DVD Reviews: March 23

Mar 23 2008

RENDITION (15) 4/5

Gavin Hood, director of the compelling Tsotsi, takes on a big budget movie here for the first time and it's an absolute winner.

Jake Gyllenhaal, Reese Witherspoon, Alan Arkin, Meryl Streep, and Peter Sarsgaard are the star names in this frightening look at what we all suspect may be happening in the name of anti-terror measures right now.

Witherspoon is superb as the wife of a man snatched at an airport by the US and whisked off to an African prison because he is suspected of terrorism. He is tortured and held indefinitely while his wife is completely in the dark, with no idea where or how he is.

Gyllenhaal is a young intelligence officer supervising the interrogation and struggling to cope with what he sees. Streep is the icycold boss who is happy to use whatever means necessary to take on terrorists.

In Morocco the torturer endures his own battle as his daughter defies his Islamic principles and refuses arranged marriage.

This film perhaps tries to tie things up too neatly but it really should be seen in these troubled times. It doesn't preach or lecture but does entertain. A must.

DECEMBER BOYS (12) 4/5

This might as well be called Harry Potter Goes Down Under. It has attracted countless young fans thanks to Daniel Radcliffe playing one of four orphan friends in Australia The quartet go on holiday together but things change when they find out a family is keen to adopt one of them - so they compete to prove they deserve the chance at family life.

It's a bittersweet coming-of-age film which will appeal to fans of just that. It does what it doeswell - but sorry there's no magic, kids.

THE CONDEMNED (18) 1/5

A movie starring a wrestler is never a good idea. OK, so The Rock has done all right but the rest have been dire.

This one boasts Stone Cold Steve Austin as the big name, which says it all. He is Jack Conrad, a government killer abandoned by his bosses and left to rot in jail, then given a chance at freedom by an evil entertainment kingpin.

He and nine other killers have to take part in an online reality show in which they are put on a desert island and told to start killing. Whoever is left wins money and freedom. Not a bad premise, though it's been done by Arnie and Van Damme already. Mickey McMonagle