Take It To The Street

Scorsese's awe-inspiring paean to a city born through conflict

Siouxsie & The Banshees—The Seven Year Itch

Siouxsie as a punk Monroe? Not quite, for despite the title, she looks more like a goth version of Marlene Dietrich in her pin-stripe suit. The jacket and tie later comes off to reveal a glittering bra as she works her voodoo on aged punks and new hedonists on the Banshees' 2002 reunion tour. Oldies such as "Spellbound", "Peek-A-Boo" and "Happy House" have lost none of their theatrical power and are augmented by one new track, an extraordinary version of The Beatles' "Blue Jay Way".

The Poseidon Adventure

Hip and hunky priest Gene Hackman leads a motley gang of passengers through many a watery danger when a freak wave flips their passenger liner upside down. Classic disaster movie stuff, with the added bonus of a sweaty and thoroughly miffed Ernest Borgnine.

Matinee

Enjoyable coming-of-age saga from Joe Dante, set against the backdrop of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. Huckster movie director Lawrence Woolsey (John Goodman) arrives in a small Florida town to promote his latest gimmick-laden monster flick. Goodman's great as Woolsey (obviously based on William Castle), and Dante successfully evokes the era without being overly nostalgic.

Short Cuts

The Rolling Stones recently cancelled what would have been their first ever visit to China. But Morcheeba made the trip earlier this year and their visit is commemorated on From Brixton to Beijing WARNER MUSIC VISIONRating Star . Live footage, film of the band tobogganing down the Great Wall and a cameo appearance by Lambchop's Kurt Wagner contribute to an intelligently produced DVD that is several cuts above your average point-and-shoot tour diary.

Psychedelic High

Part of a triple DVD pack, this contains footage of German TV show Beat Club, a legendary showcase for the best bands of the era. Its late-'60s archive is now a valuable resource for DVD compilers. Like a visual companion to Uncut's Acid Daze CD given away two issues ago, Psychedelic High features Donovan, Arthur Brown, the Small Faces and The Nice all overlapping with that collection. The Who and The Moody Blues also attend what is mostly a very English psychedelic tea party, although The Byrds, Blue Cheer and Canned Heat fly the American freak flag.

The Cure—Trilogy

Inspired by a Bowie gig, Trilogy sees The Cure perform three of their LPs in full over two nights at Berlin's Tempodrom—the classics Pornography and Disintegration plus the more recent Bloodflowers. With the band, as usual, brilliantly lit and the event shot with 12 separate cameras, this is far superior to normal live fare. The music, too, benefits from perhaps the band's strongest line-up. Pornography, originally performed by a trio, here becomes a maudlin monolith, with the ageless Smith somehow reinfused with a bitterness now 20 years old. Thrilling.

Crime And Punishment

Leone's ferocious four-hour gangster epic, first time on DVD

Slap Her, She’s French

Totally rubbish teen comedy which sees a French girl (Coyote Ugly's Piper Perabo) invading Texas and fiendishly ruining the life of star cheerleader Jane McGregor. Not content with being bland and dull, its national stereotyping stops just short of "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" gags.

True Confessions

Ulu Grosbard's sombre noir revolves around the infamous Black Dahlia murder that gripped 1940s Los Angeles. With Roberts De Niro and Duvall excellent as brothers caught up in the case—respectively, a repressed but ambitious priest, and a hardbitten homicide cop who suspects his sibling knows more than he should—it aims for a dark, sweeping resonance pitched somewhere between Chinatown and L.A. Confidential.
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