Reviews

Invisible Waves is a movie about gangsters, loyalty, murder and revenge. Gangster movies are typically action packed with chases, fights and confrontations. Invisible Waves is a courageous film in that it only uses these traditional action elements to punctuate its mesmerizing and hypnotic pace. Depending on your perspective, this is either brilliant or boring.

Kyoji is a talented chef in Hong Kong who makes two big mistakes. First he has an affair with his boss's wife and then he murders her. Though his boss is a likable gangster with a big heart, he is a dangerous man when he has been betrayed. So Kyoji is in big trouble. He is also "the stupidest smart guy" and so naively entrusts his escape from Hong Kong to Lizard, someone he has never met, and climbs aboard a clapped out old cruise ship heading for Phuket. Before the ship has left the dock, we (though not optimistic Kyoji) begin to suspect that he has been set up.

Though Kyoji does not inspire confidence, blundering his escape and dawdling into disaster, we did find Invisible Waves intriguing and atmospheric. Unfortunately there are just too many irrelevant scenes; long, low or off centre camera shots; and lengthy silent pauses to make this film riveting. It also suffers from multiple random characters who seem as if they could be significant, but never amount to anything and so must be purposely pointless.

This is definitely a film that will divide audiences. Between those people who appreciate that art requires risks that may not always be successful and can still enjoy the attempt and intention; and others who abhor pretentiousness and are fed up with having expert cinematography compensate for poor construction and storyline. So whichever group you identify with, please conclude our verdict for Invisible Waves accordingly.

Gustave Klopp does a lot of dreaming. Born with an incurable "design flaw" (narcolepsy), stress causes him to fall fast asleep. So, understandably, he sleeps through most of school, being a teenager, dating, marrying, numerous jobs and having a mortgage.

But his sickness finally provides meaning to his life when he starts turning his dreams (heavily influenced by his father's love of American action movies) into comic books. His therapy group of misfits love his stories, but his therapist, his wife and his best friend all have ulterior motives and Gustave has to wake up to reality, or lose everything.

The film is quirky, funny and populated with eccentric characters with big dreams and thwarted ambitions. A surreal comedy that is also poignant and cruel.

All writers ruthlessly re-cycle ideas, characters, memories and experiences. The creative mind is littered with discarded snippets of people and places all waiting to be remembered and put to use. In Re-cycle, Ting-Yin is a successful writer who turned a failed romance into three bestsellers. She is now working on a supernatural novel and strange things are happening in her house. Is this her inspiration, or is her story coming to life? The film's beginning is classically horror, but when Ting-Yin stumbles out of reality it becomes much more fantastic and really feels like a video game. She moves from one bizarre landscape to another, dealing with zombies as she goes.

Beautifully shot, the production is slick, but the story is more melodramatic than frightening.

Incorrigible comic, Mel Brooks, made the original film, The Producers, turned it into a Broadway musical and produced this movie musical. So you know to expect a celebration of everything ridiculous, vulgar and tasteless. You just have to laugh.

Max Bialystock is a wretched producer wooing blue rinsed widows to finance his Broadway fiascos. Then his neurotic, but creative accountant, Leo Bloom, discovers an unorthodox way to make money out of a show that flops. Together they set out to produce the truly offensive, "Springtime for Hitler", hire a director whose motto is "Keep it Gay" and cast their screenwriter in the title role. A guaranteed flop.

This movie musical is packed with elaborate, but not-very-catchy, song and dance routines, risqué one liners and farcical overacting. The DVD extras are similarly packed with outtakes (check out the blue rinse brigade), deleted scenes (funny Will Ferrell!) and other behind the scenes stuff.

The White Countess is a period drama set in booming, cosmopolitan 1930's Shanghai. The city is seething with aristocratic refugees from Russia, Jews fleeing persecution in Europe, capitalists galore and lots of political tension thanks to the Japanese. Mr Jackson (Ralph Fiennes) is a blind American who opens a bar that celebrates this diversity of cultures. Pivotal to the bar's success is its hostess, the White Countess, Sofia Belinskya (Natasha Richardson). They are proud, lonely people who need each other to survive.

But, as Director James Ivory himself admits, this last film from Merchant Ivory (A Room with a View, Remains of the Day, etc) "is not a realistic story and it is not a realistic depiction of 30's Shanghai". Even the superlative cast and stunning cinematography cannot salvage this studiously slow snooze.

