Dunkirk isn’t you average war movie — it can be confusing but also compelling
STRUGGLING to find the perfect Christmas present?
We review DVDs out this week from Dunkirk to Love, Lies & Records.
Dunkirk (12) Out Dec 18
Dunkirk is not your average war movie: there's little charging through explosions on muddy battlefields here.
It's bleak, almost disturbingly so. Eerie silence, lots of waiting, some queuing and for the most part a quiet British stoicism in the face of the Nazi war machine.
That's not to say it's dull - far from it: but it's unsettling, and really makes you think about what the young men of Britain went through on a beach in France in the summer of 1940.
The narrative is told through the eyes of three groups: air, sea and land, all taking place over different time spans. It can be confusing at first - director Christopher Nolan makes few concessions to spelling it out clearly - but it is undeniably effective.
Tom Hardy, Mark Rylance and Kenneth Branagh all bring an understated but haunting magnificence to their parts, while Harry Styles acquits himself well in his first film role.
Rating: 4/5
American Made (15) Out Dec 26
Bombs, babes and blow are key ingredients for an action-packed blockbuster – but this one lacks spark.
The biopic of American airline pilot turned cartel drug-smuggler Barry Seal begs for a rough and ready rendition.
Real-life Seal was a loon of a man whose escapades saw him go from flying Aunty Doreen on commercial jets to sniffing lines with Pablo Escobar.
Yet up steps squeaky-clean Tom Cruise armed with a neat haircut, clean shave and enough Top Gun cheese to have poor Barry rolling in his grave.
Action hero goon Cruise aside, American Made is fine to fill a lazy evening in. Seal smuggles $3billion worth of coke into the US for the notorious Medellin Cartel before becoming an informant for the DEA.
Other shenanigans see our off-the-rails star running nutty missions for Reagan’s government – like delivering AK47s to CIA-backed militias in Nicaragua.
There’s plenty of dollar bills flying around but unlike real-life Barry, this lacks any real substance.
Rating: 2/5
Love, Lies & Records (15) Out Dec 26
Dealing with births, marriages and deaths on a daily basis, registrars are with us at many of the most important moments of our lives.
So it's perhaps little surprise that it's fertile ground for TV drama, and star writer Kay Mellor (whose hits include Band Of Gold, The Syndicate and Fat Friends) has no problem in making the best use of it.
This BBC series follows Leeds-based registrars Judy (Rebecca Front) and Kate (Ashley Jensen), and with affairs, blackmail, prejudice, human-trafficking and even murder, there's plenty of drama here, although it's balanced with a healthy dose of comedy too.
Sure to keep you riveted.
Rating: 4/5
The Apartment: Limited Edition (PG) Out Dec 18
Suicide, prostitution, bribery and alienation aren’t usually the go-to ingredients for comedy, but this Billy Wilder classic weaves its darker side through the most beautiful of romantic tales.
Put-upon insurance clerk CC “Buddy Boy” Baxter is the sad office drone with a lucrative sideline in renting out his apartment to adulterous company bosses.
When the key to his career success makes its way to unscrupulous executive J.D. Sheldrake, his world begins to unravel.
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Buddy Boy soon becomes wise to the nastiness of Sheldrake's infidelities when he discovers that his mistress is elevator girl
Fran, who he loves from afar. Beautifully 4k-restored edition of the Oscar-winning 1960 comedy drama, starring Jack Lemmon, Fred MacMurray and Shirley MacLaine.
Rating: 5/5