An awesome and ridiculous film that leaves you thrilled beyond the point of your natural endurance
2012
Theatre
The show has suddenly become quite wonderful, and the galvanising factor is the terrific stage debut of Melanie C
Blood Brothers
Music
The British pop music industry may be eating itself but if Muse are the pick of what it can offer the world in 2010 then British music is in rude health indeed
Muse
I was smitten by both Gilberts enormous luxuriant moustache and the intelligence and nuance of this highly entertaining play
I totally recommend Babbo to anyone who is looking for really good and traditional Italian food
Always been a fan but never seen them live. I was ecstatic to be part of this epic event. WOW!
London,
Acid-tongued: Peter O'Toole (right) with Leslie Phillips in Venus
Effervescent: The Jean-Luc Godard collection
Classy: Catch A Fire is a subtle portrait
Avoid it: Jim Carrey stars in Number 23
Iconic: Roxy Music are much more than the greatest ever art school band
Peter O'Toole's Oscar-nominated role in Venus, a strong take on terrorism in Catch A Fire and a compilation from Roxy Music are among the DVDs of the week.
Venus
Buena Vista Home Entertainment, 15, £17.99
****
In 2003, Peter O'Toole initially rejected a 'lifetime achievement' Oscar, insisting he was 'still in the game' and wanted to 'win the lovely bugger outright'. He nearly did it this year, with this Oscar-nominated, top-form performance. O'Toole plays Maurice, an acid-tongued old roue and jobbing thesp reduced to playing corpses on Casualty, until he falls in love with Jessie (Jodie Whittaker), the great-niece of his prissy pal Ian (Leslie Phillips, pictured, left, with O'Toole).
Thoughtless, belching, vulgar and purely out for herself, Jessie's more Vicky Pollard than Venus but Maurice is smitten. His impotence - and her disgust for his decrepit flesh - means nothing more than leching is on the cards. But the pair form an unlikely bond, based on mutual selfishness. Scabrously unsentimental throughout, and all the more touching for it, Hanif Kureishi's laugh-outloud script is beautifully brought to life by director Roger Michell (Notting Hill, Enduring Love) and class performances from Richard Griffiths and Vanessa Redgrave. No 'nearly dead' sympathy votes required.
Extras: Commentary, featurette. Larushka Ivan-Zadeh
Jean-Luc Godard Collection Vol 2
Optimum Releasing, 15, £39.99
*****
Philip Larkin said sex was invented in 1963. Well, Godard lost his sense of humour around 1968 and it was debatably more significant. For proof, check out this box set, which has four effervescent early films that are bright in every sense - colourful, stylish and intelligent - and one, DÈtective, made in 1985 and starring Nathalie Baye, which is oblique, overly intellectual and very, very serious. Pierrot Le Fou, which (like the better-known A Bout De Souffle) stars Jean-Paul Belmondo as a hooligan, is wonderful and cruelly underrated: who could argue with Anna Karina, casually murdering people with scissors as light relief from dazzling poor Belmondo? She finishes the job of driving him crazy in Une Femme Est Une Femme. The other two films here, La Chinoise and Le Petit Soldat, take themselves more seriously - especially the latter, set during the Algerian War. It stars Michel Subor, who would reprise his character years later in Claire Denis's marvellous Beau Travail, which this film inspired.
Extras: Introductions by Colin McCabe. Nina Caplan
Catch A Fire
Universal, 12, £19.99
***
Rabbit-Proof Fence director Philip Noyce witnessed the events of 9/11 first hand. It got him thinking about the motivations of terrorists so, when the Catch A Fire script landed on his lap a few years later, it was a done deal. This is the real story of Patrick Chamusso (Derek Luke), an ordinary South African who became radicalised after being suspected of terrorism in the 1980s. Cop Nic Vos (Tim Robbins) is a one-man good cop/bad cop team, torturing Patrick then taking him home for a family dinner. Ironically, his interrogation methods drive the innocent Patrick to seek out the company of violent anti-apartheid activists, with heartbreaking results. Luke and Robbins are both pros in the lead roles, making this a classy, if not Oscar-worthy, affair. It's a subtle, human portrait with an ending that promotes forgiveness not revenge.
Extras: Deleted scenes, commentary from Noyce, writer and producer Shawn and Robyn Slovo, the actors and Patrick Chamusso. Anna Smith
The Number 23
Entertainment In Video, 15, £19.99
*
A 'murder mystery thriller conspiracy theory drama' (DVD cover-speak for confused mess), this Jim Carrey vehicle starts off bad and ends up 23 times worse. Carrey plays the absurdly named Walter Sparrow, a mildmannered dog catcher married to Virginia Madsen (Sideways), who for no reason beyond blatant plot contrivance buys Walter a battered old novel called The Number 23 as a birthday present. Henceforth, Walter becomes obsessed with the notion that the story is about him. He gets drawn into its parallel schizoid world of terrible acting and cheap CGI (think poor imitations of Sin City) where his alter ego, a detective called Fingerling, is on the trail of a conspiracy around the number 23. Is the number itself a killer? Is Walter? Either way, you can count on a ludicrously lame last halfhour. Avoid.
Extras: Endless and pointless, including a featurette in which Madsen wiffles on about how cupcakes are out to get her - a more plausible conspiracy theory than any in the movie. LI-Z
Roxy Music: Roxy Music
Wienerworld Ltd, no cert
£15.99
***
Roxy Music are much more than the greatest ever art school band: Bryan Ferry's lounge lizard detachment and arch, unfathomable lyrics juxtaposed with Brian Eno's pioneering tape effects and outrageous androgyny still make their first two albums shudder with danger and exotic glamour. Opening this 13-track live, film compilation, debut single Virginia Plain is still the most thrillingly bizarre fusion of avant-garde with pop. Recorded during 1972 and 1974 for Musikladen (the German version of The Old Grey Whistle Test with a studio audience of awkward Mitteleuropeans), these live performances of tracks plucked from their first four LPs don't make for a particularly involving spectacle - bar gawking at the band's camp sci-fi outfits - and the poorly translated packaging (the song Re-make/ Re-model is renamed 'Remake Remotel') only adds to the sense of 1970s kitsch. Still, for the most part these are intimate, paint-strippingly fiery versions of tracks from an iconic band's most creative era. If a live album is not forthcoming, this is certainly the next best thing.
Extras: Lyrics booklet, bonus tracks. Nadine McBay
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
Afternoon:
12°c