Still, it is worth buying the DVD for the tribute to Producer Ismail Merchant who died in 2005.

In November 1959, Truman Capote, celebrated writer and literary personality, read about a family who had been slaughtered on their farm in Kansas. He sensed a story and went to witness how the small, conservative town was coping with these brutal killings. The resulting non-fiction novel, In Cold Blood, made Truman Capote one of the most famous writers in the world. He believed that this was the book that he was always meant to write. But though it was his greatest success and the piece of work he was most proud of, it also wrecked his life and heralded his downfall.

The most surprising thing about Capote (the movie) is all the things it is not. It is not a biography of Truman Capote's life, or even an exposition of his extraordinary talent and extraordinary personality. It is also not a detailed investigation into the killers, the murders or the townspeople. Instead, it is the most powerful depiction of a man at his best and his worst.

In researching and writing In Cold Blood, Truman Capote was presented with an irresistible opportunity to gain more prestige, respect and praise than he had received for any of his previous work. And Capote was desperate for praise, going to any lengths to achieve it. It is through his relationships, behaviour, lies and motivations over these five years in his life that the film reveals the most about the man. Much more incisively than a cradle to grave biography could have done.

An entertainer, Truman is shown to be witty, manipulative, preening and posturing, while often completely insensitive and selfish. But it is in the friendship that he fostered with one of the killers, Perry Smith, that Truman is most exposed. Both endured lonely childhoods, were sensitive artists and shameless liars, and both were selfishly dependent on each other. The irony is that in order for Truman to get what he wanted (an end for his book), his friend must die.

The DVD extras include original footage of Truman Capote that demonstrates why Philip Seymour Hoffman deserved that Oscar.

This two part TV movie is a cross cultural love story that spans two generations and two continents, and is anything but harmonious. Filmed entirely in Singapore, it features cherished Fann Wong and headstrong Maggie Q. Fate doesn't get better than this.

Singapore in 1927 is lusciously beautiful, but feudal. Mei Ling is resigned to an arranged marriage, until she rescues an American stranger who has been mugged into amnesia. She nurses him back to health and true love. Unfortunately, his memory and marriage send him home and pregnant Mei Ling is deserted to disgrace.

But no obstacles can defeat love and twenty years later their daughter, Harmony, sets out to find her father and discovers that she cannot escape love and fate.

The Making of extra on the DVD covers the challenges and achievements of this glossy Singapore-German co-production. For example, the film includes German, Singaporean and American actors and so, in order to get the best performances from each of them, the Director had each act in their own language. In the version I saw, the post-production had them all speaking Mandarin, but I understand that there is an all German version also available.

Freedomland shows what people will do when they are cornered. How easily suspicion and segregation spirals into violence. And that self preservation can override all instincts.

Single mother and ex-crack addict, Brenda Martin (Julianne Moore), staggers into a hospital emergency room with blood on her hands. Detective Council (Samuel L. Jackson) learns that she has been carjacked in the housing project where she works. And though she was thrown out of the car, the carjacker sped off with her son sleeping in the back seat.

The police immediately lock down the black neighbourhood where the child went missing and harass the residents for answers. The community is rightly outraged and racial tension escalates. It takes a search party out to Freedomland, an abandoned orphanage haunted by forgotten and neglected children, to uncover the truth.

The Extras on the DVD outline the incidents and people that inspired this story.

As a thriller, The River King is as fast paced as thawing ice. Its intensity is in the isolation and disillusionment of a man who is determined to uncover the truth, though nothing is what it seems.

The body of a teenage boy is discovered in an ice-clogged river and two local cops from the bumbling school of "what do we do now?" investigate his death. An accident, suicide or homicide? Seems straightforward, except that one of the cops is seeing things that aren't there and a photography teacher is developing some eerie pictures. A conspiracy, misperception, or paranormal haunting? This intriguing film that uses sleight of hand to make you think it is about one thing, when it is actually about another.

No extras on the DVD.

This musical documentary consists of charming, unrehearsed monologues by somewhat random inhabitants of various Malaysian towns, interspersed with karaoke-style music videos. Sung by a smiley woman with a polyester afro, it is difficult to know whether these are spoofs or not. We suspect so, as she yodels dramatically about Malaysia's resources of tin and rubber, and the importance of the Identity Card.

