What's On: Screen previews

ACTION
The Taking Of Pelham 123 (15)

This remake of a classic has all the frenetic hallmarks of its director - Tony Scott - and his favourite leading man too in Denzel Washington, although he shares those duties with John Travolta.

Washington stars as New York City subway dispatcher Walter Garber, whose ordinary day is thrown into chaos by an audacious crime - the hijacking of a subway train.

John Travolta stars as Ryder, the criminal mastermind who, as leader of a highly-armed gang of four, threatens to execute the train's passengers unless a large ransom is paid within one hour.

As the tension mounts beneath his feet, Garber employs his vast knowledge of the subway system in a battle to outwit Ryder and save the hostages.

But there's one riddle Garber can't solve: even if the thieves get the money, how can the gang possibly escape?

With camera movement, quick pans, saturated colours, and selected focus among his inimitable visual vocabulary, the director builds an escalating sense of suspense and dread in the thriller. Scott views the tunnels as a unique and separate world.

He said: "My goal was to touch that world in a way that I felt nobody has ever touched it before."

COMEDY
Land Of The Lost (12A)

Will Ferrell brings to the big screen a character from a cult TV series of Land Of The Lost.

But Ferrell gives the children's classic a typical comic twist with plenty of physical gags, "he's behind me, isn't he?" moments and the whole dolt-faced goofball thing that you either love or loathe.

He plays discredited Dr Rick Marshall whose time travel theories have virtually ended his career. That is until Holly (Anna Friel) gives him the kick he needs to build a device that takes the pair of them, and white-trash fireworks salesman Will (Danny McBride) into a world of dinosaurs, creepy-crawlies and a weird lizard creatures called Sleestacks.

DRAMA
Coco Before Chanel (12A)

Audrey Tautou brings to life one of the icons of French fashion in this dazzling and ornate biopic of Coco Chanel. The young headstrong girl begins her life as Gabrielle, who learns to sew in a Catholic orphanage.

She earns the nickname Coco at a cabaret club where she catches the eye of several high society gentlemen and giving the whole film a My Fair Lady feel - not least because of the preponderance of black and white in the fashions.

She uses this interest to propel herself into the cut-throat world of Parisian fashion, developing a career as a couturier who embodied the modern woman and became a timeless symbol of freedom and style.