Bovie Movie

Reese Witherspoon tries — and generally succeeds — to be a grown-up version of Alicia Silverstone’s character from Clueless in this entertaining comedy. She plays Elle, a sorority queen who’s dumped by her rich boyfriend (Matthew Davis) before he goes to Harvard Law School, as he thinks she’s not smart enough to be his wife. The vivacious Valley Girl decides to follow him there to prove him wrong and get him back. It’s all desperately silly (Elle gets into Harvard by sending a video of herself in a bikini lounging by a pool), but the sight of a pink-clad Elle tottering on stilettos through Harvard’s revered halls is hilarious, and Witherspoon is perfect as the girl whose specialist subjects are Cosmopolitan and manicures. There’s fine support, too, from Luke Wilson, Selma Blair (as Davis’s bitchy new girlfriend) and Jennifer Coolidge. 

Blade II director Guillermo del Toro tackles another comic-book adaptation with this faithful take on Mike Mignola’s unlikely superhero Hellboy. A visually appealing marriage of action, horror and romance, it’s both intelligent and fun. In a wry and often poignant performance, Ron Perlman brings unusual depth to the titular character, a cigar-chomping demon intended by the Nazis for acts of evil, but instead raised by the Allies to be an agent of good. From his arch-enemy Rasputin (Karel Roden) to his pyrokinetic love interest (Selma Blair), every aspect of Hellboy’s world is exotic and exciting. Though the film loses momentum towards the end, it’s still a strong example of its genre. 

John Carpenter’s 1980 ghost yarn The Fog wasn’t one of his best, but it scarcely deserved the indignity of this inept remake by Stigmata director Rupert Wainwright. The story remains much the same, as the seaside community of Antonio Bay is terrorised by vengeful spooks who emerge from a haunted pea-souper. Leading the insipid, less-than-enthusiastic cast are Smallville’s Tom Welling, Lost’s Maggie Grace and Selma Blair, who attempt to unravel the mystery of the marine invaders. The original film was a reasonably tightly wrought tale, relying on the ratcheting up of tension for its pleasingly hokey thrills. But Wainwright jettisons atmosphere in favour of a cacophonous soundtrack and ineptly timed “shocks”, while Carpenter’s ghostly shapes in the mist give way to naff-looking zombies. 

Dangerous Liaisons for the under-20s is the basic premise of this sexed-up, revved-up teen picture. Sarah Michelle Gellar and Ryan Phillippe star as the contemporary Merteuil and Valmont, circulating round the upper echelons of New York society and laying their bet as to whether or not Phillippe can bed Reese Witherspoon. You can understand why writer/director Roger Kumble saw the classic novel as an apt metaphor for burgeoning sexuality and exploration, but the crucial distinction is that Merteuil and Valmont, when played as middle-aged, have the motive of bitter life experience to fuel their dangerous games. With teenagers at its centre, the same plot seems to reverberate with unprovoked spite. The depth gone, this is simply an entertaining romp that’s easily surpassed by Stephen Frears’s earlier adaptation of the tale.