DVD, Blu-ray and TV ...

DVD, Blu-ray and TV

One For The Road

Engrossing, gritty, Shane Meadows-style debut from Chris Cooke, wherein three boozehounds on a rehab course scheme to scam portly tycoon Hywel Bennett. The lo-fi camerawork's iffy, but after starting slowly it tightens like a vice as cocktails, weed and violence kick in. Well written and acted, and surely the only film to argue that Jean-Michel Jarre's comeback gig was better than Glastonbury.

Dawn Of The Dead

The second of George Romero's classic zombie trilogy, from 1978. This time the blood and guts were in full colour, the make-up and effects more inventive. Much of the action takes place in a shopping mall filled with zombies lurching mindlessly around?not the subtlest of satires on consumerism, but still highly effective, and as slyly funny as it is gory.

Hard Boiled: Special Edition

John Woo's 1992 cop thriller was his last Hong Kong movie, and it's a self-conscious career peak. Chow Yun-Fat packs an arsenal that would shame the Pentagon as a cop called Tequila; Tony Leung rehearses for Infernal Affairs as his undercover mob contact. The original HK title translates as"Hot-Handed God Of Cops", which is about right.

Alfred Hitchcock: The Signature Collection

Compiled, it seems, by lucky dip, but Stage Fright, I Confess, Dial M For Murder, The Wrong Man and North By Northwest all explain why he's still The Master. The centrepiece, though, is a special-edition Strangers On A Train (also available separately).

Dances With Wolves: Special Edition

Costner's multi-Oscar winner recalls Ford and Lean in its epic sweep, as well as revisionist westerns like Run Of The Arrow in its portrayal of Native Americans. Costner's weary Civil War veteran is appointed commander of a remote army outpost, where he finds kinship with the Lakota Sioux. Rich characterisations are balanced by awesome widescreen backdrops.

Bus 174

This Brazilian documentary is based on live TV broadcasts from 12 June 2000, when a one gunman hijacked a commuter bus, enacting his own version of Dog Day Afternoon. Around this tense stand-off, director JoséPadhila interviews victims, eye-witnesses, media and police, probing the hijacker's motives, police vendettas against Brazil's homeless population, and a terminally unjust society.

The Curse Of The Jade Scorpion

Woody Allen movies come so fast (one a year since 1969) they're easy to overlook, but even diehards will be disappointed by this 2001 attempt at neo-'40s screwball noir. Woody's insurance investigator looks tired, and Helen Hunt strains amusement at his wisecracks, and the attempts to create sexual tension will have Billy Wilder spinning in his grave. Allen's worst to date.

Saving Private Ryan: Special Edition

Slightly crass 60th-anniversary edition of a six-year-old flick?a marketing gimmick that rewrites Spielberg's war record by rooting his movie in 1944, making it a document of the time, rather than a piece of late-20th-century fiction. Though it remains a spectacular, unequalled piece of action film-making.

Cheech & Chong Collection

At their mid-'70s peak, the stoner Laurel & Hardy personified friendly drug culture - and, accordingly, now seem dated. There are flashes of inspired humour, but only the most devoted pothead would want to wade through this box set, which contains Cheech & Chong's Next Movie (with Pee Wee Herman), Nice Dreams, Things Are Tough All Over, Get Out Of My Room and Cheech's solo Born In East LA.

This Property Is Condemned

Sidney Pollack directed, Coppola co-wrote, Natalie Wood, Robert Redford and Charles Bronson star; how come it's so disappointing? A Tennessee Williams adaptation, Wood plays a dreamy but slinky belle in a stifling Southern smalltown boarding house. She falls for golden stranger Redford?then gets left behind. Hard to swallow, but Wood is highly watchable, and the cinematography is exemplary.
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