DVD Review - January 11

By Damon Smith

New to rent on DVD/Blu-ray DVD of the week What Maisie Knew (Cert 15, 99 mins, Curzon Film World, Drama/Romance, also available to buy DVD £15.99/Blu-ray £19.99) Starring: Onata Aprile, Julianne Moore, Steve Coogan, Alexander Skarsgard, Joanna Vanderham, Sadie Rae, Jesse Stone Spadaccini.

Six-year-old Maisie Elizabeth (Onata Aprile) is raised by her self-obsessed parents, fading rock chick Susanna (Julianne Moore) and art dealer Beale (Steve Coogan), whose interests and sexual appetites eventually take them in opposite directions. They separate and Maisie ricochets back and forth between Susanna and Beale and their respective new partners, Lincoln (Alexander Skarsgard) and Margo (Joanna Vanderham). While the adults bicker and squabble, determined to seek custody of the girl, little Maisie watches relationships disintegrate through unblinkered eyes and she gains a deeper insight into the emotional damage that Susanna and Beale have inflicted upon her and the people around them. Adapted from the Henry James novel of the same name, although reset from late Victorian England to present day New York, What Maisie Knew documents a bitter custody battle through the eyes of a quietly observant child caught between her warring parents. Directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel, who explored fractious family dynamics in their earlier films The Deep End and Bee Season, elicit knockout performances from the ensemble cast including relative newcomer Aprile, who is a mesmerising screen presence, devoid of the winsome artifice that handicaps some child actors. She is in almost every frame and the film unfolds predominantly from her perspective, glimpsing heated conversations from Maisie's eye level where venomous words cut to the bone with surgeon-like precision. While Moore and Coogan spare their selfish characters few blushes, Skarsgard and Vanderham are more appealing as the bartender and nanny, who provide the girl with an emotional life-raft in a sea of her parents' insults and recriminations.

Rating: **** Released

Insidious: Chapter 2 (Cert 15, 105 mins, Entertainment One, Horror/Thriller, also available to buy DVD £17.99/Double Film DVD Box Set £24.99/Blu-ray £19.99/Double Film Blu-ray Box Set £29.99) Starring: Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Barbara Hershey, Ty Simpkins, Andrew Astor, Leigh Whannell, Angus Sampson, Steve Coulter, Lin Shaye, Danielle Bisutti.

Supernatural guide Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye) gave up her life to shepherd Josh Lambert (Patrick Wilson) and his son Dalton (Ty Simpkins) from the spirit realm - home to a malevolent force - to the corporeal world. Police probe Elise's demise, forcing Josh (Patrick Wilson), his wife Renai (Rose Byrne) and their two boys Dalton and Foster (Andrew Astor) to move in with Josh's mother Lorraine (Barbara Hershey). The family prays the nightmarish ordeal is over. It's not. Josh begins to behave erratically, which sets Renai on edge, and her nerves are shredded when she is attacked by a ghostly figure (Danielle Bisutti) in the living room. Weird episodes increase in frequency and Lorraine approaches Elise's old cohort, Carl (Steve Coulter), in the hope that he can connect with the dearly departed. "We have questions that need answering," pleads Lorraine, "and the only person we could think to ask... was Elise." If you weren't spooked by James Wan's 2011 supernatural horror Insidious, you stand little chance of making sense of the self-referential sequel. Chapter 2 is even more ludicrous than the first film, squandering the talents of the cast in thankless and occasionally risible roles. Unintentional laughs supplant screams of terror, but to give director Wan credit, he doesn't resort to splatter and gore. The spectre of a potential third film in the series haunts the closing frames. Wilson and Byrne are both reduced to gibbering lunatics while Hershey stumbles blindly around abandoned buildings - an apt metaphor for the directionless script. A two-disc set comprising the original film and sequel is also available.

Rating: **

Also released

Code Red (Cert 18, 90 mins, Entertainment One, Horror/Thriller, also available to buy DVD £12.99 - see below) The Deadly Game (Cert 15, 84 mins, Universal Pictures (UK) Ltd, Drama/Thriller, also available to buy DVD £12.99/Blu-ray £15.99 - see below) Frances Ha (Cert 15, 86 mins, Metrodome Distribution, Comedy/Drama, also available to buy DVD £17.99/Blu-ray £19.99 - see below) Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain (Cert 15, 103 mins, Lionsgate Home Entertainment UK Ltd, Comedy/Documentary, also available to buy DVD £15.99 - see below) Lords Of London (Cert 18, 92 mins, Kaleidoscope Home Entertainment, Thriller, also available to buy DVD £15.99 - see below) The Taste Of Money (Cert 18, 115 mins, Arrow Films, Thriller/Romance, also available to buy DVD £19.99 - see below) New to buy on Dvd/Blu-ray Agatha Christie's Marple - The Complete Series 6 (Cert 12, 276 mins, ITV Studios Home Entertainment, DVD £17.99/Series 1-6 DVD Box Set £69.99, Drama/Thriller/Romance) MyAnna Buring, Robert Glenister, Julia Sawalha, Fiona Shaw and Robert Webb guest star in three more perplexing cases from the pen of Agatha Christie starring Julia McKenzie as elderly sleuth Miss Marple, who always seems to be in the right place at the right time to uncover murder most horrid and other acts of skulduggery. The DVD includes the feature-length episodes A Caribbean Mystery, Greenshaw's Folly and Endless Night. A 22-disc box set comprising all six series is also available.

