The Blitz Spirit.

Jason Statham's second movie of 2011 continues his trend for grittier material. Obviously he still plays Jason Statham but he finds enough ways to bring his violent geezer, maverick, burnt-out copper to life and holds his own in a film that somehow also enticed two powerhouses of British acting - Paddy Considine (playing an un-camp gay superior) and David Morrissey (opportunist journalist). Everyone turns in a good performance but everyone is in the shadow of Aiden Gillen's interesting cop-killing/underclass hero psycho.

The director is from a pop promo background so there's a fashionably tinted look to the film but he gets good mileage out of underfunded police departments and council estate grime. The film puts enough fresh spins on tired material to be exciting and never becomes ponderous or plodding.

It flicks two fingers to moral ambiguity or liberal concerns and just goes for the jugular with confidence. Difficult to defend but easy to like.

I Pity The Fool.

This reboot of The A-Team is only a partial success. It’s at  its best during ludicrous and over the top set-pieces - the flying tank for example. During these moments of excess it captures the fun, excitement and silliness of the original television series but overall it doesn’t quite get the tone right. The bulk of the film suffers from overly complicated plotting, tedious character development (e.g. - B.A.’s path towards peace - yawn) and not enough humour.  The four leads are cast well but they don’t really spark off each other.  It’s a good action movie for the most part but ends with a really boring run and chase and shoot things finale around some cargo containers at a dockyard - you know, the sort  of thing that is in every other action movie. It’s okay but could have been much, much better.

It's Not Swan Lake.

Not quite the 'Dario Argento on crack' movie that Mark Kermode described it as - but an intense cinematic tour-de-force all the same. Completely off the rails for a mainstream Oscar nominated picture. It's operatic, fantastical and  perverse but always emotionally compelling. Aronofsky delivers on his early promise. Natalie Portman comes of age and Vincent Cassel is as watchable as always. A film full of strange and dark alchemy.

Babylon Attention Deficit

A disappointment from beginning to end. It's another outing for Vin Diesel, the man who can do no right. Michelle Yeoh adds some martial arts credibility. Melanie Thierry looks weird. Gerard Depardieu and Charlotte Rampling have been blackmailed into cameos.

Something seems to be missing all the way through and there is nothing here that you haven't seen done better elsewhere. It plays like a cut-price version of The Transporter with a bit of The Fifth Element and Serenity thrown in. There's a dull post-apocalyptic backdrop, no memorable set pieces, no jaw dropping action, no eye-popping SFX and nobody to care about.

It's also one of those films that seems to entirely cruise on people saying "come on", "let's go", "look lady", "Cross me. You die." etc. Don't go looking for pithy one-liners or quotable dialogue here.