Those of a nervous disposition should opt out of a tour of duty with Kathryn Bigelow's thrilling war drama.
The Hurt Locker is a masterclass in sustained tension as a three-strong bomb disposal squad attached to the US Army risks life and severed
limb to defuse roadside improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
To heighten our unease, a major character is blown to smithereens in the nerve-racking opening sequence. No-one is safe.
Expect to bite your nails to the cuticle over the subsequent two hours as the soldiers of Bravo Company count down the 38 days left on their current rotation.
Journalist and screenwriter Mark Boal spent time in Iraq with an army bomb squad, and his hellish experiences add a sheen of uncomfortable realism to Bigelow's brio.
The odds are stacked against these men from the very first frame, and the few who live to tell the tale will be emotionally scarred for the rest of their civilian lives.
Staff Sergeant William James (Jeremy Renner) is the new-boy of Bravo Company, taking charge of sergeant JT Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and specialist Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty) on the streets of Baghdad.
James's gung-ho, fatalistic approach to his job creates friction with his subordinates.
"He's a rowdy boy," remarks Eldridge, slightly in awe of the new staff sergeant's swagger.
"He's reckless," corrects Sanborn, knowing full well that one wrong move could get them all killed.
When one such action has predictably fatal consequen-ces, Sanborn explodes - "We didn't have to go looking for trouble to get your adrenaline fix!" - and James is finally compelled to face up to the repercussions of his decisions.
The Hurt Locker is a gripping portrait of courage and carelessness under-fire, anchored by strong perform-ances from the leads as three different faces of the modern US military.
Renner captures the contradictions of his unit leader, who struts the line between bravado and suicidal abandon.
"If I'm gonna die, I want to die comfortable," he tells his unit, removing his protective gear so he can squeeze closer to a car packed full of explosives.
Mackie and Geraghty are compelling as the voices of experience and exuberance, and there are pivotal roles for Guy Pearce and Ralph Fiennes as men caught in the crossfire.
Bigelow's direction is impeccable, shooting on location in Jordan in 54-degree heat to capture the exhaustion on the faces of her actors as they become embroiled in the meticulously orchestrated action sequen-ces.
Every bead of sweat, every grimace of pain looks and feels real, yet the men of Bravo Company wouldn't want to be anywhere else.
They get their kicks staring down the barrel of the enemy's gun and dodging bullets every single day, and we're invited along for the ride. Take cover.
DAMON SMITHFunny People turn out ridiculous
Funny People (15) **THe title of Judd Apatow's new comedy, his follow-up to The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up, isn't supposed to be ironic.
What could be more perfect for a film immersed in the world of stand-up and its neurotic performers than Funny People?
However, there's nothing remotely funny about Apatow's third feature behind the camera, his most autobiographical picture yet, based on his early years writing jokes for other comedians.
The warmth that Apatow lavished upon characters in his earlier work deserts him, as does the deft touch for dialogue, and we're left with almost two-and-a-half hours of self-indulgent navel gazing.
And when that navel is full of inconsequential fluff, spouted by protagonists who we find neither interesting nor endearing, the unwieldy running time feels infinitely longer sitting there in the cinema.
Funny People is a coming of middle-age story about a lonely, embittered man gifted a second chance at life.
Stand-up comic turned film actor George Simmons (Adam Sandler) has a string of box-office successes, including Mer-Man, Love Is In The Err, Re-Do and My Best Friend's A Robot co-starring Owen Wilson.
A routine visit to the doctor culminates in shocking news: George has a rare and inoperable form of leukaemia and has only a slim chance of beating the disease.
So he prepares for his final days and hires wet-behind-the-ears performer Ira Wright (Seth Rogen) to pen him gags for some forthcoming corporate events.
The relationship blossoms into something approaching friendship.
When the doctors joyfully tell George that his body has miraculously defeated the disease, the funny man is faced with exciting choices about the path of his life, and they all lead to old flame Laura (Leslie Mann) who is now happily settled with two daughters and a macho Australian husband, Clarke (Eric Bana).
Funny People is a bore, pitching haphazardly for laughs at the expense of plausibility.
There's no way that George would hire Ira, based on his disastrous performance late one night, and we're perplexed why Laura would ever have fallen in love with such a schmuck.
