DVD Review - November 30

By Damon Smith

New to rent on DVD/Blu-ray

DVD of the week

Despicable Me 2 (Cert U, 98 mins, Universal Pictures (UK) Ltd, Animation/Comedy/Sci-Fi/Romance, also available to buy DVD £19.99/Two Film DVD £29.99/Blu-ray £24.99/3D Blu-ray £29.99/Two Film Blu-ray £29.99)

Featuring the voices of: Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Benjamin Bratt, Russell Brand, Ken Jeong, Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier, Elsie Fisher.

Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) has turned his back on skullduggery to live in unconventional domestic bliss with his girls, Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier) and Agnes (Elsie Fisher). His subterranean bunker is now devoted to the production of jams and jellies under the supervision of technical genius Dr Nefario (Russell Brand). When a new threat to global peace emerges, Lucy Wilde (Kristen Wiig) from The Anti-Villain League stuns Gru with her lipstick taser and pressgangs him into working for the good guys to uncover the mastermind responsible for the theft of a top-secret serum. The trail leads to a local mall where Gru and Lucy pose as co-owners of a cupcake shop in order to spy on two prime suspects: Floyd (Ken Jeong), the beautifully coiffed owner of the wig store; and Eduardo (Benjamin Bratt), manager of the popular Mexican restaurant. Despicable Me 2 is a warm-hearted and sporadically hilarious computer-animated romp that doesn't quite attain the dizzy heights of the original, but does come close. Screenwriters Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul have realised that the Minions are the star attraction, scene-stealing with googly-eyed gusto, so the diminutive yellow sidekicks are pushed squarely to the fore in the second madcap mission. They are firmly embedded in the main plot, almost elbowing Gru and his girls into the shadows. A romantic subplot between the supposedly unlovable reformed villain and Lucy is predictable but sweet. A two-disc set comprising the original Despicable Me and sequel, packaged with a squishy Minion toy and activity pack, is also available.

Rating: ****

Released

The Heat (Cert 15, 117 mins, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Comedy/Action/Romance, also available to buy DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £27.99)

Starring: Sandra Bullock, Melissa McCarthy, Demian Bichir, Michael Rapaport, Marlon Wayans, Taran Killam, Dan Bakkedahl.

FBI Special Agent Sarah Ashburn (Sandra Bullock) is one of the brightest operatives in the New York field office run by Hale (Demian Bichir). Unfortunately, her lack of people skills rubs colleagues up the wrong way. Hale dispatches Sarah to Boston, promising her promotion if she can work with the local detectives to bring down an enigmatic drug kingpin named Larkin. In Boston, Sarah clashes with rebel cop Shannon Mullins (Melissa McCarthy), who has bullied the men at her precinct. Sarah refuses to submit to Shannon's intimidation but knows that she must work with this loose cannon for the sake of promotion. So the two women reluctantly join forces to unmask Larkin and inadvertently jeopardise a long-running undercover operation masterminded by DEA agents Adam (Taran Killam) and Craig (Dan Bakkedahl). The Heat is an oestrogen-fuelled buddy cop caper proving ladies can be every bit as politically incorrect and rough 'n' tumble as the lads. The two leads spark off each other brilliantly, milking belly laughs from Katie Dippold's hit-and-miss script that both embraces and subverts hoary cliches of the genre. Initial rivalry between the characters mellows, somewhat inevitably, into sisterly solidarity, adding a sentimental sheen to closing frames. Every time the joke of the mismatched heroines threatens to wear thin, Bullock and McCarthy crank up the slapstick and verbal one-upwomanship including a brilliantly simple visual gag with a knife that draws as many winces as guffaws.

Rating: ***

Red 2 (Cert 12, 116 mins, Entertainment One, Action/Thriller/Comedy/Romance, also available to buy DVD £19.99/The Red Collection DVD Box Set £24.99/Blu-ray £24.99/The Red Collection Blu-ray Box Set £29.99)

Starring: Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren, Mary-Louise Parker, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Lee Byung-hun, Anthony Hopkins, Neal McDonough, David Thewlis.