Other than a life story detailed in an impressive set of subtitles (settle down for lots of reading), the last communist himself, Chin Peng, does not feature. None of the monologues are about him and he is not interviewed. But we get some interesting insights into Malaysia, then and now.

We are not sure why the film has been banned in Malaysia, because it is distinctly anti-communist. Young men were lured into the party with sex, not ideology. And modern day Malaysians are shown to be thriving on hard work, while the exiled and aged Communists languor in Thailand, singing karaoke and longing to return home.

No extras on the DVD.

Rooms full of hysterical hostages, red tape and police wrapped around the block, snipers perched on every windowsill, and an escape route that involves a 747. Can this really be the perfect bank robbery? But this is a bank with a secret. And with all the hostages stripped and redressed in exactly the same clothes as the robbers (minus gun-type accessories), soon it is impossible to tell who the bad guys are. Crack police negotiator, Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington) heads towards the bank declaring "Bad guys here I come", only he has to wade through quite a few bad guys on the outside first.

The film is called Inside Man, so it is easy to suspect everyone. But those bad robbers are so smart, sensitive and appalled by the violence of video games and the good guys are so honest, hard working and dashing. We are seduced into liking them both and cannot take sides. Fortunately, there is Madeline White (Jodie Foster), who makes a very good living as "an expeditor", ie pay her enough money and she can fix anything. She is a right nasty piece of work - totally amoral and smug about it. Phew, we cannot like her!

The uncomfortably slow siege of the bank does stretch our patience and belief that this will end perfectly. Then in an unpredictable twist, the good guys gain control, the bad guys completely lose it, and everyone else is suitably incompetent. But who are the bad guys again?

No extras on the DVD.

How would you feel if you lived in a beautiful, bounteous place where everyone was looked after and supposedly happy? Would you fight to overthrow the family that had created and ruled this world for 400 years? Aeon Flux would.

A deadly virus wiped out 99% of the earth's population and the species was only just saved from obliteration by the genius of Dr Goodchild. Fortunately he managed to save a balanced cross section of cultures, races, scientists, and a proliferation of stylists. Together they built the utopian city of Bregna. This is not the dark, post-apocalyptic world of Blade Runner or Mad Max, but a highly stylized, architectural oasis, walled in from chaos and harnessing nature. Everyone and everything is beautiful. But looks can be deceiving. For some reason the population are having bad dreams, they feel strangely empty and some even mysteriously disappear.

Aeon Flux is a rebel fighting in the name of the disappeared. She is sent on a mission to assassinate the current leader, Trevor Goodchild, and navigates her way through the labyrinth of government, "built to be confusing". While we don't think this film was meant to be confusing, there are lots of beautiful, artistic details which just don't make any sense, other than that they are visually stunning.

Communication and technology, in this world that is full of action and the possibilities of life in the future, is very organic. The rebels receive their missions from a Handler who they meet by swallowing a pill and entering an internal telepathic space. Surveillance data is collected and reflected in the droplets of water stored in a huge well, and the government buildings are protected by the surrounding foliage, with its missile-filled seed pods and lethal blades of grass.

Charlize Theron is true to the seriously-sexy, sashaying and purring spirit of the animated Aeon, but as she slinks and pouts from one pose to the next in the city she calls a gilded cage, it is difficult to appreciate her desperate loneliness and the determination of her struggle.

Filmed on location in Berlin, the extras include stories from the striking architectural landscapes, such as Hitler's wind tunnel, and some clips from the original MTV animation series.

The title of this film does carry the warning of "A Dream of Love" and so some disjointed, random, surreal and bizarre elements are to be expected. But this is not so much a movie as a montage set to music. And however beautifully composed the images or the music neither can compensate for all that is wrong with the film.

It is not just that this love story is a hopeless one, where destiny conspires against true love, but it is all the other hopeless bits - the wooden acting (other than iridescent Fann Wong), dull dialogue, ditzy dream sequences and the pocked plot. All as creaky as the plastic gold couch in Shaun's hotel room.

Shaun is a digital arts expert who travels to Taiwan to help his friend, Ivy, produce a video for the city's museum. Since he was a child, Shaun has been haunted by the recurring dream of a girl offering him a bowl of Dragon Eye Congee. In Taiwan he finds himself in his dream girl's house and learns the significance of that tune he can't get out of his head.

