Proudly billed as "the fourth film by Quentin Tarantino", Kill Bill, Volume 1 is actually half of it (if you include his chunk of Four Rooms it's really the fourth and a quarterth). If Jackie Brown achieved a certain maturity beyond callous cool, then this is his Mr Hyde's trash picture, which relishes all the things in cinema that are supposed to be bad for you. The opening Shaw Brothers logo and cheesy "our feature presentation" card, redolent of rancid Kia-Ora and stale Wrestlers, sets this up as defiantly a movie-geek's movie, whose touchstones are spaghetti Westerns, comic books, kung fu/samurai quickies and second-hand vinyl albums. If Kill Bill was a dog-eared paperback, it'd be confiscated by a teacher. Tarantino's favoured flashback-and-forth structure means we begin with a shuffle between past and present as the Bride with No Name (Uma Thurman) is shown being apparently murdered at the climax of a Texas wedding chapel massacre and alive again tracking down the second person on her to-kill list. The bulk of the film takes place between these plot points as the Bride carries a vengeance feud to the first of her enemies, yakuza queenpin O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu). Like its soundtrack-everything from Nancy Sinatra to the RZA, with the Green Hornet theme along the way-it's an eclectic picture, with sequences done as a gruesome anime, particularly genocidal stretches in black and white, and segues from cheerful kung fu massacre to Kurosawa-look poised duelling. Tarantino holds back on his trademark motormouth pop culture references; in fact, much of the film is in sub-titled Japanese. You have to lock your brain into trash-film mode to get the most out of it, but its cliffhanger fade-out-unlike the dispiriting "to be continued" at the end of Matrix Reloaded-makes you want to come back. It's not a spoiler to reveal that Bill (a barely glimpsed David Carradine) hasn't been killed yet, and Thurman needs to take out Daryl Hannah and Michael Madsen before she gets to him. [+]

This curiously overlooked drama from Clint Eastwood, released just after his Oscar triumph with Unforgiven, concerns a prisoner (Kevin Costner) on the run with a kidnapped young boy as protection and the Texas Ranger (Eastwood) and federal agent (Laura Dern) on his tail. Eastwood manages a number of nice touches-the boy's innocence is nicely contrasted with Costner's soft-spoken desperado by the Casper Halloween costume he wears and the law-enforcement officials look vaguely foolish, travelling around the countryside with a high-tech camper in tow. Eastwood gives a grizzled performance that, despite its seen-it-all surface, still feels fresh after all these years, and he coaxes surprisingly sensitive work out of Costner. But it's the sheer, modest scale of this piece that makes it so disarming-no planet lies in jeopardy, there are no cosmic make-or-break consequences here, just committed people doing their job and a well-meaning bad guy hoping things don't get too out of hand while he prevents them from doing so. -David Kronke.

The 1972 disaster hit The Poseidon Adventure was ripe for a big-budget CGI remake, and who better to helm it than thriller expert Wolfgang Petersen, director of Das Boot and The Perfect Storm? It hardly matters that a TV movie remake (also based on Paul Gallico's original 1969 source novel) was made less than a year before, because Petersen's version is far more spectacular, with shocking digital effects, massive sets, amazing stunt-work and enough fire and water to fill five movies with challenging worst-case scenarios. Once again, the plot concerns the capsizing (by a massive "rogue wave") of a state-of-the-art luxury liner, and the struggle of a small group of survivors (including Josh Lucas, Kurt Russell, Emmy Rossum, and Richard Dreyfuss) to climb upwards, to the ship's hull, in their treacherous quest for a safe exit. Unfortunately, most of these characters are two-dimensional and under-developed (especially when compared to the 1972 film's all-star cast), and the unimaginative screenplay by Mark Protosevich (reportedly worked on by several uncredited writers) subjects them to a rote series of obstacles that grow increasingly routine and repetitious, not to mention contrived and illogical. Again, it hardly matters, because Petersen's handling of non-stop action is so slick and professional that Poseidon gets by on sheer adrenaline. The capsizing scenes are nothing less than awesome, with some effects so real (and so horrifying) that younger and more sensitive viewers may need to look away. And while it lacks the engaging humanity of the 1972 version, Poseidon is certainly never boring. Faint praise, perhaps, but you'll get your popcorn's worth of mindless entertainment. -Jeff Shannon.

