Lincoln
Steven Spielberg - Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Tommy Lee Jones, Sally Field

Lincoln sharply divided audiences. Some found it a majestic retelling of one of the greatest achievements of America's greatest president. Some found it a stuffy parliamentary procedural full of indistinguishable men in beards talking in old-fashioned language. Both, to an extend are accurate.
There are certainly a lot of blokes with beards. And the beginning and end of the film have all the cloying sentimentality that Spielberg is worst known for. But this is a rare example of a single actor striding through a film with such staggering skill and authority that he transforms it into something truly special.
There are a bunch of great actors here: David Strathairn, James Spader, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Hal Holbrook, and many more, but all are totally eclipsed by Day-Lewis. He is magnificent, mesmerising, absolutely believable, a three-dimensional character so real you feel you could talk to him. No one will ever try Lincoln again, he's that good.
Around him is a swirling mass of bits: Linclon's homelife with unstable wife Fields; the burden of trying to end the civil war; and, primarily, the attempted passage of the constitutional amendment to end slavery. It's a down and dirty political struggle, with blackmail, bribery and dirty tricks aplenty. A nineteenth century West Wing.
Some will undoubtedly have little patience for this (it's long). But, even if only for Daniel Day-Lewis, it's a ride worth taking.

Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters is a very silly film. It's the latest attempt to 're-imagine” fairly tales in a somewhat adult setting. Or, in this case, a very adult setting, an excuse for some wild fighting and killing and a whole bunch of special effects. So you have the very reliable Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton as a grown-up Hansel and Gretel doing exactly what the title suggests. It's mindless and makes little sense, has thinly developed characters (if you can even call them that) and no redeeming social value. Expect all this and it's also a lot of fun.

Director Joe (Atonement, Hanna) Wright's take on the sweeping romance that is Tolstoy's Anna Karenina is unusual. The entire film is set inside a theatre, the fourth wall continually broken as rooms are assembled around actors while clever theatrical devices replace most outdoor action. Couple this with a respectable cast (Keira Knightly, Jude Law and a host of classy Brits) and a cracking screenplay from Tom Stoppard and you have the makings of a fast-paced, inventive and surprising adaptation, a fine example of virtuoso filmmaking within self-imposed restrictions. One big problem: while you're meant to sympathise with the tragic Anna, I would have gladly strangled her.

In 1993 three Arkansas teenagers were accused and charged with the killing of three 8-year-old boys in a Satanic ritual. They were found guilty and spent 18 years in jail. West of Memphis is the fourth documentary about the case and details how, with the intervention of Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, only the latest of many celebrities to champion their cause, they were finally freed. Many may have seen coverage earlier this year of chief suspect Damien Echols visiting Jackson. This is the film of how it came about, a desperately sad indictment of a justice system that, even today, is more interested in covering its own back than seeking the truth.

My, hasn't Nic Cage been in a lot of crap films? Presumably, though, they all return dosh to their investors, so here's another dumb slice of schlock, Stolen, re-teaming Cage with his Con Air director Simon West for an action heist movie set in New Orleans. It starts with Cage getting busted during a bank robbery. Eight years later upon his release, attempted bonding with his estranged daughter is interrupted by a duplicitous ex-partner (Josh Lucas, psycho) and the FBI (Danny Huston, solid), both with their eye on the missing heist money. Staggeringly average.