He seeks solace for his torment by sleeping with married professor Rita (Parker Posey) and, inevitably, with student Jill (Emma Stone) who worships him.

Then, overhearing a stranger slate an evil judge, Phoenix decides to murder him.

Allen, who’s also the scriptwriter, pens the line: “He could always cloud the issue with words,” and that defines his pathetic screenplay that would barely bolster a below-average television series episode.

If he turned this in without his name attached, it would have deservedly ended in the waste bin.

Instead, eight producers — yes, eight — are credited. Says it all.

Alan Frank