What's On: Screen previews

DRAMA
Looking For Eric
4/5

Who would have thought? Football idol Eric Cantona and social realist filmmaker Ken Loach form a dream team and lob one into the top corner from 30 yards.

Loach, however, does not drift too far from his roots with this gritty story of a postman down on his luck until the proudly Gallic figure of the Frenchman appears magically at his his side and helps him take a grip on circumstances.

Unlikely as it sounds, critics in Cannes agreed that the mix works with an affecting and charming film that is human and amusing.

Eric (the postman), played by Steve Evets, watches on as his life slips out of control. His chaotic family life is testing at the best of times, but right now Eric faces a bigger dilemma.

Can he face Lily, the woman he once loved and who he left 30 years before?

While the postie prevaricates, with his football fan mates offering no assistance, Cantona takes him by the hand and forces him on the perilous journey to confront his past.
Cantona has charisma and revels in his return to iconic status ("I am not a man... I am Cantona").

A football movie without the football and a love story about a man and his passion.

COMEDY
The Hangover (15)
3/5

Side-stepping the usual cliches of the stag night gone wrong, this comedy of errors plink-plink-fizzes with fast-paced hilarity.

Three groomsmen wake in Las Vegas with no memory of the night before and, more crucially, no groom.

They have 48 hours before Doug is scheduled to walk down the aisle and their detective work begins with some baffling clues - including a baby in the closet and Mike Tyson's tiger in the bathroom.

From here things can only get better, right? Wrong. The hapless trio, played by Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis, descend further into a nightmare of headaches, set-piece catastrophes and male bickering.

HORROR
The Last House On The Left (18)
2/5

With the horror plaudits - and fans - all heading to see Drag Me To Hell, this remake of The Last House On The Left may struggle to find an audience - at least, a discerning one.

While Wes Craven's original was caught up in the video nasty panic storm, this version lacks the traction or the goo to whip up too much of anything much.

Two girls are raped and murdered by a gang of drug-addled baddies who end up taking refuge in the home of one of the victim's parents.

Not ones to turn the other cheek, the parents seek revenge on those who did bad things to their kid. Gruesome, but not quite gruesome enough to be remarkable.