Time to face their doom

"Deep Impact"

With a more reflective perspective than its similarly-themed competitor, Armageddon, Deep Impact owes more to 1950s doomsday movies such as On the Beach than to the nod-and-wink slapstick of Independence Day. Perhaps reflecting her own perspective as one of the very few women directing action pictures, Mimi Leder's main focus is on her characters' reactions to their imminent demise, with Tea Leoni, Morgan Freeman and Elijah Wood among those contemplating their extinction as a comet hurtles towards Earth.

Although the final special-effects extravaganza shows the limitations of even the most up-to-date digital technology, there are some striking images - helicopters rising like a swarm of hornets from doomed Washington DC, or trains of animals being herded, Ark-like, into a safe, subterranean shelter. Once you accept its inherent silliness, this is a big, brash, and rather enjoyable melodrama.

"Scream 2"

Neve Campbell finds her memories of murder revived by the nationwide release of the movie Stab, based on a best-selling book by trashy tabloid journalist, Courtney Cox.

Now, a new killer seems intent on copying the original crimes, which provides an excuse for every other surviving member of the original cast to show up in Wes Craven's double-quick follow-up to his biggest hit.

Kevin Williamson's script gives us learned discussions on the irredeemable naffness of sequels, tips on how to spot the real killer, and numerous in-jokes for splatter fans. Somehow, though, none of this is quite as much fun as it sounds. Craven has been down this route already (in Wes Craven's New Nightmare) and here he seems caught between stools - clearly not wanting to alienate a potential audience far larger than any he's aimed for before, while using the opportunity to take a few pot-shots at critics who complain about the effects of his movies. The resulting film is less shocking, less funny, and less memorable than the original - a typical sequel, in fact.

"The Big Lebowski"

Set in Los Angeles in 1991, at the time of the Gulf War, the Coen Brothers' "stoner comedy" stars Jeff Bridges as Jeff Lebowski, also known reverentially as The Dude, an amiable, middle-aged hippy who happily spends his time getting wasted and hanging out at the bowling alley with his pals, the prone-to-violence Vietnam vet John Goodman and the slightly dim Steve Buscemi. When some eccentric criminal types confuse him with millionaire Jeffrey Lebowski, Bridges finds himself embroiled in a labyrinthine mystery involving German nihilists, sleazy pornographers and dotty conceptual artists. Along the way we get ruminations on everything from the Talmud to the nature of 10-pin bowling. The obvious sources of inspiration here are the novels of Raymond Chandler, although, this being the Coens, we also get large dollops of Busby Berkeley and country-and-western. It's an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink kind of a film, with more hits than misses and some hilarious sequences, and continues the Coen tradition of quirky pastiche and hip, deadpan humour.