DVD OF THE WEEK

THE TOWN ****
Dir: Ben Affleck. Starring: Ben Affleck, Jeremy Renner, Rebecca Hall

Ben Affleck's second film as director is again set in criminal-infested working class Boston, specifically Charlestown, which has, apparently, ‘more bank robbers and armoured car thieves than anywhere in the world'.
It's a ‘no matter how much you change you can't escape the things you've done' story: Ben leads a volatile gang (most notably Hurt Locker's Jeremy Renner), is pursued by John (Mad Men) Hamm's FBI agent, and gets unwisely involved with potential eyewitness Rebecca (Frost/Nixon) Hall, and wants to get out. Pete Postlethwaite, Chris Cooper and others add heft to the impressive cast and it is a solidly engaging film.
Is it as good as Affleck's debut, the rather brilliant Gone Baby Gone? Possibly not, and perhaps Ben the actor doesn't disappear into the gritty milieu the way brother Casey did in that film, but this is still as well-made a crime thriller as has come out of America in some time (though the French seem to do it constantly).
It has ambition towards big-picture inter-generational territory – the themes are much more apparent in the 30 minute longer ‘extended cut' (which I think might only be available on blu-ray) – though never quite reaches the epic status it hints at. But at least it has ambition. Score two out of two for Affleck as director.

When you get to the fourth in a franchise based on a zombie-killing video game, it's best not to have unrealistic expectations. However, Resident Evil: Afterlife (***) will certainly please fans of the series. Milla Jovovich again kicks gravity-defying ass, the zombies are sufficiently ravenous, and there are satisfying smatterings of high-tech environments and armaments. Interestingly, this is the first-released ‘real' 3D blu-ray although – not knowing anyone with a 3D TV and never having even seen a 3D blu-ray player – I was unable to test this capability. But it does explain the inordinate amount of stuff flying straight at the screen.

Stone (***) was always going to be of interest given its pairing of Ed Norton and Robert De Niro (previously together, disappointingly, in The Score). De Niro is a parole officer tasked with writing a report that might free Norton's jailed crim. To influence things, Ed's wife (Milla Jovovich again) seduces De Niro. But then Norton gets some sort of spiritual epiphany and things head sideways with an unexpected philosophical bent. Rather than a thriller this is a left-field drama about damaged people in search of redemption. And, fun as it is to watch the cast have at it, their characters remain frustratingly elusive.

Buried (***) takes the recent craze for protagonists stuck in tight situations (Frozen, Altitude, 127 Hours) to its logical conclusion by trapping Ryan Reynolds in a coffin for 90 minutes. It makes for a tense and, as you would expect, claustrophobic ride. Reynolds, a civilian contractor in Iraq, has just his Zippo, a pencil, and – most importantly – a cell phone to try and summon help. Director Rodrigo Cortez shoots the coffin from every conceivable angle, the reveals about whodunit and why are well paced, and Reynolds turns in a dynamic one-man show. Undoubtedly more powerful at the movies, this still works well at home.

In 2009, not too long after an Oscar nomination for playing Johnny Cash, Joaquin Phoenix announced his retirement from acting and plans to concentrate on hip-hop music. At the time it was widely rumoured to be a hoax and indeed it was. A year-long hoax played out in public for the strange semi-documentary I'm Still Here (**). Directed by Phoenix's brother-in-law Casey Affleck, it charts a spiral of increasing weight, drug use and egotistical meltdowns and sounds a lot more fun than it is. While all kudos is due for attempting the biggest ‘live' acting experiment since Andy Kaufman stepped into a wrestling ring, watching Phoenix play spoilt and out-of-it palls really quickly.