DVDs of the week

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Magical: Nicole Kidman and Dakota Blue Richards in The Golden Compass

Cracking: The Golden Compass

Punchy: Charlie Wilson's War

All change: Ashes to Ashes

Sublime: Silent Light

Settling scores: Dirt

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• Iron Man review
• Trailers

DVD OF THE WEEK
THE GOLDEN COMPASS
Entertainment in Video, PG, £24.99
****
A tinselly CGI Hollywood adaptation of Philip Pullman's intelligent British kidult novels, directed by (ulp) the bloke who brought us American Pie? Surely this franchise was destined to be the crassest kind of dumbed-down studio schlock. Yet, wondrously, it isn't. Part one of the trilogy centres on Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards), a wickedly resourceful orphan who makes Harry Potter look a right namby-pamby. She's on the run from glamorously sinister child-catcher Mrs Coulter (a perfectly cast Nicole Kidman, pictured with Richards) – aided by a golden compass belonging to her uncle Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig), a merry bunch of raggle-taggle 'Gyptians', a witch (Eva Green), armour-plated polar bears and her own 'daemon' (everyone in this fantasy world has their own animal-embodied soul).

It's true that the controversial 'evil' in Pullman's anti-Narnia universe – organised Christianity – is slightly fudged but his provocative metaphysics are still there for clever adults to unpack. And if the opener suffers from info overload, you're soon swiftly swept up on to a truly magical roller-coaster ride. As in Pullman's books, the story is the thing. Cracking stuff.

Extras: Pullman fans should shell out for this two-disc edition, including numerous thoughtful featurettes focusing on the man and his Miltonic inspirations.
Larushka Ivan-Zadeh

CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR
Universal, 15, £19.99
***
As a 12-year-old boy, Tom Hanks was likeable. Put him in the guise of a toy cowboy and he's also likeable. Put him in a bath with some naked strippers...and yes, he's still likeable. It's here we find him at the beginning of true-to-life tale Charlie Wilson's War, giving a whole new meaning to Woody's Roundup. The year is 1980, and after watching a news report from Afghanistan, Congressman Wilson leaps out of the hot tub and into hot water, determined to fund the mujahideen's fight against the Soviet Union. What follows is a mostly jaunty meander complete with dodgy arms deals, whisky-downing and belly-dancing.

My, politics is fun. Especially when you have Julia Roberts (unhinching) and Philip Seymour Hoffman (unhinged) along for the ride. If only the film wasn't let down by lazy attempts to highlight the Afghans' plight. Thankfully, the script is brimming with punchy one-liners, not to mention oneworders. Roberts's put-down of sluts' to Wilson's secretaries is the best thing she's done since Erin Brockovich.

Extras: Making-of doc, featurette.
Ross McGuinness

ASHES TO ASHES: SERIES ONE
Home Entertainment, 15, £39.99
***
It's all change era-wise in this Life On Mars follow-up. This time, we're zooming back to the 1980s, where DI Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister) has swapped his Ford Cortina for an Audi Quattro. Almost as alarmingly, John Simm's Sam Tyler has been replaced by a girl. The central role is now Met psychological profiler DI Alex Drake (Keeley Hawes), who wakes up in a Bowie/Human League-soundtracked 1981, having left 2008 gazing down the wrong end of a pistol. Given that she's posh, go-getting and all for sexual equality, she goes down like a lead balloon with new Pong-playing boss Hunt (who calls her Bolly Knockers).

Glenister and his cop cohorts are once again on fine form in this quality, well-scripted sequel; the problem comes with plummy, hyper-assertive Drake, who, having studied Tyler's case in the present day, is thus bereft of John Simm's endearing bemusement. Still, it's good to see Zippy and George back on our screens again.

Extras: Commentaries, making-of doc, set tour, out-takes.
Sharon Lougher

SILENT LIGHT
Tartan Video, 15, £19.99
*****
Admittedly, the blow-you-away introduction of what's rightly considered one of the finest films of 2007 is (literally) diminished on small screen: dawn breaks silently over the Mexican desert over five minutes, radiating a slow, subtle beauty that touches on the sublime.

Yet, what you fully appreciate through rewatching Silent Light on DVD, is that there's so much more to this masterpiece than one astonishing money shot. At heart, this is a simple, everyday infidelity drama. Loving, religious family man Johan (Cornelio Wall) falls deeply for his mistress – should he live a lie with his wife or stay true to himself? The story is told with such outstanding, tender verite, it's as if you profoundly feel its raw emotional conflict for the first time. Director Carlos Reygadas (Battle In Heaven) filmed the feature entirely on location in the technology-resistant Mexican Mennonite community, using mainly non-professional locals as lead actors. The result is raw, visceral performances counterbalanced by supremely assured visual artistry.

Extras: Director interview, trailer, making-of doc.
Larushka Ivan-Zadeh

DIRT: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON
Disney Home Entertainment, 18, £30.99
****
Given that Friends catapulted Courteney Cox to the top of the tabloid hit-list, it's no surprise that Dirt has the feel of scores being settled. In this sharp satire on the celebrity-scandal media machine, Cox has a ball as feisty magazine editor Lucy Spiller, a woman with a ruthless nose for a story. But Dirt is no quick-fix revenge merchant.

Featuring Brit actor Ian Hart as scene-stealing schizophrenic paparazzo Don Konkey, whose visions blur the lines between reality and insanity, Dirt takes aim at both the hacks who scour the gutters for A-list filth and the public's unquenchable thirst for gossip. They rake the muck, but we're the ones who wallow in it. Dirt captures that incestuous relationship with double-edged relish. So, when Lucy backstabs one star too many and falls victim to a crazed attack, we feel sorry for her, hateful as she is. It's OK, though, she survives – series two is already up and bitching. Phew, I'm not through digging Dirt.

Extras: Don Konkey profile, true life Tabloid Wars, deleted scenes, season two preview.
Keith Watson

 

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