DVD Review - July 13

By Damon Smith

New to rent on DVD/Blu-ray

Parker (Cert 15, 113 mins, Entertainment One, Action/Thriller/Romance, also available to buy DVD £17.99/Blu-ray £19.99)

Starring: Jason Statham, Jennifer Lopez, Michael Chiklis, Clifton Collins Jr, Wendell Pierce, Micah A Hauptman, Nick Nolte, Emma Booth.

Professional thief Parker (Jason Statham) accepts a job from his mentor Hurley (Nick Nolte) to steal a cool 1.5 million dollars from the Ohio State Fair, aided by an untested four-strong crew: Melander (Michael Chiklis), Carlson (Wendell Pierce), Hardwicke (Micah A Hauptman) and Ross (Clifton Collins Jr). The robbery unfolds largely as planned, then Melander and his buddies turn on Parker, leaving the thief for dead by the roadside. Miraculously, Parker survives multiple gunshot wounds and tracks the treacherous crew to Palm Beach, Florida, where they are plotting to steal jewels from a high-society auction. Posing as a rich Texan called Daniel Parmitt, Parker joins forces with cash-strapped estate agent Leslie Rogers (Jennifer Lopez) to kill Melander and fence the gems, worth an eye-watering 75 million dollars. Adapted from the novel Flashfire by Donald E Westlake, Parker is a lacklustre action thriller hamstrung by the awkward pairing of Statham and Lopez. Their dialogue falls flat. "How do you sleep at night?" she purrs. "I don't drink coffee after 7pm," he growls. Anyone expecting a repeat of Lopez's sexually charged pursuit of George Clooney in Out Of Sight, which practically melted celluloid, will be sorely disappointed. Screen chemistry with her muscle-bound leading man here is completely inert. Her entrance after about 45 minutes necessitates a jarring tonal shift into light comedy, which is at odds with the macho posturing of the leading man. The set-up is familiar and, regrettably, director Taylor Hackford and screenwriter John J McLaughlin lazily go through the motions, ticking off genre tropes without any sense of urgency or stylistic flair.

Rating: ***

Safe Haven (Cert 12, 111 mins, Momentum Pictures Home Entertainment, Romance/Drama/Thriller, also available to buy DVD/Blu-ray £17.99)

Starring: Julianne Hough, Josh Duhamel, Noah Lomax, Mimi Kirkland, David Lyons, Cobie Smulders, Ric Reitz, Irene Ziegler.

Distraught wife Erin Tierney (Julianne Hough) flees the scene of a crime - perhaps murder, perhaps self-defence. She heads to the bus station with detective Kevin Tierney (David Lyons) in hot pursuit, boards a bus bound for Atlanta and narrowly avoids capture. Hoping to throw the cops off her scent, Erin alights in the quaint fishing community of Southport, North Carolina, where she rechristens herself Katie Feldman and lands a job as a waitress at the local seafood restaurant. She also secures lodgings in a remote cabin in the woods, and enjoys a flirtation with hunky widower Alex Wheatley (Josh Duhamel), who is coming to terms with his wife's death while raising two demanding children, Josh (Noah Lomax) and Lexi (Mimi Kirkland). Perhaps Katie could be his second chance at happiness... Unfortunately, Tierney won't rest until he has found Erin. Drawing obvious comparisons with the 1991 Julia Roberts pot-boiler Sleeping With The Enemy, Safe Haven is a slushy romance based on a book by Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook), which adds a touch of suspense to the usual gooey mix. It's undemanding fluff that doesn't stray once from a well-trodden narrative path. Lasse Hallstrom, who directed Dear John, is in familiar, syrupy territory and provides the usual array of longing glances between the attractive leads and a dreamy canoe ride in a rainstorm that kindles their first kiss. Hough is luminous and there's pleasing screen chemistry with Duhamel. However, an outlandish final flourish concerning Katie's meek neighbour, Jo (Cobie Smulders), is one shameless tug of the heartstrings too far.

