SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD * * * *
Cert 12A, 112 mins
Edgar Wright, the British writer and director of the hit films Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, has left his usual creative partner Simon Pegg behind to go it alone in Hollywood.

The result is an original, funny and clever film that’s an assault on the senses.

Looking like a cross between a video game and a comic book, it features split screens, lots of graphics and sounds made into images. Words like POW, BOOM and CRASH appear on screen during fights.

In the title role is Michael Cera, who has cornered the market in loveable geeks in movies like Superbad, Juno and Youth In Revolt.

He still has a bad haircut but is more cool in this film – he’s the bass player in a band and has rather more luck with women.

He’s dating over-eager schoolgirl Knives (Ellen Wong) but worries about the age gap.

Then he meets the girl of his dreams, literally, in Ramona (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). He is smitten, but ending it with Knives is the least of his worries. He soon discovers that to win Ramona’s heart, he must first battle to the death with her seven evil exes – six men (including twins) and a girl, dating back to the boy she first kissed.

The fights are inventive, if surreal. One opponent starts Bollywood dancing with flames coming from his fingers, while Chris Evans is amusing as skateboarding film star Lucas Lee.

The excellent cast also includes Kieran Culkin as Scott’s gay flatmate and Anna Kendrick as his sister.

The visual gimmicks become overdone and too frenetic, but the script is sharp, with lines like “Being vegan just makes you better than other people.”

It’s definitely worth a pilgrimage to the cinema to see Scott take on the box office and win.  RL

THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE * * * *
Cert 15, 129 mins
Released in March, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was a sensational Swedish thriller.

Directed by Neils Arden Oplev, a young female hacker called Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) helped journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) on the mysterious case of a woman who had been missing for decades.

Now comes the second eagerly-awaited film based on the international best-selling Millennium trilogy books by the late Stieg Larsson.

Lisbeth has come out of hiding but is soon wanted for a series of murders.

Can Blomkvist ride to the rescue in her own hour of need?

Like The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, the final movie due here on November 25, Played With Fire has been directed by Daniel Alfredson.

Although the join between Tattoo and Fire is pretty seamless despite the change in director, it won’t make much sense unless you’ve seen the 152-minute first movie that’s now out on DVD with a deserved 18 certificate.

The violence in The Girl Who Played With Fire is less severe and the running time is considerably shorter.

If it feels a touch convoluted by the end when Lisbeth’s survival skills become too Hollywoodesque, this is still heavy duty filmmaking.

Even the white subtitles are a breeze when you’re faced with one of the year’s best thrillers to go with DiCaprio’s Shutter Island and Inception.

Roll on Hornet’s Nest...   GY

GROWN UPS *
Cert 12A, 102 mins
This film is billed as a ‘comedy’ even though each attempted laugh seems slower than a tortoise on a 400 metre track.

It’s directed by Dennis Dugan, whose bad movies to date include Happy Gilmore, Big Daddy and National Security and The Benchwarmers.

But the really, really grim news is that Grown Ups stars Adam Sandler, Chris Rock and Rob Schneider, with Kevin James miles away from his form in Hitch.

Throw in a plastered Steve Buscemi and you have to wonder what Frida’s best actress Oscar nominee Salma Hayek is doing in a story taglined ‘boys will be boys ... some longer than others’.

Sandler co-wrote the ‘story’ which features meaningless exchanges like: ‘I need a room with heat’, ‘But it’s 95 degrees’, ‘I’ve got bunions’.

Based on some old high school pupils getting back together again following the death of their basketball coach, Grown Ups is so tiresomely pointless you’ll come out feeling a decade older than when you went in. GY

DIARY OF A WIMPY KID (PG) * * *
Cert PG, 92 mins
Based on the multi-million selling semi-autobiographical stories of American author Jeff Kinney, the adventures of Greg Heffley finally arrive almost five months after being certified by the BBFC.

Zachary Gordon plays the first year middle school boy who writes a journal to try to save time when he becomes famous.

This is a well-acted, family-friendly comedy directed by Thor Freudenthal (Hotel For Dogs), with above average cinematography by Clint Eastwood’s old mate Jack Green (Unforgiven/Space Cowboys).    GY