THE HEADLESS WOMAN (LA MUJER SIN CABEZA) (Arg/Sp/Fr/It 2008) **
Directed by Lucrecia Martel

Director Lucrecia Martel’s THE HEADLESS WOMAN begins with a very well shot segment of boys playing around a dried out canal.  Her camera tracks a barking dog chasing them about, while a bus drives by.  It all looks so real as if one is seated by the side of the road watching the boys.  It is then revealed that a gathering is close by, one that involves Martel’s protagonist, a blonde dentist Veronica (Maria Onetto).

OLD DOGS (USA 2009) *
Directed by Walt Becker

OLD DOGS reunites Disney’s director Walt Becker (WILD HOGS) with actor John Travolta in another comedy.  But this should be taken more of a warning.

NINJA ASSASSIN (USA/Germany 2009) ***
Directed by James McTeigue

Director McTeigure directed the narratively hard-to-follow V FOR VENDETTA recently.  In his latest action spectacle NINJA ASSASSIN, story is immaterial.  McTeague provides lots of stylised violence and gore, a trademark of the Wachowski Brothers (THE MATRIX and writers for VENDETTA) which should certainly satisfy fans of the martial-arts film genre.

FANTASTIC MR. FOX (UK/USA 2009) ***1/2
Directed by Wes Anderson

The opening sequence of Wes Anderson’s stop animation feature FANTASTIC MR. FOX based British writer’s Roald Dahl children’s book of the same name brings a few laughs with the rendering of a very familiar American tune Davy Crockett.  Set in and around an undisclosed American farmland (which the audience assumes to be around Tennessee from the lyrics: ‘born on a mountaintop in Tennessee’), the story concerns a Mr. Fox (George Clooney) his vixen, Felicity (Meryl Streep) and family.

PLANET 51 (UK/Spain 2009) **
Directed by Jorge Blanco

This UK Handmade Films Spanish Ilion Animation Studios co-production is an example of too much gone crazy with the result of a lackluster unimaginative work.