She shrieked and a moment later I was running down the street with the two men chasing me and shouting curses, or what I assumed were curses, great hoarse expletives that echoed through the trees and set dogs barking in the dark houses.

NEWYORKER: Wakefield

Similarly, most villages have a witch or folk-healer who dispenses spells, removes curses and provides spiritual guidance.

BBC: Mystical tales from Transylvania

Small wonder that Cairo's demonstrators shouted curses at their own leaders as well as at George Bush, or that police turned most brutal when the crowd surged towards the headquarters of Mr Mubarak's party, apparently with the intention of attacking the giant presidential portrait that hangs there.

ECONOMIST: Arab protest

In short, the movie joins what it cannot beat, and, as the violence hardens, so any moral intelligence wilts, with Vaughn and Goldman hoping to rouse or shock us with the sight and sound of an eleven-year-old girl as she curses and kills.

NEWYORKER: Kick-Ass