I can't say I'm a huge fan of recent Hollywood attempts at bringing graphic novels and comics to the big screen. They usually turn into insipid heartless vehicles for whatever American eye candy they pay millions of dollars to turn up and generally act badly.

V for Vendetta on the other hand is a nice surprise. I read the graphic novel a while back and absolutely loved it. When I heard that the novel had been earmarked for the silver screen I had that horrible sinking feeling about the compromised crap that Hollywood would no doubt churn out.

However I was wrong. The film doesn't exactly stick to Alan Moore's original creation and there's plenty of artistic license taken by the director of the film but the end result is 2 hours of highly enjoyable viewing. The cast is excellent as well (not sure about Natalie Portman's made up English accent though) - John Hurt, Hugo Weaving, Stephen Fry and Stephen Rea amongst others. One of the nice things about the film, and it really surprised me because the producers are the Wachowski brothers, is that it's the script and the acting that keeps your attention instead of high-tech special effects. Also at no point in the film did you get that feeling of "get on with it" either. All in all 8/10.