DVD Review - October 12

By Damon Smith

New to rent on DVD/Blu-ray

DVD of the week

Epic (Cert U, 102 mins, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Animation/Action/Drama/Comedy/Romance, also available to buy DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £24.99/3D Blu-ray £29.99)

Featuring the voices of: Amanda Seyfried, Josh Hutcherson, Colin Farrell, Christoph Waltz, Beyonce Knowles, Steven Tyler, Aziz Ansari, Chris O'Dowd, Pitbull, Jason Sudeikis.

Seventeen-year-old Mary Katherine aka MK (voiced by Amanda Seyfried) reluctantly heads out of the city to stay with her madcap father, Professor Bomba (Jason Sudeikis), who believes an army of tiny men reside in nearby trees and brooks. Understandably, MK thinks her father has lost his grasp on reality until she is magically shrunken in a fantastical realm of valiant warriors and talking flora. The teenager's taken under the wing of a Leaf Man called Nod (Josh Hutcherson), whose gung-ho actions disappoint his commanding officer, General Ronin (Colin Farrell). When a rival army of evil Boggans led by Mandrake (Christoph Waltz) attempts to take over the forest and destroy the Leaf Men's benevolent leader, Queen Tara (Beyonce Knowles), MK and Nod stand side by side against the onslaught. Based on the children's book The Leaf Men And The Brave Good Bugs by William Joyce, Epic is a vibrant computer-animated fable that might inspire pangs of nostalgia for parents who fondly remember the 1989 Disney romp Honey, I Shrunk The Kids. Vocal performances are almost as lively as the pristine animation, including some pantomime villainy from two-time Oscar winner Waltz, while Aziz Ansari and Chris O'Dowd provide welcome light relief from the energetic set pieces as wise-cracking molluscs. Directed at a brisk pace by Chris Wedge, who previously helmed Ice Age and Robots, this enchanting journey of discovery promotes an eco-friendly message of unity and preservation, exemplified by the Leaf Men motto: "Many leaves, one tree - we're all individuals but we're still connected." The 3D version of the film is available exclusively on Blu-ray.

Rating: ***

Released

Deadfall (Cert 15, 95 mins, Warner Home Video, Thriller/Romance/Action, also available to buy DVD £15.99/Blu-ray £22.99)

Starring: Eric Bana, Olivia Wilde, Charlie Hunnam, Kris Kristofferson, Sissy Spacek, Kate Mara, Treat Williams.

Addison (Eric Bana) and his sister Liza (Olivia Wilde) pull off a casino heist but their getaway car crashes on treacherous, snow-laden roads. The siblings stumble out of the wreckage with the loot and hitchhike separately to the Canadian border. Liza shares a lift with former Olympic boxer Jay Mills (Charlie Hunnam), who has just been released from prison and is heading home for Thanksgiving with his parents (Kris Kristofferson, Sissy Spacek). Addison takes time out from his flight to freedom to help an abused wife deal with her bullying husband. Meanwhile, ambitious Sheriff's Deputy Hannah (Kate Mara) defies her bullying father, Sheriff Marshall T Becker (Treat Williams), to track the criminals through the snow. Set largely during a blizzard, Deadfall is a disjoined crime thriller that sends a chill of disappointment down the spine. Stefan Ruzowitzky's film is a peculiar mish-mash of genres, spiked with graphic violence and gratuitous nudity involving Hunnam and Wilde's insipid lovers. Bana invests his emotionally damaged felon with moribund humour, and Spacek and Kristofferson are convincing as a married couple that have coped with far worse than gun-toting fugitives. Dialogue doesn't flow naturally and adding to that feeling of artificiality, some of the snow appears to be computer-generated: Bana and Wilde manage to conduct a long conversation in a swirling downpour without a single flake landing on them. Ruzowitzky thaws interest slightly with a couple of well-orchestrated action sequences. However, Zach Dean's script is a mess, ricocheting between four narrative threads that only come together in the film's violent and underwhelming closing act.

