Set in the transitional times between pagan worship and burgeoning Christian movement, this is a dreamlike, misty affair. Mads Mikkelsen plays a savage, one eyed, taciturn cage fighter who, after escaping his captors, finds himself in league with some zealots that are out to seek the Holy Land. When their boat falters, taking them wildly off course, they find themselves subject to new forms of hostility and desperation.

This is no average Viking film, gone are the silly braids, helmets and facial hair (well, no, the facial hair is still there). Nor is it some over-the-top comic book style film. It's quiet in tone (and, naturally, silent in performance from the lead), demanding of its audience to be sure. Still, the lush mountains of Scotland where the film was shot are sufficiently brooding to create a great mood of menace. The story, while highly allegorical, is nonetheless quiet enjoyable.

Frankly, this is the type of film you can only generally see at festival's like TIFF. While it eschews almost all elements that would make it a commercial success, it does provide a compelling enough tale to make it exactly the type of fare that one should seek out during their festival experience.

Festival darling Reitman has crafted a mature, nuanced, funny film about frequent flyer points and corporate downsizing.

Clooney is at the absolute top of his game here, with a mix of misplaced bravado and a quiet absurdity that he injects into every scene. The rest of the cast, from Jason Bateman to JK Simmons, are an absolute delight. But it is Vera Farmiga who turns in an absolutely lovely performance, full of complexity and spirit.

The timing for the film's plot is perfect, given the current economic malaise. There are but a few laugh out loud moments, but there's a gentle humour throughout. Expectations are constantly undermined, and as each story entwines itself we learn, in time, that things are certainly not what they first appear to be.

This is an intelligent enough story to be taken seriously, and warm and funny enough to be thoroughly enjoyable. Look for it to be a critical darling, one that's likely to do quiet well come awards time.

Quite simply, Reitman proves with Up in the Air that the sky's the limit for his career - he has proven with his three films to be one of the premiere directors of his generation.

Naturally, things go wrong as the ransom demands are made, as the film explores just how badly things can screw up despite all the careful preparation.

Limited to just the three central characters, Creed is almost play-like in its structure, yet it never feels limited in scope.

A highly interesting film from writer/director Blakeson, a fine low- budget thriller with good performances, with a clever yet archetypal plot.

Secondly, save for the title and the style of fighting, this film has nothing whatsoever to with the first film (it takes place, weirdly, some 600 years before the first one.

Thirdly, there were wide reports about trouble on set, with Tony walking out to the jungle for weeks at a time, forcing one of the production crew to step in and co-direct to ensure that the film was made.

Has any of this detracted from the film? HELL NO.

This is a silly, almost cartoonish chop socky movie. We see training montages (complete with a large variety of weaponry), we've got hooded bad buys and grand set pieces for action. And we've got Jaa bouncing from baddie to baddie, all pointy elbows and knees, crunching his foes with wild abandon.

When the film devolves into a long-lens shot of Jaa running on top of a herd of elephants, hopping from head to head, we know we're in for a particular type of ride, (apparently, you can train a trunk'd beast by smacking the hell out of its cranium). The preposterous pachydermal pugilism doesn't end there, as a full fight is staged atop what I can only assume/hope was a trained and/or drugged beast. This is a film where a man, lying across the horns of a giant beast, has a person jump from the top of the head, into his gut, only to land full on the ground in a heap of crunching pain.

What the hell else would you want from a closing film for this year's fest but awesome, stupid, incoherent fun.