Aussie heist thriller about crooked Guy Pearce's relationships with his two partner-in-crime brothers and his wayward wife, Rachel Griffiths. The team scheme to rip off the bookies, but Pearce and Griffiths are in top gear and make roadkill of any flaws in the plot. Bitter, tough and funny.

The ingredients are there: Nicolas Winding Refn (Pusher) directs John Turturro and James Remar in a (minimal) script by the late Hubert Selby Jr, with Eno scoring. Yet somehow this just doesn't gel as it wades through its slow pretensions. Turturro's a recently widowed security guard, obsessive over photos and CCTV as he seeks his wife's killer. Intelligent, but rather drab.

The issue of Basque separatism simmers unresolved in Spain, where Julio Medem's documentary has aroused controversy for its alleged one-sidedness. The director's technique is unsubtle. He's rounded up countless talking heads, sat them in chairs in front of attractive Basque scenery, and got them to talk to camera about the complicated political, historical and social issues involved. The result is somewhat tedious and confusing.

William Burroughs' novel was long considered to be unfilmable, a theory that David Cronenberg proved with this '91 adaptation. Riffing through the book, sampling scenes from the author's life, with a generous helping of sci-fi horror and psycho-sexual neurosis, Naked Lunch plunges Peter Weller and Judy Davis into a beatnik junkie netherworld. Flawed Kafka on ketamine and arguably Cronenberg's most ambitious work to date.

After a timid first season, Smallville gets evil and horny—at least in a nice, family viewing kind of way. Young Clark Kent comes across red Kryptonite and turns moody; cue much pondering on whether he's been sent to Earth as saviour or destroyer. The love interest with Lana warms up, but in "Heat" Clark, like everyone, falls for a sexy new teacher. Educational.

Underrated, atypical Brit film from Penny Woolcock, smartly mashing up the thrills of Fight Club with the what-are-we-here-for musings of French existentialism. Marc Warren and Alec Newman are competitive males into bareknuckle bouts, drugs and strippers; Sienna Guillory is the single mum they soften for. Confused climax, but till then alarmingly gutsy.

Veteran Japanese director Yoji Yamada's 77th film recasts the Samurai epic with a fin-de-siècle cynicism reminiscent of the revisionist westerns of the '60s and '70s. In the dying days of 19th-century Japan's Edo period, a reluctant Samurai (Hiroyuki Sanada) fulfils his duties while dreaming of settling down. A beautiful, moving deconstruction of national folk myths.

"O JOY!"IS NOT THE UNIVERSAL response to the idea of a sofa, a bag of toffees, a long weekend and six Marx Brothers movies to sit through. Inexplicably, there are those whose funny bones are immune to the work of Groucho, Harpo and the rest of the crew. When it comes to the Marx brand of sideways lunacy, seems you either get it or you don't. This latest DVD set gathers up A Day At The Races, A Night At The Opera, At The Circus, Go West, The Big Store and A Night In Casablanca.

Along with Boyz N The Hood, this marks the film world's awakening to a dark period of gang violence in early-'90s LA. The story of Caine Lawson (Tyrin Turner), a young black man looking to escape the daily treadmill of bloodshed, isn't particularly original, but the Hughes brothers pull few punches. It's not a pretty sight, but the film now stands as a curious period piece.

Left limbless, deaf, dumb and blind by a WWI landmine, US GI Timothy Bottoms is locked away in a hospital. Considered beyond medical help, he drifts in memories and fantasies, until, years later, he finally finds a way to communicate—to little avail. Based on his 1939 novel, this 1971 anti-war parable was the only film directed by blacklisted scriptwriter Dalton Trumbo. At times awkward, it's nonetheless driven by an acute, angry intelligence. Hard to forget.