Rating: **

Also released

Bachelorette (Cert 15, 87 mins, Lionsgate Home Entertainment UK Ltd, Comedy/Romance, also available to buy DVD £17.99/Blu-ray £21.99 - see below)

Breathe In (Cert 15, 97 mins, Curzon Film World, Drama/Romance, also available to buy DVD £15.99/Blu-ray £19.99 - see below)

Much Ado About Nothing (Cert 15, 108 mins, Kaleidoscope Home Entertainment, Comedy/Drama/Romance, also available to buy DVD £17.99/Blu-ray £19.99 - see below)

Siberian Education (Cert 15, 110 mins, Metrodome Distribution, Drama/Thriller, also available to buy DVD £15.99 - see below)

Snowflake - The White Gorilla (Cert U, 81 mins, Lionsgate Home Entertainment UK Ltd, Animation/Drama, also available to buy DVD £12.99/Blu-ray £15.99 - see below)

New to buy on DVD/Blu-ray

Glee - The Complete Season Four (Cert 12, 924 mins, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, DVD £39.99/Seasons One To Four DVD Box Set £99.99/Blu-ray £44.99, Musical/Comedy/Drama/Romance)

The death of Cory Monteith, who played Finn, lends added poignancy to the fourth series of the award-winning teen musical comedy, chronicling the trials and tribulations of staff at pupils at William McKinley High School. While Rachel (Lea Michele) and other graduates tread the boards at the New York Academy of the Dramatic Arts, teacher Mr Schue (Matthew Morrison) gears up for another year of rivalry with acid-tongued Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) as the students prepare for a production of Grease. Blaine (Darren Criss) remains hopelessly devoted to boyfriend Kurt (Chris Colfer), while McKinley students past and present don their smartest clothes for Shue's Valentine's Day wedding to guidance counsellor Emma (Jayma Mays). A 26-disc box set comprising the 88 episodes of all four series and various exclusive extras is also available.

Dates - The Complete First Series (Cert 15, 213 mins, Entertainment One, DVD £24.99, Drama/Romance)

Recently broadcast on Channel 4, Dates is a contemporary British drama about the joy and perils of internet dating as seen through the eyes of the two people looking for love. The nine episodes each chronicle an eventful first date of strangers who've met through an online dating service, featuring performances by Sheridan Smith, Ben Chaplin, Gemma Chan, Will Mellor, Oona Chaplin, Neil Maskell, Kate McGrath, Andrew Scott, Greg McHugh, Montana Thompson and Sian Breckin.

Scandal - The Complete First Season (Cert 15, 301 mins, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, DVD £19.99, Drama/Thriller/Romance)

Kerry Washington was nominated for the Best Lead Actress Emmy for her performance in this gripping political thriller series from the creator of Grey's Anatomy. Olivia Pope (Washington) once patrolled the hallowed corridors of the White House as the Director of Communications, but has left Capitol Hill to set up her own crisis management firm, which protects the dirty secrets of the rich and powerful. In these opening seven episodes, Olivia has a few secrets of her own involving President Fitzgerald Grant (Tony Goldwyn) and his chief of staff, Cyrus Beene (Jeff Perry), and the team faces an uphill challenge to minimise the damage wrought by Amanda Tanner (Liza Weil) when she claims to be sleeping with the President.

Much Ado About Nothing (Cert 15, 108 mins, Kaleidoscope Home Entertainment, DVD £17.99/Blu-ray £19.99, Comedy/Drama/Romance)

Director Joss Whedon, the creator of the long-running TV series Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel, changes pace with this adaptation of Shakespeare's comical battle of the sexes. Don Pedro (Reed Diamond) returns from battle accompanied by his brother Don John (Sean Maher) and young officer Claudio (Fran Kranz), who instantly falls under the spell of Hero (Jillian Morgese), the beautiful and virginal daughter of Leonato (Clark Gregg), governor of Messina. Claudio and Hero agree to be married, passing the time by conspiring to match-make confirmed bachelor Benedick (Alexis Denisof) and his verbal sparring partner Beatrice (Amy Acker). Benedick and Beatrice are unable to express their feelings and resort to barbed insults and name-calling. Their friends are driven to frustration by this mock hostility, since they can see how much the pair clearly like each other. Meanwhile Don John plots revenge on his brother and young Claudio by accusing Hero of infidelity, providing his brother with the necessary (falsified) evidence to back up the damning claim.

Bachelorette (Cert 15, 87 mins, Lionsgate Home Entertainment UK Ltd, DVD £17.99/Blu-ray £21.99, Comedy/Romance)

Adapted by writer-director Leslye Headland from her stage play of the same name, Bachelorette is a raunchy comedy about girls behaving very badly. Becky (Rebel Wilson) invites her long-time friend Regan (Kirsten Dunst) to lunch, where she reveals that she's getting married to her boyfriend, Dale (Hayes MacArthur). Secretly jealous of Becky's good news, Regan fakes a smile and relays the impending nuptials to their other friends, Gena (Lizzy Caplan) and Katie (Isla Fisher). Six months later, with the big day on the horizon, the four women meet at a hotel in Los Angeles for Becky's hen party. A hit of cocaine, supplied by Katie, spices up the evening's festivities, which include an unexpected encounter with Gena's ex-boyfriend Clyde (Adam Scott). As the night progresses, Becky abandons the party early, leaving Regan, Gena and Katie to continue the debauchery. Unfortunately, their reckless behaviour has dire consequences and they must scour the city for a new wedding dress before Becky discovers that the original has been torn.

