Starring: Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Brandon Walters, David Wenham, Bryan Brown, David Gulpilil.

Lady Sarah Ashley (Kidman) leaves behind the finery of the English aristocracy to travel to the Australian outback and confront her husband Lord Ashley on the Faraway Downs cattle station. She finds her spouse dead and a huge property in financial disarray, on the brink of takeover by scheming King Carney (Brown), who controls the local cattle market. With the help of a swarthy drover (Jackman), Sarah decides to challenge Carney’s monopoly by herding 500-strong prize cattle all the way to port in the face of stiff opposition from her rival’s heir apparent, Neil Fletcher (Wenham). En route, Sarah and the drover fall passionately in love, becoming surrogate parents to an orphaned Aborigine boy, Nullah (Walters). Writer-director Baz Luhrmann pays tribute to his homeland with a sprawling love story set in the years before the Japanese bombing of Darwin, threaded with a critique of the ’re-education’ of Aborigine children. Australia is a sweeping, old-fashioned epic that marries Catherine Martin’s ravishing production design with Mandy Walker’s breathtaking cinematography, split loosely into three, tonally distinct chapters. Jackman’s rugged man of the earth generates palpable screen chemistry with Kidman, who has never looked more radiant and demonstrates perfect comic timing. Brown and Wenham all but twirl moustaches as the villains of the piece and newcomer Walters possesses that rare, unspoiled quality that so many young actors lose as they play out their childhoods in front of the camera. Pacing slackens perhaps as Japanese bombers descend on Darwin but by then, we’re mesmerized.

DVD Extras: Deleted scenes (What About The Drove?, Angry Staff Serve Dinner); Blu-ray: “Australia: The People, The History, The Location” featurette, photography featurette, production design featurette, costume design featurette, locations featurette, cinematography featurette, sound featurette, editing featurette, music featurette, visual effects featurette, deleted scenes (What About The Drove?, Angry Staff Serve Dinner).

Rating: ****

Bedtime Stories (Cert PG, 95 mins, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, Family/Comedy, also available to buy DVD £17.99/Blu-ray £20.99)

Starring: Adam Sandler, Keri Russell, Guy Pearce, Russell Brand, Richard Griffiths, Jonathan Pryce, Courteney Cox, Laura Ann Kessling, Jonathan Morgan Heit, Teresa Palmer.

Hotel handyman Skeeter Bronson (Sandler) tends to malfunctioning appliances in the hotel run by germ-phobic Barry Nottingham (Griffiths), who is preparing to hand over his empire to snivelling general manager Kendall (Pearce). Skeeter is a friend to one and all, including his divorced sister Wendy (Cox), who needs to leave town for a few days and asks her lovable brother to help look after her kids, Patrick (Heit) and Bobbi (Kessling). During the day, schoolteacher friend Jill (Russell) cares for the little tykes and in the evening, Skeeter takes charge, inventing tall tales full of daring deeds to send the little ones to sleep. When elements from the stories impact on real life, Skeeter wonders whether he might be able to manipulate fantasy to realise his dreams. Bedtime Stories is a colourful, big budget family feature, which promotes the message that dreams can come true. Having established his narrative gimmick, screenwriter Matt Lopez fails to mine the underlying, rich vein of comedy, relying heavily on Sandler’s childlike charm to spark the picture to life. It’s simply too much to ask, especially with the leading man playing second fiddle to special effect-laden dream sequences including an Evil Knievel-style chariot jump in a gladiatorial arena. Director Adam Shankman handles the collision of reality and fantasy well, but some elements beggar belief. The children’s pet guinea pig Bugsy, who is burdened with cartoonish eyes, is one computer-generated contrivance too far. Pearce looks ill at ease playing the slapstick bad guy but Russell Brand is good fun as a slacker waiter, essentially playing a PG-friendly version of himself.

DVD Extras: “Bugsy Eyes” exclusive bedtime story, “It’s Bugsy” featurette, “Until Gravity Do Us Part” featurette, “To All The Little People” featurette, “The Cutting Room Floor” deleted images with optional actor commentary, “Laughing Is Contagious” out-takes and bloopers, Dylan & Cole: Blu-ray Is Suite; Blu-ray: “Bugsy Eyes” exclusive bedtime story, “It’s Bugsy” featurette, “Until Gravity Do Us Part” featurette, “To All The Little People” featurette, “The Cutting Room Floor” deleted images with optional actor commentary, “Laughing Is Contagious” out-takes and bloopers, DVD copy of the film.

Rating: **

Dean Spanley (Cert U, 96 mins, Icon Home Entertainment, Drama/Comedy, also available to buy DVD £17.99)

Starring: Jeremy Northam, Peter O’Toole, Sam Neill, Bryan Brown, Judy Parfitt, Art Malik, Dudley Sutton.

In early 20th century London, Henslowe Fisk (Northam) makes his regular Thursday visit to his cantankerous father, Horatio (O’Toole), and desperately searches for a way to amuse the old man. So he drags his father to a lecture on the transmigration of souls, delivered by Swami Nala Prash (Malik). Sitting in the audience, the two men spy Dean Spanley (Neill), who later reveals a connection to Fisk Senior’s beloved dog, Wag. Determined to learn more, Henslowe enlists help of conveyancer Wrather (Brown) to procure a bottle of the rare 1889 Imperial Tokay wine, which should lure the Dean to dinner. With the nectar flowing almost as freely as the conversation, the holy man makes a shocking disclosure over the lamb stew cooked by Mrs Brimley (Parfitt), which brings tears to the eyes of the host. Adapted by Alan Sharp from Baron Dunsany’s 1936 novella My Talks With Dean Spanley, this quixotic shaggy dog story will warm the cockles of your heart. Toa Fraser’s gently paced tale of fractious father-son bonding in Edwardian England is blessed with strong performances, from Northam’s laconic narrator who unexpectedly rebuilds bridges with his old man to O’Toole’s sharp-tongued rogue, snaffling all of the best lines. The script strikes just the right tone, juxtaposing a menagerie of playful and earthy supporting characters with the wistful, central quartet, searching for answers to life’s big questions. Humour is broad, reserved predominantly for older protagonists, who speak their minds, regardless of social conventions. Expectations are gleefully subverted, building to a big emotional release reflected in O’Toole’s twinkling eyes.

DVD Extras: “Making Of” featurette, cast and crew interviews.

Rating: ***

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Max Payne (Cert 15, 94 mins, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Acton/Thriller, also available to buy DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £27.99)

Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis, Olga Kurylenko, Beau Bridges, Donal Logue, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Amaury Nolasco, Marianthi Evans.

Police officer Max Payne (Wahlberg) returns home to find his wife Michelle (Evans) and baby daughter slain by an intruder. Unable to rest until he unmasks the killer, Max scours every open case file and draws inspiration from his mentor BB (Beau Bridges), who urges patience. A tip-off from a snitch leads to a nightclub where Max meets Natasha (Kurylenko) and her sister Mona (Kunis). The former dies in an alleyway and police units discover Max’s stolen wallet at the scene, fingering him for the crime. While the cop tries to clear his name and outrun Internal Affairs Detective Jim Bravura (Chris “Ludacris” Bridges), the real culprit – tormented soldier of war Jack Lupino (Nolasco) – seeks out the people closest to Max, determined to inflict more pain. John Moore’s tiresome video game-to-movie adaptation plods wearily through a plot that straddles reality and drug-induced fantasy on the crime-riddled streets of New York City. Fans of Max Payne will recognise characters and certain plot elements, like the conspiracy surrounding an experimental drug. The film also employs the slow motion bullet time effect, which was a key factor of the video game’s appeal. However, Moore’s vision is a poor substitute for the visceral thrill that comes from grabbing a game controller and taking charge of the hero. We don’t feel engaged with any of the characters, nor do we sense Max’s simmering rage. Wahlberg is inexpressive as the eponymous good cop on a mission, shooting first and thinking later, if at all, as Moore’s film builds to a lacklustre final showdown. The lack of dramatic momentum makes the 94-minute running time feel considerably longer. The DVD and Blu-ray include a harder cut of the film and an animated graphic novel detailing the story of Michelle Payne.

DVD Extras: none stated; Blu-ray: director, production designer and visual effects supervisor commentary, Picture in Picture option: “Walkthroughs & Cheats”, D-box capabilities, free digital copy of the film.

Rating: **

Mad Money (Cert 12, 99 mins, Lionsgate Home Entertainment UK Ltd, Comedy/Drama/Romance, also available to buy DVD £15.99)

Starring: Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah, Katie Holmes, Ted Danson, Roger Cross.

