DVD OF THE WEEK

WATCHMEN ****
Dir: Zack Snyder
Starring: Malin Ackerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Jackie Earl Haley

Seeing Watchmen in the cinema was my first exposure to what is widely regarded as the best graphic novel ever written (drawn?). I was confused. I was particularly confused because I misheard an early line. 'A Canadian died tonight in New York city” I thought they said, and spent the next half hour trying to work out who the Canadian was. Only later did I realise it was 'Comedian.”
And confusion is a reasonable reaction if you see this with no prior knowledge. Director Zack (300) Snyder is so enamoured with the film's source material that he can't seem to leave stuff out. Watchmen is stuffed full of detail and even the (very cool) credits tell stories that don't get explained till much later. 'Who are all these people and what are they doing?” is a reasonable reaction.
But – and this is why it's the 'Pick of the Week” – it is a simply fantastic-looking film and one which, even for Watchmen universe novices, all makes sense if you concentrate, or watch it twice, which its complexity and beauty certainly merit.
The plot is way too curly to précis but the set-up goes like this: we are in an alternative universe where sometime around the sixties history started diverging from what we know. President Nixon is elected to four terms in office; the cold war rages; and vigilantes dress in costumes to battle crime, or they did till Nixon banned it. They are the Watchmen, none with super powers except a naked blue Billy Crudup who got zapped in an experiment gone wrong.
And someone's killing the Watchmen, starting with The Comedian. Confusing it may be, but it's also a whole lot of fun.

Gamorrah (****) is a brutal multi-faceted film about the Neapolitan mafia. It has been likened to the brilliant City of God but is more like Traffic in its comprehensive look at different aspects of criminal life and a society ruled by fear and gangsters. Intertwining five main stories, moving from corporate masters to petty crims, it paints a depressing picture in stark and brilliant fashion. Essential viewing.

Aside from cool cover art, horror flick Splinter (***) wouldn't appear to hold much promise. A couple of campers are kidnapped by an escaped crim and his missus, and in no time the quartet are trapped in an isolated country garage being menaced by a crazed people-eating parasite that turns corpses into spiky monsters. Despite that, this low-budget indie tells its tale with verve. Short enough not to outstay its welcome and smart enough to avoid CGI, it benefits from considerable tension, gooey creature effects, and – unusually – characters that behave with intelligence and refreshing common sense.

Ever wonder what it takes to get a cup of coffee to your table? Watch Black Gold (***), or – if you want to feel better about your latté – don't. This documentary exposes the exploitation and seedy underbelly of the international coffee trade. Though occasionally somewhat dry, it is hard-hitting, alarming stuff - you'll never look at an espresso the same way again.

Clocking in at under 80 minutes is rarely a good sign, and so it proves – in case the title wasn't enough warning – with One-Eyed Monster (*). A film crew head to snowy mountains to make an 'adult” movie – just the setting for a self-described 'darkly comic homage to Alien and The Thing”. So an alien possesses porn legend Ron Jeremy's even more legendary money maker and it (by now dismembered) proceeds to off the remaining cast. Lacking acting chops, an F/X budget, and even the bonus of gratuitous nudity, all that remains are infantile sex jokes.