This dream of love is really a long musack video. The best we can say is that the congee does look good.

DVD extras: There aren't any.

Bingo Cheung is a sassy, smart-mouthed advertising executive. Nothing fazes this girl. Even when she discovers that she must lose her breast to cancer, she flips a coin and gives herself the options "Tails, cured. Heads, all cured". She is a determined optimist. And fooling herself.

The problem is Bingo finds it hard to let go. She carries a 7 year old pager in the hope her ex-boyfriend will contact her. He does. With cancer, she is terrified of losing her femininity and her future. It takes love and Dr V to help her understand how much she wants to live.

Packed with laughs and lots of story, we become immersed in all facets of Bingo's life. It is both hilarious and heart-breaking as she learns that a positive attitude also requires positive actions.

A horror story about a maid in Singapore? We've heard quite a few, but in this one instead of a horrified Ma'am, it is the maid who is standing at the gates of hell. And unfortunately they are wide open.

Rosa Dimaano (Alessandra De Rossi) is a trusting, pretty Filipina orphan who comes to Singapore to see the world. But it is the start of the lunar seventh month, Hungry Ghost time, and the world is a place of confusing and jarring chaos. Ignorance is no protection and Rosa inevitably offends "something" and soon she is seeing ghosts and having nightmares. Her only happiness is playing with her employers' simple son, Ah Soon (Benny Soh), but to be honest this is hardly a relief as he is also really spooky.

Rosa's employers - a solitary chain smoking artist (Chen Shu Cheng) and an unpredictably tempered dressmaker (Hong Hui Fang) - live in a near derelict shophouse, cluttered with Wayang costumes, creaking cupboards and glowering pictures of the ancestors. Add a failing electricity supply, no telephone or TV and Rosa is absolutely alone in her misery. Or is she? From "The" Title to the twisting joints and/or heads of creepy kids, crawling long-haired wide-eyed zombies, blurring of identities, burnt photos, unprovoked suicides, the proliferation of grabbing-stalking-glaring-weeping-hanging ghosts and even the scorpions, this is a tribute to Asian horror. All the traditional, requisite and much loved scares are here and impossible to miss thanks to a heavy hand on the violin (think amplified Hitchcock).

Though regularly repetitive (especially by the nth explanation of the state of things during the seventh month) and disjointed, The Maid does not suffer from a lack of substance. No doubt this year we will all be more careful about kicking along the ash-ridden pavement and sitting in the front row of the Chinese opera.

Salvation should come in the form of an enormous Banana Split floating down a meandering Stream of Consciousness. And for Max and his dream heroes, ultracool Sharkboy and superhot Lavagirl, it does. Such is the power of dreams.

Desperate to ditch the realities of feuding parents and scornful class bullies, Max escapes with his heroes to Planet Drool, a world he has created and populated with his dreams (by the way, Director Rodriguez' son is called Racer Max). But there is trouble in Drool as Mr Electric – who seems to us to be channeling Dr Evil – is the worst bad dream yet, trapping kids on a roller-coaster of endless fun to stop them from dreaming. Max is the secret weapon that can stop him, if only he can remember his dreams.

The Adventures of Sharkboy & Lavagirl is sometimes more sickly sweet than the Land of Milk and Cookies, but it is also packed full of the random, bizarre and hysterical stuff that dreams are made of. It is CGI and 3D to the max.

DVD extras: Essential 3D glasses, a 2D version and a home movie of Robert Rodriquez and his sons brainstorming and working on the movie.

Flightplan is absolutely engrossing. The movie is visually stunning, each scene meticulously crafted to perfection. Perspective, colour, light, movement, sound, space and so much more are all manipulated with priceless precision. There is suspense and there is intrigue. It is a chilling thriller that really seems to have everything going for it. That is until you start thinking about what is actually going on.

No doubt there is a certain amount of tension and paranoia involved with flying these days and the movie manages to include all of these fears and more. There are possibly terrorists aboard, possibly hijackers aboard, possibly psychopaths aboard, possibly corrupt crew aboard, possibly there is a little girl lost on this enormous aircraft, possibly not. And with all these possibilities, the main question revolves around whether propulsion engineer and frantic mother Kyle (Jodie Foster) is insane or not. As the movie opens with her meeting her dead husband on a station platform and wandering home with him, this does not seem out of the question.

