New DVDs: Monday 12th May 2008

Plenty of new stuff this week starting with P.S. I Love You in which a woman is devastated by the loss of her chap and then consoled by the letters that she starts to receive from him. This seems to be the standard rom-com guff that Hollywood keeps churning out and so I’ve got no qualms about letting it pass by.

Next up is the utterly lamentable AVP2 or, if you prefer, Aliens Versus Predator: Requiem. Just as a ‘rose by any other name would smell as sweet’ it doesn’t really matter what you call this utter clanger of a movie. It succeeds on absolutely zero levels and can’t even get basic human biology right. It is pure drivel and a further tarnishing of one great action movie and four slices of genius (okay three slices but you get the point and Alien 3 is better than most people remember). You can choose between the regular or ‘Ultimate Combat’ edition but heaven knows why you would want either.

Mr Magorium’s Wonder Emporium is a Willy Wonka-ish swirl of colour and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story is notable solely for giving the excellent John C. Reilly a starring role. Either way you feel like you’ve seen them done before and done better - although both are still quite enjoyable.

This week’s new releases of old films include the excellent Les Yeux Sans Visage (Eyes Without A Face) which is a fine slice of surgery-based, creepy as heck, horror. The black and white photography is sublime and the performances are universally great in this cinematic classic.

Also out this week are some brilliant low price Film Four DVDs including Local Hero, The Straight Story, Ghost Dog, Bully, Welcome To Sarajevo, Cypher, American Buffalo and Career Girls - all of which are great films but non of which quite match up to Steven Soderbergh’s outstanding revenge thriller The Limey. Mixing Get Carter and Point Blank, the film sees Terence Stamp on top form as the English gangster who travels to Los Angeles to find those who might be responsible for his daughter’s death. The Limey is a film that requires your brain to be switched on and deserves repeat viewing, as well as a much, much higher profile. It’s the Film of the Week, anything less would be crazy.