DVD OF THE WEEK

SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD *****
Dir: Edgar Wright. Starring: Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ellen Wong, Keiran Culkin

Dripping with attitude and dazzling visuals, Scott Pilgrim Vs The World leaves every previous movie based on a comic book seeming anaemic and unadventurous in comparison.
Following the titular 23 year old slacker bass player through his half-arsed attempts at a love life, director Edgar Wright builds on genres already conquered – horror comedy with Shawn of the Dead, action comedy with Hot Fuzz – by throwing everything at the screen in a glorious sensory overload. After Scott falls for a new girl (Winstead) he finds himself in an increasingly extravagant battle with her seven evil exes, savvy cameos from the likes of Chris Evans, Jason Schwartzman and Brandon Routh.
Crank the sound up on this and it's like being inside a video game, so inventive is the visual and audio scheme, but the film never loses sight of its genuine – if weird – characters from the inimitable Knives Chau to Scott's haranguing sister and his disruptive gay flatmate (another sparkling turn from Culkin). It's also packed full of jokes on just about every level.
As far as sheer adrenalised fun goes this has to be the pick of the year.

Emerging at almost the same time, Salt (***) was the serious twin to the Cruise/Diaz action/comedy Knight and Day. In terms of general silliness there is not much to separate them, except this one does it all with a straight face thanks to the experienced hands of director Philip Noyce (Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger). Accused of being a Russian spy, Angelina Jolie is soon on the run from everybody while her true story and motivations are slowly revealed. As in the Tomb Raider films and Wanted, Jolie comes across as something of a live-action cartoon, but it's hard to think of an actress more convincing in such fare.

Jonah Hex (***) is odd in that it leaves you wondering what happened to the rest of the film. Clocking in at a bare 70 minutes this adaptation of a comic book western with supernatural overtones has a good cast – James Brolin, John Malkovich, Megan Fox – and its story of the eponymous scarred hero's revenge for the death of his family is easy enough to watch, but it feels in need of a few more bells and whistles or something a little more extreme to really give it a kick.

Since they seem to be becoming a thing of the past, it's easy to forget the pleasure of a good solid English murder mystery. In The Oxford Murders (***) an enigmatic John Hurt is a mathematics professor at the esteemed university while Elijah Woods is a new overseas student. And people they know are being bumped off. Based on a hard-to-adapt novel by Guillermo Martinez this marshals a fine array of supporting thesps, but what could have been a BBC-style drama – albeit one with unusually high production values – has a strangely off-kilter feel. There is an edge of melodramatic excess, and the obsessive mathematical philosophising occasionally gets plain weird. But even if most suspense elements are bungled, the mystery's solution is still a satisfying conclusion.

Boasting a host of cameos – Alice Cooper, Iggy Pop, Moby, etc – Suck! (*) tries very hard to be cool in its tale of a rock band who become vampires for fame and fortune, but is really a rotten little exercise in smug unoriginality which exists solely because some marketing exec realised that vampires are trendy and appearances from cult faves would drag in desperate fanboys (who will be disappointed by the vanilla nature of the sex and violence).

After the impressive Cemetery Junction, Ricky Gervais Live 4: Science (***), the fourth stand-up vehicle from the creator of The Office and Extras, finds Gervais rather stuck in neutral. Aside from a few inspired moments it's basically the same old routines and jabs at the fat, disabled, the Bible, and other soft targets. Nothing wrong with that, but after three previous shows it would be good to see some genuinely fresh material.