In bleak Berlin, Kyle and her daughter board the biggest and brand newest Aalto E474 to travel to America with her husband's coffin. Soon after take-off, they both fall asleep and Kyle awakes to find her daughter missing. She embarks on a mission to find her, armed with only her maternal instinct and an intimate knowledge of the airplane that she helped build. We have all seen the lengths that Jodie will go to when her maternal instincts are challenged. Out of the Panic Room and into the cargo hold, she does a great job of alienating the crew and other passengers in her determination to find her daughter. A child that no-one believes boarded the plane.

But this plane is huge. The sheer scale of it is intimidating and just plain unsafe (unhappily, Economy still looks cramped and claustrophobic). Indeed this plane is so exceptional and dauntingly beautiful that it must surely star in another movie soon.

Unfortunately this overwhelming flight veers off in so many directions that at some point it just becomes implausible (actually alien abduction would have been more realistic). Riddled with holes, the pressure deflates rapidly and we are left with a very bumpy and unsatisfactory landing.

DVD extras: These extras do not include the same suspense and intrigue as the movie, but are easily as riveting. And with a lot more substance. The Making of Flightplan is a comprehensive (what else with this director?) journey from the original intention of the story to casting, post production and the visual effects. There is also a featurette on designing, building and filming within the Aalto E474. All of which completely reinforce the mastery behind this film. Such a pity about that plot.

The weather, like life, is unpredictable. It is an art as much as a science. And Chicago weather man, David Spritz (Nicolas Cage), has his job down to a fine art. He is someone who gets "a large reward for zero effort and contribution." So why is he miserable? Despite his charming TV persona, he is not comfortable with himself. Selfish and self-involved, he is alienated from his ex-wife and their children. He genuinely loves his family and is desperate to connect, but his clueless attempts are inept and sometimes hilarious.

The film is beautifully visual, with the monotone Chicago winter weather dominating and mirroring David's personal crisis. A black comedy (you can't help laughing while cringing), it is a brutally honest and introspective story of one man coming to terms with who he is.

The DVD includes an avalanche of extras to enjoy.

Six gorgeous women with an unhealthy love of extreme outdoor pursuits (whitewater rafting, rock climbing, absailing – you get the idea) meet up in the remote Appalachian mountain range to explore a labyrinth of uncharted caves. These are strong, confident women who can hang by their fingertips from great heights without fear of breaking a nail. But this is not a chick flick; it is an adrenalin overdose of tension and terror.

For anyone who is claustrophobic, afraid of the dark, or unnerved by the sound of constant dripping, the fundamentals of caving are horrific enough. Add mutant crawlers and psychotic friends and we were scurrying for the light switch. Unfortunately we were disoriented in the dark and unprepared with flares. For all the times that we strained in the dark to see what was going on, there were also times when we really could not bear to watch. And that was even before the Crawlers got hungry.

But this horror film is not only buckets of blood and slashing rock picks, it is a desperate descent into madness. And just when you think you can see the way out, any such sentimentality is immediately skewered. We are left wondering who really is the enemy – those creepy crawling humanoids, that traitorous tramp Juno who organized the trip, or the primitive paranoia that stalks us all? Scary! A group of girls stumbling round in dark, confined spaces with a bunch of mutants could have been a crashing cliché, but this is one of the best horror films we have seen, ever. For all their confident athleticism and boyish camaraderie these girls are completely credible. When the girls first view the dramatic drop that is the entrance into the caves Beth's first reaction is "You're having a laugh…..I'm an English teacher, not f—ing Tomb Raider." These girls are not feeble, frivolous, or petty. And they certainly don't deserve what happens to them in the depths of those caves.

So get ready to hyperventilate and then stop breathing altogether.

While the dark recesses of many wardrobes are a mystery containing untold treasures and/or horrors, there is a particular wardrobe in a spare room that leads to the magical land of Narnia. A land where the White Witch (evil) has reigned for 100 years, but Aslan the Lion (good) is on the move. This is such a vast and beautiful world that an epic clash between good and evil is inevitable.

