The latest releases reviewed.

SHADOWBOXER *

Directed by Lee Daniels. Starring Helen Mirren, Cuba Gooding Jr, Stephen Dorff, Macy Gray 18 cert

Producer Daniels makes a heavy-handed directing debut with this eccentric yarn in which a middle-aged woman (Mirren) and her stepson (Gooding Jr) are professional assassins in a torrid sexual relationship. The plot gets overloaded when she is diagnosed with cancer and decides against killing their next target, a pregnant woman. Dorff features in a quite bizarre scene of coitus interruptus.

EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH *

Directed by Greg Coolidge. Starring Dane Cook, Jessica Simpson, Dax Shepard, Andy Dick 12 cert

A gormless slacker (Cook) vies with the obnoxious head cashier (Shepard) for the eponymous accolade - and for the attention of a new colleague (Simpson) - at a US megsatore. This dim-witted, lowbrow fodder is contrived and puerile.