by RUPERT BOTTENBERG, MATTHEW HAYS and MARK SLUTSKY

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World Adapted from a novel by Patrick O'Brian and directed by Peter Weir, Master and Commander does a very impressive job of recreating the British Navy sailing life circa 1805. The atmosphere is superb - you can hear every creak of the ship (the movie is set almost entirely on one vessel, the Surprise), and Weir pays great attention to visual detail and the many small but fascinating elements of 19th-century naval warfare. It's pretty great storytelling too, revolving around the Surprise's pursuit of a much superior ship, a deadly French frigate - the battles and cannon-fire are pretty great when they come, but, in between, the interplay between the characters (dozens of crew members living in a tiny space) is just as interesting. It almost feels like an epic in miniature. Russell Crowe stars as Captain Jack Aubrey, in a performance that's stoic but not flashy. (MS)

Ichi the Killer When yakuza boss Anjo disappears, this slash-faced sick fuck of a right-hand man Kakihara sets out to avenge him. Meanwhile Ichi, a mentally stunted manchild brainwashed into a vicious, pseudo-superhero killing machine, is chopping thugs up with his boot blades and shooting his load while peeping in on vicious rape/beatings. Kakihara's motivation is in fact an extreme, outright suicidal homoerotic masochism, and Ichi's just the guy for him. But first, some yakuza dude has to hang from the ceiling on fishing hooks while his skin gets boiled off. Yeesh. This 2001 release from the ultra-prolific Japanese B-auteur Takashi Miike (Audition, Visitor Q) has certainly cemented his cult status in the West. Miike's got a point to make with his graphic sadism, something about the psychosexual underpinnings of violence, specifically in the yakuza gangster underworld, but does so in such a grotesque, lurid and excessive manner that many viewers are simply repelled, while others are laughing too hard to do any analyzing. (RB)

Looney Tunes: Back in Action It was Charlie Chaplin who once expressed admiration for the Warner Brothers stable of animators, saying there was no way he could possibly compete with their characters - after all, they didn't have to stop to catch their breath, seeing as they were cartoon figures. And that's certainly a part of the problem with Looney Tunes: Back in Action. Don't get me wrong; kids will love this, and the ones in attendance at the Sunday morning advance screening were lapping this up (thank-you, Warner Bros.). But the real-life actors here (including Brendan Fraser, Jenna Elfman, Steve Martin, Heather Locklear and Timothy Dalton) can't really compete with their animated counterparts, the Warner crew (with Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck taking up most of the screen time).

The plot is basic enough: Acme Inc. is now an evil international corporation (a logical and funny updating of the Acme in the old cartoons) which is planning to turn everyone on earth into a blue monkey (something about getting them to consume more). Bugs, Daffy and Fraser must work overtime to stop this nefarious plot.

Like I said, kids will love this. Dante slips in some parents-only references to try to keep the elders happy, in particular nods to Psycho, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Kevin McCarthy has a cameo) and TV's Mission: Impossible. There is one sequence I felt really was brilliant: when Bugs and Daffy visit the Louvre, a rifle-toting Elmer Fudd begins to chase them. The three run through a series of paintings, taking on the style of each one (from Dali to Munch to Monet). This proved a true standout; other than that, this latest Looney Tunes entry is mainly kid's stuff. (MH)

Ni pour, ni contre It's pleasing to watch such a super caper movie like this one, especially from a filmmaker who, as recently as last year, brought us the superb L'Auberge espagnole. In Cédric Klapisch's Ni pour, ni contre, a TV journalist (Marie Gillain) finds herself drawn into a heist with a gang of hardened thugs. The gang, it seems, want one of their operations captured on video for posterity. Bored with the dreary routine of her life, the formerly straight-laced Gillain (who's fine in this role) finds herself addicted to the rush of holdups.

I can see you rolling your eyes right now. Heist movies have been done into the ground of late (from The Score to Heist to Foolproof), making this once-inspired sub-genre seem tired and predictable. But leave it to Klapisch to re invigorate his holdups - Gillain's transformation from straight gal to gun crazy double-crossing nutter is handled beautifully here, with deft comic touches and a final heist sequence that will turn knuckles white and hearts cold. Ni pour, ni contre is the cinematic equivalent of what book-types call a hardboiled page turner. (MH)

Kommando 52/ The Laughing Man In what must be the strangest and most unsettling double bill ever, the Parc is screening two docs made in the early '60s by an East German crew. The first, Kommando 52, compiles stock footage, still photos and letters to indicate what was going on in the Belgian Congo since the end of WWII. It seems some cunning members of the brutally repressive Congolese regime had hired an elite team of 52 Nazis, known as Kommando 52, to knock off as many leftist subversives as they could. Naturally, these Nazi officers, all still sporting Swastika-laden uniforms and medals, gleefully complied. The next film, The Laughing Man, is an extended interview with Seigfried Mueller, the troupe's leading officer. The title refers to the fact that Mueller chuckles and grins his way through the film, even while discussing his stomach-turning politics and utter disregard for human life. (As well as his admiration for the racial segregationist policies of Apartheid-era South Africa.) Truly nasty, one can see that these films also operated as some kind of twisted porn for neo-Nazis. (MH)

Once Upon a Time in the Midlands Taking a basic Western plot - bad guy comes to town, meek guy stands up to him - director Shane Meadows transplants the idea to the present-day U.K., specifically the town of Nottingham. He's got a good cast to work with, with Rhys Ifans as Dek, a nervous, cowering fella who's just proposed to his long-time girlfriend, played by the lovely Shirley Henderson, on national TV. Flustered, she declines, and the whole thing is seen by Henderson's ex-boyfriend, a ratty bad-boy type played by Robert Carlyle. Carlyle returns to town and some mild chaos follows, with Ifans struggling to get up the courage to boot the scoundrel out. There's nothing particularly wrong about Midlands' intentions, but it's pretty dull nonetheless. Ifans, who is usually so good (think Human Nature and Notting Hill) is unfortunately saddled with a role so squirmy and spineless it's hard to muster any sympathy for the poor guy. (MS)

Can't-go-to-press-without-mentioning dept.: Choice paranoia can be found in Guerilla News Network's Aftermath: Unanswered Questions From 9/11, which will screen as part of Concordia's political cinema series this Monday, Nov. 17 at the Hall Building at 7p.m. The 20th annual Japanese Film Festival again screens this year at McGill's Frank Dawson Adams Auditorium (3450 University, 2nd floor). This year's entries (which screen today, Nov. 13 and Friday, Nov. 14) are After Life and A Single Drop of Water in a Mighty River. It's a brief fest, for sure, with a mere two films, but I've always found the choices of the organizers close to perfect. Atif Siddiqi's meditation on being single and the quest for romantic fulfillment, Solo, screens on PrideVision this Sat., Nov. 15 at 9 p.m. Siddiqi's parents are the most astonishing thing in this movie, appearing completely delusional as they hope against hope that their cross-dressing son will eventually settle down and find himself a nice wife.

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Ni pour, ni contre, Ichi the Killer, Kommando 52/The Laughing Man and Once Upon a Time in the Midlands open Friday, Nov. 14

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