Latest Video/DVD releases reviewed.

21 GRAMS ****

Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu. Starring Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, Naomi Watts, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Clea DuVall, Danny Huston, Melissa Leo 18 cert

Del Toro, an ex-con who has found God, runs down Watts's husband and sends her back into substance abuse. Then Sean Penn, a gravely ill professor who has received the dead man's heart, comes calling on the widow. The three fine leads somehow manage to shoulder a staggering amount of angst without buckling, and Iñárritu, in this fine follow-up to Amores Perros, does some dazzling things with chronology. A grim entertainment.

THE STATION AGENT****

Directed by Tom McCarthy. Starring Peter Dinklage, Patricia Clarkson, Bobby Cannavale, Raven Goodwin, Paul Benjamin, Michelle Williams 15 cert

A dwarf (Dinklage) inherits a disused railway station in rural New Jersey and rubs up against two eccentric neighbours (Clarkson and Dinklage). Though The Station Agent does appear to have been struck from the classic American indie template - odd people do odd things to no real end - it contains powerful arguments about the joys of friendship and the consolation that comes from not keeping one's troubles to oneself.

LAWS OF ATTRACTION*

Directed by Peter Howitt. Starring Pierce Brosnan, Julianne Moore, Parker Posey, Michael Sheen, Frances Fisher, Nora Dunn, Mina Badie 12 cert

It's about two opposing lawyers who fall in love and it's called Laws of Attraction. Geddit? If you find that amusing, then you will adore the sequence in which everybody goes to Ireland (land of the little people) to wear jumpers, twinkle mischievously and howl at the hilarious inefficiency of the locals. Excuse me. We're the most powerful nation in the world, right now (or thereabouts). We don't have to take this crap any more.

50 FIRST DATES**

Directed by Peter Segal. Starring Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore, Rob Schneider, Sean Astin, Dan Aykroyd, Lusia Strus, Blake Clark 12 cert

Barrymore plays a Hawaiian waitress who, following an accident, is left with no short-term memory. So every time Sandler, a randy local vet, meets her he has to start the relationship from scratch. Sounds like a recipe for top-notch bad taste humour, but, sadly, Sandler has Drew's best interests at heart and behaves far too sweetly. Like the events of Ms Barrymore's day, this drippy film slips easily from the mind as soon as it ends.