BAD NEIGHBOURS 2 review

After the events of the first film, Mac and Kelly Radner are expecting another baby and are planning on selling up and moving to a bigger house. Unfortunately for them, a sorority has just moved in next door and are being guided by Zac Efron's Teddy in the ways of partying and college life.

ALL THINGS MUST PASS review

Charting the rise and fall of Tower Records, Colin Hanks' All Things Must Pass is out now on DVD.

BASKET CASE TRILOGY Blu-ray review

In what may well be the ultimate story of the bond between two brothers (where one of them lives in a basket), out now on Blu-ray is the Basket Case trilogy.

RE-ANIMATOR Blu-ray review

Starring Jeffrey Combs as H.P. Lovecraft's Dr Herbert West, out now as a 2 disc special edition Blu-ray is the splatter classic Re-Animator.

CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES review

Directed by Jackie Earle Haley and starring John Travolta, Dan Stevens and Michael Pitt, Criminal Activities is out now on DVD and VOD.

ROSENCRANTZ & GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD DVD review

Starring Tim Roth, Gary Oldman and Richard Dreyfuss, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead sees two minor characters from Shakespeare's Hamlet take centre stage as we learn of their importance to the Prince of Denmark's tale. This is the other side of the same coin, if you like.

The 25th anniversary of the film (and 50th anniversary of the original play) is being celebrated with this new DVD, which comes with a bonus disc full of extras. Written and directed by playwright Tom Stoppard, it has a curious set up that will certainly pique the interest of many. In a time when sequels, side-sequels and spin-offs are increasingly prevalent, I was intrigued to see such an interesting idea applied to the work of Shakespeare; Hamlet, no less.

And there are things to admire about the film. There's a great interplay between Roth and Oldman as Rosencrantz and Guildernstern (I'll leave you to figure out which one is which), two contemporaries of British cinema who have worked together a number of times and who clearly have a great trust in their fellow performer. It's odd to see Oldman in a role that is mostly whimsical comic relief, but he's very good at it. A young Iain Glen takes on the role of Hamlet, resembling Alfie Allen in a way I'm surprised hasn't set many a Game of Thrones Reddit thread alight. His performance as the potential future King of Denmark is fresh and exciting, if not more suited to a theatre experience.

It would be appreciated more by those who've studied the Bard, but to fully appreciate the film, I think you would have to be a minor obsessive of Hamlet, of which there are some out there. As well as being about the trivial goings-on of a pair of minor characters, it's surprisingly dense, and as a film, it's a better play. With Stoppard's cheeky stabs (sometimes literally) at actors and their perceived pomposity (as evidenced through Richard Dreyfuss's troupe of travelling performers), it is a play about the theatre, and that doesn't quite translate to the big screen. It certainly has moments of wryly funny, sarcastic humour, and there is a charmingly off kilter approach to its obsessions with the minutiae of life and bizarre non-sequiturs that recall the cinematic works of Richard Lester. One scene sees Oldman holding a bowling ball and a feather and dropping them from a height. "You'd think this would fall faster that this..." Thud. "And you'd be right".

For fans of the Bard it's an interesting curio, featuring two performances from Roth and Oldman that are never less than watchable. Sadly, its overlong running time and often impenetrable text will struggle to capture the interest of a wider audience. It's cinematic limitations are clear, and the DVD even includes a candid interview with Stoppard from last year, where he discusses his motivations and limitations as a director. This was his sole directing effort, and despite some plaudits laid on the film at the time (Stoppard controversially won the Golden Lion ahead of Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas), his strengths do not lie behind the camera lens.

3/5

THE FEAR OF 13 DVD review

After 20 years on death row protesting his innocence, convicted murderer Nicholas Yarris asked for all ongoing appeals to be cancelled and the conclusion of his sentence be carried out. David Sington's The Fear of 13 asks what lead him to make this decision.

LONDON FILM FESTIVAL 2015 - The Round-Up

The 59th London Film Festival took place this October, bringing the usual mix of celebrity galas, red carpets and new discoveries. This was my fourth year of being able to attend the festival, making sure to experience as many of the small, odd little films alongside the bigger behemoths as possible.

CIRCLE review

Fifty strangers wake in a circular room to find that they are pawns on a sundial shaped game board. Every couple of minutes one of them is killed by the eye in the middle, making it a race against time to try to work out the system, along the way revealing the social, racial and class prejudices each individual harbours. If you move from your spot you die. If you don't vote tactically, you die. If you reveal too much about yourself that the others don't like, you die.

MAYHEM FILM FESTIVAL - AAAAAAAAH! review

Written and directed by Sightseers' Steve Oram, Aaaaaaaah! screened at this weekend's Mayhem Film Festival in Nottingham and is now available on VOD.