DVD OF THE WEEK

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE *****
Dir: Danny Boyle, Loveleen Tandan
Starring: Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Anil Kapoor, Irfan Khan

OK. So it's now won a slew of Oscars and everybody knows about it, so probably all I need to add is that I loved this film.
Based on the novel Q&A, which everyone thought would be unfilmable, this cuts one of the quiz show questions, adds a brother for the main protagonist and makes other changes, but remains true to the spirit of the book and creates a brilliant vision of Bombay, from its cruellest slums and poverty to the wild energy and colour of its streets.
Into this melange we have the story of three children growing up in unthinkable conditions. Boyle never shies away from the cruellest elements of their exploitation and it is this that really makes the film work. After following their lives and enduring their suffering the viewer has as much invested in a happy ending as the cast. We sit watching, willing Jamal to answer the questions correctly.
That, in case you don't know by now, is the framing device. Jamal is on a 'Who Wants To Be a Millionaire” TV show. He is the slumdog of the title but, amazingly, and to the disbelief of the authorities, can answer the questions correctly.
The cast are attractive and appealing, the direction is dynamic and exciting. This is storytelling of the highest order and the only film I can remember that made me want to actually get up and dance with the cast over the joyful closing credits. See it – your life will be richer for it.

The long-anticipated repairing of Al Pacino and Robert De Niro finally happens in Righteous Kill (***), and it's great to see them sparking off each other with such class. This time both are long-standing cops tracking a killer who is offing neighbourhood villains. But we know from a confessional video that De Niro will eventually claim to be the killer. A well-made thriller with some surprisingly tough edges (De Niro's relationship with girlfriend Carla Guigino is unusually kinky), but unfortunately late plot holes and a lack of red herrings in the suspect department detract from the good work.

Anyone likely to be offended by Zack and Miri Make a Porno (***) is probably unlikely to hire it because of the title, but the film is a rather sweet love story as much as a gross-out comedy. In fact only one brief moment really fits the latter category and there is very little by the way of nudity. Director Kevin Smith's trademark dialogue, however is as obscene as it is funny, as lifelong platonic friends attempt to stave off poverty with the titular remedy. Familiar faces from Smith's early Clarks days and affecting work from leads Seth Rogan and Elizabeth Banks help make this his most satisfying film since Chasing Amy.

Redbelt (***) features yet another impressive turn from Chiwetel Ejiofor (Blood Diamond), this time as Mike Terry, a Jujitsu instructor who through a complex series of twists and turns finds himself drawn into the duplicitous web of Hollywood producers and forced to take place in a formal competition against his philosophical code. With many Mamet regulars doing sterling work and a plot that will beat less-focused viewers into submission, this is typically clever Mamet stuff, but unlike some of his films has the heart engaged as much as the head.

Enough weird Japanese films released recently to hold your own Japanese version of The Incredibly Strange Film Festival. Following the likes of Big Man Japan and Tokyo Gore Police comes Tokyo Zombie (**). Despite being labelled the 'Japanese Shaun of the Dead”, and featuring two hapless schmucks (one afroed, one bald) who end up fighting off a zombie eruption in Tokyo (emanating from 'Black Fuji” a huge garbage pile towering over the city), this is very different, a peculiar surreal slice of insanity that even includes a manga episode. Perhaps it is too rooted in a Japanese sensibility to translate – much of it struck me as just silly and infantile, and not in a good way.