The Great Train Robbery (Cert 12, 180 mins, Acorn Media, DVD £17.99, Drama/Action) Recently broadcast on BBC One, this two-part drama re-examines one of the most infamous heists in British history from different perspectives. A Robber's Tale documents the planning and execution of the robbery of more than £2 million from a Royal Mail train bound for Glasgow, under the leadership of Bruce Reynolds (Luke Evans). A Copper's Tale focuses on the other side of the law, following hard-nosed DCS Tommy Butler (Jim Broadbent) and his team of detectives as their piece together evidence and search for the fugitives.

Tales From Northumberland With Robson Green (Cert E, 176 mins, ITV Studios Home Entertainment, DVD £14.99, Documentary) Born and raised in the market town of Hexham, actor and singer Robson Green is fiercely proud of his Northumberland roots. In this eight-part series, he explores his home county and its rich heritage, travelling through picturesque countryside to visit Hadrian's Wall and Alnwick Castle as well as camping in Britain's remotest location. En route, he shares anecdotes with fellow Northumbrians.

Strike Back: Shadow Warfare (Cert 18, 420 mins, 2entertain, DVD £24.99/Series 1-4 DVD Box Set £44.99, Action/Drama) Based on the novel by former Special Forces operative Chris Ryan, the fourth series of the Sky 1 action drama is laden with more intrigue and deception. Leo Kamali (Zubin Varla), a member of Al-Zuhari's terrorist organisation, executes a Section 20 operative in Lebanon. Sergeant Michael Stonebridge (Philip Winchester) one-time Delta Forces operative Damian Scott (Sullivan Stapleton) vow to hunt down Kamali and ensure he answers for his heinous crimes. An 11-disc box set comprising all four series is also available.

Frances Ha (Cert 15, 86 mins, Metrodome Distribution, DVD £17.99/Blu-ray £19.99, Comedy/Drama) Greta Gerwig delivers another luminous performance in Noah Baumbach's indie comedy, shot in crisp black and white on location in New York. Twenty-seven-year-old dancer Frances (Gerwig) lives in a cosy Brooklyn apartment with her best friend Sophie (Mickey Sumner). After many happy months together, Sophie decides to leave the apartment to live with her boyfriend. Frances is faced with a momentous decision: has the time finally arrived to embrace adulthood and find a place of her own? Unsure what to do with her life, Frances drifts from one potential flatshare to the next and even makes a brief sojourn to Paris. However, reality keeps biting and eventually Frances must return to the real world, where she seeks guidance from her mother and father, played on screen by Gerwig's actual parents, Christine and Gordon.

Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain (Cert 15, 103 mins, Lionsgate Home Entertainment UK Ltd, DVD £15.99, Comedy/Documentary) The popular American stand-up performs in front of 30,000 fans at Madison Square Gardens in New York as part of a world tour which spanned 10 countries and 80 cities. The hilarious and wide-ranging set includes a candid discussion of life after divorce and his hopes for the future, interspersed with footage from other gigs on the tour. The DVD release includes more than 45 minutes of content exclusive to the UK.

Unit One - Series Three (Cert 15, 401 mins, Arrow Films, DVD £24.99, Thriller/Drama) Commander Ingrid Dahl (Charlotte Fich) continues to lead the elite Rejseholdet task force in 14 episodes of the Emmy award-winning Scandinavian crime drama. This series, Dahl and her trusted detective inspectors - Allan Fischer (Mads Mikkelsen), Jens Peter Jorgensen (Waage Sando) and Thomas La Cour (Lars Brygmann) - attempt to break up a human trafficking ring connected to the Polish mafia, and investigate the slaughter of an entire family and an arson attack on a hotel.

The Deadly Game (Cert 15, 84 mins, Universal Pictures (UK) Ltd, DVD £12.99/Blu-ray £15.99, Drama/Thriller) Toby Stephens, Gabriel Byrne and Rufus Sewell star in this hard-hitting crime drama directed by first-time filmmaker George Isaac, which was released in UK cinemas under the title All Things To All Men. Renegade cop Parker (Rufus Sewell) has been determined to bring down crime lord Joseph Corso (Gabriel Byrne) for years but has never had the evidence to put the kingpin behind bars. These rivals on opposite sides of the law become embroiled in the same ambitious bank robbery staged by professional thief and safecracker Riley (Toby Stephens). The heist does not unfold as planned and alliances become blurred. James Frain, Leo Gregory and Julian Sands co-star.

