DVDs of the week

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Night at the Musuem

Eddie Murphy: Delirious

Esma's Secret

Placido Domingo: Hommage A Sevilla

The US Vs. John Lennon

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Night At The Museum
Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, PG, £24.99
***
For all its rather ace, zippitydoodah, cutting-edge CGI, this family adventure, released in time for the Easter hols, feels more like a charming old school Disney film from the Bedknobs And Broomsticks era. And not just because it also stars Dick Van Dyke. He plays a retiring museum night guard who conveniently fails to mention to his stressed-out successor Ben Stiller that at night the exhibits in the New York National History Museum come to life - cue much enjoyable digital dinosaur-led mayhem.
Mildly dissed on release as another Jumanji rip-off (like that's a bad thing?), this may star Robin Williams but it has a quirky, if rather mixed-up flavour all its own. And although it's aimed at kids, adults will find that surprising cameos from the likes of Ricky Gervais, Steve Coogan and Owen Wilson are what really bring this museum to life.
Extras: 'Bringing The Museum To Life' SFX featurette, bloopers, deleted scenes, audio commentaries. Larushka Ivan-Zadeh

Eddie Murphy: Delirious
Anchor Bay, 18, £17.99
*****
If you're someone who rues Eddie Murphy's later-career penchant for movie cash cows, then fear not - this long-awaited DVD release of Delirious is a welcome chance to celebrate the Oscar-nominated comedian's stand-up talent. Delirious is Murphy's seminal 1983 show, performed in front of a huge audience lured by his ace skits on Saturday Night Live. He's just a skinny 23-year-old here but already boasts the cocksure experience of a seasoned pro, delivering an effortlessly fluid set that starts with his recollection of a recurring nightmare about a sexual experience with Mr T and ends with his jubilant declaration that, in a Washington theatre that banned black singer Marian Anderson from performing some 30 years earlier, he now gets paid for 'holding my d**k'. But it's not all un-PC: Murphy's famously superb impressions - James Brown, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder - are great to rediscover. As are the unforgettable stories of his youth that see Murphy lose the swagger and let his cheeky, childlike side run loose. We'd give our right arm to see Murphy do this sort of stuff again - and ditch that fat suit for good.
Extras: Interview, never-before-seen footage. Sharon Lougher

Esma's Secret
Dogwoof Pictures, 15, £15.99
****
During a chilly Sarajevo winter in the aftermath of the Bosnian War, Esma (Mirjana Karanovic) gets a job as a bar waitress - partly by claiming she has neither husband nor children. Only half this statement is true: 12-year-old Sara (Luna Mijovic) is the point of Esma's life and she has taken the job mainly so she can pay for her daughter to go on her school trip. Sara is a beautiful but surly tomboy, uneasily aware that something is not right within their small family. For an adult viewer, the 'secret' turns out to be quite easy to divine. However, that is only marginally the point of Jasmila Zbanic's heartbreaking, beautifully acted debut. Through subtle camerawork (the intent focus on hands, with their contradictory ability to soothe or to harm, is particularly effective), she shows the drama and pathos of the peace that follows on from war - when a population must strive to find a way to give voice to their trauma and so hopefully move on with their lives.
Extras: Director's statement. Nina Caplan

Placido Domingo: Hommage A Sevilla
Deutsche Grammophon, no cert, £19.99
**
With his motto 'When I rest, I rust', tenor Pl·cido Domingo isn't one to accept the march of time quietly. Filmed in 1981, 1991 and revamped this year for DVD, this compilation of the revered veteran tenor's favourite songs should give fans a glimpse of the powerful energy that made his name. Domingo sings from operas set around Seville - and although the sun-parched architecture is awe-inspiring and the music from James Levine and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra passionate, there's a sense that director Jean-Pierre Ponnelle got a little carried away. Even allowing for the passage of two decades, it's all rather hammy. In fact, it feels like you're watching a Carry On Film. In The Barber Of Seville, for example, Domingo plays Figaro and Almaviva (ensuring you never see them both face-on in the same shot). Did this technique ever look good? Best advice is to close your eyes and enjoy the music.
Extras: Behind the scenes. Karen Stretch

The US Vs. John Lennon
Lions Gate Home Entertainment, 12, £19.99
***
'Of all the documentaries that have been made about John, this is the one he would have loved,' declares Yoko Ono. High praise - and it's easy to see why. Focusing on the 'bed-in' decade of 1966-76, this highly watchable doc portrays the ex-Beatle as some sort of radical prophet, about to save the world until his tragic assassination. You can't deny Lennon's sincerity and creative gift for getting his 'Give peace a chance' message across, even if fans will find this is basically a well-constructed replay through familiar contemporary talk show/news clips and concert footage, with the 'new' justification being proof that FBI agents were indeed tapping Lennon's phone and trying to get him deported.
What you're left with, though, isn't so much rage against the system as a sense of loss. The touching, never-before-seen home videos, many with son Sean, leave you saddened that this gentle, inspirational man isn't still with us.
Extras: An hour's worth: mainly new interviews focusing on modern Nixon/Bush parallels. LI-Z

The Dame Edna Experience Network DVD,
no cert, £29.99
***
It's a brave person who can stomach 600 minutes of Dame Edna's garish spoof ITV talk show from 1987. But dipping into this collection raises plenty of smiles. 'If you don't enjoy the show, or if it's a teeny weeny bit boring, you've no one to blame but our guests,' screeches the purple-haired bespectacled one on the very first episode of this four-disc set. Which is basically licence to ensure that, as usual, the sublime and ridiculous guests - including Sean Connery, Mel Gibson, Mary Whitehouse, Liza Minnelli and more - play a very definite second fiddle to Edna's barbed wit, cheeky indulgences (in each show she sings a duet with a star) and never-ending narcissism. Unsurprisingly, the interviewees date proceedings a bit - but, happily, Barry Humphries's alter ego is certainly funny enough to keep you watching for a while. Bonkers, but mostly in a good way.
Extras: Christmas special and A Night On Mount Edna (boom, boom).

 

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