FOCUS (15, 105 mins)

Directors: John Requa, Glenn Ficarra

2 stars

The problem with movies like Focus is that it's blindingly evident from the outset that you're about to be an unwilling participant in a long con.

You'd need to have not seen a film before not to smell a rat, but that's something that can probably be overcome if the journey itself is fun and there's some decent entertainment on offer. Focus unfortunately comes up just a little short of that mark, existing mostly as a Derren Brown trick than a fully formed piece of storytelling.

Will Smith is high-rolling conman Nicky, who has been in the business for years and sees all the angles. When Jess (Margot Robbie) tries to hustle him in a hotel, he easily catches her out and starts to teach her how to be a better thief.

He runs a crew of pickpockets and hustlers and they're in the volume business, favouring lots of small action, like pinched wallets and credit card fraud, over the big score.

That's still enough to bring in $1m a week to spread around their large team, but Nicky is adamant that the big con is a fantasy and apparently there's no Ocean's Eleven-style big target to be had. But wee bitty lifts can only take the film and the audience so far, so as much as Focus tries to argue against it, everyone knows the real fun lies in the long game and that there's clearly one brewing.

To compensate it tries to concentrate more on the potential romance between Nicky and Jess, but he has a habit of saying there's no room for heart in this business. There are obstacles to them being together, but the spectre of the con can make it hard for you to care whether they become a couple or not.

The film itself is a slick operator, entirely empty but doing well to avoid being smug. It's very silly, but you've got charismatic actors running around doing flashy things, even if Smith occasionally doesn't especially interested.

It's also nominally a comedy, but doesn't fish too deep for laughs, offering a few light chuckles.

Mostly it's missing a bit of charm and, well, focus, without really a defined end game in sight. It's the insistence on being tricksy that most works against it though; the best con films fleece you with grace and a lightness of touch and, like Robert Shaw in The Sting, without you even knowing you've been done.

With Focus, you can feel its hand in your pocket every step of the way, telling you precisely how it's all going to go down, and bumbling along in disappointingly predictable ways. Sometimes you just don't want to know how the hotdogs are made.

See it if you liked: Now You See Me, Matchstick Men, The Grifters

THE SECOND BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEl (PG, 122 mins)

Director: John Madden

3 stars

This sequel to the surprise smash kicks off unexpectedly in California, where Best Exotic Marigold Hotel managers Sonny (Dev Patel) and Muriel (Maggie Smith) are looking for investors for their planned expansion to open a second hotel in India.

Back in Jaipur most of the residents from the first film are still living in the hotel (Judi Dench, Bill Nighy and the rest). The attempt to open the new hotel is the main thrust, while subplots include Sonny's wedding and a love and business rival, Dench getting a big job offer and Nighy dealing with family issues, falling flat when we have to spend time with the less interesting characters.

Despite all the legendary talent around him, Patel's exuberance actually makes him the most impressive performer in it - the potential investors are sending an undercover inspector to assess the Marigold, and the arrival of Richard Gere sees Sonny go all Basil Fawlty when he automatically assumes he's the inspector.

It's colourful and vibrant, as you'd expect of India, and probably a little sanitised, but it does rather feel like several individual stories going on at the same time instead of a cohesive whole.

The structure is clunky, as over and over characters seem like they're about to get to the point, only for an interruption to stretch it out. Still, it's an enterprise that mostly succeeds at what it set out to be, which is a celebration of age and maturity; it's just lost a little of its shine.

See it if you liked: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, The One Hundred Foot Journey

IT FOLLOWS (15, 107 mins)

Director: David Robert Mitchell

3 stars

Taking its lead from Japanese chillers like The Ring, this American indie horror certainly features a strong premise, as a young woman finds herself stalked by a malevolent force visible only to her, and which can only be evaded by passing it on to someone else through sex.

The metaphorical ambition is admirable and there are a couple of decent and effective scare moments, but much like the recent Babadook, this is a horror that scores many more points for its ideas and thematic potency than for being a particularly good horror.

It's built more for slow, creeping dread than actual frights, and with its music and autumnal suburban setting, Halloween is the clear reference point. Unfortunately you can't really aim for a bigger target, which means It Follows inevitably comes up miles short.

See it if you liked: The Babadook, All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, The Ring

GLASGOW FILM FESTIVAL

THE SAMURAI (79 mins)

GFT, Fri 27th, 23.00; GFT, Sat 28th, 23.20

Director: Till Kleinert

4 stars

A young and ineffectual cop in a small German town is forced to step up to the mark when a man in a dress with a samurai sword starts threatening his empty existence. Drawing on folklore and fairytale (Red Riding Hood is slyly referenced) for both its themes and its atmosphere and heavy with metaphors, this is a sensational-looking thriller that works as a blood-drenched horror while also taking an unusual look at someone struggling with their sexuality.

JAUJA (108 mins)

GFT, Thu 26th, 18.20; GFT, Fri 27th, 13.00

Director: Lisandro Alonso

3 stars

Viggo Mortensen is a Danish officer in 19th century Argentina who goes searching for his daughter when she runs off with a soldier in the semi-mythical tribal region of Jauja. Despite its classical western influences, it still offers up a fairly unique scenario, though you could hardly classify Jauja as a chase thriller thanks to its frequent long moments of silence and stillness. It's shot in vivid colours and the locations can be breathtaking, but the pacing is undoubtedly a concern.

A GIRL AT MY DOOR (119 mins)

GFT, Fri 27th, 12.45; GFT, Sat 28th, 20.20

Director: July Jung

3 stars

The new female police chief in a Korean town makes a point of protecting a young girl who is being bullied by her classmates and abused by her stepfather, with the places this leads making this intense drama both disturbing and surprising. A strange town full of unpredictable characters makes for a film that keeps you on your toes, but though it ends up dealing with weighty subject matter, there's a lot of over-playing among the actors, and a good deal of covering the same ground over and over.