Two movies stitched into one, Intolerable Cruelty is part stylish screwball pastiche, part anodyne fluff. Not surprising, really, considering the Coens are: a) working off a second-hand script; and b) making a blatant attempt to crack the multiplex market.

George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones make a feisty couple as a dashing divorce attorney and mercenary maneater, while Billy Bob Thornton and Geoffrey Rush provide a pair of scintillating comic cameos. There are some great gags, too, most notably Clooney's running obsession with his pearly white teeth.

The problems arrive with the brothers' clumsy attempts to graft their famously offbeat sensibilities on to standard material: hitman Wheezy Joe (Irwin Keyes) belongs in another movie; obsessive PI Cedric The Entertainer soon outstays his welcome; and the occasional visual flourishes now feel apathetic, forced rather than organic. In fact, you can't help feeling that the Coens' hearts aren't really in it. Let's hope they're back on form with their upcoming Ladykillers remake...

DVD Extras:

Naturally there's no commentary from the infamously tight-lipped Coens, so fans will have to make do with a standard-issue 15-minute Making Of and a short featurette on Zeta-Jones' frocks. Yes, it's as exciting as it sounds.The `filmmaker approved' outtakes are worth a look though, if only to see Zeta-Jones yell "You bugger!" at her gurning leading man.