When her husband Don (Danson) loses his job, leading to the shocking possibility that they could lose the house, resourceful mother Bridget (Keaton) takes a mundane job as a cleaner at the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank. Here she is immediately intrigued by the banknotes, which are due to be taken out of circulation via the shredder. She hatches a hare-brained scheme to steal these old banknotes with the help of fellow employees Nina (Latifah) and Jackie (Holmes), who form two vital links in the money chain. The first theft goes as planned but the haul isn’t as large as the three women expected so they try again, gradually succumbing to greed. Don begs her wife to stop, but she and her accomplices refuse to listen, eventually attracting the attentions of the authorities. Debuting on DVD and deservedly so, Mad Money is a generic crime caper which squanders the potentially winning chemistry between the leads, albeit with Holmes woefully miscast as the ditz in the mix opposite an ever-solid Keaton and Latifah, who both possess the acting chops and comic timing to make something out of their two-dimensional heroines. Glenn Gers’s screenplay has neither the subtlety, nor the intelligence, to probe the (im)morality of the female protagonists’ actions, whiling away the blessedly brief running time with pointless romantic subplots. To rent or buy, Mad Money would be a crime.

DVD Extras: Interviews, gag reel.

Rating: **

NEW TO BUY ON DVD

Lewis – Series Three (Cert 12, 372 mins, ITV DVD, DVD £24.99, Thriller/Drama)

Four-disc box set comprising the latest cases for Detective Inspector Robbie Lewis (Kevin Whately) and his partner DS James Hathaway (Laurence Fox) as they follow in the footsteps of Lewis’s mentor Morse, solving tricky cases in and around Oxford. In this series, Lewis comes face-to-face with the man who killed his wife, Hathaway receives news of a surprise promotion and the cops probe murders connected with C.S. Lewis and Shakespeare’s The Merchant Of Venice.

DVD Extras: none stated.

The Red Riding Trilogy (Cert 18, 300 mins, Optimum Home Entertainment, DVD £29.99, Thriller/Drama)

Adapted from David Peace’s books, The Red Riding Trilogy is Channel 4’s ambitious, three-part drama, which unfolds in 1974, 1980 and 1983, with different directors at the helm of each instalment (Julian Jarrold, James Marsh, Anand Tucker). Dramatised from real-life events, the story opens with rookie Yorkshire Post journalist Eddie Dunford (Andrew Garfield) sifting the evidence from a series of child abductions in a time of suspicion and institutionalised police corruption. Moving forward six years, police officer Peter Hunter (Paddy Considine) reviews the case of the Yorkshire Ripper and continues to make enemies as he challenges conventional thinking. In the final segment, Detective Chief Superintendent Maurice Jobson (David Morrissey) is horrified when a young girl vanishes without trace, recognising similarities to the Ripper case. As the police come to terms with the possibility that they may have convicted the wrong man, solicitor John Piggott (Mark Addy) prepares to right a terrible judicial wrong. Sean Bean, Warren Clarke, Andrew Garfield, Rebecca Hall, Peter Mullan and Maxine Peake co-star.

DVD Extras: none stated.

Doctor Who – The Cybermen
Doctor Who – The Cybermen Collection (Cert PG, 180 mins, BBC DVD, DVD £15.65, Sci-Fi/Action/Thriller/Drama)

The Doctor (David Tennant) and companions Rose (Billie Piper) and Mickey (Noel Clarke) meet a terrible new incarnation of the metallic arch-nemeses in these four gripping episodes, in which the timelord must thwart a dastardly plot to meld human brains and mechanical bodies. However, in order to save Earth, the Doctor may have to sacrifice the one thing he values the most. The two-disc box set includes “Rise Of The Cybermen”, “The Age Of Steel”, “Army Of Ghosts” and “Doomsday”.

DVD Extras: Introduction by David Tennant, “The 25 Best Cybermen Moments” featurette.

Inkheart (Cert PG, 101 mins, Entertainment In Video, Family/Action/Drama, also available to buy DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £24.99)

Father and bookbinder Mo Folchart (Brendan Fraser) has kept a terrible secret from his daughter Meggie (Eliza Bennett) since she was three-years-old. He is a Silvertongue, who possesses the ability to bring a tome to life by simply reading it aloud and inadvertently sent his beloved wife Teresa (Sienna Guillory) into the pages of a book called Inkheart. In her place, various characters including the villainous Capricorn (Andy Serkis) and his henchmen escaped into this world. Stumbling upon a tatty, old copy of Inkheart, Mo finally believes he could be reunited with Teresa, only to embark on the greatest adventure of his life in the company of a stranger called Dustfinger (Paul Bettany) and the beautiful Elinor Loredan (Helen Mirren).

DVD Extras: “Eliza Read To Us” featurette, theatrical trailer.

The Thick Of It: The Specials (Cert 15, 118 mins, BBC DVD, DVD £19.56, Comedy)

Two hour-long specials – “Rise Of The Nutters” and “Spinners And Losers” – of Armando Iannucci’s award-winning satire. Foul-mouthed spin-doctor Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi) stands on the brink of political oblivion when a scandal emerges at Watford Immigration Centre and the PM severs all lines of communication. Adding to his woes, immigration minister Ben Swain (Justin Edwards) makes a fool of himself on Newsnight. With just 24 hours to save his career and the party’s blushes, Tucker puts his gift of the gab to impeccable use, using blackmail and bullying to shape the news agenda for his own good.

DVD Extras: Deleted scenes, production stills gallery with commentary, behind the scenes gallery with commentary, Newsnight segments with Paxman and Crick, Opposition Extra, 15 minute sequence showing Spinners and Losers from the Opposition’s point of view.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Volume 1: A Galaxy Divided (Cert PG, 88 mins, Warner Home Video, DVD £12.99, Family/Sci-Fi/Action)

Anakin Skywalker (voiced by Matt Lanter) and young padawan Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein) seek guidance from Obi-Wan Kenobi (James Arnold Taylor) and Master Yoda (Tom Kane) to defeat General Grievous and the Separatist droid army in four episodes of the computer animated series, currently screening on The Cartoon Network and Sky Movies. The DVD includes “Ambush”, “Rising Malevolence”, “Shadow Malevolence” and “Destroy Malevolence”. A box set, comprising all of the episodes from the first series, is expected later this year.

DVD Extras: none stated.

– The Complete Fifth Season (Cert 15, 420 mins, Warner Home Video, DVD £24.99, Comedy)

Incorrigible ladies man Charlie Harper (Charlie Sheen) and his divorced brother Alan (Jon Cryer) pretend to be responsible adults for the benefit of Alan’s young son, Jake (Angus T Jones), in another 19 episodes of the popular American sit-com including “Fish In A Drawer”, a tongue-in-cheek cross-over with C.S.I.: Crime Scene Investigation featuring actor George Eads. Elsewhere during the series, Jake suffers the growing pains that invariably arise from trying to fit in at school while Charlie dates a judge (Ming-Na) and Alan has a fight with his sibling, forcing him to move out with his son in tow.

DVD Extras: none stated.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit – Season Eight (Cert 15, 901 mins, Universal Playback, DVD £44.99, Thriller/Drama)

Detective Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) contends with some of their most shocking and unsettling cases yet in the gritty spin-off from the original Law & Order TV series. While Detective Olivia Benson (Mariska Hartigay) goes deep undercover for the FBI, Elliot welcomes a new partner, Detective Dani Beck (Connie Nielsen), to probe allegations of rape and murder. Personal relationships within the department threaten to cloud professional judgments, culminating in a cliffhanger finale “Screwed” which forces the detectives to atone for past sins in the glare of the media spotlight. The five-disc box set includes all 22 episodes.

DVD Extras: none stated.

– The Third Year (Cert 15, 854 mins, Universal Playback, DVD £44.99, Thriller/Drama)

Five-disc box set comprising 21 episodes of the spin-off series set in New York City, where quixotic Detective Robert Goren (Vincent D’Onofrio) and his partner Alex Eames (Kathryn Erbe) lead the charge of the Major Case Squad, unmasking devious perpetrators by getting inside the minds of their prime suspects under the leadership of Captain James Deakins (Jamey Sheridan). As the evidence piles up, Assistant District Attorney Ron Carver (Courtney B Vance) readies his prosecution, sometimes clashing with Goren and other members of the team.

DVD Extras: none stated.

Ideal – Series 4 (Cert 15, 232 mins, 2entertain, DVD £19.56, Comedy)

In the aftermath of a suspected heart attack, bumbling weed dealer Moz (Johnny Vegas) cannot keep his affair with Jenny (Sinead Matthews) secret for long, while girlfriend Nicki (Nicolas Reynolds) begins an affair with Tom aka PC (Tom Goodman-Hill). A birthday party ends in disaster just as a local turf war spirals out of control in eight episodes of the award-winning sitcom.

DVD Extras: Deleted scenes, out-takes, “Back To The 90s” behind the scenes featurette, music featurette.

Flashpoint – The Complete First Season (Cert 12, 533 mins, ITV DVD, DVD £24.99, Action/Thriller/Drama)

An elite team of sharp-shooting Toronto cops called the Strategic Response Unit (SRU) puts lives on the line to avert disaster in 13 episodes of the fast-paced Canadian TV series. Gregory ’Greg’ Parker (Enrico Colantoni) leads the SRU through each precarious mission, defusing explosive situations involving bombs, hostages and terrorists with cool detachment, until one member, Ed Lane (Hugh Dillon), exorcises the ghosts of the past, with unexpectedly tragic consequences.

