Veronica Mars

And so the age of Kickstarter begins. When this big-screen spin-off from the popular but short-lived (2004-07) US TV series about a pushy teenage private detective pitched for public funding in 2012, it raised $2 million in 10 hours – a pretty breathtaking achievement. And while the movie may mean little to those who never saw the show – and here in the UK that’ll be most of us – it’s an enjoyable enough effort nonetheless, well-paced and packed with pleasingly spiky dialogue. Kristen Bell returns to the central role of Veronica, now in her late twenties and ready to take a job with a high-flying NYC law firm. But when an old classmate is murdered, she heads back to her old haunts, hooks up with the high-school gang and gets back to what she does best. There’s something rather bland about ‘Veronica Mars’ – even the murderers have neat hair and nice clothes – and the largely forgettable cast don’t help. But the one-liners are sharp, the plot unpredictable and the whole thing ticks along with a minimum of fuss.