Latest video and DVD releases reviewed

FAHRENHEIT 9/11 **

Directed by Michael Moore 15 cert

Moore has undeniable talents as an assembler of comic montages and a sure grasp of how to use pre-existing footage for polemical ends. As a result Fahrenheit 9/11 is consistently entertaining and often hilarious. Sadly, it is also tendentious, wildly speculative and plain misleading. The general drift of Moore's argument may be sound, but that does not excuse his being so disingenuous about specifics. Donald Clarke

THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW **

Directed by Roland Emmerich. Starring Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal, Ian Holm, Emmy Rossum, Sela Ward 12 cert

Emmerich's disaster movie concerning global warming has its heart in the right place, and the special effects are certainly special enough to win over even those who felt they were now immune to such things. But the apocalypse falls upon the earth so absurdly rapidly that no rational person could regard this as a reasonable contribution to the debate.

Donald Clarke

THE LADYKILLERS ***

Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. Starring Tom Hanks, Irma P. Hall, Marlon Wayans, JK Simmons 15 cert

The Coens tap into the comic potential of the classic 1955 Ealing comedy, relocating it to present-day Mississippi, where Hanks is the mastermind of a motley crew planning a casino robbery, and the splendid Hall is his redoubtable landlady. Entertaining as it is, this remake is by no means a vintage Coen movie, nor close to a match for the original.

Michael Dwyer