Rating: ***

Red Dawn (Cert 15, 89 mins, Koch Film, Action/Thriller/Romance, also available to buy DVD £15.99/Blu-ray £19.99)

Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Josh Peck, Josh Hutcherson, Adrianne Palicki, Isabel Lucas, Connor Cruise, Edwin Hodge, Will Yun Lee, Brett Cullen.

US Marine Jed Eckert (Chris Hemsworth) returns home to Spokane, Washington to be reunited with his father, Police Sergeant Tom Eckert (Brett Cullen), and reckless younger brother Matt (Josh Peck). No sooner has Jed unpacked his kit bag than North Korean troops led by Captain Cho (Will Yun Lee) parachute into Spokane, guns a-blazing. Jed escapes with Matt and his cheerleader girlfriend Erica (Isabel Lucas) plus a few classmates including techno-geek Robert (Josh Hutcherson) and best friend Daryl (Connor Cruise). With surprising ease, Jed moulds his untrained charges into a tactically astute fighting machine, capable of taking down dozens of heavily armed North Korean soldiers without sustaining injury. Inspired by jingoistic 1984 action adventure of the same name, which pitted a group of plucky US teenagers against invading Soviet forces at the height of the Cold War, Red Dawn is a nonsensical remake. It's highly unlikely that North Korea could muster the ground troops or military hardware to take control of everything except for a swathe of predominantly red states "from Michigan to Montana, Alabama to Arizona." Screenwriters Carls Ellsworth and Jeremy Passmore snigger in the face of plausibility, and they have no firm grasp of characterisation or dialogue. An attractive, young cast deliver mediocre performances that are lost in the melee of explosions while director Dan Bradley cannot disguise gaping plot holes or the script's ham-fisted attempt to splice global politics with propulsive action sequences and hoary teen angst.

Rating: **

Also released

Broken (Cert 15, 87 mins, Studio Canal, Drama, also available to buy DVD £17.99/Blu-ray £22.99 - see below)

Burnt By The Sun 2: Citadel (Cert 15, 151 mins, Arrow Film Distributors, War/Drama, also available to buy DVD £12.99 - see below)

Me & Yo (Io E Te) (Cert 15, 92 mins, Artificial Eye, Drama/Romance, also available to buy DVD £15.99/Blu-ray £19.99 - see below)

Shell (Cert 15, 91 mins, Verve Pictures, Drama/Romance, also available to buy DVD £15.99/Blu-ray £19.99 - see below)

New to buy on DVD/Blu-ray

Falling Skies - The Complete Second Season (Cert 12, 400 mins, Warner Home Video, DVD £29.99/The Complete First And Second Season DVD Box Set £39.99/Blu-ray £39.99/The Complete First And Second Season Blu-ray Box Set £49.99, Sci-Fi/Drama)

Three-disc box set of 10 episodes of the drama originally broadcast on TNT, which chronicles the trials and tribulations of human survivors of a devastating extra-terrestrial attack on Earth. Three months after the shocking events of series one, university professor Tom Mason (Noah Wyle) returns to the group in Massachusetts, having left in an alien spaceship to save his 14-year-old son, Ben (Connor Jessup). Naturally, Captain Dan Weaver (Will Patton), who is in charge of the group and medic Anne Glass (Moon Bloodgood) are deeply suspicious of Tom, wondering what the invaders might have done to his mind. John Pope (John Cunningham), who heads a rebel faction within the survivors, exploits his position as chief interrogator to plant seeds of doubt about Tom's loyalty and to inflame tensions within the ranks for his own gain. A six-disc box set comprising both series is also available.

