Tom Cruise may seem like a curious choice to play the 6ft 5in hero of Lee Child’s vigilante novels, but, casting aside, Jack Reacher is a satisfyingly meaty whodunnit which has more in common with the private-eye thrillers of the 1960s and 1970s than it does with Mission: Impossible . Â Â Â Â
Lee Child’s popular hero, a former-soldier-turned-drifter, is famously 6’5“. So who plays him
joss Whedon’s perky series about wisecracking, renegade space cowboys, operating 500 years in the future, might have infamously been axed in 2002, but since then Firefly (above) has become the definitive cult success, spawning a terrific film, Serenity, and topping numerous lists for best sci-fi series.
Parks and Recreation’s Chris Pratt almost single-handedly redeems this predictable high-school-reunion drama, his boorish family man bagging the best lines and a wince-inducing karaoke routine. Â Â Â Â
Barnaby Southcombe’s funereally paced but inventively lit oddity stars Charlotte Rampling (the director’s mother) as a lonely divorcée who after hooking up with a rotter at a speed-dating event, goes back to his Barbican flat and smashes his head in.
When it came out at the cinema, Martin McDonagh’s postmodern crime comedy alienated those In Bruges fans who were hoping for a straightforward retread of his beloved debut film. Â Â Â Â
A comedy about an all-female student a capella group, Pitch Perfect rehashes a plot that’s older than Mickey Rooney. Â Â Â Â
Scene stealer Christopher Walken, once again, appears to be acting in an entirely different film (a better one) in Martin McDonagh’s absurd but entertaining black comedy.
“I am surprised to hear that Aristotle is on the syllabus in the State of Wisconsin,†maintains a haughty don in Harold Pinter’s deft adaptation of Nicholas Mosley’s novel.    Â
Midsomer Murders meets David Lynch in the BBC’s ripe, horribly compelling five-part thriller. A 15-year-old May Queen goes missing in a provincial town and three disagreeable middle-aged men – Peter Firth’s grubby property developer, Aiden Gillen’s sneering layabout and Peter McDonald’s creepy cop – are the main suspects.    Â