The Expendables 3 (12A) 

Directed by Patrick Hughes 

3/5 

SLY and his legendary gang are back bigger and with even more star-studded power than before in this ridiculous but hugely fun non-stop action romp. 

Stallone, Arnie Schwarzenegger and Jason Statham’s merry band are now joined by Wesley Snipes, Harrison Ford, Antonio Banderas and Mel Gibson as the villain. Bruce Willis’s absence gets its own gag in the film. 

The four new high-profile additions make an unforgettable impression in an action cast of what seems thousands. 

Very entertaining stuff. 

Maria Duarte 

The Congress (15) 

Directed by Ari Folman 

2/5 

HOLLYWOOD’S obsession with youth and beauty, its commercial ruthlessness and the demise of old-fashioned film-making are explored in Ari Folman’s new half-live action, half-animated fantasy feature. 

Based on Stanislaw Lem’s The Futurological Congress, The Congress sees Robin Wright playing herself. She agrees to sell her cinematic identity to a major studio for 20 years during which they can use her image in any kind of film, including the pornographic. 

In exchange she is paid handsomely and her digitalised self will remain forever young. 

The film’s first half, concentrating on a washed-up Wright making a deal with the devil, is fascinating in the unflattering light it sheds on a cut-throat industry. 

Yet once the action moves into animation, as Wright returns from her 20-year exile to discover her image has been transformed into a chemical formula which anyone can consume, the Congress suddenly seems to lose the plot and verges on the pretentious. 

Ari Folman — who directed Waltz With Bashir — makes a fine stab at criticising the growing use of computer-generated film images which are sounding the death knell for the cinema many grew up with. 

But the painfully slow and very self-absorbed proceedings will have lost most of its audience by the end. 

Maria Duarte

Hector And The Search For Happiness (15) 

Directed by Peter Chelsom 

2/5 

WHAT makes you happy and how do you find it are the fundamental questions posed by this comedy drama which hits home in the wake of the shocking death of US comic Robin Williams. 

In it, Hector (Simon Pegg) is an eccentric psychiatrist who, in order to help his patients, embarks on a trip to research happiness which takes him to China, Africa and Los Angeles. 

Unfortunately, like therapy itself, this proves to be a costly and endless journey. 

The problem is that the film can’t decide whether it is a quirky and uplifting comedy or a preachy sentimental comedy drama. At one point it is surprisingly violent. 

The ever-watchable Pegg heads an all-star international cast which includes Rosamund Pike, Toni Collette, Stellan Skarsgard, Jean Reno and Christopher Plummer. They are all a joy to watch albeit only too briefly. 

But even they can’t save an oddity which outstays its welcome. 

Maria Duarte 

We Gotta Get Out Of This Place (15) 

Directed by Zeke and Simon Hawkins 

5/5 

SET in a dead-end Texas town, We Gotta Get Out Of This Place is a gritty thriller with a surreal twist.

It tells the tale of Billy Joe (Logan Humman) who robs his cotton farmer boss Giff (Mark Pellegrino) in order to pay for one last blow-out weekend with his two best friends Bobby and Sue (Jeremy Allan White and Mackenzie Davis) who are about to leave for college. Upon returning, the teens are confronted by brutal consequences and must embark on a dangerous journey that tests their trust and friendship. 

Impeccably written by Dutch Southern, the story eschews stereotypes as it reveals the cruel mechanisms of power wielded through the bosses’s guns, rendering a Mexican worker’s life worthless. 

Written and directed by Simon and Zeke Hawkins, their low-budget film is rigorous and unflinching with a story of sharply drawn characters which make it an uncommonly mature first feature. Small but beautifully formed. 

Rita Di Santo