Reviews

From Buffy and Angel creator Joss Whedon, a four-disc set of the only series (unscreened in the UK) of his "sci-fi western". Fans will relish the smart-ass jokes as a motley crew of screwed-up mercenaries do all the flawed, human things Star Trek didn't. There's more action and pyrotechnics than ideal, but it's a slow burner.

Recorded for MTV's acoustic strand in 1994, this catches the Mighty Zimm midway between the raw-boned graverobbing of World Gone Wrong and Time Out Of Mind's resurrection shuffle. A respectable, if slightly sterile flick through his back pages—"The Times They Are A-Changin'", "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" and "Like A Rolling Stone"—though he seems most fired up by newer material like "Shooting Star" and "Dignity". Not the stuff of legend, but not to be sniffed at.

Dizzee Rascal associate's musically excellent, lyrically moribund debut

Near-concept album about US '80s new wave bop-pop from electroclash prime mover

Doyens of orchestral disco celebrate 35th birthday with best album for aeons

New York punk goes classical. Or vice versa

First 'solo' album appended with Beserkley Chartbusters tracks including "Roadrunner (Once)", and the one with "Egyptian Reggae" on it

Gripping true-life drama of magazine office politics

Jean-Jacques Beineix's 1981 debut is a romantic thriller about a young opera fan who records a bootleg tape of his favourite opera singer. Since she's always refused to be recorded, the tape becomes almost priceless on the black market, with opera fans and gangsters chasing after it. Very French, very stylish, very '80s.

Arguably the Farrellys' best film, though already ageing badly. A bunch of set-pieces (Ben Stiller's zipper problems Cameron Diaz's innovative hair gel) linked by a ridiculous, overlong plot, it gets its big belly-laugh moments right and you tolerate the padding. Stiller's lack of vanity allows him to carry off sketches others would muff.