By Damon Smith

New to rent on DVD/Blu-ray

DVD of the week

White House Down (Cert 12, 131 mins, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Action/Thriller, also available to buy DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £24.99/Limited Edition Steelbook Blu-ray £27.99)

Starring: Channing Tatum, Jamie Foxx, James Woods, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jason Clarke, Joey King, Richard Jenkins, Michael Murphy, Lance Reddick, Rachelle Lefevre.

John Cale (Channing Tatum) is an ex-soldier, who is assigned to protect Speaker Of The House, Eli Raphelson (Richard Jenkins), when he would much rather be part of the Secret Service detail protecting President James Sawyer (Jamie Foxx). An interview for promotion conducted by Carol Finnerty (Maggie Gyllenhaal) goes badly and John licks his wounds by joining his daughter Emily (Joey King) on a guided tour of the White House just as a heavily armed paramilitary group led by Emil Stenz (Jason Clarke) prepares to take control of the building. White House Down is a preposterous, high-octane action thriller, which unfolds during a terrorist attack on the US President's iconic seat of power. The similarities to Olympus Has Fallen starring Gerard Butler are inescapable. On the surface, the two films follow the same narrative trajectory, pitting a single man against hordes of gun-toting adversaries on a suicide mission to rescue the stricken President from diabolical captors. Both films cower in the shadow of nuclear Armageddon but White House Down boasts more creativity with its protracted action sequences, including a hysterically overblown car chase around the grounds of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, replete with the President leaning out of a moving vehicle armed with a rocket launcher. Channing dodges bullets and certain death at every explosive turn while Foxx manages to retain his presidential cool in the face of extreme provocation. Screenwriter James Vanderbilt provides director Roland Emmerich with the full array of cliches and contrivances, including a cherubic child in peril and at least one traitor in the upper echelons of power.

Rating: ***

Released

R.I.P.D. (Cert 12, 96 mins, Universal Pictures (UK) Ltd, Sci-Fi/Action/Comedy/Thriller, also available to buy DVD £19.99/3D Blu-ray £24.99)

Starring: Jeff Bridges, Ryan Reynolds, Kevin Bacon, Mary-Louise Parker, Stephanie Szostak, Devin Ratray, Mike O'Malley.

Boston Detectives Nick Walker (Ryan Reynolds) and Bobby Hayes (Kevin Bacon) steal gold bullion from a high-profile drugs bust. Nick hides his share under an orange tree in his backyard as an investment for his wife Julia (Stephanie Szostak), then gets cold feet and tells Bobby he intends to return the booty. At a subsequent raid, Bobby murders Nick to guarantee his silence. As his soul ascends to final judgement, Nick takes a detour to the Boston division of the Rest In Peace Department, where director Mildred Proctor (Mary-Louise Parker) enlists him for a 100-year tour of duty capturing nefarious spirits that have failed to cross over. Nick is partnered with US Marshal Roy Pulsipher (Jeff Bridges), who adopts a no-nonsense shoot-first approach to his work. The veteran and protege initially clash but gradually form a tender bond as the stolen gold returns to haunt Nick. Adapted from a series of comics, R.I.P.D. is an otherworldly action adventure in a similar vein to Men In Black, which pairs a grizzled veteran and a gung-ho newcomer in a hunt for earthbound monsters. Unfortunately, Robert Schwentke's film is almost as lifeless as the creatures Roy and Nick have to apprehend. Screen chemistry between the leads fails to convince, punchlines fall flat and the numerous pursuits of mouldering prey are lacklustre. Bridges chews limp dialogue like tobacco as a 19th century US Marshal whose moral compass is misaligned with the modern world. Reynolds seems ill at ease while Bacon glowers as the tepid pantomime villain. The 3D version of the film is available exclusively on Blu-ray.

