MOVIES: Race to see this

In some ways, Nicolas Winding Refn's astonishing Drive is the best movie version of a video game that was never actually a video game to begin with.

If Grand Theft Auto were to come to the screen with the addition of a proper plot and electrifying cinematic ambition, it may well look something like this.

Ryan Gosling stars as a small-time movie stuntman who moonlights as a getaway driver for robbers willing to accept his strict code and rules.

His handler is a mechanic (Brian Cranston), who has dangerously connected friends in the shape of Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman, and who gets him a gig as a racing driver.

This never actually comes to pass because Gosling has begun a friendship, with the possibility of something more, with his neighbour (Carey Mulligan) and her young son.

But her husband gets released from prison and immediately gets mixed up with some bad types and it's up to Gosling to protect her using any means necessary.

Even though it is generally not a very wordy script, with its betrayals, double crosses and surprises, this is a movie with lots of plot.

It's a director's film, with Refn orchestrating stunning set pieces (though it's not really an action movie) and taking home the Best Director prize from Cannes for his efforts.

But it's also about the actors, with a superb turn from a quietly terrifying Brooks, cast against type.

Gosling's character, who goes through the film unnamed, remains an enigmatic silent type, with the camera often looking upward into his face for signs of emotion.

This is unquestionably Gosling's year and he's immense here. Not as intense as you may have expected but ice cool like McQueen, and a man of few words like Ryan O'Neal's Driver.

When he does explode into rage, the effect is jaw-dropping. It is a film of long pauses before it bursts into life and action, offering blistering violence mixed with a pop soundtrack straight out of a John Hughes movie.

But everything is measured and controlled, not the frantic scrum such things often are.

And if it never quite follows through on its threat to go even deeper into the morality of Gosling's protection, and doesn't necessarily fully satisfy come the finale, for the most part this is mesmerising cinema.

Director: Nicolas Winding Refn

Running time: 100mins

PAGE ONE (15) Slapdash newspaper documentary

The much-forecast death of print media is the subject of this fascinating if rather slapdash documentary that focuses on the New York Times, a news- paper institution that over the years has broken stories of world importance.

With papers all over America going out of business, the question being asked is if it could happen to the Times too, but while lots of questions are posed about the cause of the collapse and how it can be reversed, no real answers are given.

It is not especially disciplined as a piece of filmmaking, but the information is presented clearly and conciselly and it benefits from larger than life characters with plenty to say, in particular veteran reporter David Carr, below.

Director: Andrew Rossi

Running time: 91 mins

WARRIOR (12A) Fight flick unable to escape cliche

Two brothers, one an Iraq veteran (Tom Hardy), the other (Joel Edgerton) a teacher and family man with money troubles, share a resentment of their father (Nick Nolte), bitter about his drunken past, but they also haven't spoken to each other in years.

But they're brought together when they take part in a Mixed Martial Arts tournament that carries a $5m prize, with no prizes for anyone who can guess how it might pan out.

MMA is basically boxing combined with wrestling and the occasional flurry of kicking, and it provides a number of bruising encounters in a familiar story given a powerful sweep and hook thanks to its family dynamic and strong performances.

It's goofy fun as it goes, with more than a few rock-solid scenes, yet utterly preposterous and unable to escape cliché, with a po-faced sense of its own self-importance that beefs it out to a nonsensical running time.

Director: Gavin O'Connor

Running time: 140 mins

SOUL SURFER (PG) Wholesome true tale

It's inspirational true story time, as Hawaiian teenager Bethany (AnnaSophia Robb), with a promising surfing career ahead of her, loses her left arm in a shark attack.

As she learns to overcome adversity and surf again, the results are endlessly wholesome if essentially harmless, though it takes an awful lot of time to set up what is a simple tale.

The shark attack and its immediate aftermath is powerfully staged, with the bite itself over in a second, before a stomach-knotting race to save Bethany's life, and with its sweeping music and family bonds, this can occasionally be quite moving.

Don't pay any attention to the dialogue, because it is woeful, but the visceral impact and emotional resonance makes it a difficult film to discount.

Director: Sean McNamara

Running time: 106 mins

CRAZY STUPID LOVE (12A) Very funny, with top-notch performances

After more than 20 years of marriage, Julian Moore announces to her husband, Steve Carell, that she wants a divorce.

He takes it badly and begins to frequent a bar where he meets Ryan Gosling's ladies man, who takes him under his wing with a make-over and advice on meeting women.

Gosling has just started seeing Emma Stone, while also popping up in smaller roles are Kevin Bacon and Marisa Tomei, but this is so much better than those multi-character romcoms that have become fashionable recently, thanks to its focus on a smaller group, each of whom are interesting and likeable.

It Is buoyed by top-notch performances across the board and some clever plot developments, and can be very funny indeed, even though it plays quite straight, only rarely and briefly tipping into hysteria.

Directors: John Requa, Glenn Ficarra

Running time: 118 mins