You'd have to be Scrooge (or rather Mr Potter) not to recognise Capra as a film-maker whose delight in the human spirit produced some of the finest, sharpest comedies of vintage Hollywood. Here's four of'em-Jimmy Stewart in You Can't Take it With You, Mr Smith Goes To Washington and everyone's festive favourite, It's A Wonderful Life, plus 1934's It Happened One Night. Heart-melting brilliance.

Scintillating songs let down by clumsy visuals

Robust, insightful doc by Startup.com director Jehane Noujaim examining the role of Arabic news channel Al Jazeera during the recent Gulf War. Despite being damned by Donald Rumsfeld as the mouthpiece of Al-Qaeda, Al Jazeera emerges as the only honest voice, struggling to be heard above the clamour of misinformation, manipulation and deceit (most of it, ironically, from the US networks). A real David and Goliath story, expertly told.

If Mary's never quite convinced the world she merited that "the voice of R&B's future" hype, she's godhead to believers: 5,000 funked-up fans fill the LA Amphitheatre here. Her first concert DVD, it finds her belting through I'm-so-damaged-but-the-merchandising-revenue-sure-helps material like "No More Drama" and "Your Child", and duetting, weirdly, with big-screen images of Lil' Kim and BIG. CHRIS ROBERTS

Not quite Fellini at his most brilliantly enigmatic, but the movie that made his name. Christ is helicoptered out of Rome while the city decays into a listless Sodom for the international jet set; Marcello Mastroianni plays the louche hack carrying too much ennui to write a novel, documenting the party people's jaded adventures for local scandal sheets, worried his soul is dying. The decadence looks tame today, but it still has Anita Ekberg in the fountain.

For years, Ringo has surrounded himself live with established musicians (here including Paul Carrack and Sheila E), each performing songs of their own. The audience, then, are expected to settle for usually no more than eight from Starr himself. Offsetting this disappointment are the warm scenes off stage and in interviews. CAROL CLERK

Moonshine mayhem...Mitchum's gutter classic sets the template for road-to-nowhere film-making

A hit in Spain, this only goes to show what Almodóvar is up against. Friends sleep with each other but not with their partners, whom they speculate may be gay. Intermittently they break into dire Euro-pop songs. You keep waiting for taboos to be challenged, stereotypes to be skewed?and you keep waiting. Paz Vega fans would be better off with almost anything else she's done.

Subtitled "Four Destinations, Four DVDs", this Reg-fest takes in live shows from Madison Square Garden (2000), the Great Amphitheatre at Ephesus, Turkey (2001) and London's Royal Opera House (2002), respectively accompanied by full band, candlelight and orchestra. But it's Disc 4 (promos and clips spanning '68 to present) that wins out, not least for 1972's great "Mona Lisas And Mad Hatters". At seven hours, though, this one's strictly for insomniac diehards. ROB HUGHES DVD EXTRAS: None.

Punk rock began in 1929/30, when Luis Buñuel caused riots with these erotic howls of protest, urging the human race to place love and lust above civic duty. Visually he broke the mould, with a little help from Salvador Dalí. The 17-minute Un Chien is a hymn to desire; the 63-minute L'Age D'Or is shocking and beautifully immortal.