Rating: **

Also released

A Belfast Story (Cert 15, 99 mins, Kaleidoscope Home Entertainment, Thriller, also available to buy DVD £15.99/Blu-ray £17.99 - see below)

The Colony (Cert 18, 93 mins, Entertainment One, Horror/Thriller/Sci-Fi, also available to buy DVD £12.99 - see below)

Hours (Cert 12, 97 mins, Signature Entertainment, Drama/Thriller, also available to buy DVD £14.99/Blu-ray £17.99 - see below)

In A World... (Cert 15, 93 mins, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Comedy/Drama, also available to buy DVD £17.99 - see below)

Peacock (Cert 12, 91 mins, Lionsgate Home Entertainment UK Ltd, Thriller, also available to buy DVD £15.99 - see below)

Saving General Yang (Cert 15, 102 mins, Universal Pictures (UK) Ltd, Action/Thriller, also available to buy DVD £12.99/Blu-ray £15.99 - see below)

New to buy on DVD/Blu-ray

Sherlock - Complete Series Three (Cert 15, 255 mins, BBC DVD, DVD £19.99/Complete Series 1-3 DVD Box Set £34.99/Blu-ray £24.99/Complete Series 1-3 Blu-ray Box Set £39.99, Thriller/Drama/Action)

The third series of BBC One's modern re-invention of Arthur Conan Doyle's legendary detective came to an explosive conclusion on Sunday night with one major character aiming a gun at Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch) and potentially taking his life. This series begins with an elaborate explanation of how Sherlock survived his Reichenbach fall then segues into the wedding of John Watson (Martin Freeman) and bride Mary (Amanda Abbington), at which Holmes must deliver a cracking Best Man speech. The third and final episode pits the sleuth against newspaper proprietor Charles Augustus Magnussen (Lars Mikkelsen), who holds files of blackmail material on almost everyone in power. The DVD includes The Empty Hearse, The Sign Of Three and His Last Vow.

Doctor Who: The Time Of the Doctor And Other Eleventh Doctor... (Cert PG, 232 mins, BBC DVD, DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £24.99, Sci-Fi/Drama/Action/Comedy)

Matt Smith passes the sonic screwdriver to Peter Capaldi in the 2013 Christmas special of the long-running sci-fi show, which sees plucky companion Clara Oswald (Jenna-Louise Coleman) abandon her family's festive celebrations to help the Doctor (Smith) decode an ominous message and potentially face old adversaries including the Cybermen, Daleks and Weeping Angels. The two-disc set also includes the other Christmas specials featuring Smith: A Christmas Carol, The Doctor, The Widow And The Wardrobe and The Snowmen.

Last Tango In Halifax - Series Two (Cert 12, 344 mins, BBC DVD, DVD £19.99/Series One & Two DVD Box Set £29.99, Drama/Romance)

Widowed seventy-somethings Alan (Derek Jacobi) and Celia (Anne Reid) continue to seize their chance at second-time love in six episodes of the popular BBC One drama. This series, Alan and Celia prepare to marry and move in together, having re-catalysed their love after their respective grandsons created Facebook accounts for them. However, animosity between Alan's daughter Gillian (Nicola Walker) and Celia's daughter Caroline (Sarah Lancashire) threatens to overshadow the big day and create friction between the happy couple. A four-disc box set comprising both series is also available.

Madly Madagascar (Cert PG, 22 mins, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, DVD £6.99, Animation/Family/Comedy/Romance)

David Soren directs this Valentine's Day themed animated short, which continues the misadventures of Alex the lion (voiced by Ben Stiller), Marty the zebra (Chris Rock), Melman the hypochondriac giraffe (David Schwimmer) and Gloria the hippopotamus (Jada Pinkett Smith) from the Madagascar films. Marty is determined to catch the eye of a beautiful okapi so he procures a love potion from the penguins. The magical tonic works too well and every female zebra in the vicinity is soon swooning in Marty's presence.

