Casino Royale
(12A) (Martin Campbell, 2006, US/UK)
Daniel Craig, Eva Green. 144 mins.
A blunt and brutish Bond for our troubled times, even if he's as ready to be heartbroken as he is to be tortured. Craig has the mouth for the dialogue and the muscles for the action, Green gets to be a Bond girl with a brain, and this reboot thriller toys with the old formula entertainingly while trying not to break it.
Gabrielle
(15) (Patrice Chéreau, 2005, Fra/Ger/Ita)
Isabelle Huppert, Pascal Greggory. 90 mins.
Chéreau breathes life into what could have been a crusty period chamber piece - using modern tricks to heighten the intensity of a marital power struggle. The acting is first rate, too, but it's a challenging watch.
Special
(15) (Hal Haberman, Jeremy Passmore, 2006, US)
Michael Rapaport. 81 mins.
The side effects of an experimental drug give nerdy Rapaport delusions of superheroism in this clever indie tragi-comedy. When he takes to the streets in a homemade costume, it's destined to end in tears, nosebleeds and worse.
Antibodies
(18) (Christian Alvart, 2005, Ger)
Wotan Wilke Möhring, André Hennicke. 127 mins.
An atmospheric German killer thriller that offers all the unease and horror you could wish for but tries a little too hard to stand out, mainly by adding cumbersome biblical themes.
We Shall Overcome
(12A) (Niels Arden Oplev, 2006, Den)
Janus Dissing Rathke. Bent Mejding. 109 mins.
A 1960s schoolboy applies Martin Luther King's non-violent resistance to his abusive headmaster.
Heroes & Villains
(15) (Selwyn Roberts, 2006, UK)
Selwyn Roberts. 99 mins.
Newcomer Roberts directs a romcom based around an enterprise to test your partner's fidelity - that inevitably creates problems.
37 Uses For A Dead Sheep
(Ben Hopkins, 2006, UK) 84 mins.
An inventive, rewarding documentary on the serially displaced Pamir Kirghiz of central Asia, in which villagers reenact scenes from their people's history.
Joy Division
(15) (Reg Traviss, 2006, UK/Ger/Hun)
Ed Stoppard, Bernard Hill. 105 mins.
Overstretched historical epic that follows a wartime German boy through Soviet training to 1960s London, where he doesn't know whether to spy or swing.
Loulou
(R/I) (Maurice Pialat, 1980, Fra)
Gérard Depardieu, Isabelle Huppert. 105 mins.
Future French stars show their promise in a romance that still feels substantial and spontaneous.
Nightmare Before Christmas 3D
(PG) (Henry Selick, 1993, US) 76 mins.
An extra dimension for Tim Burton and Danny Elfman's inventive animation - a sweet-and-sour collision of Christmas and Halloween.
Requiem (12A)
(Hans-Christian Schmid, 2006, Ger)
Sandra Hüller, Anna Blomeier. 93 mins.
This is so persuasively matter-of-fact, it takes a while to work out that it's a horror movie - which makes it all the more disturbing. Based on a real-life case from 1970s Germany, it sees a religious young student's epilepsy triggering a battle between the church and the medical profession over her soul/sanity. The only special effect is Hüller's performance, which is devastatingly intense.
Out from Friday
Tenacious D In The Pick Of Destiny
Black and Gass are about to rock.
Hollywoodland
Ben Affleck leads a trouble-in-Tinseltown drama.
Pan's Labyrinth
A Spanish Civil War fairytale.
Jackass Number Two
More masochism from the school of hard Knoxville.
Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man
Portrait of the gravel-throated legend.
Fated
Liverpudlian fantasy.
Rampage
Miami-set hip-hop documentary.
Santa Clause 3
Festive frivolity with Tim Allen.
Something New
LA love story led by Sanaa Lathan.
The Rocket Post
Eccentric Scottish story.
Coming soon
In two weeks ... Rat animation Flushed Away ... Lots of sex in the city in John Cameron Mitchell's Shortbus ...
In three weeks ... Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz do a life swap in The Holiday ... Nixon doesn't give peace a chance in The US Vs John Lennon ...
In a month ... Jeremy Irons and John Malkovich in dragon-based fantasy epic Eragon ...
