The information Daily: New Films

8 1/2 WOMEN (15, 120 mins)

Director: Peter Greenaway

Starring: John Standing, Matthew Delamere

Mourning the death of his wife, Standing's businessman undergoes an unorthodox spot of bereavement therapy when he and his son usher a Noah's Ark set of concubines into their plush Geneva harem. Unfortunately, Greenaway's anaesthetised examination of sex and death falls prey to the director's worst vices. Beautiful, but dead.

West End: Curzon Soho, Odeon Camden Town, Ritzy Cinema

END OF DAYS (18, 110 mins)

Director: Peter Hyams

Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gabriel Byrne

The plot of the elephantine End of Days runs something like this: Byrne's horny little Devil chases Robin Tunney's luvverly lady through end-of- the-century Gotham. Schwarzenegger's brawny Sir Galahad plays harassed chaperone. We get flaming clouds, machine-guns and garbled Biblical theorising. A revelation: Arnie blubbers over the fate of his wife and kiddie. A travesty: Arnie becomes a Christ figure who saves our souls. "Please God, gimme strength," the wooden one mutters at the end. Our sentiments exactly.

West End: Odeon Camden Town, Odeon Kensington, Odeon Marble Arch, Odeon West End, UCI Whiteleys, Virgin Chelsea And local cinemas

THE FIVE SENSES (15, 101 mins)

Director: Jeremy Podeswa

Starring: Mary-Louise Parker, Pascale Bussieres

Five characters, five senses (touch, taste, etc) and one apartment building. One director moving between five interlocking stories, rustling up one decent Canadian art-movie of delicate plotting, oblique playing and simmering emotional fire.

West End: Curzon Soho, Curzon Minema

THE LAST YELLOW (15, 93 mins)

Director: Julian Farino

Starring: Mark Addy, Charlie Creed-Miles

Farino's kitchen-sink crime caper dispatches two bumbling Leicester losers (Addy, Creed-Miles) to London on a mission of vengeance, sees them holed up in a cramped flat with a feisty hostage (Samantha Morton). Addy has a mullet and a Hawaiian shirt and Creed-Miles looks like he's been heavily influenced by Tim Roth's nerd icon from Mean Time. Morton sits tied to a chair with a T-shirt pulled over her head.

West End: Virgin Haymarket

THE LIMEY (18, 89 mins)

Director: Steven Soderbergh

Starring: Terence Stamp, Peter Fonda

See The Independent Recommends, right.

West End: ABC Tottenham Court Road, Barbican Screen, Chelsea Cinema, Clapham Picture House, Odeon Swiss Cottage, Ritzy Cinema, Screen on the Green, UCI Whiteleys, Virgin Fulham Road, Warner Village West End Repertory: Phoenix Cinema Local: Richmond Odeon Studio

THE MUSE (PG, 96 mins)

Director: Albert Brooks

Starring: Albert Brooks, Sharon Stone

This bright, bantamweight satire has Brooks (the film's writer-director- star) as a Hollywood also-ran, whose fortunes take a dramatic upswing when he starts courting Stone's bratty and demanding Muse (turns out that she's a daughter of Zeus). Brooks's droll, hangdog appearance sets the tone nicely, while a clutch of cameos (James Cameron, Martin Scorsese) add to the fun.

West End: Virgin Trocadero, Warner Village West End Local: Edmonton Lee Valley UCI 12, Feltham Cineworld The Movies, Newham Showcase