New DVDs

This week's new DVDs reviewed

UP IN THE AIR ****
Directed by Jason Reitman. Starring George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick, Jason Bateman, Tamala Jones, Chris Lowell 15A cert

Smooth, serious comedy detailing the travails of a corporate axe-man (an immaculate Clooney) who lives his life in hotel bars, aeroplane cabins and business lounges. The film has things to say about the recession, but is mostly notable for the way it teases our perception of the hero: is his life glamorously carefree or hopelessly empty?

VALHALLA RISING **** Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn. Starring Mads Mikkelsen, Jamie Sives, Gary Lewis, Ewan Stewart, Maarten Stevenson 18 cert

Refn's bizarre Viking drama has gone straight to video in this territory and, though it's a stirring piece of work, there's no great mystery as to why. Films in this genre – think Richard Fleischer's The Vikings– tend to be filthy, shouty affairs with copious amounts of dismemberment. But Refn, director of the recent Bronson, has attempted something more enigmatic and contemplative. The picture finds a troublemaker named One Eye (the reliably sinister Mikkelsen) ending up on a boat with a gang of Christian Vikings who yearn to join the crusades. Unfortunately, they appear to sail west rather than south and, after much drifting, end up somewhere a little like North America. With long dream sequences and moments of sheer abstraction, this defiantly odd picture is closer to the transcendent madness of Herzog's Aguirre: Wrath of Godthan it is to the Fleischer film. Offer it your patience and it should win you over.

PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL ‘PUSH’ BY SAPPHIRE ****: Directed by Lee Daniels. Starring
Gabourey Sidibe, Paula Patton, Mo’Nique, Mariah Carey, Sherri Shepherd, Lenny Kravitz 15A cert

Searing, brilliantly acted study of life in Harlem during the 1980s. Sidibe is unbearably touching as an obese teenager repeatedly raped by her father. Mo’Nique is terrifying as her demented mother. There are issues here – why must all such stories offer an escape route to the oppressed? – but, for all its compromises, the film remains thunderously powerful.

SHERLOCK HOLMES ***: Directed by Guy Ritchie. Starring Robert Downey Jr, Jude Law, Rachel McAdams, Mark Strong, Eddie Marsan 12A cert

Holmes purists may balk at Ritchie’s decision to turn the detective into a punchy, speedy – though still brainy – action hero, but it can’t be denied that the director has delivered a very entertaining steampunk fantasy.

Downey Jr is satisfactorily odd in the title role and Law does good exasperation as Watson.

SEX & DRUGS & ROCK & ROLL ****
Directed by Mat Whitecross. Starring Andy Serkis, Bill Milner, Luke Evans, Mackenzie Crook, Naomie Harris, Olivia Williams 18 cert

Stirring, profane biopic of Ian Dury – the Hogarth of post-punk – featuring a rampaging, Bafta-nominated lead performance by the increasingly ubiquitous Serkis. At times Andy is, perhaps, a little too theatrical, but is so infused with Dury’s earthy energy that it ultimately proves impossible to resist.