Set during World War II, the four Pevensie children are sent away from blitz-bombed London to the safety of Professor Kirke's country mansion. Peter and Susan are the elder children and stoically sensible and responsible. The youngest child, Lucy, is sunny and engaging. It is Edmund, desperately missing his father and smarting against the assumed authority of his older siblings, who has some hard lessons to learn about temptation and treachery.

Isolated and bored in the sprawling house, the children resort to playing hide and seek. Lucy hides in a wardrobe and stumbles into Narnia, a land frozen in the grip of winter and the evil Witch. This seemingly random event begins the fulfillment of a prophecy of biblical proportions. And the biblical themes that run through these Chronicles are undeniable.

The essence of Narnia is Deep Magic. Mythical creatures such as unicorns and griffins, mermaids and centaurs and even Santa Claus mingle with more modest birds, beavers, badgers and wolves. All these animals can talk and even the trees are listening. So who can be trusted? Definitely not the White Witch, with her guilty gifts of Turkish Delight. She is the epitome of evil, breathtakingly icy and chillingly ruthless. As for her followers, fortunately it does seem to be true that evil disfigures and deforms as they are the foulest collection of genetic mishaps we have ever seen.

On the other hand, Aslan the Lion is molten gold goodness, with a lion's courage and a true heart. His voice resonates with warmth and it can only be summer in his presence. His followers are a host of the most dazzling beings in Narnia, as well as a myriad of sharp-witted forest animals.

The Chronicles of Narnia incorporate CGI at its most seamless. Though for all the awesome scale, its beauty is in the details. Only four of the heroes are human and it is set in a vast, magical land, but this fantasy is warmly familiar. Following his first meeting with Lucy, Mr Tumnus the Faun says that she "made me feel warmer than I've felt in 100 years". This is how we felt about our first trip to Narnia and we can't wait to return.

Things can get quite tough at home when your parents have just divorced, your older sister doesn't know you exist and your older brother wishes you didn't. But no matter how bad it gets, Zathura confirms that things are much, much worse in outer space.

Left alone on a Saturday afternoon, two highly competitive brothers ricochet towards trouble when the younger one, Danny, is tormented into the basement and unearths an old space adventure game called Zathura. By the time Danny realizes that they "shouldn't play that game", a meteor shower has decimated the living room and the house is uprooted and floating above the rings of Saturn. Though with every turn they take bad things happen, there is no going back and the boys must play on.

Zathura is unashamedly nostalgic – the game is reminiscent of 1950's comics and faded tin toys, Dad's house is from a similar era, with a dumb waiter just waiting to lower a small boy into danger, and even the story is comfortably familiar. By the same author as Jumanji, where the game took us into the perilous jungle, now Zathura transports us off this planet. And though this is science fiction, whether it is the skittling, malfunctioning robot, the floating astronaut or the circling Zorgon battleships, it still all seems vintage.

But most impressively, the way this movie was made is old school. There is some CGI to create the vastness of the galaxy, but otherwise all the explosions, monster lizards, robots and even the frozen sister are there for real.

And in the midst of the unceasing explosions and imminent ingestion by carnivorous inter-galactic lizard pirates, Zathura has some important messages - about family responsibility, how to be a good brother, wishing on a star and the error of making decisions when angry.

Parents may find the constant bickering between the boys a bit nerve-wracking and the stress of Dad juggling work and his sons' rivaling demands for his attention uncomfortably realistic. Not to mention the horror of watching a home being systematically obliterated. But we are sure the kids will love it.

DVD Extras: It was so much fun watching the house being destroyed and now you can see how they built it, rocked it and ripped through it. From the meteors, to the Zorgon missiles and the jettisoned couch, all those flames are real. Stacks of extras that cover the making of just about everything in the movie.

In all fairy tales, there is good, evil and the quest for true happiness. Good can be in the form of a princess, a mermaid or even just a little girl, but evil is usually witch-shaped. Also, Prince Charming always equals true happiness. Often dark and scary, sometimes simply unfair, fairy tales teach us about life. So what do we learn from The Shoe Fairy? Well the lessons in this fairytale are definitely for the girls. Firstly, horrible things will happen to you if you deny yourself the pleasure of buying more and more shoes (we knew it!). Secondly, you may try and convince yourself that you don't need Prince Charming to have true happiness, but he is – unavoidably - an essential part of the equation. Lastly, it is never a good idea to shake a gift before opening it.