Retired CIA operative Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) is enjoying domestic life with girlfriend Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker) until sartorially challenged former associate, Marvin Boggs (John Malkovich), pops up unexpectedly. Marvin's re-appearance coincides with a dastardly plot involving US government agent Jack Horton (Neal McDonough), Russian secret agent Katja (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and an enigmatic figure known as The Frog (David Thewlis). Subsequently, Frank, Marvin and Sarah go on the run with Chinese contract killer Han Jo-bae (Byung-hun) in hot pursuit. Stylish assassin Victoria (Helen Mirren) joins the chase, which leads to a covert exercise codename Operation Nightshade and its doddery creator (Anthony Hopkins). Red 2 is a hugely entertaining and polished sequel to the uproarious 2010 comedy about a team of retired assassins, who merrily kick butt and run rings around highly trained agents 30 years their junior. Dean Parisot's testosterone-fuelled caper delivers as many thrills and spills as its predecessor, with tongue wedged firmly in cheek. Malkovich continues to scene-steal with his eye-catching outfits. Zeta-Jones's introduction as a vampy old flame - "She is Frank Moses's kryptonite!!" confides Marvin - fails to kindle sufficient sparks in limited screen time but, like the deranged film she inhabits, she's a blast. Screenwriters Jon and Erich Hoeber, who penned the original, mix comedy and explosions with a dash of romance, garnished with Hopkins reliving his Hannibal Lecter glory days. The incendiary cocktail goes down a treat, delivering big laughs without needing to engage your brain too much to keep track of the usual array of crosses, double-crosses and sly twists.

Rating: ***

The World's End (Cert 15, 109 mins, Universal Pictures (UK) Ltd, Comedy/Sci-Fi/Action/Horror/Romance, also available to buy DVD £19.99/Three Film Box Set £26.99/Blu-ray £24.99/Limited Edition Blu-ray Steelbook £29.99/Three Film Box Set £34.99)

Starring: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman, Eddie Marsan, Rosamund Pike.

In June 1990, five teenagers failed to complete a crawl of 12 pubs in Newton Haven which would have culminated in a glorious pint at The World's End. Two decades later, the ringleader of the motley crew, Gary King (Simon Pegg), reunites the lads to complete the booze-fuelled feat known as The Golden Mile. "This time we are going to see it through to the bitter end - or the lager end!" Gary tells Andrew (Nick Frost), Steven (Paddy Considine), Oliver (Martin Freeman) and Peter (Eddie Marsan), who have grown up, got jobs and settled down. Tensions are inflamed when Oliver's pretty sister Sam (Rosamund Pike), who Steven has always fancied, turns up in Newton Haven. However, romantic overtures are quickly forgotten when Gary unmasks the emotionless residents as robotic doppelgangers. "It's not us that's changed, it's the town!" he squeals. The World's End is the concluding chapter of director Edgar Wright and actor Simon Pegg's so-called Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy, which began with the hilarious Shaun Of The Dead then stuttered with Hot Fuzz. Alas, the third time is a charmless exercise in male bonding, spiked with elements of The Stepford Wives. Wright's film is peppered with cameos, none of which produce big laughs or distract from implausibilities in the plot. The tone veers wildly between sci-fi, comedy, action and horror, anchored by an exuberant performance from Pegg as the most instantly unlikeable and irritating anti-hero to swagger out of British cinema in recent memory. A three-disc set comprising Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World's End is also available.

Rating: **

Also released

The Artist And The Model (Cert 12, 105 mins, Axiom Films, Drama/Romance, also available to buy DVD £15.99 - see below)

The Broken Circle Breakdown (Cert 15, 111 mins, Studio Canal, Drama/Romance, also available to buy DVD £19.99 - see below)

The Wall (Cert 12, 108 mins, New Wave Films, Drama/Sci-Fi, also available to buy DVD £15.99 - see below)

New to buy on DVD/Blu-ray

Breaking Bad - The Fifth Season, Part 2 (Cert 15, 359 mins, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, DVD £24.99/The Complete Series DVD Box Set £79.99/Blu-ray £29.99/The Complete Series Blu-ray Box Set £119.99, Drama/Thriller)

The Emmy award-winning drama, chronicling the rise and fall of the crystal meth empire created by high school chemistry teacher Walt (Bryan Cranston) and ex-student Jesse (Aaron Paul), comes to an unforgettable resolution in these eight episodes. Walt's cancer returns and he finally confronts his DEA agent brother-in-law, Hank (Dean Norris), who has almost all of the evidence he needs to secure a conviction. Jesse is detained but refuses to cut a deal with Hank as the stakes are raised, culminating in a bloodbath from which almost no one walks away unscathed. The three-disc set includes the instalments Blood Money, Buried, Confessions, Rabid Dog, To'hajiilee, Ozymandias, Granite State and Felina. A 21-disc set comprising all five series is also available.

Sons Of Anarchy - Season Five (Cert 15, 669 mins, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, DVD £27.99/Complete Seasons 1-5 DVD Box Set £99.99/Blu-ray £34.99/Complete Seasons 1-5 Blu-ray Box Set £119.99, Drama/Romance)

Growing tensions between SAMCRO and the Niners compels Jax (Charlie Hunnam) to seek a meeting with Oakland's most powerful gangster, Damon Pope (Harold Perrineau), in 15 episodes of the acclaimed US biker drama. Also this series, Clay (Ron Perlman) forces Juice (Theo Rossi) to reveal his darkest secrets, Opie (Ryan Hurst) is sacrificed to secure the future of SAMCRO and Tara (Maggie Siff) performs one last bloody favour for Otto (Kurt Sutter). A 17-disc box set comprising all five series is also available.