Law & Order: UK - Series Seven (Cert 12, 318 mins, Universal Playback, DVD £19.99, Thriller/Drama)

DI Wes Layton (Paterson Joseph) and junior Crown Prosecutor Kate Barker (Georgia Taylor) join the team with varying degrees of success in the latest series of the London-set spin-off from the Law & Order franchise. DS Sam Casey (Paul Nicholls) is suspected of murdering a suspect in custody, his partner DS Ronnie Brooks (Bradley Walsh) faces the grim task of catching the killers of a property developer found floating in the Thames and Senior Prosecutor Jake Thorne (Dominic Rowan) is morally conflicted when he's asked to convict a woman who killed her elderly grandmother. The two-disc set includes the episodes Tracks, Tremors, Paternal, Fatherly Love, Mortal and Dependent.

Snowflake - The White Gorilla (Cert U, 81 mins, Lionsgate Home Entertainment UK Ltd, DVD £12.99/Blu-ray £15.99, Animation/Drama)

Andres G Schaer directs this Spanish computer-animated adventure about a rare primate, who discovers that myriad dangers lurk outside the walls of the zoo he calls home. Born and raised in Guinea, Snowflake (voiced by Ariana Grande) is an extremely rare white gorilla that's now the star attraction at Barcelona Zoo. The other gorillas - Anvil (Keith David), Elvis (Nathan Kress) and Petunia (Janette McCurdy) - all have dark fur so Snowflake feels like a misfit and is desperate to fit in. The gorilla joins forces with a deranged red panda called Zenga (David Spade), to venture outside the zoo in search of the legendary witch of the north (Elsa Pataky), who has the power to transform the colour of his mane.

Two And A Half Men - The Complete Tenth Season (Cert 15, 480 mins, Warner Home Video, DVD £24.99, Comedy/Romance)

Billionaire Walden Schmidt (Ashton Kutcher), housemate Alan (Jon Cryer) and his son Jake (Angus T Jones) careen from one misadventure to the next in 23 episodes of the hit US comedy. This series, Walden (Ashton Kutcher) is ready to commit to girlfriend Zoey (Sophie Winkleman), but she might have other ideas. Alan encounters very different problems as he builds a relationship with Lyndsey (Courtney Thorne-Smith) and Jake embarks on a tour of duty with the army.

Sharknado (Cert 15, 89 mins, Studio Canal, DVD £17.99/Blu-ray £19.99, Horror/Action/Thriller/Romance)

Fin (Ian Ziering) owns a bar on the Los Angeles beachfront, which is completely destroyed by a tornado containing hundreds of man-eating sharks, that have literally been sucked into the whirling vortex of water. As the destruction moves inland towards the Hollywood hills, Fin, plucky waitress Nova (Cassie Scerbo) and best friend Baz (Jaason Simmons), leap into a jeep and head into the eye of the storm to rescue Fin's estranged wife April (Tara Reid) and teenage daughter Claudia (Aubrey Peeples). Unfortunately, the sharks are already loose in standing water on the streets and they are hungry for human flesh in Anthony C Ferrante's low budget made-for-TV B-Movie.

Breathe In (Cert 15, 97 mins, Curzon Film World, DVD £15.99/Blu-ray £19.99, Drama/Romance)

Writer-director Drake Doremus charts a forbidden romance in this thoughtful and provocative drama. High school music teacher Keith (Guy Pearce) lives in Westchester County, New York with his wife Megan (Amy Ryan) and daughter Lauren (Mackenzie Davis). He is passionate about music, often losing himself in his cello, but he dreams of something more thrilling than dull suburban malaise. British exchange student Sophie (Felicity Jones) arrives at the school and immediately catches Keith's eye. She is more emotionally mature than the other teenagers but crucially, she is an exceptionally talented pianist. Drawn together initially by the music, Keith and Sophie become emotionally intimate, fully aware of the consequences of their burgeoning attraction but unable to resist the gravitation pull towards each other.

