VIDEO REVIEWS

As Good As It Gets (15) Columbia, Tristar, rental HH

An obsessive-compulsive novelist and a beleaguered waitress form the unlikely romantic interest in James L Brooks's bittersweet comedy. Melvin Udall's (Jack Nicholson) condition leads him to avoid cracks in the pavement while his misanthropic tendencies drive him to deliver fascistic orations about homosexuality. Udall's half-hearted efforts towards redemption are echoed in his attempts to win over Carol (Helen Hunt). As usual, it is only Nicholson's cheeky sneer and permanently raised eyebrow that allow him to get away with such anti-social behaviour, though it remains a mystery as to why an attractive lady would fancy him. An enjoyable watch, though certainly not what the title would have you believe.

Jackie Brown (18) Buena Vista, rental HHHHH

Once again, Quentin Tarantino successfully resuscitates the careers of those previously consigned to the has-been bracket as Pam Grier, star of the Seventies Blaxploitation flicks, becomes the centrepiece of this exceptional gangster thriller. Devotees of the Tarantino splatter-fest will be disappointed since this is the director's most human effort to date. As opposed to the usual opulent gangster-inhabited backdrops, the film is set in shopping malls and dingy apartments and is shot with a murky retro palette of browns and greens. And while the action remains gripping, most of the violence occurs off-screen and the characters are presented with personalities, rather than as a series of caricatures. Brilliant.

In The Company of Men (18) Alliance, retail, pounds 14.99 HHHH

Pledging vengeance on womankind for their respective loss of face in front of their girlfriends, a pair of white-collar executives - Chad (a cold, calculating Aaron Eckhart) and Howard (Matt Molloy) - hatch a cold-blooded plot to woo, bed and then humiliate a girl. They alight upon Christine (played with brittle intensity by Stacy Edwards) a beautiful deaf girl from their office whom they alternately date. Chad and Howard are the textbook office lads: all charm in the boardroom, suave in the boozer and full of slime in private. Neil Labute's dark fable offers a portrait of and serves as a warning to misogynists and their potential victims which is enough to turn both sexes eternally celibate.

Face Off (18) Buena Vista, retail, HHH

John Travolta is a troubled cop on the trail of a terrorist (Nicolas Cage) in John Woo's thriller. On his capture, Cage's face is implausibly peeled off so that Travolta can assume his identity and extract information from his associates. A catastrophe ensues when Cage miraculously wakens from his coma, slaps on Travolta's face and infiltrates the FBI. The inevitable blood and bullets fly as Cage cruelly infiltrates Travolta's homestead, charming his daughter by offering her a fag and doing the unspeakable with his wife. But Woo fails to take advantage of this interesting (though silly) plot and employs sentimentality to temper the violence. What results is a run-of-the-mill, though entertaining, action-adventure film.