Director Yuen Woo Ping's The Red Wolf is, like Under Siege (1992) and Speed 2 (1997), essentially Die Hard on a ship. However, rather than being "inspired by", this movie is virtually a Hong Kong remake of the Bruce Willis action classic, right down to the jump-off-the-roof crash-through-the-window highlight. The setting is New Year's Eve on a cruise liner which happens to be carrying a consignment of plutonium. Gangsters hijack the ship and it's up to an unnamed security officer (Kenny Ho) and tender-hearted pickpocket Lai (Christie Chung) to save the day. Budget limitations are revealed by only having about 60 passengers, and by an almost complete absence of shots of the sea, but the director manages to pack plenty of extremely violent action and by playing things straight generates considerable suspense from the formulaic story. Helping immensely are strong turns from Elaine Lui and Wing Cho as the psychotically ruthless main villains. Some of this film is very nasty indeed, so a tension-shattering detour into slapstick by Chung is simply bizarre, and the finale goes laughably OTT. The dubbing is mediocre but the blend of furious marital arts and Terminator-style slaughter is still a winning combination for hardcore action fans. --Gary S Dalkin

Brian Jacques' has a dedicated following of young readers across the globe who are totally enthralled by his Tales of Redwall books.

Fans of the series will be pleased to hear that the atmosphere of the bestselling books is captured perfectly in this stunning full-length feature, which follows the story of a young Matthias, a heroic mouse in search of his destiny, and the beautiful and brave mousemaid Cornflour. Together, they begin their quest to find the lost sword of the legendary Martin the Warrior so they can save Redwall Abbey from the evil Cluny the Scourge--a wicked one-eyed rat intent on bringing Redwall to its knees.

Adapting such a popular book for the screen could so easily have detracted from the essence of the original story, with its battle of good versus evil interspersed with warmth and humour, and its ability to truly capture a child's imagination. But this team have pulled it off with aplomb: the animation is spot on, the atmosphere is highly charged, the characters are true to Jacques' originals and, although those who know the book well will spot that some detail is missing, the important, magical, elements of the story are all there.

This is exciting stuff, filled with heroism and humour, and packaged into 85 minutes of pure, unadulterated pleasure for lovers of fantasy and adventure. Age range: 7 and over. --Susan Harrison.