A weekly round-up of the latest DVD releases.

By Damon Smith


New to rent on DVD/Blu-ray

Les Miserables (Cert 12, 151 mins, Universal Pictures (UK) Ltd, Musical/Romance/Comedy, also available to buy DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £24.99/Limited Edition Blu-ray Collector's Set £29.99)

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Eddie Redmayne, Amanda Seyfried, Samantha Barks, Aaron Tveit, Sacha Baron Cohen, Helena Bonham Carter, Isabelle Allen.

Convict Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) is granted parole and leaves behind his tormentor, Inspector Javert (Russell Crowe), to reinvent himself as a revered factory owner in Montreuil-sur-Mer. One of Valjean's workers, Fantine (Anna Hathaway), is cruelly cast out when the foreman learns she has an illegitimate daughter, Cosette (Isabelle Allen). Determined to keep her child under the roof of Thenardier (Sacha Baron Cohen) and his wife (Helena Bonham Carter), Fantine sells her body as she sobs I Dreamed A Dream. Valjean discovers Fantine close to death and agrees to raise Cosette. Nine years later, revolutionary fervour sloshes through the grimy streets of Paris, inflamed by students Enjolras (Aaron Tveit) and Marius (Eddie Redmayne). The latter falls under the spell of Cosette (now played by Amanda Seyfried), unaware that Thenardier's daughter, Eponine (Samantha Barks), adores him from afar... Les Miserables is a towering achievement in front of and behind the camera, realising director Tom Hooper's dream of immortalising Claude-Michel Schonberg and Alain Boublil's powerhouse musical without the conventional safety net of lip-synching. That audacious gamble - actors sing live in every scene - pays off handsomely, teasing out the heartbreaking emotion in a soaring adaptation of a stage show which has become a global phenomenon. The cast is superb - Oscar winner Hathaway's cri de coeur breaks hearts, as does Barks with her knockout rendition of On My Own, and Redmayne matches her note for soaring note. Only Crowe is miscast. His soft, sweet vocals render Javert somewhat impotent next to Jackman's booming delivery. A limited edition set comprising the Blu-ray and a collectible 24-page booklet is also available.

Rating: *****


Hors Satan (Cert 15, 144 mins, Drakes Avenue Pictures, Drama, also available to buy DVD £15.99)

Starring: David Dewaele, Alexandra Lematre, Christophe Bon, Juliette Bacquet, Aurore Broutin.

An enigmatic drifter known as The Guy (David Dewaele) lives in the woods of the Cote d'Opale on the Atlantic coast of north-west France, where nearby sand dunes are protected by order of the government. He lives off the land and sleeps beneath the stars, poaching wildlife and building fires while keeping an eye on The Girl (Alexandra Lematre), who lives in a nearby farmhouse. She kneels alongside The Guy in prayer, eventually confessing the horrors that she suffers at home at the hands of her father. The Guy kills to protect The Girl and they embark on a strange odyssey across the weather-beaten landscape in search of inner peace. En route, The Girl makes romantic overtures to her protector but he rebuffs her, sating his sexual desires instead with strangers including a comatose young woman. Hors Satan is undoubtedly an acquired taste and uncompromising French director Bruno Dumont will enthral as many viewers as he infuriates with this unsettling character study. Cinematographer Yves Cape, who has worked with Dumont since his award-winning 1999 feature Humanity, captures the wild splendour of Boulogne, juxtaposing striking coastal landscapes with close-ups of the actors as they wrestle with the conflicted emotions that drive their characters to extreme actions. Dumont's script steadfastly avoids convention, meditating on the endurance of the human spirit and the evil that festers beneath the surface of a close-knit community, with occasional explosions of violence that burst the bubble of pastoral calm.

Rating: ****


Also released

Bringing Up Bobby (Cert 15, 93 mins, Matchbox Films, Drama, also available to buy DVD £15.99 - see below)

A Dark Truth (Cert 15, 102 mins, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Action/Thriller, also available to buy DVD £12.99 - see below)

Dead Mine (Cert 15, 87 mins, Entertainment One, Horror/Thriller, also available to buy DVD £12.99 - see below)


New to buy on DVD/Blu-ray

The Politician's Husband (Cert 15, 172 mins, BBC DVD, DVD £17.99, Drama)

High-flying cabinet minister Aiden Hoynes (David Tennant) seems destined for life in the limelight. He has a picture-perfect family - wife Freya (Emily Watson), who is a junior minister, and young son Noah (Oscar Kennedy) - plus a gift for rhetoric. Our of the blue, Noah is diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome and Freya sacrifices her career to tend to the boy's needs. However, Aiden seeks sanctuary in the corridors of power at Westminster and gradually the weight of public opinion turns in favour of Freya. Suddenly, Aiden is faced with the uncomfortable prospect of being left in the shade by his wife in this three-part drama penned by Paula Milne.