The Shoe Fairy teaches us these vital lessons through the story of the unfortunate Dodo, a little girl who can't walk and so learns about the perilous world of give and take in fairy stories. Unsurprisingly, she identifies most strongly with The Little Mermaid, who gives up her magical voice to an evil witch in order to gain a pair of legs and live on land with the Prince she loves. Then a miracle operation gets Dodo up and running to the shoe shop and many shoes later, she is a beautiful young woman, working as an accountant to support her shoe habit. And though she is a very quiet girl, she did not have to trade her beautiful voice with a witch to get this charming life.

Then a grumbling wisdom tooth forces Dodo to seek out Smiley the Dentist, aka Prince Charming. What a prince! Not only is he a man who can appreciate the beauty of shoes, but he willingly wears many hats to make sure Dodo's dreams are not interrupted by the bright glare of morning. They settle down together to enjoy happily ever after. Until the inevitable, "Honey, I think you have more than enough shoes now" conversation when it all goes very wrong.

The Shoe Fairy borrows unashamedly from such great storytellers as Hans Christian Anderson, CS Lewis and even Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It is a quirky and surreal film, packed with primary colours, two dimensional landscapes and strange, silent exchanges of communication. On occasion, Dodo's shoes vibrate, weep or smile and there is other symbolism that is equally unsubtle and disconcerting.

But Vivian Hsu as Dodo is very good, the smiley prince is charming and together they do find true happiness. And though we are not convinced that true happiness equals one black sheep and one white sheep, we can believe that owning a room full of shoes is a good start.

The only extra on the DVD is the trailer.

Though Shopgirl is written by and stars Steve Martin, it is not a comedy. There are some flashes of funny, but this is a slice of life. And life is lonely, confusing and full of choices. For Mirabelle Buttersfield it comes down to a choice of "to hurt now, or hurt later".

Mirabelle stands at her solitary post at Saks, selling gloves and waiting for her life to begin. She is unconvinced that eclectic, font-obsessed, Jeremy is "the one", but she perseveres anyway. Then she is wooed by super-successful, 50-something, Ray. Generous and funny he is also brutal about keeping his options open. Jeremy hits the road to grow up and Mirabelle and Ray work hard at perfecting the classic miscommunications between men and women.

Unsurprisingly, Mirabelle benefits from medication and moving on.

The DVD does not include any extras.

Mrs Henderson finds lots of things in life "delicious". And Mrs Henderson Presents is absolutely delicious. Firstly, it is very funny. Mrs Henderson is never politically correct, regularly rude and really enjoys being shocking. Then there are lots of delicious naked girls artistically arranged in becoming tableaux (and also some naked men, but with less artistic arrangement). Set in a London music hall in the 1930's and 40's, the romping vaudeville-style shows are a stark contrast to the difficult lives endured by the performers and the audience. This delicious film is about living with passion and is a celebration of the defiant human spirit.

After Laura Henderson's husband dies, she rapidly becomes bored with widowhood. Now that there is no-one to stop her buying things, this fearless, eccentric lady purchases the derelict Windmill Theatre in London's West End. Admittedly she knows nothing about running a theatre, but she does know a lot of influential people.

Led by her unerring intuition, she hires the highly respectable, veteran theatre manager Vivian Van Damm. His need for absolute artistic control and her incessant interfering leads to lots of bickering and drama. But despite their differences, and her insistence that it is not him but show business that she is attracted to, there is clearly something going on beneath their respectable exteriors.

Together they revolutionize the theatre, first with non-stop performances that others soon copy, and then with daring shows that include the girls displaying certain blessings they received from the Lord. It is only through Mrs Henderson's lofty social connections and feminine wiles that the Windmill gets permission to put on these unorthodox shows.

Mrs Henderson is defiant; she is also very privileged and has been spoilt and pampered for much of her life. But this has not protected her from grief. When war breaks out and the government threatens to close the theatre, Mrs Henderson reveals that there is more behind her purchase of the Windmill than boredom and a desire to be daring. And that the purpose of the naked girls is more than just economic.