Lords Of London (Cert 18, 92 mins, Kaleidoscope Home Entertainment, DVD £15.99, Thriller) Crime is a family business in Craig Viveiros's gritty thriller headlining Ray Winstone and Glen Murphy. Tony Lord (Murphy) is the son of notorious London gangster Terry Lord (Winstone), who struck fear into the hearts of his friends and rivals, including his own Italian-born wife. Inevitably, Tony follows in his old man's footsteps and he wakes one morning in an abandoned farmhouse with blood on his shirt but no memory of the previous day's events. As he searches for a telephone to call his gang, Tony discovers that he is in an Italian village without any form of telecommunications. The locals refuse to talk to the blood-spattered outsider except for a man called Francesco (Giovanni Capablo), whose grand-daughter has fallen in love with a British hustler. Gradually, Tony surmises that he has been spirited to this Italian community for a reason. In order to piece together the fragments of his missing memory, he may have to sacrifice himself so others might live.

The Taste Of Money (Cert 18, 115 mins, Arrow Films, DVD £19.99, Thriller/Romance) Greed and desire are powerful drugs in Im Sang-soo's erotically charged thriller. Baek Geum-ok (Yoon Yeo-jeong) holds the reins of power and the majority of shares at the company founded by her father. So while her husband Yoon (Baek Yoon-sik) is chairman of the business, a position he inherited through marriage, she makes all the important decisions and keeps a beady eye on their children Nami (Kim Hyo-jin) and Chul (On Joo-wan). When Baek sees Yoon enjoying a dalliance with the family's Filipina maid, Eva (Maui Taylor), she retaliates by bedding her husband's private secretary Joo Young-jak (Kim Kang-woo). The situation worsens when Chul brings shame on the family name and Baek lashes out with increasing fury.

Code Red (Cert 18, 90 mins, Entertainment One, DVD £12.99, Horror/Thriller) Valeri Milev directs this straight-to-DVD horror about a wartime secret, which has devastating repercussions in the present day. During the Second World War, Stalin created a deadly and potent nerve gas with the strength to drive entire towns to the brink of insanity in a murderous frenzy. The gas is missing for more than 70 years, only to be released in modern-day Bulgaria, where residents discover the nerve agent has a rather unfortunate side effect: it re-animates the dead. US Special Forces agent John McGahey (Paul Logan) and NATO medic Ana Bennett (Manal El-Feitury) are trapped in the hot zone as bloodthirsty zombies go on the rampage. The survivors join forces to escape the onslaught before a code red alert is raised, which authorises the immediate destruction of the entire area.

Under The Bed (Cert 15, 84 mins, Metrodome Distribution, DVD £12.99, Horror/Thriller) Steve C Miller directs this horror, which taps into the universal fear of a monster lurking under the bed. Neal Hausman (Jonny Weston) has spent two years in a psychiatric facility coming to terms with the death of his mother Angela (Musetta Vander) in a fire. He returns home, slightly more stable, into the care of his father Terry (Peter Holden). As soon as he gets home, Neal seeks out his younger brother Paulie (Gattlin Griffith), who bears the scars of shocking secret: the boys' mother was killed by a creature that lives under the bed, which is attracted to sound and can be fended off with bright light. The two youngsters join forces to banish the demon forever but evil lurks in every shadowy nook and cranny.

Heretic (Cert 18, 90 mins, 101 Films, DVD/Blu-ray £15.99, Horror/Thriller) A holy man must confront the failing of the past in this British horror directed by Peter Handford. Several months ago, Father James Pallister (Andrew Squires) pledged to look after an emotionally disturbed girl but she committed suicide. Now, he visits the dilapidated mansion where her untimely death took place, seeking absolution. Instead, Pallister is accidentally locked inside the building overnight and he becomes convinced that the malevolent spirits of the girl and her deceased stepfather are stalking him down dark corridors, intent on horrific revenge.

DVD rental top 10 1 (1) Now You See Me 2 (2) Oblivion 3 (3) World War Z 4 (4) Monster's University 5 (5) Behind The Candelabra 6 (6) Snitch 7 (7) Cloud Atlas 8 (8) Hummingbird 9 (9) Trance 10 (10) After Earth Chart supplied by www.LOVEFiLM.com Film streaming top 10 1 (1) Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger 2 (-) Tangled 3 (-) Tower Heist 4 (2) Immortals 5 (3) The Place Beyond The Pines 6 (-) Vehicle 19 7 (6) Scrooge 8 (4) Broken City 9 (-) What's Your Number 10 (7) The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Chart supplied by www.LOVEFiLM.com :: Note to Editors: This is an amended version of the earlier DVD Reviews, now with the top 10 DVD Rental and Film Streaming charts. DVD Retail charts are not currently available.