New Girl - The Complete Second Season (Cert 15, 516 mins, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, DVD £24.99/Seasons 1 & 2 DVD Box Set £39.99, Comedy/Romance)

Taylor Swift guest stars in the second series of the hit US sitcom following the trial and tribulations of free-spirited elementary school teacher Jess Day (Zooey Deschanel) and her room-mates Nick (Jake Johnson), Schmidt (Max Greenfield) and Winston (Lamorne Morris). In these 25 episodes, Jess loses her job and is forced to re-evaluate her relationship with Nick, her divorced parents (Rob Lowe, Jamie Lee Curtis) descend on the apartment for Thanksgiving, and Schmidt and Nick plan to sabotage the impending marriage of Jess's childhood best friend Cece (Hannah Simone), convinced she wants to back out. A six-disc box set comprising both series is also available.

Breathless (Cert 15, 324 mins, ITV Studios Home Entertainment, DVD £19.99, Drama/Romance)

Jack Davenport headlines this six-part ITV1 drama, which chronicles the lives and loves of doctors and nurses working at a London hospital in the 1960s. At the centre of much of the heartache is gynaecology surgeon Otto Powell (Davenport), who jeopardises his marriage to pursue new staff member, Angela (Catherine Steadman). He also performs abortions, even though they are illegal. A past event involving Otto and anaesthetist Charlie Enderbury (Shaun Dingwall) threatens to destroy both men's careers, and brings the medics to the attention of tenacious Chief Inspector Mulligan (Iain Glen).

Vicious (Cert 15, 138 mins, ITV Studios Home Entertainment, DVD £19.99, Comedy/Romance)

Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi play waspish life partners in this old-fashioned six-part ITV1 sitcom created by Mark Ravenhill. Ash (Iwan Rheon) moves into a central London flat and discovers his downstairs neighbours are Freddie (McKellen) and Stuart (Jacobi), who have been together for nearly 50 years. All of the bickering and barbs traded by the two men conceals a deep love for one another and as Ash gets to know Freddie and Stuart, and their feisty best friend Violet (Frances de la Tour), he realises that the old-timers are gloriously young at heart.

The Wall (Cert 12, 108 mins, New Wave Films, DVD £15.99, Drama/Sci-Fi)

Martina Gedeck delivers a compelling performance as a woman facing an otherworldly nightmare in this Austrian thriller directed by Julian Roman Polsler. A nameless forty-something woman (Gedeck) heads into the mountains for a well deserved break with her two friends and their beloved Bavarian Mountain Dog called Lynx. The hosts leave for their regular journey into town but never return and the woman grows concerned. She heads down the track towards town and walks into an impenetrable and invisible force field that prevents her from leaving. Outside the barrier, everyone and everything is frozen in time; inside, life goes on as normal other than there doesn't seem to be any other humans alive except for the woman. As hours turn into days and weeks, the woman learns to live off the land, hunting the few animals that are trapped inside the force field with her.

The Act Of Killing (Cert E, 122 mins, Dogwoof Digital, DVD £14.99/Blu-ray £19.99, Documentary)

Produced by Errol Morris and Werner Herzog, Joshua Oppenheimer's chilling documentary meets Anwar Congo, leader of the Indonesian death squads, which participated in the murder and torture of more than a million suspected Communists, ethnic Chinese and intellectuals during the 1960s. Anwar and his colleagues are unrepentant and proud of their deeds, and have never been punished. The film invites Anwar to re-enact the murders in the style of the American movies they love. At first, the paramilitaries excitedly hire actors, make sets and costumes to reconstruct this gruesome moment in 20th century history. As the cameras roll and Anwar comes face to face with his part in the slaughter, he is compelled to accept responsibility for his actions and bear the weight of responsibility for the countless lives he took.

Heaven's Gate (Cert 18, 210 mins, Second Sight, DVD £15.99/Blu-ray £19.99, Western/Drama)

A re-release of Michael Cimino's divisive 1980 western, which was plagued with behind-the-scenes problems and almost bankrupted a film studio. At the time, critics lambasted the project, but in the intervening decades it has been re-assessed by some as a masterpiece of 20th century American filmmaking. Marshal Jim Averill (Kris Kristofferson) is en route to his new position in the north. He stops off in the town of Casper, Wyoming, where cattle barons are locked in a bitter dispute with the impoverished European immigrants, who sometimes steal their animals for food. Frank Canton (Sam Waterston), who is head of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, tells his members the time has come to take drastic action and they draw up a list of 125 settlers, who will be killed for stealing cattle. As the threat of bloodshed becomes terrifyingly real, Averill sides with the settlers and he finds an unlikely ally in his good friend Nate Champion (Christopher Walken), who works as an enforcer for Canton and his cronies.

