Everly

The film's brutality - which includes not only the murder of a dog but also a fetishization of torture that borders on porn - is so excessive, even if tongue-in-cheek, that it leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

If the film does anything right, it reminds us that now-48-year-old Hayek is one heck of a forceful presence when she is allowed to be.

Feels precision-engineered for a morally torn fanboy who likes the idea of female empowerment but needs it served with a heavy dose of torture porn and glistening flesh.

Salma Hayek plays a sex slave turned killer in this stylish but lumbering actioner.

What on earth is Salma Hayek doing starring in this exploitative, junky piece of torture trash?

There's the pervasive feeling that this is a prefab cult film that doesn't need to try too hard, instead offering cosmetic variations from a very limited playbook of gestures meant to provoke Pavlovian cries of "Awesome!"

There are some genuinely great action bits mixed in with a handful that are a bit more tired, and the overall package is full of ups and downs.

Despite his and Hayek's best efforts, the result is sloppier than the mess Everly creates, blowing up a lift full of Yakuza.

Those with an adolescent nostalgia for video-nasty era degradation/retribution may be mildly titillated, but Lynch has neither the wit nor desire to raise this above the level of faux-retro fanboy fantasy.

There are references to Leon, Kill Bill and Se7en, plus a whole lot of Japanese men in sharp suits -- leading to a distinct whiff of déjà Woo.

Lynch shows some visual flair with a few clever, Tarantino-like touches but the film overall is a deadening and claustrophobic experience, in which the human interest diminishes as rapidly as the body count rises.

A relentless onslaught of violent action, this movie is notable mainly because there's a woman at the centre of it, which means that it's entertaining even if it's rather pointless.