DVD Extras: none stated.

Gonzo: The Life And Work Of Dr Hunter S. Thompson (Cert 15, 119 mins, Optimum Home Entertainment, DVD £17.99, Documentary)

Journalist Hunter S Thompson enjoyed life in the fast lane, indulging in alcohol and drugs as a creative spark for his febrile imagination to churn out seminal articles on the Hell’s Angels and the political establishment for Rolling Stone magazine. Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney (Taxi To The Dark Side) employs a patchwork of home movies, archive TV footage, audio recordings, still photographs and other material to delve into the mind of this iconic yet tragic figure, interspersed with narration from Johnny Depp, who also reads excerpts from Thompson’s work.

DVD Extras: Director commentary, extended interviews, extended and deleted scenes, Ralph Steadman drawings, exclusive director interview, “Wayward & Weary” featurette about Tift Merritt tribute song, photo gallery, theatrical trailer.

A Love To Hide (Cert 15, 102 mins, Peccadillo Pictures, DVD £19.99, Drama/Romance)

French filmmaker Christian Faure follows up Juste Une Question D’Amour with this romance set in wartime Paris. Jean (Jeremie Renier) is secretly involved in an affair with Philippe (Bruno Todeschini), but conceals their liaisons for fear of persecution. When Jewish, childhood friend Sara (Louise Monot) arrives in the French capital, Jean gladly helps her elude the Nazis only to be betrayed by someone close to home.

DVD Extras: none stated.
Clough

Clough (Cert E, 70 mins, ITV DVD, DVD £14.99, Documentary)

Timed nicely to coincide with the cinema release of The Damned United, this documentary celebrates the achievements of Brian Clough, following his wise through the divisions with Derby County, Leeds United and Nottingham Forest, becoming the only domestic football manager to date to win back-to-back European cups. Pete Postlethwaite narrates the archive footage, interspersed with interviews with his friends and family including his wife Barbara and son Nigel.

DVD Extras: none stated.

The Backyardigans: Tale Of The Mighty Knights (Cert U, 115 mins, Fremantle Home Entertainment, DVD £5.99, Children)

Pablo the penguin, Tyrone the moose, Austin the purple kangaroo, Tasha the hippo and the beautiful Uniqua search for a runaway egg, take a trip on the Orient Express and face a giant robot in five episodes of the Nick Jr computer animated series. The DVD includes “To The Centre Of The Earth”, “Front Page News”, “Tale Of The Mighty Knights Part 1”, “Tale Of The Mighty Knights Part 2” and “Le Masters Of Disguise”.

DVD Extras: none stated.

DVD RETAIL TOP 10

1 (1) Quantum Of Solace

2 (-) Changeling

3 (6) The Dark Knight

4 (-) Body Of Lies

5 (4) Green Street 2

6 (-) The Chronicles Of Narnia – Prince Caspian

7 (5) Mamma Mia – The Movie

8 (3) Wallace & Gromit – A Matter Of Loaf

9 (8) Casino Royale

10 (-) Knocked Up

Chart supplied by getcloser.com

UK RENTAL (VHS & DVD) TOP 10

1 (-) Zack And Miri Make A Porno

2 (2) Quantum Of Solace

3 (1) Changeling

4 (-) Lakeview Terrace

5 (3) Body Of Lies (DVD)

6 (4) Burn After Reading

7 (10) Eagle Eye

8 (6) Tropic Thunder

9 (7) Taken (2008)

10 (-) Ghost Town

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Fast-paced and peppered with cute visual gags, Monsters Vs Aliens is a blast from eye-popping start to uproarious finish, especially in cinemas projecting in jaw-dropping 3D.

A green, glowing meteorite lands on fun-loving Susan Murphy on her wedding day. Before her husband to be has a chance to say “I do”, Susan grows in size until she stands an impressive 49 feet and 11 inches tall.

Wedding guests flee and Susan is held hostage by the military in a secret government compound with fellow captives inventor Dr Cockroach PhD, half-ape half-fish The Missing Link, indestructible gelatinous mass B.O.B. and a 350-feet long grub called Insectosaurus.

Rating: Four stars

THE BOAT THAT ROCKED (15)

The year is 1966, a golden era for rock ’n’ roll in this country, but BBC radio plays a mere 45 minutes of pop music a day. Thus, around 25 million listeners tune into pirate radio stations, which devote every waking (and sleeping) minute to music. One such station is Radio Rock. The DJs are a motley crew of misfits with one thing in common: a passion for vinyl.

As Government ministers try to shut down pirate radio stations, the captain’s grandson, recently expelled from school, joins Radio Rock for the summer, in the hope that he might mend his ways.

The Boat That Rocked, rocks and rolls to a thumping soundtrack including The Beach Boys, Jeff Beck, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones and The Who

Rating: Three stars

THE DAMNED UNITED (15)

In the annals of modern British football, Brian Clough remains one of the most charismatic, bullish and successful figures. He is still the only domestic manager to win back-to-back European cups.

Steeped in nostalgia and blessed with an endearing performance from Michael Sheen as the so-called ’greatest England manager we never had’, this valentine to the former darling of Nottingham Forest shoots and scores on many levels.

Rating: Four stars

TRAITOR (12A)

Exploiting the disparity between fact and illusion, Traitor is a taut thriller of political intrigue and espionage.

Central to the nightmarish plot is an undercover operative, apparently embedded within a terrorist cell to bring it down from the inside, whose dubious actions continually suggest an ulterior motive.

Like the characters, we’re left in the dark for most of the film. A couple of twists don’t ring true and the ending signals its sly intentions far too early.

Rating: Three stars

DUPLICITY (12A)

Words are meaningless in this comic caper – everyone is bluffing to some extent. We don’t know who to trust – if anyone – as the intricate plot unfolds, right up to the final frame. CIA officer Claire Stenwick (Julia Roberts) and MI6 agent Ray Koval (Clive Owen) leave behind government intelligence to employ their expertise in the cutthroat world of big business.

Frothy and energetic, we’re compelled to take sides as the battle of the sexes escalates into an all-out war.

Rating: Four stars

LESBIAN VAMPIRE KILLERS (15)

Stars of the brilliant, and deservedly, award-winning sitcom Gavin & Stacey, star in this juvenile horror spoof. Clumsy, dull, and almost completely starved of laughs, Lesbian Vampire Killers has the duo huffing and puffing all the way to the village of Cragwich, blissfully unaware that the locals have been cursed for centuries by Carmilla, the Lesbian Vampire Queen. The two join forces with a campervan full of sexy, foreign student girls to despatch Camilla and her undead minions.

Rating: Three stars

PAUL BLART: MALL COP (PG)

Size matters, especially when deciding who to poke fun at, in this politically incorrect, comic spin on Die Hard, set in a New Jersey shopping centre under siege from armed robbers. Instead of lean, mean Bruce Willis in a sweaty-drenched vest, Paul Blart: Mall Cop places its trust in the sweaty palms of an overweight, lovesick father, whose dreams of joining the state police are thwarted by his body. But a group of highly organised criminals who target the mall on Black Friday have Paul going from zero to hero.

Rating: Three stars

MARLEY & ME (PG)

Animal lovers will go bow wow wow for this comedy-drama about one man’s journey of self-discovery with a mischievous Labrador.

Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston star as a young couple struggling to juggle professional and parental responsibilities as well as Marley, the tiny, adorable bundle of fun that soon grows into 100 pounds of uncontrollable energy, chewing up anything and everything in the couple’s home.

Only the stone coldest heart – or a cat lover – would fail to be moved by the outcome of this movie.

Rating: Four stars

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Changeling (Cert 15, 141 mins, Universal Pictures UK, Drama/Thriller, also available to buy DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £24.99)

Starring: Angelina Jolie, Jeffrey Donovan, John Malkovich, Devon Conti, Jason Butler Harner, Denis O’Hare, Gattlin Griffith.

Single mother Christine Collins (Jolie) raises her nine-year-old son Walter (Griffith) in ’20s Los Angeles by working long hours as a supervisor at the telephone exchange.

Unexpectedly called into work one weekend, Christine arrives home to find that Walter has disappeared without trace. After months of fearing the worst, Captain JJ Jones (Donovan) contacts Christine with incredible news: Walter has been found safe and well. Overcome with joy, the mother races to the train station to meet her son, except the boy (Conti) who claims to be Walter is an impostor. When Christine threatens to expose the lie, Captain Jones dispatches her to the mental asylum. Just as all hope seems lost, Reverend Gustav Briegleb (Malkovich) and his allies launch a campaign to release Christine from her cell and expose corruption in the LAPD. Elegantly adapted from the Los Angeles police files by J Michael Straczynski, Changeling is a cautionary tale about the abuse of power and the extraordinary influence of one individual on a corrupt system. Jolie was deservedly Oscar nominated as a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown, who screams and shouts for justice, fearful that she might not get the answers she wants. We share her sense of outrage, shedding tears as the asylum’s insidious head doctor (O’Hare) threatens to destroy Christine’s resolve with electro-shock therapy. Donovan is equally compelling as a chauvinistic bully determined to restore his department’s tarnished reputation. Eastwood directs at a typically leisurely pace, underscoring Tom Stern’s flawless cinematography with his own mournful orchestral score.