The Broken Circle Breakdown (Cert 15, 111 mins, Studio Canal, DVD £19.99, Drama/Romance)

Based on the stage play of the same name by Johan Heldenbergh and Mieke Dobbels, The Broken Circle Breakdown is a character study about a married couple, who respond to their child's illness in very different ways. Elise Vandevelde (Veerle Baetens) owns a tattoo shop and her body bears the fruits of her labour including a cross scrawled across her neck. Didier Bontinck (Johan Heldenbergh) is a hopeless romantic, who plays banjo in a band and tends to talk a lot. When Elise and Didier meet, it is love at first sight and they marry, bringing a gorgeous little girl called Maybelle (Nell Cattrysse) into the world. When Maybelle reaches six years old, she becomes seriously ill and her parents must ignore their differences, including their religious faith (or lack of it), to fight for her survival.

The Artist And The Model (Cert 12, 105 mins, Axiom Films, DVD £15.99, Drama/Romance)

An elderly sculptor is gifted a new lease of life in Fernando Trueba's sensual drama. The year is 1943 and the Nazis have occupied France. Aging artist Marc Cros (Jean Rochefort) and his wife Lea (Claudia Cardinale) live in the south of the country, far from the devastation of the conflict, determined to live out their twilight years in these beautiful surroundings. Marc has lost his creative spark until Lea offers shelter to a beautiful Spanish political refugee named Merce (Aida Folch). Her presence re-ignites Marc's love of sculpture and she becomes his muse as the old man embarks on a final journey of artistic self-discovery.

Jake And The Never Land Pirates: Never Land Rescue (Cert U, 142 mins, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, DVD £7.99, Animation/Children)

Tinker Bell makes her first appearance in this feature-length instalment of the popular Disney Channel animation. Just as the ancient Forever Tree predicted, the magic in Never Land begins to vanish including Jake's sword and Izzy's pixie dust. The only hope of salvation, according to a mysterious figure called The Guardian, is for a pirate who believes in himself to embark on the Forever Quest. As Jake (voiced by Cameron Boyce) ventures through an enchanted cave, under the sea and up Mount Destiny, Jake buckles his swash against dastardly Captain Hook (Corey Burton).

Caesar Must Die (Cert 12, 77 mins, New Wave Films, DVD £15.99, Documentary)

Paolo and Vittorio Taviani co-direct this acclaimed docu-drama about a group of inmates at a maximum security facility who are preparing to give a public performance of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. The themes of the Bard's text resonate deeply with the long-term prisoners and as they explore the iambic pentameter, rage and deceit on the page spills out into real life, enflaming tensions within the prison block.

Tell No One (Cert 15, 85 mins, TLA Releasing, DVD £19.99, Drama/Romance)

A secret puts one young man in an embarrassing position in Ivan Silvestrini's Italian drama. Mattia (Josafat Vagni) has never told his family that he is gay, and they certainly don't know that he is planning to move to Madrid to live with his boyfriend Eduard (Jose Dammert). Before Mattia leaves, his family throws him a farewell dinner. It's a touching sentiment, complicated when Eduard telephones to say he will be coming to the dinner too. Suddenly, Mattia faces the seemingly possible task of acting straight in front of his loved ones without Eduard realising that he is still in the closet and leading a double life.

DVD retail top 10

1 (-) Monsters University

2 (-) Downton Abbey - Series 4

3 (9) Mad Men - Season 6

4 (-) Miranda

5 (-) The Big Bang Theory - Season 6

6 (1) Now You See Me

7 (-) The Great Gatsby

8 (9) Les Miserables

9 (-) Family Guy - Season 12

10 (6) Iron Man 3

Chart supplied by Amazon.co.uk

DVD rental top 10

1 (1) Now You See Me

2 (2) Oblivion

3 (3) World War Z

4 (-) Monster's University

5 (4) Behind The Candelabra

6 (5) Snitch

7 (9) Cloud Atlas

8 (7) Hummingbird

9 (8) The Bling Ring

10 (-) After Earth

Chart supplied by www.LOVEFiLM.com

Film streaming top 10

1 (-) Johnny English Reborn

2 (1) Green Lantern

3 (2) Friends with Benefits

4 (4) 16 Blocks

5 (3) Barbie - Princess Charm School

6 (5) The Smurfs

7 (-) Race to Witch Mountain

8 (8) The Kings of Summer

9 (10) Moneyball

10 (6) The Princes And The Frog

Chart supplied by www.LOVEFiLM.com