60-second cinema

7 out of 10 Y tu mamá también (“And your mother too”) is a road-trip movie, following a pair of cocky, horny, dope-loving young lads who convince a married woman to join them on a trip to the beach in Mexico. Along the way, they all learn a fair bit about each other, not least the sexual histories of the two lads, who are quite intent on widening their experience with their latest Mrs Robinson . Dirty, dirty boys. By this point, I sound like a bit of a prude, but that’s just my trick to hide the fact that I, a single male living alone, rented what is a decidedly fruity bit of foreign cinema. Yes, there’s plenty of the old in-out going on here, but, in all honesty, it’s the changing nature of the friendship between the two lads that is key. And for that, it was quite good. Without the benefit of speaking Spanish and being au fait with Mexican culture, I can’t be sure, but I’d say it was fairly well acted and directed. In fact, I’d love to give it a higher mark purely for the delight

2 out of 10 I'm really struggling to find anything good to say about this film. The storyline was awful, the comedy weak, it did nothing to further the progress of animation and was filled with characters you wanted to stamp on. Dreadful. And I shall waste no more time on it.

6 out of 10 I'll start by saying I am a massive fan of the books, but given the tales of a rather turbulent production I was keeping my hopes for the film in check. The trailers had looked visually stunning, but I was concerned about how they would get such a complex story into a couple of hours. One thing that struck me pretty early on in the film was that the screenplay really wasn't up to the job. The story moved from scene to scene at such a speed that I imagine many who came to the film without having read the books would have been lost. The three main actors did fine jobs: Kidman proved to be an admirable Mrs Coulter, and Daniel Craig's brief appearances as Lord Asriel were also up to the job. The star though was Dakota Blue Richards, for a first-timer I thought she captured Lyra extremely well. The CGI was pretty impressive even if the bear fight, while visually spectacular, didn't really engage the viewer. Iorek was portrayed well and Eva Green produced

8 out of 10 One of those films that held my attention throughout, but never really thrilled me. A bit like Zodiac in that sense. And, just as with Zodiac, American Gangster is based on a true, crime-related story, but that’s really about as close as they get. Don’t know why I bothered going down that route, to be honest. Anyway, I was going to give this a 7, but for reasons I’ll explain below, it’s worth more than that. American Gangster follows the criminal dealings of Frank Lucas, a black ‘businessman’ at the head of a New York crime syndicate. Buying heroin direct from growers in Vietnam and ferrying it to the US on military planes, he’s able to control the drug’s supply and distribution, making him a very rich man. The film follows the story of his rise to power, the police’s attempts to find him (or bribe him), and his ultimate downfall. I nearly used the word “gripping” there, but I think that was just me falling into cliché. There are, however, plenty of great performanc