The Village - Series One (Cert 15, 354 mins, Entertainment One, DVD £24.99, War/Drama/Romance)

Scripted by award-winning playwright and screenwriter Peter Moffat, The Village documents the emotional devastation of a Derbyshire community between the years of 1914 and 1920 when the horrors of the First World War inflicted deep scars across Europe. The tumultuous events unfold through the eyes of young Bert Middleton (played as a boy by Bill Jones, as a teenager by Alfie Stewart and as an old man By David Ryall), who grows up on a Peak District farm run by his alcoholic father John (John Simm) and his tender mother Grace (Maxine Peake). Bert falls in love with the same girl as his brother Joe (Nico Mirallegro), whose horrific experiences on the Front have disastrous consequences for the rest of the family. The DVD includes all six episodes originally broadcast on Sunday evenings on BBC One.

Parks And Recreation - Season Three (Cert 12, 447 mins, Fabulous Films, DVD £34.99, Comedy/Romance)

Three-disc box set of 16 episodes of the Emmy-nominated sitcom, which documents the misadventures and mismanagement of well-meaning bureaucrat Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) and her team in the fictional town of Pawnee, Indiana. This series, state auditors Chris (Rob Lowe) and Ben (Adam Scott) threaten to slash budgets and Andy (Chris Pratt) attempts to win back April (Aubrey Plaza) after he kissed nurse Ann Perkins (Rashida Jones). Meanwhile, Ron (Nick Offerman) and Leslie receive a commendation for reviving the town's harvest festival, Ann vies for a vacant position in the health department and Tom's game show idea causes ructions within the team.

Inspector Montalbano: Collection Five (Cert 15, 422 mins, Acorn Media, DVD £19.99, Drama/Thriller)

Based on the series of novels by Andrea Camilleri, Inspector Montalbano is a long-running Italian crime series about the eponymous police commissioner, who maintains law and order in the close-knit town of Vigata in Sicily. This series, his girlfriend Livia (Katharina Bohm) and his inexhaustible love of food continue to distract him as Montalbano attempts to get to the uncomfortable truth of each case. The two-disc set includes the episodes The Age Of Doubt, The Gull's Dance, The Potter's Field and Treasure Hunt.

Broken (Cert 15, 87 mins, Studio Canal, DVD £17.99/Blu-ray £22.99, Drama)

Award-winning stage director Rufus Norris makes an assured debut behind the camera with this gritty snapshot of suburban malaise, shot through the eyes of an 11-year-old girl called Skunk (Eloise Laurence). She lives in a cul-de-sac with her father (Tim Roth) and views the world without the cynicism of the other residents. When Mr Oswald (Rory Kinnear), who lives next door with his three tearaway daughters, assaults mentally unbalanced neighbour Rick (Robert Emms) based on a lie told by one of his girls, Skunk's world unravels at frightening speed and she unwittingly finds herself in terrible danger. There is something inherently theatrical about Mark O'Rowe's script, based on the novel by Daniel Clay, with its explosions of violence that leave half the characters nursing deep and sometimes fatal wounds. Broken paints a grim picture of the modern family unit, daring to peek behind twitching net curtains to glimpse the terrible secrets that divide the generations. Laurence is mesmerising, effortlessly shouldering the emotional burden of the film's most intense scenes, while Roth offers solid support as her protective single father.

The Wee Man (Cert 18, 101 mins, Metrodome Distribution, DVD £17.99/Blu-ray £19.99, Drama/Thriller)

Based on the life and memoirs of Paul Ferris, The Wee Man is a gritty portrait of the rise of a gangster in Glasgow and his relationships with the people he loved and terrorised. Growing up in 1970s Blackhill, 11-year-old Paul (Daniel Kerr) is tormented by a gang of bullying local kids. Surrounded by crime, corruption and senseless brutality, Paul snaps and decides to systematically wreak revenge on his tormentors. He develops a reputation and is taken under the wing of notorious gangland boss Arthur Thompson Snr (Patrick Bergin). Ignoring the pleadings of his father (Denis Lawson), Paul (now played by Martin Compston) steadily rises through the ranks of the operation, much to the annoyance of Arthur's son, 'Fat Boy' Thompson Jr (Stephen McCole), which invariably creates friction between the two heirs to the empire. Thompson Snr's rival Tam McGraw (John Hannah) exploits this obvious tension by manipulating Fat Boy to bring down Paul so that Glasgow is his for the taking.

