New Films

EAST IS EAST (15, 95 mins)

Director: Damien O'Donnell

Starring: Om Puri, Jimi Mistry

See The Independent Recommends, right.

West End: ABC Tottenham Court Rd, Barbican Screen, Clapham Picture House, Odeon Camden Town, Odeon Kensington, Odeon Marble Arch, Odeon Swiss Cottage, Ritzy Cinema, Screen on Baker Street, The Tricycle Cinema, UCI Whiteleys, Virgin Chelsea, Virgin Haymarket, Warner Village West End And local cinemas

FOLLOWING (15, 70 mins)

Director: Christopher Nolan

Starring: Jeremy Theobald, Alex Haw

Shot on a shoestring budget, this British noir puts its lugubrious hero (Theobald) under the wing of a suave London burglar (Haw). Following is pieced together in ashy black-and-whites, and uses the sort of fractured time-frame that's become a badge of honour for indie flicks of late. But it's poised to the point of constipation and clogged with the sort of stiff, expository dialogue that leaves its actors looking like tailors' dummies.

West End: Curzon Soho

JAKOB THE LIAR (12, 118 mins)

Director: Peter Kassovitz

Starring: Robin Williams, Alan Arkin

Downplaying his usual schtick, Williams takes the part of a timid Polack whose compulsive yarn-spinning brings a little hope to the downtrodden masses of the Jewish ghetto. The conceit echoes Life is Beautiful, though the handling is rather more restrained and heartfelt (a few jarring notes aside). When the tale runs out of steam, the top-notch supporting cast works hard to prop it up.

West End: Odeon Haymarket and Swiss Cottage

THE OUT-OF-TOWNERS (12, 90 mins)

Director: Sam Weisman

Starring: Steve Martin, Goldie Hawn

Weisman's machine-tooled remake of the Neil Simon favourite sends its two Midwestern innocents (Martin, Hawn) through a zany adventure in mad, bad Manhattan. There are amusing set-pieces, but there's something synthetic about the content and something slack in the mechanism.

West End: Plaza, Virgin Trocadero

RIDE WITH THE DEVIL (15, 140 mins)

Director: Ang Lee

Starring: Tobey Maguire, Skeet Ulrich

See The Independent Recommends, right.

West End: Empire Leicester Sq, UCI Whiteleys And local cinemas

THE SIXTH SENSE (15, 107 mins)

Director: M Night Shyamalan

Starring: Bruce Willis, Haley Joel Osment

See The Independent Recommends, right.

West End: ABC Tottenham Court Road, Notting Hill Coronet, Odeon Camden Town, Odeon Kensington, Odeon Leicester Square, Odeon Marble Arch, Odeon Swiss Cottage, UCI Whiteleys, Virgin Fulham Road and local cinemas

THE STORY OF O (18, 95 mins)

Director: Just Jaekin

Starring: Corinne Clery, Udo Kier

O is spirited off to a select S&M cult, then spanked and ravaged a bit. Then she gets her buttocks branded with a bloke's initials and goes whacko among the Biba decor of bourgeois France. Lacy soft porn with a pretentious voiceover.

West End: ABC Shaftesbury Avenue

Xan Brooks