GENERAL RELEASE

ABSOLUTE POWER (15)

Clint Eastwood directs and stars in this flat thriller about a cat burglar who becomes embroiled in a White House scandal.

ADRENALIN: FEAR THE RUSH (18)

Lame horror movie, devoid of plot and characterisation.

ALIVE AND KICKING (15)

A rigorous exploration of how to survive emotionally when you live in the shadow of Aids, with Jason Flemyng and Antony Sher.

ANACONDA (15)

Brazenly trashy horror flick, with Jon Voight as a snake-hunter.

ANNA KARENINA (15)

Bernard Rose's lavish but vacuous adaptation of Tolstoy.

THE ASSOCIATE (PG)

Whoopi Goldberg is a financial analyst who invents a male partner to draw in clients in this leisurely comedy.

BANG (18)

See New Films, p8.

BATMAN & ROBIN (PG)

George Clooney and Chris O'Donnell are the heroic pair in Joel Schumacher's ugly, garish disaster of a movie.

THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS (NC) Revival of Gillo Pontecorvo's astonishing 1965 drama. An astute piece of political commentary about the struggle of Algiers to attain liberty from France, it's also a taut thriller, with a documentary feel.

BEAVIS AND BUTT-HEAD DO AMERICA (12)

The snickering cartoon couch-potatoes in an over-long sketch.

BIG NIGHT (15)

Stanley Tucci's delicious movie about two Italian brothers trying to run a gourmet restaurant in 1950s New Jersey.

A BIT OF SCARLET (NC)

Andrea Weiss's clip-fest rifles through the celluloid closet, illustrating the function of gay characters in cinema. Narrated by Ian McKellen.

BRASSED OFF (15) Moving drama about the decline of a mining town.

BREAKING THE WAVES (18) Von Trier's harrowing epic.

THE CHAMBER (12)

Latest and weakest Grisham adaptation with the bland Chris O'Donnell as a lawyer trying to save his killer grandad (Gene Hackman) from the gas chamber.

CITIZEN KANE (U)

Welles's re-released masterpiece.

CITY OF INDUSTRY (18)

Harvey Keitel, Timothy Hutton and Stephen Dorff in a snail-paced heist- gone-wrong caper.

COLD COMFORT FARM (PG) John Schlesinger's lucid adaptation of Stella Gibbons's novel breathes life into the Starkadder stereotypes.

CON AIR (18)

Brutally entertaining thriller about a gang of psychotic convicts who hijack a plane. With John Malkovich and Nicolas Cage.

CRASH (18)

David Cronenberg's cool, clinical adaptation of JG Ballard's novel. James Spader and Deborah Unger are the alienated couple who find themselves drawn into a circle of auto-erotic fetishists.

THE DEVIL'S OWN (15)

Cop Harrison Ford takes IRA snake Brad Pitt to his bosom in Alan J Pakula's disappointingly superficial thriller.

DONNIE BRASCO (18)

Mike Newell's sombre study of betrayal stars Johnny Depp as undercover FBI man Joe Pistone, and a superbly muted Al Pacino as his mobster mentor.

DRIFTING CLOUDS (PG)

Aki Kaurismaki's charming tale of a couple who lose their jobs and encounter severe depression is shot through with the director's dry wit, optimism and generosity.

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (U)

The second and best of Lucas's intergalactic fairy-tales.