Director Edward Zwick has the unenviable ability to take interesting stories and turn them into adequate but forgettable films. He did this with The Last Samurai in 2003, Blood Diamond in 2006 and Defiance in 2008. His latest film Pawn Sacrifice suffers the same predictable fate.The film looks at one of the most fascinating battles of the Cold War, one fought not between spies or diplomats but on a chessboard in Iceland in 1972. Bobby Fischer - regarded by many as the greatest chess player of all time - faced off against world champion Boris Spassky in a contest that grabbed the attention of millions of people around the world.Fischer also embodied the notion that chess grandmasters are one small step away from total madness. He gave up his title three years after beating Spassky, disappeared for two decades and reappeared as a sad paranoiac spouting anti-Semitic, conspiracy theories before dying in Iceland in 2008.As Fischer Tobey Maguire does a brave job of showing the creeping paranoia already affecting the rock star of chess in his 20s.While the story moves steadily along and focuses on events in his childhood and development that may have helped to exacerbate Fischer's insanity, there's a distinct lack of visual invention and no real attempt to create an atmosphere that might help mirror his internal struggle. Forty-three years after the most famous chess match in history, cinema has many more tools at its disposal but Zwick fails to do anything with the medium to turn the film into something breathtaking.A film about a man as eccentric and troubled as Fischer who played a difficult game with what one commentator described as "placid beauty" needs to do more than simply join the dots leaving us with a feeling that there could have been so much more to learn both about the game and the man.Also openingDOPEA film about three geeky high-school students that you find yourself longing to like, but the strain of disappointment takes its toll. Peter Bradshaw, theguardian.comTHE WALKRobert Zemeckis's 3D re-creation of Philippe Petit's World Trade Center tightrope walk is a towering achievement. Robbie Collin, thetelegraph.co.ukAMERICAN ULTRAA violent comedy-thriller that can't work out whether it's a slacker romance or an all-action spy movie. Staff reporter, theindependent.co.ukLIFEA film about James Dean designed with lustrous attention to detail. Guy Lodge, variety.comTHE PROPHETThis collection of eight mini-sermons falls flat. Jeannette Catsoulis, nytimes.com..