Mrs Henderson Presents is a comedy of hilarious anecdotes and startling one-liners. It is also the drama of an unconventional and sometimes misguided woman, with a mission. And it could even be considered a musical, as the staged shows are so integral to the story. Recreating the bleakness of London during the war and the charming escapism of the theatre, altogether - naked girls or not - this is a ripping good show.

The DVD bonus features don't really warrant a disc of their own, but do include interviews with some of the original Windmill girls (thankfully with their clothes on) and a comprehensive Making of.

In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the fourth in the Harry Potter series, the adrenalin of competition, fear of the unknown and the surge of adolescent hormones make for a powerful potion indeed. This is a story of tournaments and trophies, where heroes are simultaneously idolized and envied. And it is a story fuelled by adolescence, with all the agony and uncertainty that accompanies self-awareness.

Adapted from the J.K Rowling book by Steve Kloves, who also adapted the three previous films, Director, Mike Newell, set out to create "an absolutely classical thriller". He admits to being ruthless in taking out elements of the book that are not consistent with this genre. With no time for our banal Muggle world, the film concentrates on the Magical realm with its limitless ability to amaze and surprise. As he builds on the dark moodiness of the previous film, Newell does provide some humorous relief and there is a highly suggestive and infectious thread of romantic opportunities.

As with the previous films, the CGI special effects are phenomenal and key to creating the magical and dramatic world of Hogwarts. With the entire film immersed in the world of magic, the integration of the special effects in The Goblet of Fire appears seamless and utterly convincing.

The return of the Voldemort's faithful followers, the Deatheaters, and their disruption of the Quidditch World Cup sets an ominous tone for another contest, The Triwizard Tournament. The tournament pitches champions from three of the largest schools of wizardry against each other. Delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang dramatically arrive at Hogwarts to learn that the Ministry of Magic has imposed an age restriction on contenders – only students who are 17 years or older will be considered to represent their school. The selection of the 3 competing champions falls to the powerfully magical object called the Goblet of Fire.

Although Harry Potter is only 14 and clearly not interested in the "eternal glory (that) awaits the student who wins the tournament." he is the unprecedented fourth champion selected by the Goblet. And so Harry is pitted against the other more mature and able champions in 3 life-threatening tasks that rely on both his knowledge and use of magic to succeed. If this was not daunting enough, the dark forces of evil manipulate and intimidate and Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) is finally given form.

But there is more than just magic in the air. Harry and his friends are battling to discover who they are and becoming more aware of those around them. The film masterfully illuminates this key crisis of adolescence. There is heightened excitement in the preparation for the Yule Tide Ball and the agony of securing a desirable dance partner in time.

As in previous films Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), the only known person to ever survive the unforgivable curse of Avada Kedavra, is often an onlooker – observing from the sidelines. He is thrust into the spotlight against his will and without confidence in his abilities. He confesses "I'm not ready for this" only to be told "You don't have a choice" and in response to the question "What are your strengths?" he quickly admits "Really, I don't know".

Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) is responsible for many of the humorous quips in the film. A sports-loving, bum-ogling teenage boy whose mother has no idea of acceptable attire, he cannot help being envious of Harry and battles through the confusion of his role in events. "Yeah, that's me. Ron Weasley. Harry Potter's stupid friend.".

Perspicacious and practical Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) seems to be way ahead of the boys in all things and is often frustrated by their lack of maturity and insensitivity. Though she does not suffer many of their insecurities, she cannot escape the changing dynamics of their friendship. Ron tactlessly tries to invite her to the Ball with "You're a girl" and she retorts "Oh, well spotted".

Whether a tribute to Mike Newell's directorship or a testament to their experience and maturity, all 3 of the key players – Radcliffe, Watson and Grint - deliver their best performances to date.

The film also introduces Mad-eye Moody (Brendan Gleeson), who is staggering as the new teacher of Defence Against the Dark Arts. He is an incredibly damaged visual reminder of the dangers of battling against evil. And the sensationalist reporter, Rita Skeeter (Miranda Richardson) is appropriately brash with overt sex appeal and her lurid imagination.

From the awesome sensory overload of the Quidditch World Cup, where the stadium rocks with adrenalin, to the Triwizard Tournament at home at Hogwarts, hormones and competition rage and the pace of the film rarely lets up. Unfortunately, Evil is only just thwarted from outright victory, but Harry and his friends do win the battle for the emotional maturity we know they are going to need in the even darker times ahead.