Me & Yo (Io E Te) (Cert 15, 92 mins, Artificial Eye, DVD £15.99/Blu-ray £19.99, Drama/Romance)

Two damaged souls forge a touching yet fractious relationship in Bernardo Bertolucci's intimate drama, which premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. Fourteen-year-old Lorenzo (Jacopo Olmo Antinori) nurtures a passionate disdain for school and authority, so his mother Arianna (Sonia Bergamasco) dispatches him to a psychotherapist in the hope that professional help will curb his volatile emotions. She is thrilled when Lorenzo announces that he would like to join his classmates on a week-long skiing trip. Instead, Lorenzo sneaks back into his dingy basement where he is surprised by his drug-addicted half-sister, Olivia (Tea Falco), who needs somewhere to crash. Trapped in a confined space, the half-siblings discuss their dreams and their turbulent pasts, and discover they have much more in common than they first thought.

Burnt by the Sun 2: Citadel (Cert 15, 151 mins, Arrow Film Distributors, DVD £12.99, War/Drama)

Russian filmmaker Nikita Mikhalkov directs and stars in this epic two-part sequel to his 1994 drama, which collected the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The two chapters, Exodus and Citadel, continue the adventures of General Sergei Petrovich Kotov (Mikhalkov), who has survived the death sentence he received in Joseph Stalin's Great Purge. Kotov returns to the battlefields during the Second World War, where he must fight shoulder to shoulder with his countrymen to repel the Nazis.

Shell (Cert 15, 91 mins, Verve Pictures, DVD £15.99/Blu-ray £19.99, Drama/Romance)

The rain- and wide-swept Scottish Highlands provides a startling and bleak backdrop to Scott Graham's elegiac debut, which explores the dynamic between a 17-year-old called Shell (Chloe Pirrie) and her emotionally crippled mechanic father, Pete (Joseph Mawle), who live and work in a run-down petrol station, which attracts almost no passing traffic. In this remote and unforgiving spot, the absence of Shell's mother, who left when she was just four, creates an intense and deeply troubling bond between father and child that not only binds Shell and Pete, but may also consume and ultimately destroy them. The teenager's messy fumblings with a local boy (Iain de Caestecker) add fuel to the emotional fire, building to a devastating crescendo that skids perilously close to melodrama. Thankfully, Graham retains control of his film in the haunting final moments when despair turns to liberation.

Run (Cert 15, 174 mins, Delta Home Entertainment, DVD £15.99, Drama)

Four people face tough decisions in modern-day London in this unremittingly bleak drama, which recently broadcast on Channel 4. In parallel storylines, single mother Carol (Olivia Colman) struggles to protect her family from the harsh reality of life on the streets in the capital; drug addict Richard (Lennie James) continues his recovery, spurred on by the thought of a reunion with his teenage daughter; Polish worker Kasia (Katharina Schuttler) grows increasingly frustrated by her lack of prospects; and Asian immigrant Ying (Katie Leung) is compelled to break the law in order to pay back the gang, who smuggled her into the country.

Death Game (Cert 15, 102 mins, MVM, DVD £15.99, Horror/Thriller)

Hideo Nakata, creator of The Ring and Dark Water, directs this brutal battle for survival. Ten strangers respond to the same job advert and are invited to an interview for a position that just seems too good to be true. When they arrive, the prospective candidates quickly realize they have made a grave error when they become trapped in a vast underground compound and the only means of escape is to slay the other applicants. As the blood flows and numbers dwindle, the survivors call upon previous untapped reserves of courage and determination to outwit their rivals.