Hours (Cert 12, 97 mins, Signature Entertainment, DVD £14.99/Blu-ray £17.99, Drama/Thriller)

The Fast & The Furious star Paul Walker makes one of his final screen appearances in Eric Heisserer's straight-to-DVD drama set against the backdrop of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Nolan Hayes (Walker) is devastated, having just lost his wife during the birth of their premature baby. The child has breathing difficulties and needs an incubator to survive but with Katrina bearing down on New Orleans, Nolan is ordered to evacuate. He refuses, determined to save the only thing he has left using a hand-cranked generator to power the ventilator. Opportunistic looters and severe flooding test Nolan's courage and resolve to the limit as he risks everything - including his life - to give his child a fighting chance.

In A World... (Cert 15, 93 mins, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, DVD £17.99, Comedy/Drama)

Actress Lake Bell won the coveted Sundance 2013 Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for this bittersweet drama about a young woman who finds herself in direct competition with her father. Sam Sotto (Fred Melamed) is the reigning king of the film trailer voiceover, earning big bucks for lending his dulcet tones to slickly edited promos for forthcoming movies. His daughter, Carol Solomon (Bell) is a struggling vocal coach, who takes inspiration from her old man to follow her dream of becoming a voiceover artist too. With assistance from a sound technician named Louis (Demetri Martin) and the encouragement of her sister Dani (Michael Watkins), Carol lands a high profile job ahead of bad boy Gustav Warner (Ken Marino). Full of confidence about her abilities, Carol begins to make waves in the industry, putting her in direct competition with Sam for the prized jobs.

The Colony (Cert 18, 93 mins, Entertainment One, DVD £12.99, Horror/Thriller/Sci-Fi)

Scientists attempt to compensate for global warming but a technological glitch results in the dawn of a new Ice Age that almost destroys the human race. A few survivors huddle below ground in underground bunkers, searching desperately for a solution to the meteorological disaster. Briggs (Laurence Fishburne) leads the survivors of Colony 7 and he receives a distress call from nearby Colony 5. Marshalling a team to traverse the frozen landscape, Briggs arrives at Colony 5 and discovers that the outpost is under attack from a group of crazed cannibals, who have elected to survive perpetual winter by feasting on the living.

Computer Chess (Cert 15, 91 mins, Eureka, Blu-ray & DVD Combi-pack £17.99, Comedy/Drama/Romance)

Indie filmmaker Andrew Bujalski steps back in time three decades to the moment when chess software programmers attempted to turn computers into grandmasters and prove that artificial intelligence was much more than a pipe dream. Chess master Pat Henderson (Gerald Peary) hosts a tournament in a hotel at the end of which one lucky entrant will play him in the final showdown. Programmer and psychologist Martin Beuscher (Wiley Wiggins) is in attendance with his junior assistant Peter Bishton (Patrick Riester), hoping to fine-tune his software update to play faster and smarter. Meanwhile, Peter casts adoring glances at the competition's first female player, Shelly Flintic (Robin Schwartz), and eccentric genius Michael Papageorge (Myles Paige) leaves chaos in his wake as he pursues a wayward path through the tournament draw.

Inside Claridge's (Cert E, 174 mins, ITV Studios Home Entertainment, DVD £14.99, Documentary)

Go behind the scenes of the luxurious five-star hotel situated in Mayfair in this three-part BBC Two series, which was filmed over the course of one year. As cameras roam the corridors, housekeeping staff diligently prepare the entire third floor for the arrival of foreign royal dignitaries and Olympic spirit overflows as delegates for the London 2012 Summer Games congregate in the capital.

A Belfast Story (Cert 15, 99 mins, Kaleidoscope Home Entertainment, DVD £15.99/Blu-ray £17.99, Thriller)

A world weary Belfast detective (Colm Meaney) and his colleagues at the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) investigate a series of increasingly brutal murders targeting former members of the IRA. Aided by a rookie cop (Damien Hasson), who is secretly reporting back to the scheming Chief Constable (Malcolm Sinclair), the detective follows a trail of evidence that stirs up nightmarish memories of the past.