Foyle's War - The Complete Series Seven (Cert 12, 279 mins, Acorn Media, DVD £25.99/Series One To Seven DVD Box Set £169.99, War/Drama)

Now the Second World War is over, Detective Chief Superintendent Foyle (Michael Kitchen) should be looking forward to a well-deserved retirement. However, a new war comes to the home shores and Foyle is reluctantly drawn into the shady world of MI5, where he becomes entangled in a web of secrets and lies. Meanwhile, Foyle's driver Sam (Honeysuckle Weeks) faces relationship woes. The DVD includes the episodes The Eternity Ring, The Cage and Sunflower. A 25-disc box set comprising all seven series is also available.


The Syndicate - Series 2 (Cert 15, 312 mins, ITV Studios Home Entertainment, DVD £19.99, Drama)

In the follow-up to the BBC One series about work colleagues at a cut-price supermarket in Leeds, whose cash-strapped lives were changed - not always for the better - by a big lottery win, five workers at St Anthony's Hospital in Bradford enjoy similar luck and quickly learn that money cannot buy them happiness. Alan (Mark Addy), Becky (Natalie Gavin), Mandy (Siobhan Finneran), Rose (Alison Steadman), Tom (Jimi Mistry) think their prayers have been answered when they collectively scoop a jackpot of £72 million. However, personal crises impact on their joy and each member of the syndicate faces tough choices, which sometimes mean hurting the people they love the most.


Suits - Season Two (Cert 15, 960 mins, Universal Pictures (UK) Ltd, DVD £22.99/Seasons One & Two DVD Box Set £29.99, Drama)

Two legal eagles from starkly different backgrounds continue to pool resources to win their cases in 13 episodes of the popular US drama created by Aaron Korch. Five years after the death of his wife and a period of deep self-reflection, Daniel Harman (David Costabile) returns to the company he co-founded and makes his presence felt. Meanwhile, Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht) and his associate, Mike Ross (Patrick J Adams), a college dropout blessed with a photographic memory, put their skills to the test in and out of the courtroom, sometimes clashing with each other over the best course of action. An eight-disc box set comprising all 28 episodes from the two series is also available.


Youngers - Series 1 (Cert 15, 180 mins, 4DVD, DVD £24.99, Comedy/Drama/Romance)

All eight episodes of the E4 comedy drama which charts the fortunes of two friends from south-east London who hope to break into the competitive urban music scene. Yemi (Ade Oyefeso) fares extremely well in his GCSEs, registering straight As, but best friend Jay (Calvin Demba) fails to make his academic mark and fears that he will end up following in the footsteps of his father as a boiler repairman. So Jay, who is a gifted MC, enters a competition that could guarantee a bright future in the music industry, with support from singer Davina (Shavani Seth), whose insecurities threaten to hold her back.


Bringing Up Bobby (Cert 15, 93 mins, Matchbox Films, DVD £15.99, Drama)

Actress Famke Janssen directs and co-writes this gently paced road movie about a mother's relationship with her young son. Scam artist Olive (Milla Jovovich) needs a place to lay low with her boy Bobby (Spencer List) after a series of car thefts. She makes contact with her friend Walt (Rory Cochrane) and he arranges a safe house. Soon after, Bobby is run over by kind businessman Kent (Bill Pullman) and Olive scents an opportunity to fleece the driver. However, the past catches up with Olive sooner than expected and she is sentenced to eight months in prison. Meanwhile, Kent and his wife Mary (Marcia Cross) generously offer Bobby a home and when Olive eventually returns to the outside, she faces a tough decision about wrenching the boy away from his loving surrogate family.


A Dark Truth (Cert 15, 102 mins, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, DVD £12.99, Action/Thriller)

Radio talk show host Jack Begosian (Andy Garcia) is a former CIA operative who has turned his back on espionage to concentrate on more pressing personal concerns. He is intrigued when he learns about a major water company which reportedly colluded in the massacre of Ecuadorian villagers in order to cover up the poisoning of the local water supply. Francisco and Mia Francis (Forest Whitaker, Eva Longoria) are two survivors from the ill-fated village who are willing to speak out and expose the shocking truth about the killings. However, the corporation has vast resources as its disposal and will stop at nothing to silence Jack, Francisco and Mia in order to protect its reputation and the interests of the shareholders.


Fringe - The Final Season (Cert 15, 546 mins, Warner Home Video, DVD £29.99/complete Series DVD Box Set £79.99/Blu-ray £39.99/Complete Series Blu-ray Box Set £89.99, Sci-Fi/Thriller/Drama)

Four-disc set comprising the final 13 episodes of the sci-fi series created by JJ Abrams about a team of 'fringe' scientists who use mind control and telekinesis to understand strange phenomena. The year is 2036 and the future is bleak. In order to defeat the Observers and restore balance, Walter Bishop (John Noble), Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson) and Special Agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) must make terrible sacrifices, but how far is the Fringe team willing to go to achieve its objective? A 29-disc box set comprising all five series is also available.


