DVD Review

Yet another blockbuster, War of the Worlds took me a bit by surprise, as I was expecting a formulaic Spielberg/Cruise/John Williams movie, and I’m not a big fan of H.G Wells either. Yet Spielberg has had a bit of a brainwave for the first time in many years, and has made what might be the first intimate blockbuster. There are several massive set-pieces, but these are kept deliberately obscure and in the background, while Cruise attempts to sort out his family problems involving daughter Dakota Fanning and an anonymous teenager. Of course Cruise is neither average enough nor old...

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Sin City created a bit of controversy when director Robert Rodriguez left the DGA to give Miller and Tarantino co-directing credits. Unfortunately this selfless gesture proves to be a bit of a wasted one, as the end result doesn’t justify it. The cast is very impressive, with Bruce Willis and Mickey Rourke the standouts (although Jessica Alba fans will no doubt have worn out that bit of the DVD by now). Like Batman Begins, the production design is great – it’s almost entirely black and white with odd flashes of colour – but the difference is that the assortment...

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The best of this year’s Big Movies for me was Christopher Nolan’s striking and ambitious Batman Begins. It should really have been called Batman Rescued, as I still have bitter memories of paying money to see Schumacher’s abominations. Not only does Nolan manage to regain the dark knight’s credibility from those disasters, he also manages to improve on Tim Burton’s take on this universe (not sure this month’s editor will agree on that one!) Christian Bale is more or less perfect and the supporting cast is composed of fine actors who fall in with the serious tone. Michael Caine...

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After making Dark Star at college, Carpenter made his first real movie in 1976 with Assault on Precinct 13.  It’s a homage/tribute/rip-off of his favourite movies, in particular Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo and George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, combining the deliberate pace and group ethic of the former with the nightmare menace and explicit violence of the latter. And some dialogue from Leone’s masterpiece Once Upon A Time in the West for good measure. Assault took 2 years to reach the UK, possibly due to an early unpleasant scene, but became the big success of the 1978...

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