2 Broke Girls - Season 2 (Cert 15, 480 mins, Warner Home Video, DVD £24.99/Seasons 1 & 2 DVD Box Set £59.99, Comedy/Romance)

Another 24 episodes of the popular US sitcom about two friends; one-time high society girl Caroline (Beth Behrs) and fellow waitress Max (Kat Dennings), who dream of starting their own bakery business. This series, Caroline and Max raise the necessary funds to enter cupcake heaven but the young women discover that achieving your dream and keeping your dream alive are to very different prospects. They hope an endorsement from culinary titan Martha Stewart might secure their future. Meanwhile, Caroline confronts her feelings for Andy (Ryan Store), who runs the candy store opposite the cupcake shop. A six-disc box set comprising both series is also available.

We Steal Secrets: The Story Of WikiLeaks (Cert 15, 131 mins, Universal Pictures (UK) Ltd, DVD £15.99, Documentary)

Since June 2012, Julian Assange has been holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he has been granted diplomatic asylum. As soon as the editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks leaves the building, it is believed he will be extradited to Sweden by the British government to answer questions relating to an allegation of sexual assault, then possibly he'll be extradited to America to face charges over the documents leaked by Bradley Manning. Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney (Taxi To The Dark Side) charts the rise of WikiLeaks, covering the key events, which propelled the organisation and its creators into the spotlight including the Icelandic financial collapse and the release of documents pertaining to the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. Pre-recorded interviews with prominent figures in the operation, including Assange, provide a fascinating glimpse behind the scenes.

Bomb Girls (Cert 12, 253 mins, Kaleidoscope Home Entertainment, DVD £19.99, Drama)

Broadcast on ITV3 late last year, Bomb Girls is a six-part Canadian wartime drama beginning in 1941, centred on four women - Betty (Ali Liebert), Gladys (Jodi Balfour), Kate (Charlotte Hegele) and Lorna (Meg Tilly) - who are granted new responsibilities and freedoms with the men off fighting in Europe. The women meet various challenges as conflict rages overseas such as defying stereotypes, giving them a new perspective on life and their roles in society.

Come As You Are (Hasta La Vista) (Cert 15, 114 mins, Entertainment One, DVD £14.99, Comedy/Drama/Romance)

Three twenty-somethings hope to lose their virginity on a very special vacation in this award-winning Belgian drama directed by Geoffrey Enthoven. Jozef (Tom Audenaert), Lars (Gilles de Schryver) and Philip (Robrecht Vanden Thoren) are good friends, each of whom must contend with disability. Josef's almost blind while Lars has an incurable brain tumour, which requires him to use a wheelchair. Philip also suffers from paraplegia and uses a wheelchair, and is only able to communicate using a computer keyboard and mouthpiece. Through an acquaintance, Philips learns of a brothel in Spain, which specialises in tending to the needs of men with disabilities. He persuades Jozef and Lars to join him on a voyage of sexual discovery and the three friends excitedly look forward to losing their virginity. However, their parents are incredibly protective and wouldn't approve of the trip, so Jozef, Lars and Philip tell their loved ones they are going on a specialist tour holiday.

Some Girls - Series One (Cert 15, 167 mins, BBC DVD, DVD £19.99, Comedy/Drama)

All six episodes of the BBC Three comedy, which charts the vacillations of four quirky 16-year-old girls, who live on a South London housing estate. Viva Bennett (Adelayo Adedayo) lives with her firefighter dad Rob (Colin Salmon), who has remarried Anna (Dolly Wells), the PE teacher at her school. As well as the usual exam and homework pressures, Viva and her friends Amber (Alice Felgate), Holli (Natasha Jonas) and Saz (Mandeep Dhillon) have to contend with raging hormones, insensitive boys and sexual temptation.

The Protectors - The Complete Season Two (Cert 15, 580 mins, Arrow Films, DVD £24.99, Drama/Thriller)

There are lots more twists and turns in the second series of the Emmy Award-winning Danish drama centred on members of the elite Personal Protection Unit in Copenhagen, who are assigned to members of the royal family, politicians and other potential targets for terrorist groups. This series, Jasmina (Cecilie Stenspil), Jonas (Andre Babikian) and Rasmus (Soren Vejby) struggle to maintain balance in their personal lives while coping with the pressures of the job. The three-disc set includes all 10 episodes.

