DVD OF THE WEEK

THE COVE ****
Dir: Louie Psihoyos
Starring: Ric O'Barry, Hayden Panettiere, Isabel Lucas

Those with long memories may remember Ric O'Barry. He was the main-man on an old Aussie TV show called Flipper. Yes, the one about the 'faster than lightening” dolphin. Ric is now older and wiser and a leading campaigner to stop dolphins being kept in captivity. And he's on the hunt to find out about a secretive cove in Japan's Taiji where thousands of dolphins are slaughtered every year under heavily-guarded conditions.
Fortunately he enlists director Psihoyos, a national geographic photographer, who then brings on board a veritable A-Team to try and break into the cove. With some world champion underwater divers, and cameras made in Hollywood and camouflaged inside fake rocks, they plan expose the operation.
This is an extraordinary film, very much a thriller, tense and exciting as the group make their preparations and as gripping as any heist drama. It also opens up the subject matter, examining dolphins in a wider context (and with a lot of information that I hadn't come across before) and looking at the many levels of Japanese society where a combination of corruption and ignorance are allowing an illegal trade in dolphin meat as well as exposing the population to huge health dangers from mercury-contaminated products. Dodgy behaviour at the International Whaling Commission is also highlighted.
And if the thought of watching dolphins being killed – the activity that the activists are trying to film and expose – makes you want to avoid this, don't be put off. The actual dolphin slaughter footage is brief, with the surrounding information and story both interesting and important enough to make this essential viewing.

The Taking of Pelham 123 (***) will be viewed differently, depending on whether you've seen the original seventies nail-biter. It was a cool film, sidelining action in favour of tense negotiation and clever plotting. The remake, what with direction from the hyperactive Tony Scott and the salaries of John Travolta and Denzel Washington to pay for, shows no such restraint. Robert Shaw's taciturn crim has morphed into Travolta's raving psychopath and there are spectacular (and gratuitous) car crashes and the two leads of course have to meet up for a final showdown. It's big, silly, flashy and edited for the attention span of a two year old, an assault quick blurry cuts, freeze frames and MTV effects. Hmmm…

We all know the story: a party of (insert relevant peer group) head to a cabin/old house/holiday camp where they discuss horror films before encountering a masked killer/cannibal rednecks/supernatural menace. Dead Snow (***) ticks all the boxes. The particulars are: medical students, a ski hut and – in a rather inspired touch – Nazi zombies! It's from Norway and is actually pretty entertaining in an early Peter Jackson rip-out-yer-intestines kind of way.

Computer-generated guinea pigs secret agents – what's there not to like? Sadly G-Force (**) is a limp and plodding effort, neglecting to add anything funny apart from a slew of tediously referential film jokes. In fact, once you get beyond enjoying the cleverness of the furry animation there's little that will entertain anyone in the over-8 age range. I guess we should have seen it coming, since one of the voices is none other than Nic 'I only do crap movies” Cage.

I wasn't expecting too much from Year One (**), and – sure enough – it didn't deliver too much. I guess much will depend on whether, like me, you've grown a bit weary of Jack Black's shtick. Here he and Michael Cera are cavemen, vanquished from their tribe, who wander around running into moments of Biblical and historical importance. But it isn't funny. Something went seriously astray here. Cera does his deadpan innocent as well as always but the jokes mostly fall flat. Both the good ones are in the trailer anyway.