DVD Extras: “Making Of” featurette, “The Common Thread: Angelina Jolie Becomes Christine Collins” featurette.
Rating: ****

Body Of Lies (Cert 15, 123 mins, Warner Home Video, Action/Thriller/Romance, also available to buy DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £26.99)

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, Golshifteh Farahani, Mark Strong, Alon Aboutboul.

CIA supervisor Ed Hoffman (Crowe) is a key player in his country’s overseas operations to quash terrorist activities. From the comfort of his suburban home where he adopts the mantle of doting father, Ed co-ordinates the day-to-day activities of agent Roger Ferris (DiCaprio), who is on the trail of the elusive Al-Saleem (Aboutboul), the mastermind of numerous bombings across Europe. To achieve his goal, Roger aligns himself with Hani Salaam (Strong), the slippery head of the Jordanian General Intelligence Department (GID), but lets his guard down to spark a tentative romance with Jordanian-Iranian nurse Aisha (Farahani).

The relationship leaves Roger dangerously exposed and Al-Saleem seizes the opportunity to strike back against the infidels. Opening with a devastating explosion on British shores, Body Of Lies channels timely fears about the fight against terrorism into a routine spy caper, enlivened sporadically by the directorial brio of Ridley Scott. The British filmmaker grafts some impressively robust, adrenaline-pumping action sequences onto a disappointingly linear plot, including the bombing of a Dutch market place. DiCaprio is lacklustre in a predominately reactive role but Crowe impresses, carrying 50lbs gained specially for the role to portray a portly family man, who effortlessly juggles energetic children with decisions of national importance. The romantic subplot is a crude plot device to facilitate a pivotal torture scene, during which DiCaprio’s right hand is smashed to a pulp in gruesome close-up. Scott’s forte as an action director shines through, including a desert hideout fire fight and a thrilling helicopter chase. Marc Streitenfeld’s orchestral score keeps time with the erratic pacing, delivering bombast to accompany the pyrotechnics.

DVD Extras: Director commentary, “Actionable Intelligence: Deconstructing Body Of Lies” featurette; Blu-ray: Director commentary, “Behind The Story” featurette, “Actionable Intelligence: Deconstructing Body Of Lies” featurette, “Interactive Debriefing” featurette, additional footage, deleted scenes with optional director commentary including alternative ending, free digital copy of the film.
Rating: ***

The Secret Life Of Bees (Cert 12, 105 mins, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Drama, also available to buy DVD £19.99)

Starring: Dakota Fanning, Jennifer Hudson, Queen Latifah, Sophie Okonedo, Alicia Keys, Paul Bettany, Nate Parker, Tristan Wilds.

When her nursemaid Rosaleen (Hudson) endures a beating at the hands of local bigots in ’60s South Carolina, plucky teenager Lily Owens (Fanning) vows to spirit her friend away to a safer place, leaving behind her hard-drinking father T Ray (Bettany).
The travellers seek refuge with the Boatwright sisters – August (Latifah), May (Okonedo) and June (Keys) – who produce some of the state’s finest honey. The sisters, it transpires, are directly linked to Lily’s dead mother and as the young woman explores her tortured past, she learns to harness the courage to stand up for what she believes in, and even stand up to T Ray. The Secret Life Of Bees is an affecting and well-crafted rites of passage story, adapted from Sue Monk Kidd’s acclaimed novel. Cinematographer Rogier Stoffers beautifully captures beatific scenes of sisterly solidarity and honey gathering in sun-dappled landscapes. These moments of pastoral splendour contrast starkly with occasional explosions of violence, including scenes of racial and child abuse, and the death of one character guaranteed to pluck the heartstrings of most viewers.
Fanning anchors the picture with another emotionally raw portrayal of tainted childhood, crying her heart out on cue as her brittle heroine comes to terms with the grief and guilt that forbid her from chasing her dreams. Latifah impresses as a clucky mother hen and Okonedo and Keys are excellent in wildly different roles. Bettany is poorly served as the film’s one clearly identifiable villain. Writer-director Gina Prince-Bythewood’s script is perhaps a little emotionally manipulative and sickly sweet – rather like the bees’ golden nectar.

DVD Extras: Director, producers, actors and editor commentaries, 8 deleted scenes with optional director and editor commentary, “Adaptation: Bringing The Secret Life Of Bees To The Big Screen” featurette, “The Women And Men Of The Secret Life Of Bees” featurette, “Inside The Pink House With Sue Monk Kidd” featurette, “A Day In The Life” featurette, The World Premiere.
Rating: ***

Lakeview Terrace (Cert 15, 106 mins, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Thriller, also available to buy DVD £17.99/Blu-ray £24.99)

Starring: Patrick Wilson, Kerry Washington, Samuel L Jackson, Jay Hernandez, Regine Nehy, Jaishon Fisher.

Loving couple Chris (Wilson) and Lisa Mattson (Washington) excitedly move into a new home and clash with LAPD officer Abe Turner (Jackson), who lives next door with his children Celia (Nehy) and Maurice (Fisher), and strongly disapproves of interracial marriage. Chris’ efforts to broker peace in the cul-de-sac fall on deaf ears and he becomes the butt of Abe’s mean-spirited pranks. “You scared the hell out of me!” shrieks the young husband after one startling, late night encounter. “How else are you going to learn?” retorts the cop menacingly. As cracks appear in the Mattsons’ relationship, Abe resorts to extreme tactics to scare Chris and Lisa out of their new home, with help from his buddies on the force, including partner Javier (Hernandez). Lakeview Terrace is a predictable game of cat and mouse between vulnerable newlyweds and a man in authority, who seems untouchable by dint of his badge.

LaBute strains credibility to crank up the suspense, abandoning common sense for the sake of narrative twists. Harsh words lead to bloodshed and a climactic showdown set against the backdrop of flash fires raging uncontrollably throughout the state – an obvious and somewhat heavy-handed metaphor for the fiery emotions pitting one homeowner against another. Jackson chews the scenery before it goes up in flames as the bigoted bully, while Wilson adopts a permanently furrowed brow.

The overwrought finale restores the LAPD’s image but not before Jackson has one final opportunity to bellow and bluster and roll those eyes wildly.

DVD Extras: Director commentary, behind the scenes featurettes, deleted scenes.
Rating: ***

The Children (Cert 15, 81 mins, Vertigo Films, Horror/Thriller, also available to buy DVD £15.99/Blu-ray £24.99)

Starring: , Stephen Campbell-Moore, Hannah Tointon, Rachel Shelley, Jeremy Sheffield, Eva Sayer, Jake Hathaway, Rafiella Brookes, William Howes.

The snow is deep and crisp as Elaine (Birthistle) and her husband Jonah (Campbell-Moore) travel by car with their kids – truculent teenager Casey (Tointon), Miranda (Sayer) and Paulie (Howes) – to spend Christmas with Chloe (Shelley), her beau Robbie (Sheffield) and their tearaways Nicky (Hathaway) and Leah (Brookes). One by one, the brats fall ill and experience disorienting visions of carnage and mayhem. As bloodlust takes hold, the urchins strike out at the adults with terrifying consequences.

The parents, and an increasingly distraught Casey, try to keep the demonic whippersnappers at bay, hastily planning an escape route from their remote, snowbound location. Yet, every way the uninfected turn, a possessed poppet waits to strike. Director Tom Shankland’s gruesome follow-up to WAZ conjures a hellish vision of the festive season, pitting two couples against the cherubic offspring they have raised their entire lives. The Children poses a thorny moral dilemma – in order to save your own life, would you harm the one thing in the world that is most precious to you? – but the film doesn’t deliberate in any real depth, erring on the side of campy as the zombified offspring start wielding sharp implements with ghoulish intent. Older cast members are immobilised in the order you expect with a sticky ending involving a sled for one unfortunate soul. A frenzied scene in a greenhouse culminates in a reflex, life or death decision guaranteed to have those of a nervous disposition covering their eyes.

