Zulu

Orlando Bloom delivers what is arguably his best performance to date in this violent yet largely underwhelming crime thriller from French director Jérôme Salle. The setting is Cape Town, South Africa, where the Serious Violent Crime Unit is called in to investigate the grisly murder of a young white woman. After a mysterious narcotic is found in her system, two detectives (Bloom and Forest Whitaker) follow the trail to a dangerous, heavily armed gang who are involved with the production of this experimental drug. The gritty thrills that ensue are punctuated by generous helpings of intense violence and gratuitous nudity, yet the film (which is adapted from Caryl Ferey's novel) generates little drama or excitement along the way. Still, Whitaker is solid as the perpetually repressed chief detective, and it's great to see Bloom playing such a flawed character, even if his womanising, booze-chugging divorcee is a bundle of clichés.