Film reviews: What Richard Did | Texas Chainsaw 3D

Siobhan Synnot reviews the rest of this week’s film releases

What Richard Did (15)

Star rating: * * *

Privileged Dublin teenager Richard (Jack Reynor) is about to wave goodbye to captaining his school rugby team and tootle off to university in the car his wealthy dad bought him. Yet his glossy lifestyle rarely encounters much resentment, since Richard seems to be a popular, level-headed guy. However, after making a move on a pretty girl (Roisin Murphy), he gets into a fight with her ex (Sam Keeley) and has to decide whether to face up to the consequences.

Partly improvised – and it shows – director Lenny Abrahamson and scriptwriter Malcolm Campbell have shaped a slight morality tale which starts to feel overstretched even at 87 minutes. Despite Reynor’s Boyzone charisma, it’s hard to care what Richard might do next.

Glasgow Film Theatre, Friday until 17 January

Texas Chainsaw 3D (18)

Star rating: * *

A bunch of teens are terrorised yet again, after a young girl (Alexandria Daddario) discovers she has inherited a stately pile in Texas without realising that there’s a masked killer wielding gardening equipment in the basement.

Using blasts of high-decibel noise in place of actual scares, the flick spends a lot of time carving its way through scenarios already familiar to anyone who has seen or heard about the original film, whilst acknowledging the importance of pointing a chainsaw through the screen often enough to justify the extra cost of 3D glasses. At best, it’s more technically proficient than the original, and almost boasts a star name (Clint Eastwood’s son Scott is in the cast). But don’t call this a reimagining, because imagination is the last thing at work here.

On general release