PUBLIC ENEMIES *****
Dir: Michael Mann
Starring: Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard

Public Enemies is going to disappoint a lot of people. Most specifically people who liked Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean and are looking for a fun action flick. This is not that.
Director Michael Mann has crafted a film like no other, and one that looks like no other. Themes are familiar to anyone who has seen his classic Heat. There it was De Niro and Pacino as the crook and cop, here Depp is John Dillinger, gangster extraordinaire and Bale is FBI man Melvin Purvis, but the fascination with obsessive men and the skills they bring to their profession remains.
But this is not just a period take on Heat. We know from the start that Dillinger is doomed which adds strange frisson, particularly to Depp's wooing of Marion Cotillard. He promises her the moon and stars but we know things are going to end in tears, lending a melancholic edge to each scene together.
But the main relationship is between the two men and both are perfect for their roles, Bale a stony mask conveying a steely resolution in the face of bureau pressure (Billy Crudup, very good as a young Edgar Hoover), and Depp dark and charismatic, refusing to stop even as he is squeezed between the FBI and new forms of crime that shun his flamboyant bank-robbing ways.
Most unusual though, is the look of the film, shot in jarring hi-def, giving an alarming documentary realism to the setting and making it seem totally modern despite the extraordinary level of period detail. It is at times a deliberately ugly look, far removed from the ravishing cinematography of Mann's early films. Maybe one day all movies will look like this - certainly, something groundbreaking is happening here.

The Ice Age franchise was always simpler and sweeter than most animated offerings – even fare such as Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda looks edgy in comparison. But it is - let's not forget - for kids, and probably smaller ones at that. Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (***) offers nothing new. Sure, the animation itself looks effortlessly wonderful but, beyond that, this is a pretty limp effort, contriving to bring back the previously-extinct dinosaurs because, presumably, they score well at test screenings. All the usual characters also return and, if adults are bored by the lack of… well, anything much of interest really, just remember that if your age is in double figures this film was not meant for you.

The Hangover (****) re-treads well-worn territory but manages to remain fresh. The set-up has four guys heading to Vegas for a wild weekend before one of them gets married. Actually, it starts with an anguished phone call to the bride – the men look a mess and tell her the wedding has to be cancelled. Then we flash back to the happy beginning of the night, before they wake with a tiger in the bathroom, a baby in the bedroom, no groom and no memory of the evening. Surprisingly smart stuff, as they try to piece together their misbehaviour, and very funny.

Isolation (***) is an unambitious but atmospheric thriller raised a notch by strong character detail. It takes place on a small Irish farm where the birth of a calf goes horribly wrong and it emerges that – to fend off hard times – the farmer has allowed a shady 'scientist” to experiment on the cows. Said experiment unleashes some sort of parasite and things go downhill from there. A hit at horror festivals, this is sure to please fans of the genre and marks writer/director Billy O'Brien as definitely one to watch.

A body falls from a roof in the first shot of Murderer (***) and it's a jarring experience. Filmed in deliberately alarming day-glo colours this Hong Kong flick delights in plunging over the top. The body is a cop and his partner is unconscious on a balcony above. Turns out he's lost his memory too, a shame, because all evidence points to him as the killer. The resolution is so weird that, what with the other various excesses, this could happily slot into an Incredibly Strange Film Festival.