New DVDs this week: Aug 31

Aug 31 2008 Mickey Mcmonagle

THE EYE (15) 3/5

Any film with Jessica Alba in it has a huge advantage as far as I'm concerned - except when it's yet another remake of some ultrascary Asian horror flick.

I'm one of those guys who is, well, a bit of a girl when it comes to scary films. There.

I've admitted it. I don't like scary movies.

So this one - which takes an especially scary premise from the original and throws in a whole bunch of new chills - was never going to be up my street.

The future Mrs McMonagle plays Sydney Wells, a concert pianist who has been blind since a fireworks accident at the age of five.

After a risky cornea transplant, she is delighted to see the world again - until she starts having horrifying visions of the dead.

She teams up with Dr. Paul Faulkner (Alessandro Nivola) to track down the origin of her new eyes and travels to Mexico to find out just why she is seeing these terrible things. Alba does well and parker Posey deserves a mention as her sister.

It's a good horror film and worth sitting through if you are a fan of Alba.

FOOLS GOLD (12) 1/5

Another cringingly bad, romantic "comedy" with Matthew McConaughey doing his usual thing as Finn, a modern-day treasure hunter who has devoted his life to tracking down 40 chests of loot known as the Queen's Dowry.

His marriage to Tess (Kate Hudson) has ended due to his obsession and she has landed a new job working on a superyacht owned by billionaire Nigel Honeycutt (Donald Sutherland).

Of course Finn pops up, blags his way on the boat and off they go to search for the treasure again. Yawn. It's silly, soppy nonsense with too few laughs.

DOOMSDAY (18) 3/5

Dog Soldiers director Neil Marshall returns with another low-budget scarefest, this time inspired - a little too heavily - by Mad Max, Escape From New York and 28 Days Later.

Scotland has been walled off from the rest of the UK after the outbreak of a disease but when it threatens London Rhona Mitra is sent north to track down a cure.

The attraction of the film lies in the recreation of Scotland post-plague, a horrible place with nice touches such as gang leaders taking over castles and defending them with knights on horseback.