A review of this week's DVD releases

THE LIVES OF OTHERS/DAS LEBEN DER ANDEREN

Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. Starring Ulrich Muhe, Martina Gedeck, Sebastian Koch, Ulrich Tukur 15 cert

This year's winner of the Oscar for best foreign- language film, von Donnersmarck's riveting first feature film stars the hypnotic Muhe as a surveillance expert spying on a playwright and his lover in mid- 1980s East Germany. This tightly wound film chillingly captures the atmosphere of fear, suspicion and intimidation in the years before the Berlin Wall came down. MD

AWAY FROM HER

Directed by Sarah Polley. Starring Julie Christie, Gordon Pinsent, Olympia Dukakis, Michael Murphy, Kristen Thomson 15 cert

Polley's assured first feature as a director, based on an Alice Munro short story, sensitively explores the relationship between a couple who have been married for 44 years when one of them falls prey to Alzheimer's disease. Christie is riveting in this tough, concerned and unsentimental film, which becomes unbearably moving when she simply looks lost. MD

ZODIAC

Directed by David Fincher. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr, Anthony Edwards, Brian Cox, Elias Koteas, Chloë Sevigny 16 cert

This thriller follows in fascinating detail the dogged search for a notorious serial killer who terrorised the San Fransisco Bay Area in the 1970s, leaving cryptic clues to taunt the police. Fincher applies untypical restraint, adopting a classical storytelling style for an intricate procedural thriller as he charts the minutiae of the investigation, which he recreates with admirable clarity and precision. MD

28 WEEKS LATER

Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. Starring Robert Carlyle, Rose Byrne 16 cert

Excellent sequel to 28 Weeks Later which, the carnivorous Infected now all properly dead, finds the UK under the control of an insensitive American military. The inevitable musings upon Iraq are surprisingly incisive, but, once again, the film's main selling point is its enthusiasm for fast-paced, jarringly visceral horror. Better-than-average extras include an interesting commentary. DC

MY BEST FRIEND/MON MEILLEUR AMI

Directed by Patrice Leconte. Starring Daniel Auteuil, Dany Boon, Julie Gayet 12 cert

When an arrogant antiques dealer (Autueil) is challenged by his business partner to produce a true friend, he has a fateful encounter with a loquacious Paris taxi driver (Boon) who is disarmingly friendly. Leconte sets and sustains a breezy pace in this engaging serious comedy and delivers some entertaining surprises before it reaches its resolution. MD

BECOMING JANE

Directed by Julian Jarrold. Starring Anne Hathaway, James McAvoy, Maggie Smith, Julie Walters, James Cromwell PG cert

Working from a much-argued-over biographical fragment, this pretty film supposes that Jane Austen briefly dallied with an Anglo-Irish lawyer (McAvoy) before devoting herself to a life of writing elegant prose. The camerawork is beautiful and the relationship is touching, but shiny Anne Hathaway is scarcely believable as an 18th- century parson's daughter. DC

MEET THE ROBINSONS

Directed by Steve Anderson. Voices of Angela Bassett, Tom Selleck, Harland Williams, Laurie Metcalf, Adam West PG cert

A young orphan is transported to the future in the latest digital animation from Disney. There are several excellent jokes, and the script holds off its descent into sentimentality until the last five minutes. Still, no one will mistake it for Bambi. Disappointing extras for a film from this genre. DC

FACTORY GIRL

Directed by George Hickenlooper. Starring Guy Pearce, Sienna Miller, Hayden Christensen 16 cert

Miller is - surprise, surprise - perfectly OK as empty, vague Edie Sedgwick, the model and pseudo-actress who acted as Andy Warhol's muse, in this lumbering study of bohemian life in 1960s Manhattan. Pearce manages the modest task of portraying Andy with equal aplomb. But, darling, everything else is just frightful. DC