mighty mouse; What's new pussycat? Stuart Little's nemesis gets his

reviewed Stuart Little 2 (PG)Rob Minkoff

HHH The Abduction Club (12)Stefan SchwartzHH Jason X (15)Jim IsaacHH Lighthouse (15)/The Evil Dead (18)Simon Hunter/Sam RiaimiHH There's something immensely comforting about the Stuart Little movies, like a warm quilt of nostalgia that settles over the audience. They're films of the kind you could imagine Frank Capra making if he had access to the digital gizmos required to create a small, perky, animated mouse. And Stuart himself, with his wide-eyed enthusiasm for the world and his guileless naivety, is like a latter- day miniature George Bailey, with a tail. The family residence, the Little House, really is a little house - a picturesque cottage snuggled between two towering apartment blocks on a slice of prime Manhattan real estate.

But more than that, it's a sanctuary of small-town values in the big, corrupt city. The Littles are such a warm, snug family unit, with their chirpy catch phrases ("Little high, little low!" "Little hey, little ho!") that they're actually quite sickening. Thank heavens for Snowbell, the hilariously mean-spirited Persian cat (voiced by Nathan Lane) who is the sole voice of reason in the Little household.

Stuart Little 2 is smart enough to capitalise on the attractions of the first movie without flagrantly ripping off the story. That said, there are some pronounced similarities - presumably test audiences responded well to the wise-cracking Persian, so in this instalment, Snowbell gets some of the funniest lines ever written for an animal. Once again, Stuart has to face all manner of danger (usually in the shape of carelessly placed feet and threatening predatory animals) in the big city, finally to return home, an older and wiser rodent, to the bosom of the Little family. But this time, he has a plane.

With older brother George beginning to spread his wings and make new friends, Stuart finds himself increasingly left to his own devices. It's fortunate, then, that the devices in question include a cheerily painted model biplane that Stuart accidentally launches off the living-room table. In a scene that could be a homage to the famous crop-duster sequence in North By Northwest, Stuart strafes the cowering Little family as he struggles to gain control of the machine.

After a disastrous crash-landing in Central Park, he finds himself in disgrace. However, just when the small furry fellow is starting to get a Little low (now they've got me doing it), a new friend literally falls into his lap. Margalo is a wounded bird with huge limpid eyes, and Stuart is smitten. But Margalo is not all she seems, and Stuart and Snowbell are soon called upon to save her from a Fagin- like falcon (voiced by James Woods) who runs all the organised crime in NYC.

This is a delightful family film with layers of humour designed to appeal to all age groups. Adults who find the Little family insufferable will warm to their misanthropic, cowardly cat. Perhaps Snowbell should get his own movie next time.

Also on release this week is The Abduction Club, which is the kind of movie that will probably be described by some sad hack as a rollicking good time. And certainly, if your idea of a good time is a Mills & Boon novel blended with a Carry On film, then go knock yourself out - this picture was made with you in mind.

Apparently based on genuine events in Ireland during the late 1700s, the film tells of a band of younger sons who, due to harsh inheritance laws, saw the entire family fortune passed to their older brothers. To avoid penury, the church or worse, these young men decide to abduct an heiress for a night in a bid to woo her, as a good marriage would secure their financial future. Byrne (Daniel Lapaine) and Strang (Matthew Rhys) are the two young men but, frankly, it would take more than an evening in a fetid inn with one of them to convince me to go anywhere near the marital bed.

However desperately the film wants us to believe that they're a couple of dashing, loveable Oirish rascals, the film's many anachronisms leave them looking like a pair of thugs on horseback. Plus they're not even Oirish - Lapaine is Australian and Rhys, a fantastic actor marooned in a dull supporting role, is Welsh. Still, this is not a picture that aims for authenticity, preferring plenty of muddy grappling, lots of energetic horseback stunts and some lusty carousing on the side. It's certainly a cut above some bloodless costume dramas, but it falls a little short of rollicking, I'm afraid.

Now here's a strange thing. A 1980s horror film that was remarkable for little other than the sheer volume of tomato ketchup used to suggest bloody carnage triggers a whole raft of sequels. For the first four or five, nothing new happened (OK, number three was 3- D, but that's about as interesting as it got). By about number eight or nine, critics grudgingly acknowledged that they were a little more slick than they used to be but there was nothing there to justify lifting them from the fast-track to video rental. However, by number 10, a full 22 years after the first movie and defying conventional wisdom, the series has actually improved enough for it to earn a cinematic release. So here we have Jason X - the 10th Friday The 13th to be made and the first to be set in outer space.

It's remarkably silly and breathtakingly violent but at least the new spaceship setting allows homicidal scythe-waver Jason to vary his modus operandi a little. Not only does he cleaver people to pieces, he shows a hitherto unsuspected vein of creativity in dispatching his victims. One young soldier is impaled on a giant screw that just happens to be lying around in the engine room - he spins balletically as his body follows the thread. Of course, nothing really changes: the youngsters on the ship are still more interested in sleeping with each other than escaping the masked maniac who is planning to eviscerate them. Totally predictable, but horribly comic nonetheless.

And perhaps there's something in the air this week because horror fans can also gorge themselves on that rarest of cinematic packages - a double bill. It's years since someone last released two pictures together in this way - their running-time makes them unpopular with exhibitors.

The reason Feature Film Co are pairing Brit slasher flick Lighthouse with the classic 1980s video nasty The Evil Dead has as much to do with a nostalgia for a bygone era of horror than anything. Lighthouse is billed as an "old-style" horror movie - and if that means it has low production values, lots of spurting arcs of blood and a homicidal maniac with a cleaver, then yes it is.

It also has a pace that seems very leisurely in an age that is accustomed to the quick-fire slaughter of movies like I Know What You Did Last Summer. I wonder whether today's teenager will have the patience to sit through both these pictures back to back. Still the incentive of catching The Evil Dead on a big screen should not be underrated.

All films are released on Friday

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