In the Hand of Dante review – Gerard Butler is jaw-dropping in bizarre Renaissance mafia reverie

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Julian Schnabel’s combustible mix of lowlife cynicism and high art – along with cameos from Martin Scorsese and Al Pacino – powers this outrageous black comedy revolving around Dante’s Divine Comedy The worlds of Renaissance manuscript scholarship and organised crime come together like a mix of Umberto Eco and George V Higgins in this flawed but fascinating reverie from director and co-writer Julian Schnabel. Switching between monochrome and colour, and freely adapted from the Nick Tosches novel of the same name, it is hilarious and shocking, at least at first, with a quite extraordinary tough-guy role for Gerard Butler. It is a mysterious, scabrous and bizarre adventure in violent larceny and spiritual crisis which unfortunately unwinds in the end into sentimental fantasy. In the Hand of Dante amounts to an epic and self-aware jeu d’ésprit with amazing cameos from Martin Scorsese, Al Pacino and Franco Nero, beckoning its audience over to peep into the fathomless abyss of heaven and ...
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Osiris review – Linda Hamilton drops in to rescue charmingly hokey space-horror

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The fella-in-a-suit aliens resembling past pop culture beasties are a strength of an entertaining abduction adventure

An entertaining-enough space-horror, a mishmash of storylines and character types that sees some special forces commandos abducted by a gang (herd? flock? troop?) of aliens whose intentions are aligned more closely with the likes of the predator than lovely little ET the Extra-Terrestrial. The pop culture off-worlders these beasties most resemble physically, however, are the xenomorphs from James Cameron’s Aliens – and not the massive multi-limbed queen, mind you, but the smaller foot-soldier guys who can be played by a fella in a suit.

This fella-in-a-suit aspect is the one of the film’s strengths. You might argue that it hinders the willing suspension of disbelief, because you always know you’re looking at a fella in a suit. But in truth there’s something about the physicality of even the hokiest practical effect that is more enjoyable than all but the most skilfully rendered digital efforts.

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