The latest DVDs and Blu-rays are given the once-over by our writers. Read first before reaching for your credit card.
Based on true events, The Assault deals with the hijacking of an Air France plane at Algiers airport in 1994 by four armed jihadists. The plane, with nearly 200 passengers on board, was allowed to depart for Paris, but landed in Marseilles for refuelling, and it was here than a French SWAT team prepared to lay siege to it.
Unaware of his significance in a conflict between Heaven and Hell, a reverend (Stuart Brennan) takes up his role in a village parish. Yet after fending off a hungry assailant, the holy man slowly becomes aware of his growing thirst for blood. Using his new found urges to confront evil, the reverend takes it upon himself to rid the sleepy village of the most significant members of the criminal underworld.
Coming just before the British New Wave of the late 1950s and early 1960s, J. Lee Thompson’s Woman in a Dressing Gown is the heart-wrenching drama not of an ‘angry young man’, but a sad, trapped middle-aged woman.
Total Recall is unquestionably an action classic. It stands up as one of Arnie's most quotable movies and the action is bloody and entertaining. There's a touch more debate to be had as to whether Total Recall is a science fiction classic; the more heady of the two genres, by far.
I have no qualms about saying Total Recall is an absolute sci-fi classic.
The French prison drama has recently seen significant international acclaim, gaining recognition as a source of both visual and thematic innovation. While Jacques Audiard’s A Prophet (2009) set the bar immeasurably high with its weighty exploration of morality, a suitably grimy Vincent Cassel made Jean Francois-Richet’s Mesrine (2008) double-act truly thrilling. Disappointingly, Eric Valette’s The Prey emerges as an occasionally exciting, but more often baffling, contender amongst such sub-genre heavyweights.
