THE EYE: NEW FILMS

CRYING FREEMAN

Director: Christophe Gans. Starring: Mark Dacascos, Julie Condra (18)

An elegant adaptation of the Japanese comic-book series about a ruthless assassin who sheds an enigmatic tear each time he kills. While the director, Christophe Gans, uses tight close-ups and multi-layered set pieces to echo the style of the original comic strips, there are certain elements here which betray the more rudimentary aspects of the film's pen-and- ink origins, and might have been given deeper consideration - the sloppy characterisation, for instance, which is always forged either through flashback or voice-over, and the fact that the heroine is named Emu.

But you either go with the picture or you don't. I suppose that if you're going to accept the history of the Freeman, a mild-mannered potter forced to become a killer after witnessing a murder at one of his exhibitions, then you can't really quibble with a character called Emu. She's an artist too, and after the Freeman, or rather, witnessing him at work, she becomes obsessed with him and believes he will free her from a humdrum life.

And in a way he will: he's out to kill her. The film is sombre and slow- moving, and most of the action sequences unfold in the obligatory slow- motion, thought it's too stylish to actually be tedious, and is blessed with the infectious self-absorption of the best comic-books.

ANACONDA

Director: Luis Llosa. Starring: Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, Jon Voight (15)

This brazenly trashy horror movie amounts to nothing more than Jaws in the jungle, but in its own simple way, it is an enjoyably silly ride, with dialogue which might have been written specifically to be quoted in the pub afterwards, and performances which feel like a dare - particularly that by Jon Voight, who risks life, limb and credibility as a priest-turned- snakehunter, complete with seedy sneer and demonic cackle, and is rewarded with a stomach-churning death scene for his trouble. He plays Paul Serone, who offers to guide a film crew up the Amazon river to search for the mysterious Shirishama Indians, but harbours his own ulterior motives: he's hunting a 40ft anaconda.

Much of the pleasure derives from the mix-and-match cast, with prissy English twit Jonathan Hyde forced to get along with chilled-out homeboy Ice Cube. The film has its share of genuine horror, too, though the anaconda itself is a disappointment, a near-transparent beast which moves with a ruthless grace rendered weightless by computer-generated effects. But there's a prickly sense of humour at play, which permits such indulgences as a point-of-view shot from inside the anaconda's mouth as it devours its victim, regurgitating him moments later, as is the creature's manner, only for the masticated man to wink cheekily through a coating of snake bile. Nasty but fun.

GHOSTS FROM THE PAST

Director: Rob Reiner. Starring: Alec Baldwin, Whoopi Goldberg (15)

There's something tasteless about the opening credit sequence of Rob Reiner's sanctimonious squeal of horror at Mississippi's racist history - a montage of excerpts from black history which combines moments of triumph with scenes of random decontextualised brutality. It tries to neatly encapsulate centuries of struggle into a three-minute pop promo-style nugget, even timing the drop of a hanged man's body with the beat of music on the soundtrack.

The film which follows may not be quite so objectionable, but it doesn't get any better. Alec Baldwin plays Bobby DeLaughter, a naive lawyer who agrees to investigate the 30-year-old case against Byron De La Beckwith (James Woods), accused of gunning down civil rights activist Medgar Evers in 1963. Beckwith was never convicted - the perks of having low friends in high places - but Medgar's widow, Myrlie (Whoopi Goldberg), comes to Bobby and asks that history be rewritten to accommodate justice.

Woods has a gas as the undisputed villain, but the rest of the film lacks the fire of his performance, and is anchored by a sedate sense of righteousness which refuses to admit passion or outrage.

KOLYA

Director: Jan Sverak. Starring: Zdenek Sverak (12)

Jan Sverak's new film, which won the best foreign language film Oscar at this year's Academy awards, abandons the bizarre flourishes of his earlier work and becomes instead a more conventional and sentimental story of bonding and understanding.

In this respect it's satisfactory - the performances are very winning, and the script, centring around a cellist who marries a Russian woman to enable her to become a Czech citizen, and is then saddled with her son when she flees, is often warm and witty. But this is largely uninspired film-making, and the dark touches which once made Sverak's work so intriguing are nowhere to be seen.

KIDS RETURN

Director: Takeshi Kitano. (NC)

A touching and immaculately crafted look back with fondness at the faltering friendship between two Japanese school pals: Masaru, who starts hanging out with local gangsters, and Shinji, who discovers a hidden talent as a boxer. The duo spend little of their screen time together, as Takeshi Kitano (who previously directed the excellent Sonatine) is more concerned with following their separate paths and the way they criss-cross with the numerous other minor characters, with the result that the film gradually builds up a cumulative portrait of what it means to be young and clueless. And far from indulging in the nostalgia of American efforts in the same genre, like Stand By Me, which proclaim that childhood is the pinnacle of existence, this ends on a bright note of resonating optimism.

MOLL FLANDERS

Director: Pen Densham. Starring: Robin Wright, Morgan Freeman (12)

Among the opening titles of Moll Flanders is a disclaimer disguised as a credit which reads: "Based on the character from the novel by Daniel Defoe", which rather gives the game away. For this plodding, simplistic film has little to do with Defoe's work, and remains instead a parade of drab characters set against a background of Monty Python-style peasants and poverty.