Film adaptation will lose fans

Oct 5 2008 Mickey McMonagle

HOW TO LOSE FRIENDS AND ALIENATE PEOPLE (15) **

I'm a massive fan of cheery everyman and comic genius Simon Pegg, so I really wanted to like this film. But I feared his latest movie may be a struggle as I found the source novel lame, unfunny and dull.

In the book, Toby Young exposed his own attempt to crack the Big Apple while working at Vanity Fair and his pursuit of fame.

In the film Pegg plays Sidney Young, a truggling British journalist who lands his dream shot at glory on a glamorous American magazine by gatecrashing the BAFTAs with the help of a pig who he claims is the star of Babe.

Cue a predictable runaway pig scene.

His love interest is starlet Sophie Maes (Megan Fox),who Young soppily pursues while confiding in workmate Kirsten Dunst.

X-Files star Gillian Anderson is on fine form as a PR but it's Fox who stands out.

Pegg does well with what he has been given but the script is too flat even for him to rescue.

Write the next one yourself Simon - you deserve better.

MIRRORS (18) ***

Kiefer Sutherland takes time out from saving the world every day in 24 to star in this adaptation of an Eastern horror.

And although the man himself admits he is terrified of horrors, he pulls it off very well. He is ex-cop Ben Carson, whose new job is as night watchman in a store where the mirrors have remained remarkably intact despite a recent fire.

Before long his own mirrors are getting a bit strange and horrible killings are taking place in them - and in the real world.

There are a few truly terrifying moments, memorably gory killings and a great, creepy setting in the shop.

Overall it's a good effort but the script falls a little short due to badly written scenes and notions.

88 MINUTES (15) *

Al Pacino is psychiatrist Jack Gramm, who helps put a rapist and murderer in jail. But the night before the killer (Neal McDonough) is to be executed, Gramm gets a phone call saying he will die in 88 minutes - while the conviction is looking dodgy thanks to copycat killings,for which he is being framed.

It's a messy film with a bewildering lack of conviction from all involved, making it anything but gripping. The very worst of a bad bunch this week