Reviews

Non-stop Yakuza-v-zombie action shouldn't be this boring. Director Ryuhei Kitamura knows how to stage a flesh-munching, sword-flashing set piece, but simply stringing a bunch of them together doesn't make a movie. Something to watch when you're in a stoned stupor, perhaps.

A rock'n'roll movie without sex and drugs? Tom Hanks' directorial debut is an anachronism and proud of it. This tale of 1960s teen-pop sensation The Wonders (as in "one-hit") is breezy and good-natured, with Steve Zahn providing most of the laughs. The title tune by The Knack's Adam Schlesinger gets heavy rotation; thankfully it's a Beatle-esque beauty.

Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong all but eviscerate what remains of their Up In Smoke credibility with this 1984, er, adaptation of Dumas. Suffice to say that the period Parisian setting allows for, ho ho, cross-dressing, painful double-entendres (a villain called "Fuckaire"), and rock-bottom one-liners: "That's the Marquis du Hicky! He's a tri-sexual!" "A tri-sexual?" "Yes, he'll try anything!" Ugh.

Raunchy performance by '60s R&B star

Inspiring second album of garage blues

First in five years from Southern rock icon

East Coast angst-rockers still frowning on fourth album

Californian country-folk belle lets the sunshine through on excellent fourth album

Premature best-of from rock nearly-men

Saccharine American Civil War epic