DVD Extras: “The Making Of The Children” featurette, location featurette, “Paul Hyatt Talks Prosthetics” featurette, snow set design featurette, deleted scenes, Tom Shankland’s On-Set Lair, “Working With Children” featurette.
Rating: **

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Top ten sales at the LOVEFilM Shop this week:

Chart Title Format Release Date (pre-order)
1 Empire: Total War Game Out now
2 Quantum of Solace DVD 23rd March 2009
3 Killzone 2 Game Out now
4 Street Fighter IV Game Out now
5 Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. Game Out now
6 Empire: Total War – Special Edition Game Out now
7 Resident Evil 5 Game Out now
8 The Lord Of The Rings: The Trilogy [Extended Ed.][12 Discs] DVD Boxset
9 Mamma Mia! DVD
10 The Bourne Ultimatum Blu-ray 30th March 2009

Top Deals this week

Up to 70% off Mother?s Day gifts

Triple film boxsets from £5.93

Blu-ray deals
Blu-ray for under £10

Blu-ray top titles 2 for £24 (includes Kill Bill 1 & 2

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BRONSON (18)
Originally sentenced to seven years at the age of 19 for a bungled armed robbery, Charles Bronson is now one of the UK’s most notorious and violent inmates of our overcrowded prison system.
So how do you get inside the mind of a man who has been certified as clinically insane… and would you even want to?
Violent and expletive-ridden, Bronson is an acquired taste.
Rating: Three stars

SURVEILLANCE (18, 97 mins)
Director Jennifer Lynch returns with her second feature, a thriller of murder and deception set predominantly on one of those never-ending highways loved by her father David. Explosions of graphic violence and moribund humour prove that she has definitely inherited his appreciation for a world teetering on the brink of insanity, but the histrionics of the final act skirt perilously close to laughable.
Rating: Three stars

WATCHMEN (18)
Relations between America and the Soviet Union are strained and there is a clear and present danger of nuclear attack. In this politically charged climate, a deadly conspiracy involving the masked crime-fighters unfolds, which could have far-reaching implications for the future of mankind.
An uncomfortable, buttock-numbing 162 minutes, Watchmen is bloody and violent from the outset – hence the 18 certificate.
Rating: Three stars

THE YOUNG VICTORIA (PG)
Of all the love stories that have defined the British monarchy, none tugs the heartstrings quite like Victoria and Prince Albert.
Tracing the romance from the initial sparks of attraction between the first cousins to marriage, The Young Victoria reveals the private frustrations of the young queen.
Boasting gorgeous sets and costumes and a haunting orchestral score the film adheres closely to fact, albeit with an attractive cast being somewhat easier on the eye than some of their historical counterparts.
Rating: Three stars

NEW IN TOWN (12A)
Hopelessly misconceived and poorly executed, New In Town is a tiresome fish out of water comedy reminiscent of Sweet Home Alabama. Ambitious executive Lucy Hill (Zellweger) has been hired by her bosses back in Miami to spearhead the restructuring of a tiny Minnesotan town’s ailing Munck Foods plant. A city girl at heart, she has trouble adjusting to her new surroundings but slowly finds common ground with the locals – particularly union representative Ted Mitchell (Harry Connick Jr). Despite Zellweger’s admirable attempts at physical comedy, this film is dull to its frozen core.
Rating: One and a half stars

THE UNBORN (15)
Gleefully appropriating elements from The Exorcist including a possessed soul whose head swivels through 180 degrees then scuttles up the stairs on all fours, The Unborn awkwardly uses the Holocaust as a backdrop to an outlandish tale of secret experiments and evil spirits. When Casey Beldon (Odette Yustman) suffers a series of disturbing visions and one of her eyes mysteriously changes colour, she discovers she was in fact a twin. It transpires her unborn brother died in utero, and an evil spirit is now haunting her waking hours. But the only real shock in this proposterous supernatural yarn is whatever possessed Gary Oldman to be involved.
Rating: Two stars

GRAN TORINO (15)
In what reportedly will be his final appearance in front of a camera, Clint Eastwood delivers a tour-de-force performance as Walt Kowalski, a xenophobic war veteran, in this timely, Humanist drama. A powerful tale of modern day vigilantism, Gran Torino examines the clashes of ideals in predominantly white, blue-collar American neighbourhoods, where the ethnic and cultural make-up altered by the influx of immigrants. After intervening in a fight, Walt inadvertently takes young Asian Thao (Bee Vang) under his wing but finds himself in a world riven by gang violence and peer pressure.
Rating: Four stars

THE INTERNATIONAL (15)
Interpol Agent Louis Salinger (Clive Owen) uncovers evidence of serious infringements within one of the world’s most powerful banks and resolves to bring the institution’s boardroom to justice. However, the men in power will stop at nothing to protect their investments – even murder. The International is distinguished by a couple of brilliantly orchestrated action sequences, and Owen is strong as a man of conviction willing to go to any lengths in the name of justice.
Rating: Three stars

CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC (PG)
Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher) is a journalist who dreams of working on fashion bible Alette. Biding her time on a financial journal, her quirky column becomes a huge success. But she is hiding a deep, dark secret – an obsession with shopping. She juggles 12 credit cards, racking up debts of around 16,000, yet somehow still clings onto her apartment, her dream job, Mr Right and the love of family and friends. As long as Isla is on screen, goofing around, we’re happy to be sold this cheap and cheerful fantasy.
Rating: Two and a half stars

PUSH (12A)
This suspense thriller is set in a grim, foreboding future. A shadowy government agency known as The Division rounds up psychics for the express purpose of creating an army capable of controlling every thought and event. Nick Gant (Chris Evans) is a second generation telekinetic, who has been on the run ever since Division Agent Henry Carver (Djimon Hounsou) murdered his father. He meets 13-year-old Cassie (Dakota Fanning), a “watcher” or clairvoyant, who needs his help to retrieve a suitcase containing £6 million. Director Paul McGuigan directs with confidence, including a couple of blistering action sequences, but the script, however, is riddled with unanswered questions and plot holes.
Rating: Two and a half stars

FRIDAY THE 13TH (18)
What is this crazy, mixed-up world coming to when a group of promiscuous, bong-smoking college kids can’t spend a weekend at a waterside retreat with a grisly past, without running into a machete-wielding psychopath?
The new Friday The 13th nods and winks to Sean S Cunningham’s seminal 1980 bloodbath and adds a few twists of its own.

Devoid of scares, male characters are largely misogynist jerks while their female companions divide neatly into sensible girls and brazen hussies who are incapable of keeping their breasts covered.
The latter die first.
Rating: Two stars

THE PINK PANTHER 2 (PG)
The razor-sharp intellects of Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple would struggle to unravel The Curious Case Of The Completely Pointless Sequel.
The convoluted plot, clumsily stitched together, is a hook for desperately unfunny set pieces, which include Steve Martin as Inspector Clouseau, falling down a chimney, donning the guise of a flamenco dancer and impersonating the Pope.
The Pink Panther 2 is an embarrassment, revolving yet again around the theft of the legendary diamond from under ze noses of ze gendarme in ze French capital.
Hardly the cat’s whiskers
Rating: Two stars

HOTEL FOR DOGS (U)
While The Pink Panther 2 leaves us caterwauling for mercy this week, Hotel For Dogs turns out to be a decidedly finer pedigree of comedy, a family-oriented tale of two enterprising orphans, whose enduring love for their four-legged friends sparks a magical adventure.
Andi and her younger brother Bruce have passed from one foster home to the next, eventually landing up with musicians Carl and Lois Scudder, who care more about rehearsals than feeding two brats. So Andi and Bruce learn to take care of themselves, and their Jack Russell terrier Friday.
Cute and undemanding, Hotel for Dogs engineers a happy ever after for the two diminutive heroes.
Rating: Three stars

NOTORIOUS (15)
In the early hours of March 9, 1997, Christopher ’Biggie’ Wallace aka rapper The Notorious B.I.G. left a Los Angeles club with his entourage, bound for their hotel.
When the vehicles stopped at traffic lights, an unknown assailant opened fire in a drive-by shooting, spraying the car with bullets and fatally injuring the musician.
Executive produced by Sean “Diddy” Combs, Notorious is an overlong biopic that doesn’t draw any conclusions, but offers up a reverent if not entirely affectionate portrait of The Notorious B.I.G.
Rating: Three stars

VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA (12A)
Flighty and single Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) and soon-to-be-married Vicky head to Barcelona for the summer. Taking in the sights of the Catalan capital including Antoni Gaudi’s most famous buildings and the Picasso Museum both contrasting beautifully with the city’s bohemian and gothic quarters, the young women catch the eye of artist Juan Antonio, who is the talk of the town.
Cristina falls under Antonio’s powerful spell embarking on an affair before his crazy ex-wife, Maria Elena (Penelope Cruz), reappears and stirs up dormant desires.
Rating: Four stars

THE SECRET OF MOONACRE (U)
There’s not much in the way of magic or gung-ho adventure in this exceedingly gloomy tale of thwarted love, adapted from the children’s classic The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge. Plucky 13-year-old orphan, Maria Merryweather (Dakota Blue Richards), is forced to seek lodgings with her gruff uncle, Sir Benjamin Merryweather (Ioan Gruffudd), on the isolated Moonacre Valley estate. She arrives with a leather bound copy of The Ancient Chronicles Of Moonacre Valley, which reveals her family’s dark history. Unless an enchanted necklace is located by the rising of the 5000th moon, the entire valley will be destroyed. Alas, even esteemed director Gabor Csupo is unable to spark this turgid fairy-tale to life.
Rating: Two stars

