Playing while standing on a runway with planes roaring overhead in "Beautiful Day", introducing the Flys V Lemons Championships in "Stuck In A Moment...", and playing with cartoons and Batman footage in "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me", U2 are as entertaining as they are enormous and serious. More intriguing, though, are the visits paid behind the scenes as U2 play Sarajevo, bribe Larry with a mermaid and film three videos for "One".
"Don't watch that—watch THIS!". The Nutty Boys' promos were always integral to their position as one of the greatest English singles bands of the 1980s. What's "Baggy Trousers" without a flying saxophonist? What's "It Must Be Love" without the sight of Suggs and chums risking electrocution in a swimming pool? They're all here, from '79's "The Prince" to '99's Ian Dury-assisted "Drip Fed Fred". Priceless.
Influenced by Spinal Tap as much as it is by cannabis, this 1985 mockumentary was the last thing the duo wrote as a team. Supposedly following them as they record their last album, the best parts are the on-the-couch interviews in which Cheech improvises pretentious answers while Chong tries not to laugh. The songs themselves aren't too funny unless you're baked, but then that's the point.
Troublesome teens? Round them up at random, dump them on a deserted island, armed to the teeth, and force them to fight each other to death. It works brilliantly in Kinji Fukasaku's relentlessly violent and cheerfully tasteless satire, and is surely a public order initiative David Blunkett would approve of.
DVD EXTRAS: Loads, including additional footage and alternative ending, Takeshi Kitano interview, filmographies and director interview.
(AJ)
Wesley Snipes returns as Blade the Daywalker, scourge of vampires despite being half-vampire himself. This time he's recruited by the Vampire Nation to lead a crack assault team (including the wonderful Ron Perlman) against a new breed of bloodsucker that menaces vampires as well as humans. As stylish as the first flick, but not quite as much fun.
The quintessential '90s indie band take a creditable tilt at posterity on this two-disc set. Thirteen delightfully silly videos and two live sets provide the bulk, but the real gem is a detailed and affectionate documentary (reminiscent of Fugazi's Instrument) tracing Pavement from shambolic beginnings to nominally slicker stardom, of a kind. For connoisseurs: plenty of lunatic first drummer Gary Young and Stephen Malkmus interviewed in a sauna.
Four magnificent hours of documentary narrated by Kris Kristofferson which trace the history of indigenous American music throughout the 20th century. Thrilling ancient footage of Muddy Waters, Hank Williams, BB King, Woody Guthrie and dozens of others drawn from the ranks of the true pioneers of blues, gospel, cajun, folk and country makes this an essential purchase for anyone with a passion for America's musical heritage.
Forget CDs, this is how Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett's bloodless multimedia project was always meant to be experienced: as a fancy interactive DVD stuffed with videos, storyboards, short animations, a documentary and plenty of hidden gimmicks that only resourceful 11-year-olds can locate. Extensive foraging suggests, however, that Albarn's soul is still nowhere to be found.