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Although it is based on a videogame, Max Payne works very well as a movie, mainly because director John Moore started out in life as a cameraman and his extraordinary vision permeates every shot of this visually arresting film.

Conceived as a high tech film noir, the action centres on tormented cop Max Payne (Mark Wahlberg), shattered by the brutal murder of his wife and child and now obsessively investigating the slightest lead in order to find the killers. His journey takes him through the underbelly of the city and meetings with lowlifes, drug dealers and scammers including goodtime girl Natasha (Olga Kurylenko of Bond fame) and her sister Mona (Mila Kunis). But as Max learns more about this other world that exists side by side with his own, he finds the two have a common link that is closer to home than he could ever have imagined.

Shot in cold blues and greys, with Max wandering through a winter city where snow falls silently, this is a beautifully framed and imagined other world. It has a dreamlike/nightmarish quality highlighted by some stunning hallucinatory scenes that could have come straight from a William Blake painting. Yet Wahlberg’s acting makes everything feel extremely real; you can sense his despair, his hunger for revenge and the emptiness in his life. Liberally scattered throughout the film are action sequences that explode this naturalistic quality and take it onto a supernatural level.

Moore has managed to capture the cold, dark atmosphere of the original game and give it that certain extra something, although the sombre mood of the movie may be too depressing for some.      Dee Pilgrim

Whereas some films have very specific beginnings, middles and ends, others are simply random windows into the lives of other people. Such is Let’s Talk About The Rain, a slice of French whimsy in which family and friends meet up, talk, do nothing much of anything, and yet leave their encounters just that little bit wiser about love and life.

Feminist writer turned politician Agathe (Agnes Jaoui) travels from Paris to her childhood home in the south of France to help sister Florence (Pascale Arbillot) sort through their recently departed mother’s belongings. Once there, she is persuaded by would-be documentary makers Karim (Jamel Debbouze) and Michel (Jean-Pierre Bacri) to take part in the film they are producing. What follows is a series of discussions, squabbles and insights into human nature that point to everyday disappointments and sorrows. Jaoui has a lovely light touch which makes this warmly funny film strike at the truth of human nature. It’s not profound or startling in its revelations, but by showing people with all their foibles, it makes them both vulnerable and endearing.      Dee Pilgrim

Fans of epic Chinese movies about the clash of dynasties, family honour and forbidden love, liberally sprinkled with massive battle scenes, will appreciate much of this film inspired by true events. Set in the late 19th century it stars three of Asia’s top actors – Jet Li, Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro – as three opposing bandits who become blood brothers and then ‘warlords’ intent on bringing peace to their troubled land. In order to do so they must spend years away from home, waging war against a series of different enemies and eventually falling out with each other over ideals and one woman.

Not only does Warlords look stunning but it is also beautifully directed by Peter Ho-Sun Chan, who tackles the love-triangle and battle scenes with equal aplomb. Here, the armies are massive, the battles are massive, and yet the love scenes subtle and low key. The one-time action pin-up, Jet Li, is slowly maturing into an actor of great presence, his looks fading but his stature growing with every movie he makes. If you want two hours of glorious location work, cavalry horses with their eyes bound by their riders’ cloaks as they prepare to enter battle and choreographed swordplay that seems superhuman, then The Warlords offers two hours of seamless entertainment.      Dee Pilgrim

Despite a sterling cast, wonderful location work and a script based on the play by Noel Coward, Easy Virtue never quite hits the right note as a film. It’s as if it has a sore throat and can’t decide whether to sing a little flat or a little sharp. It doesn’t help that the storyline is now exceedingly dated – a ‘racy’ American woman (she’s actually a racing car driver) marries the son of English landed gentry and comes a cropper at the hands of his somewhat bigoted family.

.She is Larita (Jessica Biel), a free spirit with a shady past, while he is naïve, fanciful John (Ben Barnes), son of the over-bearing Mrs Whittaker (Kristin Scott Thomas) and the rather more laidback Mr Whittaker (Colin Firth). When John brings Larita to the family’s countryseat she encounters hostility and also a little hero worship from his sisters (Katherine Parkinson and Kimberley Nixon), and suspicion and scorn from his mother. The all-knowing butler (Kris Marshall) and the rest of the domestic staff are soon firmly on her side, but there’s no way Larita is ever going to win the battle with his family as the odds are definitely stacked against her.

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Firth and Scott Thomas are excellent in their roles, while Biel is less assured as feisty Larita, but sections of the dialogue fair whizz and bang with witticisms. However, someone along the way has made a terrible error of judgement about the music – modern songs such as Car Wash and Sex Bomb are given the Noel Coward treatment but still stand out as sore anachronisms in this period piece.      Dee Pilgrim

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Ultimate Limited Edition

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This latest edition of everyone’s favourite horror flick really is the best out there. With three discs and presented in a sexy steelbook format, you’re not going to find a more attractive way to watch teenagers get mashed up by a family of freaks.

We have two copies of this bad boy to give away, and the question couldn’t be simpler:

What is the name of the famous killer in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre?

a. Tom Canning

b. Leatherface

c. Josef Fritzl

Send your answers to competitions@the-void.co.uk by December 7.