DVD, Blu-ray and TV

Brando stars in and directs whopping, overlooked 1961 western that cries out for iconic status

The cross-cutting is seamless—'20s England, '50s California and presentday New York feeding off each other, resonating, as our disaffected heroines, played impeccably by Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore and Meryl Streep, flirt with total internal breakdown. And still, it's all about that nose. Kidman's prosthetic nose. Bumpy, spongy, and slightly off-colour. You either buy it, or you don't.

Al Pacino is in workaday Mad Mentor mode (see Donnie Brasco and Devil's Advocate) as the CIA talent scout who lures the brooding, intense™ Colin Farrell into the fold while director Roger Donaldson tries to rekindle memories of his definitive '80s paranoia thriller No Way Out by inserting a screamingly obvious twist into a 'mole in the agency' finale.

Already a by-word for meaningfully ambitious technical accomplishment, Alexander Sokurov's epic was shot in St Petersburg's Hermitage Museum in one unbroken steadicam shot. Moving through the rooms, we're tossed across history, from Peter the Great to Catherine the Great. And it IS great: saying much about Mother Russia then and now, but also visually gorgeous.

Low-key Argentinian road movie of sorts from director Carlos Sorin. A lost dog provides the impetus for an old man to amble off on a slow journey: he's not really looking for doggie, he's hunting meaning and a decent way to die. New friends shuffle about and there's much sentiment which would be panned if this was a Hollywood flick.

A handsomely filmed 1976 comedy adventure from a Wilbur Smith novel set in Africa during WWI, Shout At The Devil fails to register. True Blue Brit Roger Moore hooks up with alcoholid Lee Marvin, and they take on the German Navy. Explosions follow. Marvin hams outrageously.

The year is 2029, the city is Hong Kong, and the subject is a semi-naked cyborg supercop Major Kusanagi (Atsuko Tanaka). She's an animé fanboy's wet dream with improbably pert buttocks, muscular breasts, pneumatic nipples and a penchant for quoting Corinthians while questioning the nature of 'self' and simultaneously pursuing a mastermind cyber-hacker. Sublimely realised, intellectual ponderous, cheesy fun.

Beware: this re-release of Ivan Passer's neglected 1971 movie comes billed as "starring" Robert De Niro. In fact, Two Oscars Bob, then unknown, has little more than a bit part, as a cop hassling real star George Segal, in one of his best performances as a bottom-rung junkie stealing through a wintry New York to feed his habit. Czech Passers' first US movie combines black comedy with bleakness and a nicely shabby feel which, though not entirely successful, points toward his best film, Cutter's Way.

The 2003 Oscar-winner as Best Foreign Language Film, this sees a German-Jewish family flee to a farm in Kenya to escape the rise of Nazism. Naturally, problems abound as the rural life turns tough, relationships disintegrate, locusts swarm and so do anti-Semites. Viewed through a child's eyes, the importance of each event is intensified, making for a visually impressive and emotionally testing experience.

William Friedkin's thriller casts Benicio Del Toro as a Special Forces killing machine running amok and Tommy Lee Jones as the man who trained him and now has to bring him in. Hokum, basically, but the knife fights are the best since David Carradine and James Remar went at each other with some gusto in The Long Riders.