The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior is a dazzling prequel to the 2002 adventure movie The Scorpion King, the latter starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as Mathayus, the warrior who takes on an evil army attacking his homeland. The Scorpion King 2 stars Michael Copon as a young Mathayus, who trains to become one of his king's warriors and then declares vengeance on the evil Sargon after the latter kills Mathayus' father. The hero's ascension as a noble fighter coincides with Sargon's usurping of the throne, leading Mathayus to seek a supernatural means to destroy him. His quest leads him to the infamous labyrinth in which the Minotaur feasts on men, and to the underworld itself, a horrifying place in which people become ensnared and die very slowly. Accompanied by a childhood friend-turned-warrior (Karen Shenaz David) and a philosopher-huckster (Simon Quarterman), Mathayus bravely but uncertainly battles through one obstacle after another to complete his journey. Directed by Australian filmmaker Russell Mulcahy (Resident Evil: Extinction), The Scorpion King 2 is a suspenseful and sometimes startling feature, with art direction and special effects that evoke the mysteries of ancient Greece and indeed make the underworld look like a most unearthly and nightmarish place. -Tom Keogh.

Sean Connery plays a master thief thought to be long retired, while Catherine Zeta-Jones is his foil, a hotshot insurance investigator assigned to his case. They both have a little something to hold over each other's heads, until it turns out that Zeta-Jones is a professional art thief herself and is playing on both sides of the fence. At first they eye each other with mutual distrust until they team up for a job, which goes off without a hitch. Inevitably their prickly relationship begins to thaw somewhat, and the two become attracted to each other as they plan out the massive Y2K bank scam that is the movie's climax (complete with sequel-ready ending). Entrapment plays somewhat like a 1970s caper movie revamped for the gadget-happy high-tech '90s. The plot takes a few too many laboured twists and turns, and the chemistry between the two leads is nearly non-existent, though both carry on gamely in their parts. On the other hand, there is some genuine suspense in many scenes as they go about their business, dripping with whiz-bang burglary devices. Zeta-Jones, of course, is drop-dead gorgeous, and Connery is as reliable as always in his role. The fairly flat editing and direction tends to drag the film down somewhat, but fans of caper movies, high-tech thrillers and the two leads should find plenty to like in this film. -Jerry Renshaw, Amazon. [+]

Con Air is proof that the slick, absurdly overblown action formula of Hollywood mega-producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer (Top Gun, Days of Thunder, The Rock, Crimson Tide) lives on, even after Simpson's druggy death. (Read Charles Fleming's exposé, High Concept: Don Simpson and the Hollywood Culture of Excess, for more about that). Nicolas Cage, sporting a disconcerting mane of hair, is a wrongly convicted prisoner on a transport plane with a bunch of infamously psychopathic criminals, including head creep Cyrus the Virus (John Malkovich), black militant Diamond Dog (Ving Rhames), and serial killer Garland Greene (Steve Buscemi, making the most of his pallid, rodent-like qualities). Naturally, the convicts take over the plane; meanwhile, on the ground, a US marshal (John Cusack)and a DEA agent (Colm Meaney), try to figure out what to do. As is the postmodern way, the movie displays a self-consciously ironic awareness that its story and characters are really just excuses for a high-tech cinematic thrill ride. Best idea: the filmmakers persuaded the owners of the legendary Sands Hotel in Las Vegas to let them help out with the structure's demolition by crashing their plane into it. -Jim Emerson.

If Sylvester Stallone plays the world's number one assassin in this thriller, that must make Antonio Banderas, well, number two. The two are competing to hit the same target for a $20-million payoff and their challenge takes them from explosion to explosion on a cat-and-mouse chase from Seattle to Mexico. Julianne Moore plays the cagey cat fancier and computer hacker who possesses a stolen computer disc that makes her a prime target for bad guys, and Robert Rath (Stallone)is only too happy to come to her defense. Director Richard Donner handles action sequences with adequate flair and has a good time blowing things up. Banderas has fun with the nonsensical plot, and Moore is enjoyable in one of her big-budget mainstream roles. -Jeff Shannon.

