Peter Capaldi as the foul-mouthed Malcolm Tucker in The Thick of It

The Thick of It: The Specials

*****

Seen new Brit-com In The Loop? Great, isn’t it? But if you haven’t seen the BBC political comedy from which it sprung – Armando Iannucci’s The Thick of It, starring Peter Capaldi as a Machiavellian Downing Street spin doctor – you’re missing out. The two one-hour specials really shine. You know the score – relentless profanity, language warped, everyone a rat on a slippery raft – but it’s the unexpected pathos brought to the longer form that proves the old maxim: you need to like someone before you can laugh at them.

Australia

**

Who’s up for Out Of Africa, but set in Australia? No? It’s got Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman in it, together at last! Baz Luhrmann’s epic “wallaby Western” is a swoony, heart-pounding poem to his land Down Under. Like most love affairs, it’s frantic, confusing and exhausting, but just about worth it for a few moments of wonder. 165 mins, though...

Bedtime Stories

**

Adam Sandler plays the handyman at a huge corporate hotel who entertains his sister’s kids by telling them bedtime stories – which come true. Yes, like Inkheart, but without the wit, wonder or sense of darkness.

Dean Spanley

***

This eccentric fable almost forges a new genre: adult fantasy (in the non-porn sense). Set in the late 30s, Jeremy Northarn is Fisk, a publisher harried by his dad (Peter O’Toole, terrific). He befriends the pallid but plausible Dean Spanley (Sam Neill), who may or may not be the reincarnation of Fisk’s brother who died in the Boer War. It’s a bit dry, but the magic-realism air is played smartly and the performances are compulsive.

What Just Happened?

**

Producer Art Linson’s 2002 book on the twisted life and work of a Hollywood producer is turned into an uneven shambles. Robert De Niro is surprisingly decent as the Larry David-esque producer facing up to ego-addled stars and test-screening terror. But, even with Barry Levinson in charge, it’s a film of a book that should have stayed on the page.