Critical Week: Action man

I must admit that I went to the press screening last week of Angels & Demons with very low expectations, because I'd found The DaVinci Code such a huge disappointment three years ago (the novel is a page-turning romp; the film is an over-serious slog). Thankfully the sequel, which is actually based on an earlier novel, gets the tone right, rampaging through the action with never-mind-the-plot-holes gusto. And Tom Hanks even seems to get into the spirit this time, with loads of ludicrous action to go with his exposition-heavy dialog.

Even more fun last week was seeing Star Trek again, but this time on the Imax screen, where the images are so big you can see the actors' pores. Even more impressive than the seamless special effects in Imax was the astounding sound mix. Other films included the dark Hungarian drama Delta, the ethereal French drama 35 Shots of Rum, the moody British drama Shadows in the Sun and two straight-to-DVD releases: the emotive American high school musical Shakespeare mash-up Were the World Mine and the eerie French drama The Last or the Crazy People. We also had the launch event for the 63rd Edinburgh International Film Festival (17-28 June), which will open with Sam Mendes' new film Away We Go.

This is another busy week, screening-wise, with both parts of the French crime thriller Mesrine starring Vincent Cassel, the Vegas romp The Hangover, Sam Rockwell in the astronaut drama Moon, Chris Pine in the comedy Blind Dating, the Spanish thriller Fermat's Room, the British horror The Disappeared, and Danny Dyer and Stephen Graham in Doghouse, yet another British zombie comedy.