X MEN: FIRST CLASS
Dir: Matthew Vaughn. Starring: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Kevin Bacon.

This fifth X-Men film was universally praised when it hit cinemas, seen as a return to form after the slightly dodgy X-Men: The Last Stand and Wolverine. And, don't get me wrong, it is a whole bunch of fun, opening up new vistas in the X-universe and messing entertainingly with real history.
The set-up takes us back to where the very first film started, in a Nazi concentration camp where a young Eric Lehnsherr – later to become Magneto – reveals his metal-bending powers. He is tormented by Kevin Bacon's evil Nazi. Skip forward a couple of decades and we are in the cold war-dominated early 60s, the evil Nazi turns out to be a mutant with plans for world domination, while Eric and a young Professor Xavier track down others to thwart his evil plans.

It's cleverly done, and the climax based around the Cuban missile crisis is a good idea. There are also a lot of new mutants on display and suitable backstories are created for others (Beast, Mystique etc). But…

I just have a niggling 'but” about this. James McAvoy, normally so reliable, bugs me intensely as Professor X. He seems too lightweight. And that's the problem with the film as a whole. Even compared to the relatively throwaway Wolverine this seems cutesy. But Fassbender's tough turn just about compensates. Aside from a strange slip to a broad Irish accent in the final scenes he is fantastic: brooding, tormented, tempting and menacing, he brings a weight to the film that Bacon's cartoon villain cannot muster.

The yoof are revolting. They certainly are in F, a short sharp UK thriller that transports Assault On Precinct 13 to an English comprehensive school and has a disparate bunch of disillusioned teachers, janitors, security guards and pupils menaced by sinister hoodie-wearers. There is a certain amount of suspense-building as the unknown cast are picked off one by one, but this is ultimately very unsatisfying if you are a fan of logic, character development, gore, or any form of layered storytelling. The ending is a non-existent joke and how this film got the glowing cover reviews is anyone's guess.

I'm very much a fan of recent South Korean cinema, one of whose mainstays seems to be imaginative (and often quite extreme) revenge flicks. But Bedevilled was pretty much a step too far for me, an odd tale of a woman returning to her childhood island home where a friend she left behind is tormented by the unpleasant locals, particularly some horrible old ladies. Finally the friend snaps and violent revenge occurs.
It's weird but it's well made, with its very oddness suggesting
some deeper meaning. Perhaps it's another of those goddamn metaphors.

Adrien Brody spends the first half hour of Wrecked trying to get out of a car. The car has crashed into a forest and he is trapped; two other passengers are dead. Oh, and he's lost his memory. (Bugger, I thought at this point, it's one of those 'he was dead all along” movies. It's not.) Eventually he does escape and mucho crawling around the woods occurs as memories slowly return. Bad memories, very slowly. This is pretty much a solo show from Brody and he does magnificently, though the pace is slow and the concept limited. It's a bit of a slog to be honest.

I missed Your Highness when it came out last month and I should have left it at that. It's not like I have anything against 'stoner” comedies, it's just that this seems to have forgotten the 'comedy” part. Danny McBride, James Franco (usually reliable but here looking very uncomfortable) and Natalie Portman are lost in a medieval action romp which might have sounded like a good idea on paper but is pretty tedious to actually watch. A lot more stoner gags would actually have helped for once.