All Superheroes Must Die (Cert 15, 80 mins, Monster Pictures/Fusion, DVD £12.99/Blu-ray £15.99, Action/Thriller)

Four plucky superheroes - Charge (Jason Trost), Cutthroat (Lucas Till), Shadow (Sophie Merkley) and The Wall (Lee Valmassy) - are used to vanquishing foes with their incredible powers, but they meet their match in arch-nemesis Rickshaw (James Remar). He kidnaps the quartet and strips them of their abilities, leaving them to fend for themselves as mere mortals inside an abandoned town, where they must undertake challenges to survive and also save innocent civilians from grisly fates.

Siberian Education (Cert 15, 110 mins, Metrodome Distribution, DVD £15.99, Drama/Thriller)

Based on the memoirs of Nicolai Lilin, who grew up in the independent state of Transnistria on the boundary of Russia, Siberian Education is a coming of age story about two young men who face difficult choices as the teeter on the brink of adulthood. Kolima (Arnas Fedaravicius) and Gagarin (Vilius Tumalavicius) are part of the Urka community, where criminals were once banished. Consequently, this remote enclave is stepped in rules and tradition, which impact on Kolima and Gagarin as they search for their places in this world. The youngsters turn to the elders including Grandfather Kuzya (John Malkovich) for advice but ultimately they must make and learn from their own mistakes.

The Breeder (Cert 18, 95 mins, High Fliers Video Distribution, DVD £12.99, Horror/Thriller)

Two young women encounter a psychopath while hiking through the Caucasus Mountains in Till Hastreiter's gruesome horror. Aid workers Amy (Theresa Joy) and Sophie (Julie LeGal) get lost, straying into a region that doesn't appear on their maps. In this perilous terrain, cut off from the outside world, lurks a maniac known as The Breeder. He kidnaps Sophie and spirits her away to his lair where he intends to purge her sins. Amy must put her life at risk to give chase and rescue her friend from The Breeder's clammy clutches.

Endeavour - The Pilot & Complete First Series (Cert 12, 289 mins, ITV Studios Home Entertainment, DVD £24.99, Drama/Thriller)

The pilot episode of this Sixties-set prequel to Inspector Morse walks the beat on DVD for the first time as part of a three-disc set with the episodes Girl, Fugue, Rocket and Home. Endeavour Morse (Shaun Evans) is a quixotic police constable in Oxford whose methods fail to impress Chief Superintendent Reginald Bright (Anton Lesser), despite the backing of his senior partner Detective Inspector Fred Thursday (Roger Allam) and PC James Strange (Sean Rigby). Unperturbed, Morse uses his brilliant mind to unlock the mysteries of several local murders including a poisoning and a shooting.

Greedy Lying Bastards (Cert E, 89 mins, Kaleidoscope Home Entertainment, DVD £17.99, Documentary)

The threat of climate change appears to be very real for Americans: Hurricane Sandy wrought disaster on an unimaginable scale, farmers are losing their crops to some of the worst droughts in decades and wildfires sweep through the east coast, leaving devastation in their wake. Yet the men and women on Capitol Hill remain inactive when it comes to tackling the warming of the planet and the dire repercussions. Documentary filmmaker Craig Scott Rosebraugh attempts to make sense of this lack of political action, meeting experts who boldly claim that human behaviour does not affect the rise in greenhouse gases, as well as the people in power, who are actively involved in a multi-billion dollar campaign of lies to undermine any measures to combat climate change.

DVD retail top 10

1 (3) Homeland - Season 2

2 (8) Breaking Bad - Season 1-4

3 (2) Iron Man 3

4 (-) Breaking Bad - Season 1

5 (1) Fast & Furious 6

6 (4) Star Trek Into Darkness

7 (6) Downton Abbey: A Journey To The Highlands (Christmas Special 2012)

8 (7) Jillian Michaels: 30 Day Shred

9 (5) The Big Bang Theory - Season 6

10 (-) Breaking Bad - Season 5

Chart supplied by Amazon.co.uk

DVD rental top 10

1 (-) Jack The Giant Slayer

2 (-) Identity Thief

3 (5) Iron Man 3

4 (4) Cloud Atlas

5 (3) Olympus Has Fallen

6 (1) Star Trek: Into Darkness

7 (2) Mud

8 (6) Lincoln

9 (10) A Good Day To Die Hard

10 (7) Zero Dark Thirty

Chart supplied by www.LOVEFiLM.com

Film streaming top 10

1 (1) Friends with Benefits

2 (2) The Princes And The Frog

3 (4) The Smurfs

4 (5) X-Men - First Class

5 (3) The Sweeney

6 (8) Rio

7 (6) Arthur

8 (7) Barbie - Princess Charm School

9 (9) Alice in Wonderland

10 (10) Bridesmaids

Chart supplied by www.LOVEFiLM.com