IMPOSSIBLE OBJECT 15

1973 ★★★★★ OUT NOW BD

EXTRAS ★★★★★

Alternative cut, Commentary, Featurette, Video essay, Galleries, Booklet

Adapted from a novel by Nicholas Mosley, this atypically arty drama from John Frankenheimer (The Manchurian Candidate) stars Alan Bates as an English writer who, while living with his family in France, embarks on an affair with a younger married woman (Dominique Sanda). Little seen in the UK or US - and then usually in a re-edited international cut (also included here) -Impossible Object is no lost masterpiece, but delivers an intriguingly surreal take on the intersection of creativity and obsession

MUDBOUND 15 2017

★★★★★ OUT NOW BD

EXTRAS ★★★★★ Commentary, Documentaries, Featurettes, Essay

A well-deserved Criterion release for director/co-writer Dee Rees’ powerful historical race drama. Nominated for multiple Oscars, this adap expertly weaves together several narrative threads as it follows two farming families - white landowners and Black tenants - during World War Two. Prejudice, vulnerability and bitter human truths come to light in a movie distinguished by Rees’ grounded, intimate direction. Unsurprisingly, the array of extras highlight the dedication and resourcefulness that went into the production.

BEVERLY HILLS COP TRILOGY 15

Foley order…

1984-94 ★★★★★ OUT NOW 4K UHD

EXTRAS ★★★★★ Commentary, Featurettes, Deleted scenes

Ahead of this summer’s long-gestating, Netflix-backed fourquel Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, here’s a chance to refresh your memory (in 4K, no less) of the past adventures of Eddie Murphy’s renegade law enforcer.

Directed by Martin Brest (Midnight Run), it’s the 1984 original(★★★★) that’s most worth your time. Murphy’s potty-mouthed Detroit ’tec arrives in LA on the hunt for a killer, locking horns with the by-the-book Beverly Hills PD and crooked art dealer Victor Maitland (a sublime Steven Berkoff). A cool, buoyant mix of bullets and zingers, all set to Harold Faltermeyer’s era-defining synth score, it’s peak Murphy. A film every bit as infectious as its star’s braying laugh, BHC remains a mid-80s Hollywood high point - which probably explains why it bags all of this box set’s extras (such as they are).

Tony Scott’s 1987 sequel (★★★) – another box-office hit – has its moments, as Murphy reunites with West Coast cops Judge Reinhold and John Ashton to battle robbers-slash-arms-traffickers, including gun-for-hire Brigitte Nielsen. BHCII may lack the punch of its predecessor, but is still vastly superior to 1994’s belated Beverly Hills Cop III (★). Plonking an uninspired Murphy in the middle of an amusementpark caper, the film truly shoots itself in the Converse. Despite its pedigree – director John Landis, Die Hard scribe Steven E. de Souza – it’s a banana in the tailpipe of action-comedy cinema.

THE VERDICT The original is still one of Murphy’s finest hours, but the others – particularly Beverly Hills Cop III – are inessential viewing.

THELMA &LOUISE 15

1991 ★★★★★ OUT NOW BD, 4K UHD

EXTRAS ★★★★★

Commentaries, Documentary, Featurettes, Deleted/extended scenes, Shorts, Storyboards, Music video, Booklet

‘If you have a problem with the men in the movie, I think you’re probably identifying with the wrong character,’ says Geena Davis of the response from some viewers to Ridley Scott’s groundbreaking road movie. While Criterion’s 4K restoration will do nothing to change their minds, for the rest of us there’s plenty to savour, not least the disc’s handling of the film’s stunning widescreen vistas. Expanded extras include Scott discussing his formative years in the industry.

CITY OF GOD 18 2002

★★★★★ OUT NOW CINEMAS

With its chapter headings (‘The Story of the Tender Trio’, ‘Benny’s Farewell’), decades-spanning narrative and colourfully named characters (Knockout Ned, Steak and Fries), there’s something almost Dickensian about Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund’s saga of lives lived, lost and squandered in Rio’s crime-ridden favelas. It even has a David Copperfield in observant hero Rocket (Alexandre Rodrigues), a budding photographer whose personal history gets entwined with that of hoodlum Li’l Zé (Leandro Firmino da Hora). Two decades on, this Brazilian GoodFellas still packs an adrenalised punch.