HE’S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU (12A)
Based on the book by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo, this is an ensemble drama-comedy about the affairs of the heart of myriad twenty- and thirty-something men and women living in present day Baltimore. Despite a stellar cast list – Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Connelly, Scarlett Johansson – He’s Just Not That Into You is a disappointingly familiar scrapbook of relationship highs and woes, culminating in the usual array of broken hearts, smouldering kisses and wedding vows.
Rating: Two and a half stars

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON (12A)
This fantastical tale of a man who grows younger not older with each passing day is set to scoop a number of awards. Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt) was born “under unusual circumstances” in 1918. Raised in a retirement home, he soon grows young enough to leave and seek his fortune on a tugboat. Here, he falls in love with a ballet dancer (Cate Blanchett) but fears commitment as he continues to grow young, alone. The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button recalls Forrest Gump, possessing the same scope and ambition as it juxtaposes an ordinary man’s extraordinary escapades against a backdrop of 20th century American history.
Rating: Four stars

DOUBT (15)
Themes of certainty and suspicion underpin writer/director John Patrick Shanley’s film, adapted of his own Tony award-winning stage play of the same name, set in a ’60s Catholic school. On the basis of rumour and hearsay, Father Flynn (Philip Semour Hoffman) is accused of child abuse. The ferocious Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep) makes it her mission to bully Flynn into a confession of guilt. Doubt lacks the immediacy and some of the palpable tension of the stage version but Shanley’s adaptation of his own source material is still a riveting game of cat and mouse.
Rating: Four stars

BOLT 3D (U)
Man’s best friend learns to stand on his own four paws in Byron Howard and Chris Williams’ computer animated comedy, which pokes fun at our obsession with celebrity. Since he was a pup, Bolt (voiced by John Travolta) has been the star of a hugely popular TV series, in which he plays a genetically engineered canine with superpowers who saves plucky owner Penny (Miley Cyrus) from the clutches of the dastardly Dr Calico (Malcolm McDowell). But once thrust into the real world he embarks on a series of misadventures. Also available in 3D format.
Rating: Three stars

REVOLUTIONARY ROAD (15)
Sam Mendes’s beautifully crafted adaptation of the novel by Richard Yates chills to the bone with its unflinching portrait of scenes from a disintegrating marriage. Set in ’50s suburban Conneticut, Frank Wheeler (Leonardo DiCaprio) and aspiring actress April Johnson (Kate Winslet) have high hopes of happy life together. They raise two children and make ambitious plans to move to Paris. But these dreams quickly fade and are replaced with screaming, shouting and tears. Revolutionary Road is technically polished with electrifying performances.
Rating: Three stars.

VALKYRIE (12A)
Bryan Singer’s controversial war opus relates the final attempt on Hitler’s life before his suicide in April 1945 in the Fuhrerbunker. Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise) is recruited by the German Resistance to spearhead the assassination attempt. The dissenters plot to seize control of the government using Operation Valkyrie, Hitler’s plan to protect ministers in case of an uprising using the reserve army. Unfortunately, Valkyrie is a plodding history lesson. Bryan Singer’s film ambles along without any sense of urgency, while Cruise’s sombre one-note portrayal lacks vitality.
Rating: Two and a half stars

FROST/NIXON (15)
On August 8, 1974, in the wake of the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon became the first President to resign from the Oval Office. Rather than answer tough questions about his so-called crimes, Nixon was sensationally pardoned by his successor Gerald Ford. Frost/Nixon documents the efforts of an unlikely champion – British talk show host David Frost – to interview Nixon on camera and to effectively tease a confession from the wily orator. Based on the award-winning stage play by Peter Morgan, Ron Howard directs this classic tale of David and Goliath blessed with tour de force performances.
Rating: Three and a half stars

(15)
On November 27, 1978, Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man elected to public office in California, was gunned down along with Mayor George Moscone by city supervisor Dan White. Gus Van Sant’s stylish and haunting biopic celebrates the power of one man to take on the political establishment and to affect lasting change through a selfless, unwavering pursuit of equality for all. Sean Penn delivers possibly the performance of his career, affecting Harvey’s speech patterns and mannerisms perfectly.
Rating: Five stars

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Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Michelle Monaghan, Billy Thornton, Ethan Embry, Rosario Dawson, Cameron Boyce.

Jerry Shaw (LaBeouf) and single mother Rachel Holloman (Monaghan) have never met. He is grieving the death of his twin, she is concerned about her young son Sam (Boyce), who is travelling to Washington for an important musical recital. Both receive similar telephone calls informing them to follow explicit instructions or pay a terrible price.

When the mastermind behind the devious scheme reveals her ultimate goal – for Jerry and Rachel to commit murder – the would-be assassins find themselves on the run from FBI special agents Thomas Morgan (Thornton) and Toby Grant (Embry), and Air Force special agent Zoe Perez (Dawson). The people who could save Jerry and Rachel from their 21st century nightmare are now the very same people who want them dead.

Ludicrously overblown yet undeniably thrilling, Eagle Eye barely pauses for breath between slam-bang set pieces, intercutting the reluctant heroes’ mission with the efforts of authorities to second guess the next move of these two alleged terrorists. LaBeouf and Monaghan puff and pant for all their worth in the midst of eye-popping pyrotechnics, generating sparks of sexual tension that only ignite in the film’s mawkish epilogue. Thornton brings a spiky charm to his pursuer. DJ Caruso delivers a series of spectacular set pieces that begins with the arm of a construction crane scything through the side of a building. Viewers will have to play as dumb as the beleaguered heroes. As soon as you question the film’s twisted logic, you realise that survival relies too heavily on luck and coincidence.

DVD Extras: “Road Trip” featurette, 3 deleted scenes (Ethan’s Wake, Minuteman, Twins), alternative ending, gag reel, photo gallery; Blu-ray: “Road Trip” featurette, “Asymmetrical Warfare: The Making Of Eagle Eye” featurette, “Eagle Eye On Location: Washington DC” featurette, “Is My Cell Phone Spying On Me?” featurette, “Shall We Play A Game?” featurette, 3 deleted scenes (Ethan’s Wake, Minuteman, Twins), alternative ending, gag reel, photo gallery, theatrical trailer.
Rating: ***

How To Lose Friends & (Cert 15, 105 mins, Paramount Home Entertainment, Comedy/Romance, also available to buy DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £24.99)
Starring: Simon Pegg, Kirsten Dunst, Jeff Bridges, Megan Fox, Danny Huston, Gillian Anderson, Bill Paterson.

Sidney Young (Pegg), the snide editor of Post Modern Review, a sardonic rebuke to celebrity culture, is stunned when renowned American magazine editor Clayton Harding (Bridges) offers him a correspondent’s position on New York lifestyle bible Sharps.

Abandoning London for the hustle and bustle of the Big Apple, Sidney quickly realises his finely honed sarcasm doesn’t wash with the locals, not least department head Lawrence Maddox (Huston) and fellow writer Alison (Dunst).

Public relations doyenne Eleanor Johnson (Anderson) is equally unimpressed, and wards him off rising starlet Sophie Maes (Fox). Trying to survive in the city that never sleeps, Sidney finds himself torn between feisty Alison and beautiful yet dim Sophie, while attempting to woo the great and good of the film industry. Based on Toby Young’s celebrated memoir, How To Lose Friends & Alienate People is a dull, lifeless mess. Screenwriter Peter Straughan files down all of the barbs in Young’s confessional, shoehorning the characters into a generic fluffy romantic comedy, replete with outlandish set pieces including the protracted death of a pet Chihuahua.

Pegg is a most dislikable and unsympathetic anti-hero, grating from the very first smug grin, making Dunst’s undernourished love interest seem even more adorable by comparison. When Alison angrily defends her colleague – “Sidney Young has more going for him than anybody in this place!” – we’re tempted to give the film its first and only laugh, of derision. Bridges, Huston and co are wasted in thankless supporting roles, while Fox pouts and purrs in a succession of slinky, figure-hugging outfits.

DVD Extras: Director and actor commentaries, deleted scenes with optional director commentary, gag reel, Simon Pegg blogs.
Rating: **

The Women (Cert 12, 109 mins, Entertainment In Video, Comedy/Romance, also available to buy DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £24.99)

Starring: Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Debra Messing, Jada Pinkett Smith, Eva Mendes, Debi Mazar, Candice Bergen, Carrie Fisher, India Ennenga, Cloris Leachman, Tilly Scott Pederson.

Mary Haines (Ryan) is a successful, part-time fashion designer with a handsome Wall Street husband Stephen, a 12-year-old daughter Molly (Ennenga) and a coterie of loyal friends: women’s magazine editor Sylvie (Bening), clucky mother hen Edie (Messing) and sassy lesbian author Alex (Smith).

