DVD, Blu-ray and TV

Iron Monkey

Eye-popping action from venerable screen kung fu master Yuen Woo-Ping. Iron Monkey stars Yu Rong-kwong as Dr Yang, who masquerades as the eponymous high-kicking Robin Hood-style hero. Clocking in at an extremely zippy 86 minutes, this superbly choreographed chopsocky flick is the inspiration for both The Matrix and Crouching Tiger...

Psych-Out

Susan Strasberg is a deaf Carole Caplin döppelganger in 1968 Haight-Ashbury in this hilariously inept 'look' at the counterculture. Jack Nicholson is guitarist Stoney, beneficiary of lines such as "it don't sound so good without acid". Strasberg is searching for The Seeker, aka her big brother Steve (Bruce Dern). Dean Stockwell intones Manson-esque platitudes about "head games". The Strawberry Alarm 'Schlock' sing "Incense And Peppermints" and Sky Saxon plays in the park. It's that good, and it's that bad.

Elton John

Filmed in 1979, directed by sitcom stalwarts lan La Frenais and Dick Clement, To Russia With Elton is the antidote to the current Elton live show. Accompanied only by drummer Ray Cooper, he seems to have a genuine hunger; unsurprising, perhaps, in light of the commercial failure of '78's A Single Man and the following year's critically reviled Victim Of Love. Probably the last time Elton was ever vital.

War Roundup

This WWII melodrama from Delmer Daves, director of all-time classic western Broken Arrow, has two great showcase roles for Frank Sinatra (poor, principled officer) and Tony Curtis (wealthy, mean sergeant). The romantic sub-plot has dated badly, but the battle scenes are still worth a look.

S.W.A.T.

Predictably brash big-screen version of unremarkable '70s TV show, with Samuel L Jackson knocking a rogue SWAT team into shape and making unlikely heroes of them. There's more gunfire than dialogue, so Jackson isn't asked to do more than shout a lot, while Colin Farrell squints manfully and kills everyone in sight.

Various Artists

November 2003's AIDS benefit in Cape Town was made special by the presence of one person. No, not Bono, Beyoncé, Geldof, Gabriel or Ms Dynamite, mightily as they perform. On this showing, the biggest star in the world is currently Nelson Mandela, who inspired the event and gets a cheer 10 times as long and loud as the rest combined. A vital cause, some decent music, a few dodgy stadium rock moments and the world's only living saint.

Spy Kids 3D: Game Over

The third in Robert Rodriguez's winning series sees the plucky youngsters enter a maniacal video-game world to confront misunderstood supervillain Sylvester Stallone. Plot barely matters, though, as the movie exists only for Rodriguez to indulge in a rampant, sweetly senseless exercise in reviving retro-3D gimmickry. All in all, how Tron should have been.

Young Adam

Novelist Alexander Trocchi's uneasy blend of Beat existentialism and pseudo porn continue to gnaw in this stylish adaptation of his 1954 whodunnit. Ewan McGregor is suitably dour as the sinister drifter while director David Mackenzie proves himself a master of sustained gloom. But it's the sex scenes, progressing from erotic to self-conscious to simply absurd, that continually corrode.

Hellhound On His Trail

On-the-road documentary trailing Nashville's own Lazarus Man

House Of 1000 Corpses

Sleazecore rocker Rob Zombie pays homage to the golden 1970s heyday of psycho-slasher flicks with his wilfully trashy but memorably nightmarish debut feature, which makes up for a slow start with its final descent into a shock-rocking Hellzone of backwoods mutants, Satanic serial killers, hardcore violence and unimaginable torture. Mixing grainy film stock and period detail, Zombie takes inspiration from Driller Killer, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Evil Dead and other midnight-movie classics.
Advertisement

Editor's Picks

Advertisement