DVD OF THE WEEK

THE IMAGINARIUM OF DR PARNASSUS ****
Starring: Heath Ledger, Christopher Plummer, Lily Cole Dir: Terry Gilliam

When Heath Ledger's death threatened to derail The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus, it seemed the Gilliam curse was striking again. After the collapse of his long-cherished Don Quixote film, fortune was again crapping on the wonderful director. What is extraordinary is that he not only managed to rework and finish the film, but that the changes arguably improved the finished product. Even better, after two decades of adaptations, this is once again a 'real” Terry Gilliam film.
And what a joy that is! It's so rare that you see anything these days that doesn't snugly fit into a well-known formula, and that makes this a delightful breath of fresh air. Loosely, it revolves around Dr Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) and his centuries-long struggle, through a series of bets, with the devil (Tom Waits). One night his carnival-like troupe rescue a hanging man who joins their company. He's Heath Ledger, with amnesia and a dodgy past.
Saying more about the plot is futile. Needless to say, the film is visually stunning and unlike anything else, and has fun cameos from Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell. Gilliam's preoccupation with storytelling is front and centre, reminiscent of Baron Munchausen, and there are also echoes of Brazil and Time Bandits, and even Jabberwocky.
For Gilliam fans this will be a no-brainer, a rare opportunity to wallow in the man's unique imagination. Others have a world of pleasures to discover.

Despite being nominated for an Oscar last year, Woody Harrelson shows impressive dedication to trash cinema. After his recent dingbat crazy cameo in 2012, this week he headlines not one but two B-movie oddities, both of which are very good. However, while one does exactly what it says on the box the other will cause confusion.
Zombieland (****) is all you could hope for in a horror comedy, made in a breezy modern style with a hip cast – Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin – and complete with an outrageous surprise cameo. It's a sort of coming of age road-trip through zombie-infested America, and though a couple of years too late to catch the zom-com craze, it would be a shame if this entertaining romp was ignored.

Canadian outing Defendor (****) is a whole different cup of meat. Despite all appearances it is not a superhero comedy or, indeed, a superhero film or a comedy even. Instead, Harrelson plays a borderline crazy who pretends to be a superhero. That is, he wears a costume and attempts to fight crime, with decidedly mixed results. Defendor steers the line well between character study and vigilante crime drama, raising tension from Harrelson's lack of awareness of how dangerous his delusional behaviour really is. Good support from Elias Koteas and Kat Dennings makes for a classy package.

9 (***) is a strange little animated film perhaps aimed more at adults than kids. It starts with a small wickerwork-style doll being created, then given life, the number '9” on its back. Then it is let loose into a post-apocalyptic world where the only living things seem to be some other similar dolls (numbers 1 to 8) and a 'monster”. The animation is unusual and a pleasure to watch but the story seems sparse. The original scar-winning animated short this was developed from is also on the disc and basically covers the same ground in less than 10 minutes.

Veteran director Joel Schumacher is a competent set of hands though his film choices are often, at the very least, questionable. He brings a strangely classy edge to the brutal low-rent madness of Blood Creek (***) and its story of two families' dealings with an undead occult-powered Nazi. The efficient 86-minute running time squeezes in sibling rivalry, zombies, rhunestones and a fair amount of violence towards animals. Humans, it must be said, fare no better. R18 says the sticker and there is more than enough savage craziness here to justify that.