When the pals learn from motor mouth manicurist Tanya (Mazar) that Stephen is having an affair with gold-digging salesgirl Crystal Allen (Mendes), they rally to the cuckolded wife’s side. Mary follows the advice of her mother Catherine (Bergen) and doesn’t confront her husband, preferring to lick her wounds at a summer cottage retreat in Maine. Meanwhile, Sylvie finds her allegiances torn when she tries to lure gossip columnist Bailey Smith (Fisher) to the magazine – and must dish the dirt about Mary and Stephen in return. The Women is a dull, contemporary remake of the 1939 George Cukor classic, which chronicled sisterly rivalry in the swankier nooks and crannies of Manhattan society.

As re-imagined by writer-director Diane English, this is an inoffensive clone of Sex And The City – minus the sex and with only fleeting glimpses of the distinctive New York City skyline. Touchstones from the original film – the showdown in a women’s hanging room, a climactic fashion show and “Jungle red” nail polish – remain intact. Sadly, the biting wit does not. Performances are strong though, particularly Bergen as the feisty matriarch who instructs her daughter, “Don’t be bitter, it leads to Botox!”
DVD Extras: “Behind The Women” featurette.
Rating: ***

The Duchess (Cert 12, 105 mins, Pathe Distribution Ltd, Drama/Romance, also available to buy DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £24.99)

Starring: Keira Knightley, Ralph Fiennes, Dominic Cooper, Hayley Atwell, Charlotte Rampling, Simon McBurney.

Seventeen-year-old social butterfly Georgiana Spencer (Knightley) must marry into money to ensure the social standing of her family in mid-18th century high society. The imperious Lady Spencer (Rampling) encourages her daughter to accept a proposal from the brutish and considerably older Duke of Devonshire (Fiennes).

The nobleman urgently needs a male heir and Georgiana will be paid handsomely to carry out her duties as a fertile, childbearing woman. When she gives birth to not one, but two daughters, his eye wanders and he takes Georgiana’s friend Bess Foster (Atwell) as his mistress. The infidelity drives the young wife ever closer to her one true love, Charles Grey (Cooper), ambitious protege of Whig Party leader Charles Fox (McBurney). Director Saul Dibb (Bullet Boy) ventures confidently into the realms of lavish costume drama with this well upholstered adaptation of Amanda Foreman’s best-selling biography Georgiana, Duchess Of Devonshire. The Duchess waltzes through the period with elan, recreating the giddy social whirl, courtesy of Michael Carlin’s meticulous production design, Michael O’Connor’s resplendent costumes and Jan Archibald’s voluminous, cascading wigs. It’s truly a feast for the senses but Jeffery Hatcher’s screenplay leaves us feeling emotionally undernourished. As history lessons go, this is a tad dry.

Knightley conceals her heroine’s emotions a little too well behind the powder and rouge, and Cooper doesn’t have sufficient screen time to convincingly establish Grey as the love of Georgiana’s life. However, Fiennes is impressive as a cold, repressed man, constrained by the traditions of his age, revealing the chinks of vulnerability and sadness behind the character’s cruel facade.

DVD Extras: “Making Of” featurette, deleted scenes with optional director commentary, photo gallery.
Rating: ***

Baby Mama (Cert 12, 99 mins, Universal Pictures UK, Comedy/Romance, also available to buy DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £24.99)

Starring: Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Greg Kinnear, Dax Shepard, Steve Martin, Sigourney Weaver.

Successful Philadelphia businesswoman Kate Holbrook (Fey) has sacrificed her dream of raising a child to climb the corporate ladder at an organic food chain run by self-styled hippie Barry (Martin). Cursed with a peculiarly shaped uterus, Kate turns to surrogacy doyenne Chaffee Bicknell (Weaver) to find her a healthy, walking womb. Dim-witted, yet lovable Angie Ostrowiski (Poehler), accepts the nine-month assignment in exchange for 100,000, to the delight of her scheming husband Carl (Shepard). After a fight with Carl, Angie turns up on Kate’s doorstep and the two women sow the seeds of a most unlikely yet touching friendship, while Kate pursues a romance with juice bar owner Rob (Kinnear).

Baby Mama is an entertaining comedy that provides plum roles for Saturday Night Live cohorts Fey and Poehler as the unlikely buddies in conception. Their quick-fire comic timing and wonderful rapport sparks the film to life, bringing a tear to the eye as the characters careen into the delivery room. The script is littered with polished one-liners and Fey and Poehler make a terrific double-act, the latter bringing the house down when she has to pretend to be Kate’s sister to pull the wool over Rob’s eyes.

By focusing so strongly on his female leads, writer-director Michael McCullers is forced to give Kinnear and Shepard disappointingly short shrift, weakening the parallel romantic subplots that come to a head at Kate’s baby shower. Martin and Weaver relish their quirky supporting roles, the latter milking a running joke about her fifty-something character’s fertility. Baby Mama, meanwhile, delivers an abundance of laughs.
DVD Extras: Deleted scenes.
Rating: ****

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Diabolical killer Jigsaw (Bell) continues his bloodthirsty reign of terror in the fifth installment of the horror franchise, full of more devilish booby traps and gruesome deaths worthy of that 18 certificate. At the end of the fourth film, Detective Hoffman (Mandylor) outwitted FBI profiler Strahm (Patterson) to continue Jigsaw’s grotesque and ghoulish plan. In Saw V, Hoffman revels in the applause of his colleagues for apparently outwitting Jigsaw, successfully concealing his involvement in the carnage. When this secret is threatened, Hoffman is forced to go on the offensive, targeting all of the loose ends including Strahm.

Meanwhile Jigsaw’s embittered ex-wife Jill (Russell), who is guardian to all of the killer’s secrets, receives a message from beyond the grave and five apparent strangers – Ashley (Gordon), Brit (Benz), Charles (Rota), Luba (Good) and Mallick (Bryk) – find themselves at the mercy of yet more diabolical inventions designed to severe their extremities. With Saw VI unfathomably in pre-production, this fifth installment isn’t the last after all, although it does neatly tie up Jigsaw’s back story via a patchwork of flashbacks that revisit key scenes from other sequels. Previous knowledge of the series is essential to follow the chronological mish mash, interspersed with the usual, gleeful torture of two-dimensional supporting cast who squeal and whimper before their grisly exit. As with earlier films, nothing is quite what it seems, and somebody has a final ace up their sleeve to ensure Saw V ends with an almighty… whimper. The Saw Gorology DVD box set, comprising all five films, is also available.

DVD Extras: Director, first assistant director, producers and executive producers commentaries, “The Coffin Trap” featurette, “The Pendulum Trap” featurette, “Slicing The Cube” featurette, “The Fatal Five” featurette, “Cube Trap” featurette.
Rating: *

(Cert 18, 85 mins, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Horror/Thriller/Action, also available to buy DVD £15.99/Blu-ray £24.99)

Starring: Jennifer Carpenter, Steve Harris, Jay Hernandez, Johnathon Schaech, Columbus Short, Greg Germann, Marin Hinkle, Joey King, Rade Serbedzija.

Television reporter Angela Vidal (Carpenter) is despatched to a Los Angeles fire station with her regular cameraman Scott (Harris) to make a behind the scenes segment on life for these brave men. The TV duo shadows Jake (Hernandez) and George (Schaech) through the night shift, including an apparently routine 911 call to rescue an old woman, who is barricaded inside her apartment. No sooner are the fire fighters, Angela and Scott inside the building than agents from the CDC (Centres for Disease Control and Prevention) seal off the exits.

The TV crew and the residents, including vet Lawrence (Germann), mother Kathy (Hinkle) and her daughter Briana (King) and building manager Yuri (Serbedzija), learn they are in the midst of an outbreak of a rabies-like contagion, which incites deadly aggression in victims.

Quarantine is the English language remake of the chilling Spanish horror film REC. Director John Erick Dowdle adheres closely to the template of Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza’s gory, suburban nightmare, employing the same faux documentary style a la Blair Witch Project. Indeed, sections of this film unfold almost shot for shot, word for word, scream for scream and splat for splat. Transplanting the carnage to Los Angeles necessitates some tweaks, such as the addition of a claustrophobic elevator to the apartment block: the perfect setting for a couple of breathless set pieces, one involving an unfortunate resident and a dog. Violence is more graphic, including a fire fighter with a repulsively gammy leg and a radical approach to tackling the building’s rat infestation.

DVD Extras: Director commentary, behind the scenes featurettes.
Rating: **

The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas (Cert 12, 90 mins, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, Drama, also available to buy DVD £17.99/DVD Gift Pack £20.99)
Starring: Asa Butterfield, Jack Scanlon, David Thewlis, Vera Farmiga, Amber Beattie, Rupert Friend.

