DVD round-up from The TOMB

'Inside Man', 'V For Vendetta' and 'Shooting Dogs' all hit shelves this week.

Aug  1 2006

This week sees the release of a couple of guilty pleasures and a heart-wrenching drama about the Rwandan genocide.

First up is 'Inside Man', Spike Lee's enjoyably inconsequential bank heist thriller that stars Clive Owen, Denzel Washington and Jodie Foster.

A change of tack for Spike, the film is popcorn pic that entertains from start to finish, (though obviously Lee can't help but slip in the odd political aside). Washington and Foster are classy as ever, rising young Brit star Chiwetel Ejiofor is excellent, and while Clive Owen's lifeless monotone usually grates on me, he gives a perfectly passable performance as the boss of the bank-robbing gang.

Next up is 'V For Vendetta' an adaptation of Alan Moore's seminal graphic novel that stars Natalie Portmam and Hugo Weaving. A blockbuster with brains, the film attempts to question where this big brother society of ours is headed, and while it isn't always successful (clunky dialogue and some strangely flat set pieces see to that) it's nevertheless a valiant attempt to subvert the summer flick.

Finally we've got 'Shooting Dogs', Michael Caton-Jones' unsentimental, devastating account of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Revolving around the massacre at the Ecole Technique Officielle in Kigali, it features a hugely affecting performance from John Hurt as a conflicted priest, and while it's not an easy film to watch, it's nevertheless an incredibly important one.

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