Latest video releases reviewed
HOTEL RWANDA ****
Directed by Terry George. Starring Don Cheadle, Sophie Okonedo, Joaquin Phoenix, Nick Nolte 12 cert
In this gripping, lucid and factually based picture of the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, the potent dramatic filter is a hotel manager, Paul Rusesabagina (charismatically played by Oscar-nominated Cheadle), who employed all the skills of his profession to shelter and save over 1,200 refugees. Michael Dwyer
SHALL WE DANCE? **
Directed by Peter Chelsom. Starring Richard Gere, Jennifer Lopez, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci, 12 cert
The US remake of the charming Japanese movie adheres closely to the original as a mild-mannered, married lawyer (Gere) is transformed when he takes ballroom dancing classes from an instructor (Lopez) who, inexplicably, has a vast wardrobe of sleek outfits. The result is twee and calculatedly sentimental. Michael Dwyer
FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX **
Directed by John Moore. Starring Dennis Quaid, Tyrese Gibson, Giovanni Ribisi, Miranda Otto, Hugh Laurie 12A cert
This remake of Robert Aldrich's rainy bank holiday staple, in which a band of misfits rebuild their aircraft after crashing in the desert, proves perfectly efficient without adding much to the original. As in his Behind Enemy Lines, Irish director Moore does demonstrate a precocious mastery of the mechanics of pandemonium. Donald Clarke
SPANGLISH **
Directed by James L Brooks. Starring Adam Sandler, Téa Leoni, Paz Vega, Cloris Leachman 12A cert
A celebrity chef (Sandler, creepy) and his neurotic wife (Leoni, brash) summer in Malibu with their Mexican housekeeper (Vega, spirited). If we have to endure Hollywood guilt trips about the relationship between server and served, then, by all means, let them be organised by that warm-hearted liberal James L Brooks. But this is still drippy stuff. Donald Clarke
9 SONGS *
Directed by Michael Winterbottom. Starring Kieran O'Brien, Margot Stilley, Huw Bunford, Cian Ciaran 18 cert
Hump, hump. Kerrang, kerrang! Blah, blah. Hump, hump. It is terrific news that Winterbottom's incandescently awful farrago of copulation, student rock and pretentious nattering has been granted a certificate. That doesn't mean you have to watch it though. Hump, hump etc. Donald Clarke
