24 Hours in London is a crime thriller set in 2009 in which a neatly twisted story is undermined by bizarre shifts in style; yet it remains notable as Gary-2point4 Children-Olsen's last screen work. Olsen plays a London ganglord seeking to erase his rivals while, as in The Long Good Friday (1980) before it, he completes a major deal. But when a witness, Martha (Anjela Lauren Smith), survives a massacre Olsen orders her hit before the police can close in. Thus the film delivers a set-piece assault on a police station in homage to The Terminator before relocating for a waiting game in a hotel room. Add a mystery police traitor and a sub-plot involving organ theft and the story develops with more than expected ingenuity. Unfortunately the tone veers so much it's like watching two different films: a dark thriller which doesn't have the budget to convince us that this is 2009, and a slapstick farce filled with OTT violence and cartoon caricatures better suited to TV's Bottom. Played either straight or for laughs the story could have worked, but switching between the two results in an almost unbelievable mess that proves first time directors need do more than simply parade their influences. -Gary S. Dalkin.

Whew. Linda Fiorentino is like a home-grown apocalyptic nightmare as the sizzling, sexy dame who thinks "sharing" is a dirty word. Fiorentino, a master of the double-cross, hooks up with naive Peter Berg, a nice guy desperate for a little adventure. There are endless twists to this cleverly vicious story, but the real draw is Fiorentino, whose performance is brilliant. She is the everywoman you never want to meet: cool as ice, passionate, tough, self-satisfied, smart, and amoral. Bill Pullman is a surprise as a Machiavellian doctor who is almost her match. Definitely not a date flick, as this represents one vicious battle in the sex wars. -Rochelle O'Gorman, Amazon. com.

John Dahl, the director behind Red Rock West and The Last Seduction, is the director and co-writer of Kill Me Again, and it shows. Dahl's love of modern noir, ruthless women, Western landscapes, and double-crosses shines through. Joanne Whalley-Kilmer plays Fay, a spitfire who has somehow gotten herself mixed up with a psychotic thug (Michael Madsen, of course) named Vince. Fay runs off with a whole lot of Vince's stolen money and hires loser private eye Jack Andrews (Val Kilmer) to help her fake her own death. To say any more would spoil a terrific, intricate plot that keeps heating up as interested parties close in on Jack, Fay, and the money. The then-married Kilmer and Whalley-Kilmer clearly have a great time playing off each other, and Madsen adds another brilliantly played lunatic to his oeuvre. Enjoy it, and don't trust anybody. -Ali Davis, Amazon. com.

Originally released in 1974, The Odessa File is set in Hamburg a decade earlier. Its starting-point is the Nazi support network Odessa, and its involvement with Egyptian plans to destroy Israel. Peter Miller is a freelance journalist whose interest appears initially to be a professional one, before a personal dimension finally becomes apparent in his confrontation with SS Captain Roschmann. Kenneth Ross adapts a well-honed screenplay from Frederick Forsyth's bestseller, and director Ronald Neame captures a typically Cold War sense of individuals and organisations playing out a scenario of political right and wrong. John Voight, long before he became a cameo star, makes a sympathetic lead, able to judge between the moral and material aspects of his profession. Mary Tamm is photogenic, if uninvolving, as his girlfriend, while Maximillian Schell is a convincing Nazi stereotype. Andrew Lloyd-Weber contributes a serviceable score, centred on the catchy "Christmas Dream" sung by Perry Como. Not a classic suspense thriller, but an enjoyable and thoughtful one. On the DVD: the letterbox widescreen format preserves the 2. 35:1 aspect ratio of the cinema release with decent if not exceptional clarity, with optional 16:9 TV enhancement. [+]