Saving General Yang (Cert 15, 102 mins, Universal Pictures (UK) Ltd, DVD £12.99/Blu-ray £15.99, Action/Thriller)

Seven brothers embark on a suicide mission to rescue their stricken parent in Ronny Yu's martial arts action thriller. General Yang Ye (Adam Cheng) and his family have dedicated their lives to repelling invasions by the Khitan people on the Chinese border. During a fierce battle at Twin Wolves Mountain, Ye is captured by Khitan commander Yeluv Yuan (Shao Bing), who knows that the general's seven sons will come to their father's aid and can be slaughtered by the vast Khitan army. Sure enough, eldest son eldest son Yanping (Ekin Cheng) promises his mother Saihua (Xu Fan) that he will lay down his life to rescue Ye and protect his six siblings. The Khitan people vastly underestimate Yanping and his brethren, who will stop at nothing to reunite their fractured clan.

Peacock (Cert 12, 91 mins, Lionsgate Home Entertainment UK Ltd, DVD £15.99, Thriller)

Following childhood trauma inflicted by his abusive mother, John Skillpa (Cillian Murphy) has grown up with a secret: he has multiple personality disorder. His alter ego is a woman called Emma, who cooks him breakfast, does the chores and sets John on his way to work each day as a bank clerk in the tiny community of Peacock, Nebraska. When a train derails in John's backyard and neighbours come face to face with Emma, he quickly spins a lie that Emma is John's wife and they married in secret. Now that Emma is out in the open, John must somehow change back and forth between his two personalities to continue the lie. The deception becomes harder when struggling single mother, Maggie (Ellen Page), enters John's life and poses a challenge to Emma as the dominant personality.

Goats (Cert 15, 91 mins, Koch Media, DVD £15.99, Comedy/Drama/Romance)

Christopher Neil directs this coming-of-age comedy drama about a teenager struggling to fit into his new surroundings. Ellis (Graham Phillips) is a stoner, who lives with his goat herder father (David Duchovny) and New Age hippy mother (Vera Farmiga) in Tucson. When it comes to choosing a prep school, Ellis decides to follow in his old man's footsteps and attend a school on the East coast, which means moving far away from the comforts of home. At first, Ellis acclimatises badly but excels in all aspects of his schoolwork. Gradually, he finds his niche and blossoms, learning valuable lessons about romance and preparing for the future.

The Lebanese Rocket Society (Cert E, 96 mins, Soda Pictures, DVD £17.99, Documentary)

Today, when we think of rockets flying over the Arab world, sadly we conjure images of conflict and destruction. Back in the early 1960s though, a group of students and researchers created the Lebanese Rocket Society with the goal of launching rockets into space. It was a purely scientific endeavour and the group successfully produced the first rocket of the Arab world. Directors Khalil Joreige and Joana Hadjithomas relive the extraordinary period in this documentary, which draws upon archival material and animation to reconstruct a secret chapter in Lebanese history.

DVD retail top 10

1 (1) Vicky Pattison's 7 Day Slim

2 (2) Davina - Fit in 15

3 (4) Jillian Michaels: 30 Day Shred

4 (3) Sherlock - Series 1 and 2 Box Set

5 (5) Downton Abbey: The London Season

6 (-) Downton Abbey - Series 4

7 (10) Breaking Bad - Season 5

8 (9) Josie Gibson's 30-Second Slim

9 (7) Star Trek Into Darkness

10 (-) Breaking Bad - The Final Season

Chart supplied by Amazon.co.uk

DVD rental top 10

1 (2) Oblivion

2 (4) 2 Guns

3 (3) The Lone Ranger

4 (6) Now You See Me

5 (-) Grownups 2

6 (5) The Purge

7 (1) Pain & Gain

8 (7) Red 2

9 (-) Monsters University

10 (10) Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa

Chart supplied by www.LOVEFiLM.com

Film streaming top 10

1 (-) Blood Glacier

2 (1) Midnight's Children

3 (-) The Impossible

4 (2) In Time

5 (4) Tangled

6 (3) Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger

7 (5) Tower Heist

8 (-) Bird in a Box

9 (-) Thomas and Friends: Blue Mountain Mystery

10 (7) The Place Beyond The Pines

Chart supplied by www.LOVEFiLM.com