Any film aiming to be Hitchcockian has a lot to live up to: with its blonde heroine, eerie atmosphere and sweeping score, Killing Me Softly sets itself up for a fall even before the plot kicks in. Stylishly filmed by Chen Kaige (the Chinese director's first English feature), this London-set thriller is based on Nicci French's novel about a young American woman, Alice (Heather Graham), and her passionate affair with the mysterious stranger Adam (Joseph Fiennes). Leaving her partner and surrendering herself to Adam's sexual experimentation, Alice only begins to suspect something's not quite right once she's married him and a series of ominous notes arrive through the post. Add to this Adam's mysterious first marriage, an intriguing locked cupboard and enigmatic sister (Natasha McElhone), and Alice begins to look for a way out, in fear of her life. The fact that Alice sleeps with a stranger at the drop of a hat makes for a shaky premise, but what ensues can only be described as complete nonsense, with the plot twisting its way to a ludicrous climax. Smirking his way through the film, Fiennes is as miscast as Graham, who's clearly there for the soft porn love scenes and not the ones where she's a reporter replete with big spectacles. Graham in the buff is certainly going to attract a few viewers, but for the rest of us Killing Me Softly is just too plain daft to bother with. On the DVD: Killing Me Softly offers a sparse set of extras, including a featurette that repeats most of the footage seen in the trailer, also included. Short interviews with cast members Graham, Fiennes and McElhone can be found here alongside comments from director Kaige and some footage of the shoot itself, all of which add little to the overall package. -Laura Bushell.

This paranoia-fuelled thriller, more intelligent and imaginative than you would have reason to believe, owes a huge debt to The Stepford Wives with its premise of a goody-good high school clique programmed by an evil doctor to be wholesome, academically driven and shining examples of clean living. Unlike its predecessor, though, David Nutter's film opts to open up its premise for everyone to see, diluting the scares but amplifying the creepy atmosphere. There's never any question of what's happening to the students of Cradle Bay High, who go from being druggies and sex fiends to the academically excellent Blue Ribbons, but it's a lot of fun to see these programmed teens run amok-and start killing people-when their hormones kick in. And considering they're all horny teenagers, this happens, oh, at least a few times a day. Model-perfect James Marsden, with stunning cheekbones and piercing blue eyes, is the new kid in town who stumbles on the plot with a little help from metalhead Nick Stahl. Moody Marsden stirs up trouble when he refuses to join up with the Blue Ribbons, prompting his concerned parents to consider signing him up for the program, especially after it turns Stahl into a vest-wearing, pep-rallying brainiac. The satire isn't entirely fulfilled (the evil kids hang out at the yoghurt shop and spout inspirational platitudes), but once the action kicks in it's quite an enjoyable ride, thanks primarily to Bruce Greenwood (The Sweet Hereafter) as the mad scientist behind it all and Katie Holmes (Go) as Marsden's love interest. Refusing the advances of the star football player and fighting gamely alongside Marsden, Holmes manages to deck a few bad guys with a fervour that squarely puts her in Linda Hamilton and Jamie Lee Curtis territory. Steve Railsback stars as the colluding chief of police and Dan Zudovic as a janitor with a penchant for getting rid of "rats," rodent and otherwise. -Mark Englehart, Amazon. [+]

A sleeper star vehicle for Denzel Washington Ricochet is a campy revenge thriller in the Brian De Palma style. Director Russell Mulcahy (The Shadow) makes the most of the opportunity to showcase two great actors in an exaggerated story of cops, robbers, and revenge. Washington plays a cop who becomes a rising legal star as a result of arresting master criminal John Lithgow, who escapes prison, fakes his own death, and sets about framing lawyer Washington for various crimes. Lithgow methodically destroys his life, until Washington enlists the help of childhood friend and drug dealer Ice-T to turn the tables and put his tormentor out of business for good. Lurid and violent, the film is also happily over the top, making Ricochet a cheerfully decadent indulgence. -Robert Lane, Amazon. com.

In the first Prime Suspect, Helen Mirren's ballsy woman Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennyson battled the boys club and their sexist barbs to prove herself in a chauvinist department. In Prime Suspect 2, she's assigned to head a racially charged murder investigation in a largely African/Caribbean neighbourhood. It's politics as usual in the image-conscious organization, so the superintendent adds to the team black Detective Robert Oswalde (Colin Salma), a sharp but hot-headed investigator who has just broken off an affair with Tennyson. Now Tennyson grapples with her own conflicted feelings while fighting political and public-relations battles both in the media and within the police system itself in the midst of investigating the labyrinthine case. Between the scant clues left to sift, a prime suspect on the verge of death himself and divisions in her own team that result in a devastating death, Tennyson soon begins to suspect she's been hung out to dry by the department. Screenwriter Allan Cubitt dives into the murky waters of volatile racial and social relations to create an even more complex and compelling mystery in Tennyson's second appearance and Mirren rises to the challenge to explore the contradictions of an uncompromising cop in a compromising position. -Sean Axmaker In Prime Suspect 2, Helen Mirren's ballsy woman detective chief inspector Jane Tennison is assigned to head a racially charged murder investigation in a largely African / Caribbean neighbourhood. It's politics as usual in the image-conscious organisation, so the superintendent adds to the team black detective Robert Oswalde (Colin Salma), a sharp but hot-headed investigator who has just broken off an affair with Tennison. Now she has to grapple with her own conflicting feelings while fighting political and public-relations battles both in the media and within the police system itself as she investigates the labyrinthine case. Given scant clues left to sift, a prime suspect who's almost dead and divisions in her own team that result in a devastating death, Tennison soon begins to suspect she's been hung out to dry by the department. [+]

Steeped in gloomy atmosphere,Frailty locates its horror in the tyranny of religious fanaticism. Making an assured directorial debut, actor Bill Paxton co-stars as a Texas widower who believes God has recruited him to destroy demons in human form. Feeling divinely justified in committing a series of axe murders (discreetly unseen), he urges his two young sons to assist him in the killings-a living nightmare recalled in flashback by one of the now-adult sons (Matthew McConaughey) to the FBI agent (Powers Boothe) who's investigating the murders. But mystery is of secondary importance in Brent Hanley's cleverly twisting screenplay; Frailty suggests, with unsettling subtlety, that Paxton's mission may not be delusional, thus burdening his deadly wrath with spiritually disturbing significance. It's definitely not a feel-good film, but with celebrity endorsements by Stephen King and directors James Cameron and Sam Raimi (who both made films with Paxton), Frailty gets under the skin with insidious efficiency. -Jeff Shannon.