CODE OF SILENCE **

 An above-average Chuck Norris vehicle perhaps because it was directed by Andrew Davis who also made "The Fugitive". The plot, involving drug wars and corrupt cops, is nothing you haven't seen a hundred times before and Davis gives it a lot of zap and there are several first-rate set pieces as well as an excellent use of Chicago locations. Norris is as stiff and wooden as ever but it's always nice to see Henry Silva as a suave villain even if he's underused. In fact, this is a movie that does exactly what it says on the tin. Perfect Saturday night popcorn fare.

CICADA no stars

 "Cicada" is heartfelt and clearly autobiographical but also excruciatingly boring. Matthew Fifer and Sheldon B. Leonard are the lovers coping with the traumas of their past, both sexual and racial. They also wrote the film and Fifer co-directed it with Kieran Mulcare. I kept wanting to engage with them but they are very dull company and this feels like their home-movie, both a vanity project and a kind of exorcism as it flits back and forth through their relationship, feeling ultimately like a movie made for themselves and for their friends but if they do want anyone else to feel involved they need a much better script and maybe a couple of more polished actors to play them. I found this Dull with a Capital D.

BRING HER BACK no stars

 Children have been a staple in horror movies for decades bur rarely have they been used so offensively as they are in "Bring Her Back". After the death of their father Andy (Billy Barratt) and his stepsister Piper (Sora Wong) find themselves being fostered by Sally Hawkins' clearly deeply disturbed Laura whose own daughter Cathy has drowned in their swimming pool. Laura would appear to have one other kid in her care, silent Oliver who likes to put his hand through glass panels and chew on butcher's knives and who isn't above taking a bite out of Laura on occasion.

As Oliver Jonah Wren Phillips is extraordinary and yet I kept feeling his performance was almost tantamount to child abuse on the part of the films directors, brothers Danny and Michael Philippou. I don't know how old young Phillips is but surely no child should be put through the rigors that he seems to have been  put through. Barratt, too, is excellent and Hawkins is terrific, (but isn't she always), while the brothers direction is mostly first-class but the film itself is far too unpleasant to pass as entertainment. This is a horror movie, alright but not in a good way.