10 December 2012-12-10


Out in the UK this week


The Expendables 2 (Lionsgate, cert 15, Blu-ray/DVD)

Jason Statham helps action OAPs Sly, Arnie, Dolph, Bruce, Jean-Claude and even, god love him, Chuck Norris into their combat gear in a second tranche of lobotomised ass-kicking so ridiculous the franchise might run for ever.

The Expendables 2 – at Amazon

Ping Pong (Britdoc, cert PG, DVD)

Play veteran table tennis and stay limber, sharp and connected to the world – the message of this riveting documentary that works because it focuses on the game and its very elderly players (one a feisty 100), rather than self-empowerment blah.

Ping Pong – at Amazon

Life Just Is (Independent, cert 15, DVD)

After a nano-second on the big screen, this idiosyncratic drama arrives on DVD, a story about young people making the decisions that will define them for the rest of their lives. It’s gobby, gauche, passionate and pseudo profound. Very studenty, in other words, exactly as it should be.

Life Just Is – at Amazon

Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet (Dogwoof, cert E, DVD)

Admirably linear, properly humane, entirely gripping, never mawkish documentary about the gifted finger-shredding guitarist who’d just made the poodle-haired big-time when he was struck with motor neurone disease.

Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet – at Amazon

Gate of Hell (Eureka, cert 15, Blu-ray/DVD)

First time on DVD for Teinosuke Kinogasa’s astonishing-looking samurai adventure from 1954, a film so carefully composed and super-saturated every frame could be screen-grabbed.

Gate of Hell – at Amazon

Ice Age 4: Continental Drift (Fox, cert U, Blu-ray/DVD)

A surprisingly OK Ice Age 4, less constipated and suburban than its forebears, better animated and written than might be expected, with Peter Dinklage delivering entertaining voicework as a salty sea dog straight out of Pirates of the Caribbean.

Ice Age 4: Continental Drift – at Amazon

Keith Lemon: The Film (Lionsgate, cert 18, Blu-ray/DVD)

Leigh Francis’s comic creation, a smutty soufflé of knowingness, collapses under the weight of 85 minutes of Yorkshire gurning, Z list celebrity (Jedward, the Hoff) and no-holes-barred innuendo. Even Celebrity Juice fans aren’t finding this “bang tidy”.

Keith Lemon: The Film – at Amazon




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© Steve Morrissey 2012


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