Best known for making movies about men and violence, director Walter Hill scored a misfire with this ambitious but ultimately dreary remake of Akira Kurosawa's samurai classic Yojimbo. The story's essentially the same but the setting has been switched to a dusty, almost ghostly Texas town in the 1930s, where two rival Chicago gangs are locked in an uneasy truce. Bruce Willis plays the lone drifter who allies himself with both gangs to his own advantage, working both sides against each other according to his own hidden agenda. The violence escalates to a bloody climax, of course, with Christopher Walken, David Patrick Kelly and Michael Imperioli as trigger-happy lieutenants in a lonely, desolate war. Fans of gangster movies will want to see this, and, if nothing else, Hill has brought his polished style to a vaguely mythic story. It's far from being a classic, however, and although its action is at times masterfully choreographed, the movie's humourless attitude is unexpectedly oppressive. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

Despite an irritating, tacked-on voice-over narration that somebody must have thought necessary to make sense of the story (it isn't), Last of the Dogmen is actually a very moving and magical film. Tom Berenger plays a Montana bounty hunter who helps an anthropologist (Barbara Hershey) search for the descendants of a Cheyenne tribe who disappeared in the 1870s. What the two find in a remote mountain stretch is an entire community of Cheyenne who have kept themselves cut off from the modern world. A Dances with Wolves parallel emerges as the white outsiders gradually fit in, but Last of the Dogmen stands up just fine without comparison to any other films. As in Kevin Costner's Oscar-winning movie, however, there are ways in which this film captures a similar sense of yearning, mystery and loss--not least being David Arnold's fine John Barry-esque score. --Tom Keogh

Last of the Mississippi Jukes is an 85-minute documentary that explores the Mississippi "juke joints" where the Blues was born--from the shabby holes in the wall where the likes of Muddy Waters honed their styles to the newer clubs and lounges still extant today. Robert Mugge's film features interviews and performances at Jackson's historic Subway Lounge (as well the community's efforts to save it from demolition) and Clarksdale's Ground Zero Blues Club (co-owned by actor Morgan Freeman). That most of the featured musicians are virtual unknowns outside the area hardly lessens their appeal or diminishes the fun of this entertaining film, which also features considerable bonus footage (including an interview with Freeman). --Sam Graham