Once intended as a feature for Johnny Depp, the long-germinating film adaptation of Marvel Comics' cult title Ghost Rider stars Nicolas Cage as motorcyclist Johnny Blaze, who transforms into a skull-faced angel of vengeance to battle the forces of evil. Though perhaps a bit mature for the role, Cage brings a degree of humour to the outrageous proceedings; he's well matched by the Easy Rider himself Peter Fonda, amusingly cast as Mephistopheles, the demon with whom Blaze strikes a bargain to save his father, and in turn, causes his transformation into Ghost Rider. Wes Bentley is also fine as Blackheart, the rebellious offspring of Mephistopheles, and Blaze's chief opponent in the film. They're joined by a solid supporting cast which includes Donal Logue, Eva Mendes and Sam Elliott, but their participation and a relentless barrage of CGI effects can't hide the fact that the story itself, though largely faithful to its comic origins, is rife with clichéd characterisations and B-movie dialogue. Fans of the venerable title may cry foul over this adaptation (as they did over helmer Mark Steven Johnson's previous comic-to-movie feature, Daredevil), but less stringent viewers may enjoy the fiery visuals and Cage's typically quirky performance. -Paul Gaita.

This enjoyable thriller, written and directed by Phil Alden Robinson (the screenwriter of Field of Dreams), follows a raggedy group of corporate security experts who get in over their heads when they accept an assignment poaching some hot hardware for the National Security Agency. Robert Redford plays the group's guru, an ageing techno-anarchist who has been hiding from the feds since the early 1970s; his companionable gang of freaks includes Dan Aykroyd, David Strathairn, Mary McDonnell, the late River Phoenix, and Sidney Poitier, as a veteran CIA operative turned "sneaker. " The technological black box that everybody is after, an array of computer chips that can decode any encrypted message, isn't a very plausible invention, but it's a serviceable McGuffin, and the megalomania of the master plotter played by Ben Kingsley has more resonance than most. Modest inferences can be drawn about the very latest high-tech threats to civil liberties. -David Chute, Amazon. com.

This seminal 1988 thriller made Bruce Willis a star and established a new template for action stories: "Terrorists take over a (blank), and a lone hero, unknown to the villains, is trapped with them. " In Die Hard, those bad guys, led by the velvet-voiced Alan Rickman, assume control of a Los Angeles high-rise with Willis's visiting New York cop inside. The attraction of the film has as much to do with the sight of a barefoot mortal running around the guts of a modern office tower as it has to do with the plentiful fight sequences and the bond the hero establishes with an LA beat cop. Bonnie Bedelia plays Willis's wife, Hart Bochner is good as a brash hostage who tries negotiating his way to freedom, Alexander Godunov makes for a believable killer with lethal feet, and William Atherton is slimy as a busybody reporter. This film is exceptionally well directed by John McTiernan. -Tom Keogh.

We Dive at Dawn (1943) tells of the encounter between a British submarine and a German warship in the Baltic Sea. John Mills gives a dependable performance as the submarine commander, with Eric Portman the pick of a strong supporting cast. Director Anthony Asquith finds the balance between action sequences and "in situ" dialogue, and there's an evocative score from Louis Levy. The film has long been underrated and deserves reappraisal. -Richard Whitehouse.

Jean-Claude Van Damme, aka "the Muscles from Brussels", has sought to revitalise his flagging career by working with the most adrenalised directors from Hong Kong action films. His first such effort was this, the umpteenth remake of The Most Dangerous Game, which teamed him with Hong Kong's most fluid action poet, John Woo (director of M:I2). Woo does what he can but, as much magic as he injects into the action, he can't turn Van Damme into an actor. Still, this is above-average fare for the wooden Belgian, in which he plays a guy trying to bust a ring of hunters who pay for the right to track and kill human quarry. And Woo has the ever-reliable Lance Henriksen as the chief bad guy, always a plus. -Marshall Fine, Amazon. com.