Alfie

Continuing the trend for pillaging through Michael Caine's back catalogue, comes this remake of Sir Mickey's saucy comedy drama set in swinging Sixties London.

A step up from Sly Stallone's stillborn attempt to act tough in Get Carter and Mark Wahlberg's chipboard-quality acting in The Italian Job, Jude Law at least makes a good fist of embodying the iconic, swaggering, titular sexual predator.

Director Charles Shyer's version remains faithful to Lewis Gilbert's original film and Bill Naughton's play. The action may have been updated to present day Manhattan but the storyline is virtually unchanged.

Alfie Elkins (Law) is a Londoner who has transplanted himself to New York to work as a limousine driver.

Surrounded by an abundance of beautiful women, he takes it upon himself to give his lonely female clients the personal touch.

Flitting from one partner to the next with little thought for the feelings of his conquests, he comes unstuck when, after a dangerous liaison, Alfie realises that the pursuit of the pleasures in life comes at a terrible price.

Not nearly as likeable as Caine's personification, Law plays Alfie as a smarmy cad but, vitally, stays just on the right side of smug, ensuring there is at least some audience empathy when the good-time guy's partying comes to a sudden halt.