Bruno (Butterfield) arrives home from school one day to discover that his Nazi commandant father (Thewlis) has been promoted and the entire family must relocate far from the city and their friends. While his mother (Farmiga) and older sister Gretel (Beattie) embrace the fresh start, Bruno is desperately lonely in the new house. Hungry for adventure, Bruno sneaks into the woods and stumbles upon what appears to be a farm and a young boy in striped pyjamas called Shmuel (Scanlon).

Separated by a barbed wire fence, the two boys become friends, until Bruno learns the truth: that Shmuel is a Jew and the farm is actually a concentration camp under the control of his father. Based on the best-selling novel by John Boyne, The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas refracts the unimaginable suffering and tragedy of the Holocaust through the prism of one family’s experiences. Writer-director Mark Herman tries to distance his characters from obvious Nazi cliches by having the Germans speak in clipped English, which is a little distracting at first.

However, the device ultimately brings us closer – whether we like it or not – to the family. Thewlis and Farmiga embody opposing voices in the conflict and Butterfield and Scanlon deliver remarkably natural performances as friends, who should be sworn enemies. Their scenes together at the wire fence, playing draughts or concocting hare-brained schemes, are sensitively handled by Herman, who lulls us into a false sense of security before a finale that doesn’t quite deliver the knockout blow. A DVD gift pack, including the film and the book, is also available.

DVD Extras: Director and author commentary, “Friendship Beyond The Fence” featurette, deleted scenes with option director and author commentary.
Rating: ***

(Cert 12, 127 mins, 2entertain, Drama/Romance, also available to buy DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £24.99)

Starring: Matthew Goode, Ben Whishaw, Hayley Atwell, Emma Thompson, Michael Gambon, Greta Scacchi.

Army officer Charles Ryder (Goode) reminisces about his turbulent past at Oxford University, where, as a shy, middle-class student, he meets Sebastian Flyte (Whishaw). Charles accepts an invitation to join the aristocrat’s inner circle, forging an intimate bond with the fey, fragile student, who describes himself as “the family shadow”. Sebastian invites his new friend to the childhood estate, Brideshead, where Charles meets the formidable Lady Marchmain (Thompson) and Sebastian’s sister Julia (Atwell). The two young men grow close, culminating in a brief kiss, but a trip to Italy to visit Sebastian and Julia’s father, Lord Marchmain (Gambon), and his mistress (Scacchi) kindles a betrayal that will drive apart Charles and the prodigal Flyte son forever. Brideshead Revisited never escapes the shadow of ITV’s lavish 1981 mini-series, condensing Evelyn Waugh’s text into a simplistic menage a trois, riven by Catholic guilt. Goode is too restrained as the tragically naive interloper, internalising Charles’s anguish so deeply it barely registers.

In contrast, Whishaw is terrific, powerfully conveying the emotional devastation as Sebastian succumbs to alcoholism and self-loathing. He tugs the heartstrings during a final meeting with Charles in Morocco, confiding sadly, “I asked too much of you. I knew it all along really. Only God can give you that kind of love.” Thompson imposes herself upon the role of Lady Marchmain, walking a fine line between icy and resolute as her matriarch sacrifices the children at the altar of her faith.

Visually, at least, this Brideshead Revisited takes the breath away. Alas, the script barely makes our hearts flutter let alone skip a beat. The Blu-ray also includes a director’s cut of the film in high definition.

DVD Extras: Director commentary, cast and crew interviews, “Creating Brideshead” featurette, four pivotal scene featurettes, picture gallery.
Rating: ***

The Rocker (Cert 12, 98 mins, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Comedy/Romance, also available to buy DVD £19.99)

Starring: Rainn Wilson, Teddy Geiger, Emma Stone, Josh Gad, Christina Applegate, Samantha Weinstein.

Rising band A.D.D. loses its drummer to suspension on the eve of the high school prom. Singer-songwriter Curtis (Geiger) and bassist Amelia (Stone) resign themselves to cancelling the gig. However, keyboard player Matt (Gad) has a solution: recruit his slobbish uncle, Robert “Fish” Fishman (Wilson), one-time drummer of rock supergods Vesuvius, who was famously kicked out of the band and has been in an emotional tailspin ever since. Fish picks up his sticks and subsequently becomes an internet sensation with A.D.D. when footage of his naked antics hits Youtube, courtesy of Matt’s precocious sister Violet (Weinstein).

The band quickly gains popularity, compelling Curtis and Amelia to confront their feelings for one another and Fish to woo Curtis’ smokin’ hot mom Kim (Applegate). Strumming to the same beat as School Of Rock – albeit with a younger target audience – The Rocker hits most of the right notes but there’s nothing here we haven’t heard before. Screenwriters Maya Forbes and Wally Wolodarsky tease out some gentle laughs, from one musician’s strange pre-concert ritual of vomiting (“Some people carry a rabbit’s foot, I like to rock with a pocket of puke”) to an excruciating flirtation worthy of a slap in the face (“I would love to spend nine months inside of you.”) Wilson is a poor facsimile of Jack Black as the anarchic force of nature hoping to inspire his young charges to greatness. The Rocker builds to an inevitable grandstand finish at a concert where A.D.D. are asked to support Vesuvius. We know the outcome before Curtis belts out a single note.
DVD Extras: none stated.
Rating: ***

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Ghost Town (Cert 12, 98 mins, Paramount Home Entertainment, Comedy/Romance, also available to buy DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £24.99)

Starring: Ricky Gervais, Greg Kinnear, Tea Leoni, Aasif Mandvi, Billy Campbell.
During a routine colonoscopy, middle-aged, British dentist Bertram Pincus (Gervais) reacts badly to the anaesthetic and his heart stops beating. Thankfully, hospital staff revive him on the operating table but Bertram wakes with a strange gift. He can now see and hear the spirits of the recently departed, including Frank Herlihy (Kinnear), who entreats Bertram to speak to his widow, Gwen (Leoni). The misanthropic dentist unexpectedly feels an emotional connection to another human being and he wrestles with his growing attraction to Gwen. Alas, she is engaged to human rights lawyer Richard (Campbell), who works with homeless prostitutes in Bengal. With a different leading man, Ghost Town could have been a quirky and charming romantic comedy. Regrettably, with Gervais on board, the project becomes a limp one-man show and the award-winning star of The Office and Extras simply doesn’t have the charisma to carry an entire film, falling back on his usual repertoire of comic tics and mumbled asides. Sexual chemistry between Gervais and Leoni is completely inert, rendering Bertram’s romantic overtures horribly pathetic. He’s certainly no credible match for Campbell’s suave, charming do-gooder. Saturday Night Live regular Kristen Wiig is a blessed relief in a cameo as a litigation-shy surgeon, who tries to cover up for the unfortunate turn of events on the operating table. “You died… a little bit,” she eventually confesses. There’s every chance viewers will die of boredom well before the end of David Koepp’s film and the emotionally manipulative, mawkish denouement that recalls Scrooge’s transformation in A Christmas Carol. Bah humbug indeed.

DVD Extras: Director and actor commentary, “Making Ghost Town” featurette, “Ghostly Effects” featurette, “Some People Can Do It” featurette.
Rating: **

(Cert 15, 124 mins, Entertainment In Video, Thriller/Action, also available to buy DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £24.99)

Starring: Colin Farrell, Edward Norton, Jon Voight, Noah Emmerich, Jennifer Ehle, Ramon Rodriguez, Rick Gonzalez.

When four men from NYPD are ambushed and slain during a drug bust, Chief of Manhattan Detectives Francis Tierney Sr (Voight) assembles a crack task force to identify and capture the shooter. He implores his son, Detective Ray Tierney (Norton), to lead the investigation, working alongside brother Francis Jr (Emmerich), the dead men’s commanding officer, and brother-in-law Jimmy Egan (Farrell). Ray’s meticulous work
uncovers undeniable evidence of police involvement in the drug turf war between Angel Tezo (Rodriguez) and Eladio Casado (Gonzalez).

Consequently, the department becomes embroiled in a scandal that makes grim reading on the front page of the morning newspaper. Meanwhile, the entire Tierney clan prepares for the impending death of Francis Jr’s terminally ill wife Abby (Ehle). Pride And Glory pounds the beat with a band of brothers for whom intimidation, extortion and murder are badges of honour. Gavin O’Connor’s gritty thriller is shot predominantly on handheld cameras to maintain uncomfortable, close proximity to the action, shadowing detectives as they wander back and forth through a crime scene or hunkering down during a standoff with an armed man. The constant movement can be a little disorienting but is an apt reflection of the Tierneys, always searching for the next lead, the next link in the chain. Director of photography Declan Quinn opts for a grimy, colour-bleached palette that makes the city seem cold and foreboding. Norton and Farrell are solid in underwritten roles but both are out-gunned by Emmerich, whose scenes with his dying wife leave a lasting impression. His character’s hard fought and hard earned redemption comes at a terrible price.

DVD Extras: “Source Of Pride: The Making Of Pride And Glory” featurette.
Rating: ***

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