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Latest releases reviewed

PRIDE & PREJUDICE ****

Wright's enthralling new treatment of Austen's enduring novel maximises cinema's potential to refresh its ripe material on a broad, handsome canvas. Knightley and Macfadyen are ideal choices to play the complicated young lovers, Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy, and Wright surrounds them with an impeccably chosen cast that notably includes two inveterate scene-stealers, Blethyn and Dench. The DVD includes the alternative, more romantic ending added for the film's US cinema release.  - Michael Dwyer

TIM BURTON'S CORPSE BRIDE ****

Life after death is much more fun than what precedes it in this enchanting and inventive stop-motion animated musical set in Victorian times, when plans for an arranged marriage are thrown into disarray by an intervention from the afterlife. The voice cast is impeccably chosen and adds immeasurably to the richness and charm of the fantasy. Michael Dwyer

LORD OF WAR ****
Directed by Andrew Niccol. Starring Nicolas Cage, Ethan Hawke, Jared Leto, Bridget Moynahan, Ian Holm 18 cert

Niccol's timely, hard-edged and black-humoured drama is the first that directly addresses international arms dealing as its theme. Cage is on stronger form than in years as a man so devoid of scruples that he's prepared to sell arms to anyone, no matter how evil, as long as they pay. - Michael Dwyer

SKY HIGH ***

A young man, the son of superheroes, struggles with the knowledge that he may have no powers himself. Inevitably, Sky High suffers by comparison with The Incredibles, but this remains a good-natured family film that neither preaches nor talks down to its target audience. Ho-hum DVD extras. Donald Clarke

KINKY BOOTS **
Directed by Julian Jarrold. Starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Joel Edgerton, Sarah-Jane Potts, Nick Frost 12 cert

A struggling shoe manufacturer turns to making boots for Soho drag queens in the latest successor to The Full Monty. The ubiquitous Ejiofor, though short on fabulousness, is impressively dignified as a gender-bending cabaret artiste. Everything else is as expected. Enough already. - Donald Clarke

ELIZABETHTOWN *
Directed by Cameron Crowe. Starring Orlando Bloom, Kirsten Dunst, Susan Sarandon, Alec Baldwin 15 cert

Limp and cosy even by Crowe's standards, this supposed romantic comedy slopes drowsily around after Bloom (come in, your time is up), a failed sports shoe designer, as he travels home to bury his father. The incessant drippy rock music is infuriating, the actors seem barely awake, and the attempt to connect with the plain people of America is patronising. A disaster. Donald Clarke

BEWITCHED *
Directed by Nora Ephron. Starring Nicole Kidman, Will Ferrell, Shirley MacLaine, Michael Caine, Jason Schwartzman PG cert

Kidman is hired to play a witch in a remake of the eponymous sitcom. But, hang on a mo, she actually is a witch. The usual accusation levelled against stupid adaptations of Tudor-era sitcoms is that they don't have a single idea in their supposed heads. Bewitched, is, by contrast, coming down with ideas. Sadly, they are all bad. Donald Clarke

DEUCE BIGALOW: EUROPEAN GIGOLO *
Directed by Mike Bigelow. Starring Rob Schneider, Eddie Griffin 16 cert

An American cretin goes amongst the Dutch. If you've seen Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo then you probably think you have some idea how ghastly the sequel is. You do not. European Gigolo conclusively proves that the revolting Rob Schneider has the ability to limbo beneath any expectation, however lowered. Donald Clarke