Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson brings all the lack of charisma that saw him through his awful excursions into video game territory to Alex De Rakoff’s dodgy gangsta thriller with less than successful results.

Seemingly arriving 15 years too late, Rakoff appears to be hunting for parallel lines between English and US gangster flicks, but unfortunately for him – there aren’t any. Stateside, it’s all about belonging to a family. In the UK? Well according to the movies, it’s generally about making some extra cash while wearing a camel-coat.

On the plus side, he’s been gifted with a truly mind-boggling casting director, who’s seen fit to put Fiddy up against Danny DeVito, then shoehorn in Danny Dyer and..erm..Brenda Blethyn.

The well-dodgy plot sees a couple of wide-boy travel agents (Dyer and a hard-working Tamer Hassan) trying to raise £100,000 in 24 hours to satisfy Jackson’s crime boss. While there’s plenty of overly-ripe mockerney shouting to entertain, the whole thing wobbles along on it’s already unsteady wheels, and isn’t served by travelling a road chock full of plot holes.

When Jackson is on screen, this is laughable rubbish, when he’s off it’s likeable enough nonsense that may have served better as an hour long TV special, Dyer too ridiculous to take entirely seriously, Fiddy too unspeakably craptabulous to know he’s the worst thing in a movie that’s hardly Citizen Kane to begin with.

This will happily pass a hour and a half on a wet Sunday afternoon but don’t expect any real insight into the culture- although it does leave the field wide open for a sequel exploring exactly who would buy a holiday from Danny Dyer.

It’s a sad fact that racism and neo-Nazi groups are still present in modern Europe, and writer Ozgur Yildrim scores bonus points for his realistic depiction of the troubles faced by immigrants in this occasionally taught gangster drama.

Tracking Chiko (Denis Moschitto) and pal Tibet (Volkan Özcan) as they arrive in a rundown part of Hamburg, the social and cultural interaction around the neighbourhood rings far truer than Scorcese’s Little Italy ever managed.

We follow the pair on their gradual descent into petty, then larger crimes, and the dynamic between the two is at times gripping and always realistic. It’s a pity then that Yildrim , in possession of what could be the worlds first kitchen-sink gangster movie, seemingly had no dénouement in mind when cameras started rolling.

Halfway through things suddenly switch gears, with the introduction of stock psychopath Moritz Bleibtreu, and from this point on cliché is poured on cliché, losing all grip on reality in favour of overly graphic violence. While the direction is sharp and the brutality on screen often conducted with a shocking flair, the promise of a new angle for a somewhat tired genre is lost as the film peters toward an inevitable conclusion.

A promising debut which would benefit from some sharper scripting..

The ever-contentious Vincent Cassel returns to screens in Jean-Francois Richet’s thriller following the rise of gangster, bank-robber and master-of-disguise Jacques Mesrine in 1960s Paris. What follows is brilliantly entertaining – a powerful and episodic delve into a murky but enthralling underworld and the life of a darkly compelling figure.

Split into two parts, the opening gives us a teaser for the second before leaping back in time to follow a young Mesrine’s return to the civilian life in the aftermath of the Algerian war. A move to Paris in the early 60s sees him begin his journey through the criminal ranks, following Gerard Depardieu (in his finest performance in many a year) as an ageing gangster. Following a high profile bank job, Mesrine flees to Canada, joining the Quebec Liberation Front, lured by the promise of big bucks rather than national pride.

For once, Cassel delivers a solid, compelling central performance with none of the mercurial unevenness that has often blighted his work in the past. The narrative skips quickly forward year-by-year and it’s to his credit that he manages to anchor the viewer to events, never allowing plot to overtake events. He’s a charismatic, magnetic personality; clearly having a lot of fun with the wigs and fake moustaches that see him named the ‘Man of a Thousand Faces’ but conveying the depth that saw Mesrine become a hugely popular anti-hero for many at the time.

Richet’s direction is assured, with some great set pieces, and enough cheek to add in running gags and capture Mesrine’s cockiness – pulling one bank job, then robbing another whilst the police investigate the first was a favourite tactic – and the film stands in stark contrast to the Director’s previous take on Assault On Precinct 13. Here he’s confident and enthralling, splitting the action up neatly so that part one (Killer Instinct) comes across like a crime serial, whilst part two (Public Enemy Number 1) takes the time to explore the character more thoroughly.

Given the narrative similarities, it’s also worth comparing this with Michael Mann’s glacial Public Enemies. Where Mann’s Dillinger biopic kept us separated from the characters, working almost as a period news report at times, here we’re thrust head first into the murky underworld atmosphere, a place as glamorous, amusing and exciting as it is dangerous. It’s easy to see the appeal of the lifestyle.

An immersive, exciting film with a magnetic central performance – not to mention strong supporting turns from Depardiieu in addition to Cecile de France and Elena Anaya as the women in Mesrine’s life. A huge step up for the director and one of the most enthralling gangland biopics this side of Goodfellas.

Michael Mann’s latest has some serious talent backing up a great story with so many sensationalist elements it’s amazing it’s remained so under-represented at the movies until now. This is the story of John Dillinger, the notorious bank robber, gangster and all-round bad egg who alternately terrorised and enthralled 30s America with his criminal exploits.

Like the man himself, what we get here is a curiously schizophrenic movie in both style and substance. Mann has gone for some fine, very detailed photography, Tommy-Guns bucking with nary a hint of motion-blur, adding a glacial edge to procedings that slightly dislocates the viewer. Unusually for the director, there’s an awful lot of handy-cam going on, with unusual angles that unfortunately combine with the slightly unreal aesthetic to give the whole a video game sheen. It’s exciting, sure, but it’s also extremely difficult to get emotionally involved.

Likewise, Bale and Depp seem like they’re in completely different films. Depp’s performance is forceful and full of glee, giving a powerful insight into the reasons a bloody killer like Dillinger became something of a folk hero – a modern Robin Hood at the time. His exploits are wild and often deplorable, but carried out with a panache that makes it hard not to admire and even support the man.

It’s tempting to call Bale’s performance dull, but it’s hard to tell if this is another example of the actor losing his way (as seen in several of his recent outings), or the perfect representation of a small, dull FBI man out of his depth, unable to cope with the fame and expectation bestowed upon him by successfully nabbing ‘Pretty boy’ Floyd, and making him subject to the whims of an obsessive J.Edgar Hoover; A heavily made-up and ridiculously accented Billy Crudup, who seems to be having almost as much fun as Depp.

This is however, very much Depp’s film, his performance recalling the slightly manic edge we first saw in Ed Wood, as Dillinger embraces the criminal lifestyle behind bars, Depp showcases the force of personality needed to create Dillinger gangs mark 1 & 2, flirting with disaster as well as the press, and creating an enduring mythology for himself in the process.

Playing out like a midwest version of ‘Heat’, Mann nevertheless manages to distance this from his earlier (and, it has to be said, superior) flick through extreme attention to detail and a willingness to reinvent his action directing, each scene tied up tighter than the morals of Prohibition era America.

A solid mix of drama and action, with some commendable performances. It may well divide audiences and critics. A strong character piece that would benefit from a tighter edit, but still has much to recommend it.