Side By Side (Cert 15, 96 mins, Axiom Films, DVD £15.99, Documentary)

For almost a century, directors created their big screen masterpieces using photochemical film. However, technology has advanced at a frightening pace and now a digital process has emerged that could sound the death knell for photochemical film-making. Christopher Kenneally's documentary examines this revolution in the film-making process by interviewing figures from every area of the business, including directors, cinematographers, film students, producers, editors and exhibitors. At a point in time when photochemical and digital film-making exist side by side, Kenneally's picture muses the benefits and costs of both formats, and the likely shape of the film-making landscape in the decades to come.


The King Of Pigs (Cert 15, 96 mins, Terracotta Distribution, DVD £14.99, Animation/Drama)

Screened during the Director's Fortnight at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, Yeun Sang-ho's modestly budgeted and violent animation explores the class divisions in modern Korean society. Hwang Kyung-min (Oh Jung-se) is distraught after the business he has built up goes bankrupt and in a moment of impulsiveness and frustration he lashes out, killing his wife. Running from his misdeed, Hwang crosses paths with his old school friend Jung Jong-suk (Yang Ik-joon), who is weary of his life as a ghost writer when he would rather be penning his own novel. For the first time in 15 years, the two men meet and think back to their schooldays when they were labelled pigs because of their lowly wealth, and were forced to endure bullying at the hands of privileged and clever kids called dogs.


Rise Of The Zombies (Cert 18, 87 mins, Anchor Bay Entertainment, DVD £6.99/Blu-ray £9.99, Horror/Thriller)

Nick Lyon directs this made-for-TV horror set in the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse which has virtually wiped out the human race. Dr Dan Halpern (LeVar Burton) and his fellow scientist seek refuge from the outbreak with other survivors on Alcatraz Island, where they hope to understand the transformation from human to undead and develop a cure. Unfortunately, the marauding predators besiege the prison and attack the humans. Dr Halpern, Dr Lynn Snyder (Mariel Hemingway) and renegade Caspian (Danny Trejo) face the onslaught with cool heads, making stark choices that could sacrifice the weak and the vulnerable in order for the healthy and strong to endure.


Dead Mine (Cert 15, 87 mins, Entertainment One, DVD £12.99, Horror/Thriller)

Steven Sheil directs this subterranean horror centred on a team of treasure hunters who encounter malevolent forces in the dark. According to legend, the gold of Second World War Imperial Japanese Army general Tomoyuki Yamashita is hidden deep within the mines of Sulawesi in Indonesia. Corporate playboy Price (Les Loveday) funds an expedition to uncover the treasure, and be brings along engineer Stanley (Sam Hazeldine) and researcher Rie (Miki Mizuno) as well as his girlfriend Su-Ling (Carmen Soo). A team of soldiers led by Captain Tino Prawa (Ario Bayu) are supposed to provide protection from rival hunters but the men with guns are no match for what lurks deep underground.


Don't Tell The Bride 2 (Cert E, 330 mins, IMC Vision, DVD £14.99, Special Interest)

A second helping of the reality TV series in which the groom of a soon-to-be-wed couple takes on sole responsibility for organising the forthcoming nuptials, from choosing the dress and bouquets to agreeing the menu and reception plans. The bride has no control over how her big day will turn out and as the moment of truth approaches, tensions build between the loving couple, testing the strength of their relationship as the cameras capture every argument and sigh of exasperation. Narrated by Ruth Jones.


Angelina Ballerina: Superstar Sisters (Cert U, 66 mins, HIT Entertainment, DVD £9.99, Children/Animation)

The dancing mouse and her younger sibling Polly affirm the importance of sisterly love and friendship in five episodes of the popular animated series aimed at pre-schoolers. Based on the books by Katherine Holabird and Helen Craig, the DVD includes Angelina And The Music Box, Angelina's Nature Dance, Angelina Jumps The River, Angelina And The Mini-Mouseling and Angelina And Polly's Big Day.


DVD retail top 10

1 (5) Life Of Pi

2 (1) The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

3 (-) Quartet

4 (2) Jillian Michaels: 30 Day Shred

5 (6) History Of The Eagles (three-disc DVD deluxe edition)

6 (3) Pitch Perfect

7 (4) Jack Reacher

8 (-) The Impossible

9 (7) Game Of Thrones - Season 2

10 (-) Endeavour - Series 1

Chart supplied by Amazon.co.uk


DVD rental top 10

1 (2) Jack Reacher

2 (1) Skyfall

3 (4) Silver Linings Playbook

4 (5) Taken 2

5 (3) Seven Psychopaths

6 (7) Anna Karenina

7 (6) The Campaign

8 (8) End Of Watch

9 (10) The Watch

10 (-) The Bourne Legacy

Chart supplied by www.LOVEFiLM.com


Film streaming top 10

1 (7) The Sisterhood Of The Travelling Pants

2 (1) Despicable Me

3 (2) Life As We Know It

4 (-) Ironclad

5 (5) Rampage

6 (8) Just Go With It

7 (3) The Adjustment Bureau

8 (6) The Ugly Duckling And Me

9 (4) Faster

10 (-) Matilda

Chart supplied by www.LOVEFiLM.com

:: Please note: Here are the latest charts from Amazon and LOVEFiLM. The DVD DVD Reviews column was transmitted on Thursday, May 3