IT'S tempting to liken Romanzo Criminale to Sergio Leone's Once Upon A Time In America, the epic story of tough street urchins (in this case Favino, Rossi Stuart and Santamaria) who grow up to become the dominant crime gang, or The Godfather, which explored the familial nature of organised crime, and to a certain degree this is a reasonable comparison.

Director Placido gives each of the characters likeable qualities that make you care about what happens to them but dread at the way power corrupts the original friendships that bound them. The setting of Italy in the 1970s and 1980s, when organised crime, terrorism and political corruption brought the country to the verge of anarchy, charges the familiar scenario a fresh potency. The shock of recognition when the abducted Italian premier Aldo Moro turned up in the boot of a car or when the camera lingers on the Bologna direction sign outside a station authenticates an actioncharged cops-and-robbers story in which the gang's nemesis is a detective who tries to manipulate a prostitute (Mouglalis) to get close to them but ends up being manipulated himself. Jasmine Trinca as the unsuspecting girlfriend of one of the gang provides a few moments of innocence in what is essentially an entertainingly choreographed action picture.

Sixty Six (Paul Weiland): Eddie Marsan, Helena Bonham Carter, Stephen Rea, Catherine Tate, Gregg Sulkin Running time: 89 mins . . .

COMING of age is painful enough without the embarrassment of a dysfunctional family. Imagine being a Jewish kid in North London in the 1960s with a manic compulsive dad who trusts no one to a point where he keeps going back to check he's locked the car and hoards the life savings in a shoe box in case the bank would lose them. With his bar mitzvah looming, 12-year-old bespectacled Bernie (Gregg Sulkin) . . . whose mother (Helena Bonham Carter) is too busy worrying about his father (Eddie Marsan) to give him any attention . . . sees the biggest day in his life go up in smoke, not least because it clashes with the World Cup final. Sixty Six is a beautifully gentle comedy of hurts, compassionately observed with good ensemble performances.