Thomas Craven is a man of impulse and no consequence. Your daughter being shot to death would do that to you. Especially if she was standing beside you on the front porch. So begins Mel Gibson’s first acting appearance since 2002, as a father seeking revenge (or answers) for his daughter’s death. As the second adaptation of a BBC series this summer (following January’s In The Loop), Edge Of Darkness holds a mix of British and American filmmaking, but the merger fails to deliver.

One would have been easily forgiven for thinking that the sub-title of the third X-men film, The Last Stand, clearly implied that it was the last of the franchise. Of course, a prequel is the industry’s devious way around a word such as ‘Last’. It’s not such a bad thing; X-men Origins: Wolverine sees Hugh Jackman return to the character that made him a star.  Not only does he do his fellow Aussie males a favour by making our accent sound sexy, he also makes for the perfect action hero. Unless you’re Scrubs actor John C. McGinley, you just can’t hate the guy; even when his shirt inevitably comes off and your lady friend simultaneously starts to complain about it getting hot in the cinema, you’ll be too busy admiring those magnificent mutton chops to really care.