Ira's romantic subplot with wannabe stand-up Daisy (Aubrey Plaza) is tepid, cheapened by the rivalry with cocky room-mate Mark (Jason Schwartzman).
Apatow peppers scenes with cameos from real-life stand-ups including Andy Dick, Charles Fleischer, Norm MacDonald, Paul Reiser and Sarah Silverman.
However, British audiences will struggle to recognise half of these performers playing themselves.
DAMON SMITHAlmodovar returns with his favourite leading lady Cruz
Broken Embraces (15) ***Pedro Almodovar returns to the noir conventions of Bad Education with this serpentine thriller about a film director's ill-fated affair with his leading lady.
Fans of the Spanish auteur's work will find plenty to enjoy in Broken Embraces. However, this new film lacks the wistful air of recent films such as Volver and All About My Mother, drawing inspiration instead from Roberto Rossellini's Viaggio In Italia and Henry Hathaway's Kiss Of Death.
There are flecks of Almodovar's playfulness, yet the abiding mood is grim and foreboding, spiced with sexual jealousy, infidelity and brooding desire.
To counter these dark under-currents, Almodovar reunites with Oscar-winner Penelope Cruz, who lights up the screen as the sultry siren at the centre of the mystery.
After the opening credits, comprising two minutes of lead actors Cruz and Lluis Homar preparing for a scene, unaware they are being filmed, the movie opens in the company of scriptwriter Harry Caine (Homar), who lost his sight in a car crash and subsequently changed his name from Mateo Blanco.
Aided by his good friend Judit (Blanca Portillo) and her typist son Diego (Tamar Novas), Harry has numbed himself to the anguish of the past - until news arrives that producer Ernesto Martel (Jose Luis Gomez) has died.
Harry is transported back to the early 1990s and the set of his ill-fated comedy Girls And Suitcases, where he meets and falls under the spell of aspiring actress Lena (Cruz), who just happens to be Ernesto's girlfriend.
As director and starlet embark on a secret affair, Ernesto becomes increasingly suspicious and he hires his socially awkward son Ray (Ruben Ochandiano) to spy on the couple under the auspices of making a behind-the-scenes documentary.
His worst fears confirmed, the wily producer sets in motion a chain of events that has devastating consequences for everyone involved.
Broken Embraces gives the brush-off to linear story-telling, ricocheting back and forth between two timelines to orchestrate the high melodrama of the final reel.
Cruz is luminous as a woman at the mercy of her 'amour fou', and she sparks smouldering screen chemistry with Homar.
Ochandiano makes the skin crawl as the gay misfit.
Almodovar's screenplay shows flashes of his brilliance but for all its pleasures Broken Embraces feels like a casual sidestep rather than a bold leap forward.
DAMON SMITHALSO SHOWING
THE FINAL DESTINATION (15)Death stalks another group of hapless teenagers in the fourth and potentially last in the Final Destination series, and this time the dismem-berment is in eye-popping 3D.
Nick O'Bannon (Bobby Campo) is enjoying a day of racing at the local car track when he suffers a premon-ition of a pile-up which causes debris to shoot into the crowd, killing his girlfriend Lori (Shantel Van Santen) and friends Janet (Haley Webb) and Hunt (Nick Zano). Nick also glimpses his own death, crushed by the stand as it collapses on top of him.
Shaken by his waking dream, he persuades the group to leave shortly before his terrifying vision comes true, and the teenagers thank him for their miraculous escape. As the survivors of the disaster are killed in the order they would have died that fateful day, Nick and his pals must work out how to cheat death's grisly design.
MESRINE: PUBLIC ENEMY NO 1 (15)Jean-Francois Richet's two-part biopic won three Cesars (the Gallic equivalent of an Oscar) including the director's prize and Best Actor for Vincent Cassel in the title role.
Mesrine is an epic and brutal tale of crime and punishment inspired by the true-life exploits of one of France's most notorious criminals. The opening salvo, Killer Instinct, was released at selected cinemas on August 7.
This second chapter continues the escapades of Mesrine as he achieves notoriety and escapes from prison with fellow convict Francois Besse (Mathieu Amalric). Aided by girlfriend Sylvie (Ludivine Sagnier), Mesrine robs two banks in the space of an hour but he underestimates the resolve of tenacious police officer Broussard (Olivier Gourmet), who will stop at nothing. The opening two hours are arguably stronger than this second instalment, which becomes repetitive.
