VideoDVD

Latest video releases reviewed

OVERNIGHT ****

Directed by Tony Montana and Mark Brian Smith 15 cert

Hugely enjoyable - if formally unremarkable - exercise in Schadenfreude following the rise and fall of self-proclaimed genius Troy Duffy. In 1997 Harvey Weinstein offered the bartender $300,000 to direct a film of his debut screenplay. Disaster followed. The DVD is also to be issued in a double-pack with Duffy's flick, The Boondock Saints. Anybody who has seen Overnight will be intrigued to see the blasted thing, though perhaps reluctant to put even those few cents in Troy's pocket. Donald Clarke

BOMBÓN EL PERRO ****

Directed by Carlos Sorín. Starring Juan Villegas, Walter Donado 12 cert

Delightful humanistic drama following a middle-aged Argentinian, a victim of the country's economic collapse, whose life changes for the better when he is given a pedigree dog. Bombón el Perro never gets above the pace of an elderly Bassett with a full stomach. But Carlos Sorín, who pushes his camera closer to the face than any director since Sergio Leone, finds something of interest in every frame. The DVD offers no extras worth noting. Donald Clarke

BOX OF THE BANNED *****

18 cert

Following on from excellent boxed sets featuring the work of British horror studios Amicus and Tigon, Anchor Bay has surpassed itself with this collection of six films from the era of the video nasty. The range of pictures encompasses both the dubious - Nightmare in a Damaged Brain, anyone? - and bona fide classics such as Last House on the Left and The Evil Dead. There are also two fascinating documentaries and hours of extras. The only black mark: unlike the Tigon and Amicus collections, the set is not shipped in a little coffin. Donald Clarke

THE BROWN BUNNY *

Directed by Vincent Gallo. Starring Vincent Gallo, Chloë Sevigny, Cheryl Tiegs 18 cert

Deservedly shorn by half an hour since it first surfaced at Cannes in May 2003, and passed over for cinema release here, Gallo's wildly self-indulgent opus takes the form of an ugly, grainy travelogue shot mostly through the dirty windscreen of a van as he drives and drives through the US. Watching paint dry would have been only marginally more boring until, in a desperate attempt to jolt the viewer's eyes open, Gallo inserts a graphic and entirely gratuitous scene in which he receives oral sex from Sevigny. Michael Dwyer