Vexed - Series 1 & 2 Complete (Cert 15, 535 mins, Acorn Media, DVD £24.99, Comedy/Drama)

Three-disc set of nine episodes of BBC Two's comic detective series, following the trials ands tribulations of charming yet work-shy DI Jack Armstrong (Toby Stephens). In the first series, Jack attempts to win over punctilious new addition to the team, DI Kate Bishop (Lucy Punch), and then in series two, he certainly meets his match in feisty new partner, DI Georgina Dixon (Miranda Raison).

The Girl from Nowhere (Cert 15, 92 mins, Matchbox Films, DVD £15.99, Romance/Thriller)

Retired maths teacher Michel (Jean-Claude Brisseau) lives alone in a Parisian apartment building, still clinging to fond memories of his dead wife. He is in the process of writing a book about illusory beliefs. Out of the blue, Michel discovers a battered young woman called Dora (Virginie Legeay) on his doorstep. He takes her in, with the intention of calling the police, but she pleads with Michel to be given a chance to rest and recuperate. A bond forms between Michel and his new houseguest and he invites Dora to become his editorial assistant, helping to shape his book. Over time, he learns that the young woman possesses special gifts that may allow him to make contact with his dead wife.

Spitting Image - The Complete 9th Series (Cert 12, 150 mins, Network, DVD £12.99, Comedy)

David Baddiel, Rory Bremner, Steve Coogan, Hugh Dennis, Harry Enfield, Ian Hislop, Alistair McGowan, Jan Ravens and Pamela Stephenson provide the voices of the rich and famous in six episodes of the long-running satirical comedy, which uses grotesque latex puppets to poke merciless fun at the political establishment and vacuous celebrities. This series coincides with the resignation of Margaret Thatcher and the rise of her successor John Major, who is depicted in depressing shades of grey.

Hulk Vs Wolverine (Cert 12, 35 mins, Lionsgate Home Entertainment UK Ltd, DVD £6.99, Animation/Action)

In this animated adventure based on the Marvel Comics characters, the Incredible Hulk leaves a trail of devastation is his wake as he marauds across the country. Seemingly unstoppable, top secret Canadian 'Department 'H' enlists the services and the Adamantium claws of Wolverine to stop the not-so-jolly green giant, culminating in a battle royale between the two formidable fighting machines.

My Ghost Story - Season 2 (Cert E, 420 mins, Go Entertain, DVD £19.99, Special Interest)

Broadcast on the Biography Channel, this 10-part series meets men and women from across America, who believe they have been haunted or visited by ghosts. Guests deliver their verbal testimonies, intercut with home footage they recorded of the supposed hauntings, and viewers are asked to make up their minds about the veracity of each case. This series, the locations include a bed and breakfast where guests regularly report supernatural encounters, an old opera house which claims to have a real-life phantom, a schoolhouse which is home to former students and teachers, and an Irish pub where a demonic force wreaks havoc on the patrons.

DVD retail top 10

1 (-) Despicable Me

2 (2) Jillian Michaels: 30 Day Shred

3 (1) The Sopranos - HBO Complete Season 1-6 (New Packaging)

4 (4) Les Misérables

5 (5) Game of Thrones - Season 1

6 (-) Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters

7 (5) Game of Thrones - Season 2

8 (-) Oz the Great and Powerful

9 (9) Dexter - Season 7

10 (-) The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Chart supplied by Amazon.co.uk

DVD rental top 10

1 (1)The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey

2 (2) Argo

3 (3) Flight

4 (4) Django Unchained

5 (5) I Give it a Year

6 (6) Wreck-It Ralph

7 (7) Pitch Perfect

8 (8) Silver Linings Playbook

9 (9) Skyfall

10 (10) The Impossible

Chart supplied by www.LOVEFiLM.com

Film streaming top 10

1 (1) Fast Five

2 (2) Hanna

3 (3) Bad Teacher

4 (4) Hop

5 (5) Just Go with It

6 (6) Sex and the City 2

7 (7) Ratatouille

8 (8) Rampage

9 (9) The Pacifier

10 (10) Big Mommas - Like Father, Like Son

Chart supplied by www.LOVEFiLM.com