Reviewed by Darren Bevan

WHEN YOU think serial killers, I’m willing to bet a number of iconic figures spring to mind – Hannibal Lecter, Freddy, Jason etc – but I’m also willing to bet you don’t think any character played by Kevin Costner. (Although you probably would be forgiven for thinking he’d murdered a lot of his own characters as he portrayed them in his previous celluloid efforts.)

Reviewed by David Levinson

AS A SUBMISSION of star vanity to global wear-and-tear, A Mighty Heart falls somewhere between the moronic campaigning of The Kingdom (where nothing comes between Jamie Foxx and his shades, yo) and the cool trance of The Bourne Ultimatum (whose kinetic submergence of Matt Damon led David Denby to compare him to a “bullet”). Of course, the million-dollary baby floating Winterbottom’s dip into a cracked melting pot is none other than Angelina Jolie – here doing her best to hide her public image behind a tangle of black jerri curls, unshapely frocks, and the quiet commitment to a serious starring role.

Reviewed by Tim Wong

A SCRAP YARD of subgenre and pop-cultural hoardings, Quentin Tarantino’s oeuvre resembles a scavenged cinema. Bookmarked in films of incessant referential worship, his findings, in the trappings of Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, and especially Kill Bill, make for hyperbolic, at times exhilarating expressions of film obsession; as fan-boy compendiums, they’re also responsible for the thousands of impressionably bad student movies to emerge since. What’s ironic is that Tarantino should look to turn over a new leaf within the skin of the now-defunct Grindhouse double-bill – a two-for-one throwback to the exploitation programmes of American drive-ins and seedy Times Square theatres – because Death Proof, for all its retrograde gestures, distinguishes itself as his most authentic feature to date.

Reviewed by Simon Sweetman

THIS NEW Kiwi film is released nationwide November 8. And you need to see it. Why? Because you’re a New Zealander and this could have happened to you! Or because you’re a New Zealander and this could happen to someone you know! Thank god the director didn’t take that approach. But it could have been one way to present the material.

Reviewed by Darren Bevan

Venus is not what you’d expect – written by Hanif Kureishi who caused outrage with the Buddha of Suburbia back in the UK, it’s a bittersweet tale of a dying actor who manages to find some solace in the folly of youth.