Latest DVD releases reviewed

LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE ****
Directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. Starring Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Steve Carell, Abigail Breslin, Alan Arkin 15 cert

An exuberantly dysfunctional family - a son won't speak, an uncle has just attempted suicide - makes its way from New Mexico to Los Angeles in an equally dysfunctional VW bus. Last year's deserved word-of-mouth smash arrives in a decent package featuring commentaries and four alternate endings. Gives archetypal indie cinema a good name. Donald Clarke

THANK YOU FOR SMOKING ***
Directed by Jason Reitman. Starring Aaron Eckhart, Cameron Bright, Maria Bello, William H Macy, Katie Holmes, Robert Duvall, David Koechner, Rob Lowe, Adam Brody, Sam Elliott, JK Simmons 15 cert

Directed with breezy assurance, Reitman's witty first feature drips with cynicism as it targets the modern culture of spin, lobbying and political correctness, although it lacks the sharper teeth of Network, for example. Eckhart is on peak form as a shameless, conscience-free spokesman for the tobacco industry. Michael Dwyer

AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH ***
Directed by Davis Guggenheim G cert

This filmed record of Al Gore's presentation on global warning certainly laid the terrifying facts before the viewer in the clearest and most lucid of fashions. But is it really a movie? Accompanied by an update from the former vice-president, Guggenheim's barebones production actually feels more at home on DVD. Donald Clarke

SNAKES ON A PLANE ***
Directed by David R Ellis. Starring Samuel L Jackson, Julianna Margulies, Nathan Phillips, Rachel Blanchard 15 cert

The internet dog that didn't bite - after all the hype, the film performed only moderately well - is released in a reasonably well-appointed DVD featuring commentaries and documentaries. The movie, whose plot is neatly summarised in its title, is actually quite entertaining, but SOAP will be remembered more for the surrounding media furore than for its sharp quips and crude shocks. Donald Clarke

CRANK ***
Directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor. Starring Jason Statham, Amy Smart, Efren Ramirez, Jose Pablo Cantillo 18 cert

Consistently imaginative - if relentlessly dumb - thriller, in which Statham's hired killer is injected with a drug that will cause him to die if his heart rate drops below a certain level. Statham is unbeatably gruff and the jokes, though frequently politically incorrect, are riotous throughout. Sadly, there are few extras on the DVD, so rental might be the best option. Donald Clarke

YOU, ME AND DUPREE **
Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo. Starring Owen Wilson, Kate Hudson, Matt Dillon, Seth Rogen, Amanda Detmer, Michael Douglas 12 cert

Ah, a comedy in which Owen Wilson, the perennial buoyant good buddy, plays a best man, frequently drunk, always genial, who refuses to leave the newlyweds' home? That's got to be good fun. Not a bit of it. The jokes are far too clumsy and Wilson is not nearly mean enough to make sense of the part. Donald Clarke

AN UNFINISHED LIFE *
Directed by Lasse Hallström. Starring Robert Redford, Jennifer Lopez, Morgan Freeman 12 cert

Hallström's belatedly released Wyoming melodrama is turgid and predictable, as a domestic violence victim (Lopez) seeks refuge in the home of her estranged father-in-law (Redford). Freeman is on autopilot for another of his world-weary sage roles. Michael Dwyer

BEERFEST  *
Directed by Jay Chandrasekhar. Starring Paul Soter, Erik Stolhanske, Kevin Heffernan 15 cert

The charmless Broken Lizard quintet of would-be comics play crass Americans determined to beat the German team in an underground beer consumption contest at Oktoberfest in Munich. The film is crude and coarse, misogynistic and xenophobic, and consistently, pathetically puerile; immature male teens will be rolling in the aisles. Michael Dwyer

SEVERANCE **
Directed by Christopher Smith. Starring Danny Dyer, Laura Harris, Tim McInnerny 18 cert

English office workers get hacked apart during a trip to eastern Europe. Comic horror romp is attractive in principle. But the sad fact - as anybody who has attended a school panto will attest - is that no amount of exertion will wholly obscure wooden dialogue, sloppy direction and indifferent acting. Generous DVD extras. Donald Clarke

TERKEL IN TROUBLE *
Directed by Kresten Vestbjerg Andersen. Voices of Bill Bailey, Johnny Vegas, Toby Stephens 15 cert

Well here's something you don't see every day. This badly animated, utterly tasteless Danish satire - a sort of South Park for psychopaths - deserves some highly qualified praise for daring to seek humour from child suicide and paedophilia. That it fails is no surprise. That it fails so spectacularly does take the breath away. Donald Clarke