Reviews

As most high-minded critics were correct to point out on its cinema release, Bad Boys 2 is crude, noisy, relentlessly violent and often in the worst possible taste. Did they also mention that it's ridiculously entertaining, with hilarious turns from Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, and that when it comes to putting on this kind of show, director Michael Bay displays an unstinting genius for widescreen mayhem? Probably not.

Tough-guy hardcore from Guelph, Ontario

Double CD of noirish electro-pop announces a new wave of credible Dutch dance

Survey of the Norwegian avant-garde

Sleek debut from Bristolian trio

Wholesome, Dylan-loving folkies reassessed over four CDs Every bit as manufactured as any modern pop band, Peter, Paul & Mary were svengali manager Albert Grossman's attempt to capitalise on the success of The Kingston Trio, late-'50s progenitors of neatly-pressed folk music, whose 1958 chart-topper "Tom Dooley" kickstarted the folk revival. Cannily realising the potential of an equivalent folk trio featuring a sexy blonde, Grossman assembled solo folkie Peter Yarrow, stand-up comic Paul Stookey and off-Broadway actress Mary Travers, and was rewarded with instant success.

British modern dance classic resurfaces with three brand new tracks attached

DIRECTED BY Bernardo Bertolucci STARRING Michael Pitt, Eva Green, Louis Garrel Opens February 6, Cert 18, 115 mins Film buffs have never looked less sexy than they do in Bertolucci's curiously distant rendering of Paris in May 1968. True, the film buffs in question spend most of their time lounging naked, playing psycho-sexual mind games and rutting feverishly. And yes, all three stars (Pitt, Garrel and, in particular, Green) are undeniably easy on the eye—something Bertolucci is at pains to stress with lots of salivating camera lingering on flesh.

Confused and rather dull boy-loses-girl story which inexplicably got some pant-wetting reviews. The greatly admired David Gordon Green loosely introduces us to the small-town Romeo and younger college girl who fall in love, only for her brother to kick up a rumpus and for her to break hearts. It's all wilfully vague and indecisive, and her infidelity doesn't make sense. Terrence Malick meets Dawson's Creek.

Angst on the farm in the debut from young French auteur Damien Odoul, a simultaneously harsh and dreamlike account of the coming of age of Pierre-Louis Bonnetblanc, a confused, alienated teen trapped on his uncle's dilapidated spread, where older farmhands introduce him to liquor and mannish ways, with ruinous results. Shot in pristine monochrome, it's a memorable experience, aiming, albeit a little self-consciously, toward a surreal poetry.