DVD OF THE WEEK

L.A. CONFIDENTIAL *****
Dir: Curtis Hanson. Starring: Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kevin Spacey

This week I've abandoned the new movies to recommend some special Christmas viewing. Not Christmas movies per se, but movies set at Christmas. There are actually a bucketload of them - 1941, The Fabulous Baker Boys, In Bruges, Diner, The Ref, 2046, Ice Harvest, We're no Angels, Home Alone, Black Christmas, Silent Night Deadly Night, et al – but these are my favourites…
LA Confidential launched our Russ onto the international stage and he's never been better. Just watch him pull that Christmas sled off the roof and firmly put all women beaters on his ‘naughty' list.
Fans of Ellroy had been wondering if anyone would ever make a decent film out of one of his dense books. Then came this brilliant adaptation, perfectly recreating 50s Los Angeles, complete with Danny DeVito's chirpily subversive voice-over and two largely unknown Australian leads. Both are perfect, as is Kevin Spacey at his amorally charming best.
The plot – considerably simplified from the book and drawing in detail from the others in Ellroy's LA Quartet – retains sufficient complexity and Kim Bassinger is heartbreaking as the Veronica Lake lookalike hooker with a heart of gold.

It's sharp, funny and fantastic: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (*****) pairs Robert Downey Jr's petty crim with Val Kilmer's gay private eye (‘Gay Perry') for a knowing action mystery set in Hollywood. Nobody ever looked sexier in a Santa suit than Michelle Monaghan.
There's not much Christmas cheer on display Eyes Wide Shut (****) as Tom Cruise walks the streets of a fictional New York, ending up at the most asexual orgy ever lensed. Aside from an embarrassing scene where Tom and Nicole get stoned and act like they're on horse tranquilisers, this is a gorgeous-looking enigma, a circular mystery that manages to include a Christmas tree in every scene.
People liked seeing Bruce Willis battle baddies at Christmas so much that he did it twice. Die Hard (*****) changed the face of action movies and is still an almost perfect example of the genre. And having exploited the possibilities of a high-rise they did the same thing next year in an airport for Die Hard 2 (***). If memory serves, it contained the highest body count of any film released in 1990. Ho, ho, ho.
Back before he became a weird ranting drunk with religious issues, Mel Gibson meted out Christmastime mayhem in a little film called Lethal Weapon (****). Sequels ‘cuted up' the character so much that the rawness of his near-suicidal original Riggs still surprises.
And more cops at Christmas. Who's that on the pavement in the jolly Santa suit merrily beating up bad guys? Poppa Doyle, as purveyed by the inimitable Gene Hackman in The French Connection (*****). A dirty complex film where no-one comes out particularly well, this arrived at the height of Hollywood's nihilistic 70s new wave and raised the bar. The car chase, filmed at real speed on real streets, is still one of the best.
They start cute and then they get real ugly. They're Gremlins (****) - feed them after midnight and they'll ruin your Christmas. A gleefully destructive romp as the neighbourhood fights back; hats off for creative use of a blender!
Dianna Rigg as the love interest, Joanna Lumley and Catherina Von Schell, Telly Savalas as Blofeld, and exciting Christmastime ski chases – what more could you ask from a Bond film? Sadly, when the film is On Her Majesty's Secret Service (***) the answer is Sean Connery. Aussie George Lazenby's first and only outing as 007 is still quite fun, its tongue remaining firmly in cheek as proved by Lazenby's pre-title quip to camera ‘This never happened to the other fellow'.
And of course, Love Actually (**) is set at Christmas and, although it is a veritable overload of saccharine sentiment, it remains (almost) worth rewatching for the ever-delightful presence of Bill Nighy and his foul-mouthed aging rock star trying to drunkenly push a new Christmas single.