New Town Killers (15)

OFFICIAL: Bankers are cinema's new bogeyman of choice. Didn't take long, did it?

Three months ago, Clive Owen was hunting unethical investors- pretty boringly-in The International. In Drag Me To Hell you can see a loans officer being tormented by goat-headed devil spawn.

But New Town Killers is the bluntest of the bunch-with a pair of hedge-fund managers wandering around Edinburgh at night, shooting chavs for jokes.

Dougray Scott gets it right as the smug, moneyed villain who skulks around the backstreets with his moist-lipped sidekick (Alistair Mackenzie from Monarch of the Glen).

They convince hapless Sean (James Anthony Pearson)-a jobless orphan with loan sharks circling his sister-to play a high- stakes game of hide and seek.

Scum

If he survives a night being chased by them, he wins enough to clear his debts. It's The Running Man by way of Funny Games, and it's a combo that works brilliantly.

Director Richard Jobson-he of 70s punk troupe The Skids-has lensed the whole thing like a detective comic, with bold washes of colour over black shadows. It would make an ace graphic novel. As it is, it's a pulse-pounding indie, shot through with Jekyll-and-Hyde darkness.

No doubt there's some kind of smart message about the mega- rich toying with the lives of debt- ridden scum like you and I. But I just enjoyed it for being one of the most enjoyably offbeat chase thrillers of recent times.

The occasional clumsy mis-step aside (you'd have thought villains would twig that tracking devices with beeping red LEDs on the outside are a bit of a giveaway) Jobbo has come up with a belter.

And all this for just £1 million. Someone give him a bigger budget! Are there any friendly hedge-fund managers out there who can help?

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