Film review

THE BRITISH crime movie has a long history, but recent efforts in this genre have chosen to follow the lead of Quentin Tarantino by mixing deadpan humour with cold brutality. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (left) employs this recipe, but the film's defining characteristic is its resilient morality. Beneath the cruel violence and coarse humour, this is a nostalgic piece, as hinted at by the closing nod to The Italian Job.

On general release

Fans of The X-Files television series have been heard to complain that the show's itinerant approach to conspiracy theories had taken some of the lustre out of the subject. In which case, the film version isn't likely to offer any compensation. But it looks splendid on the big screen. David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson reprise their roles as FBI agents Mulder and Scully, and the screenplay gives them a meaty conundrum to chew on.

On general release