DVD OF THE WEEK

ANVIL! THE STORY OF ANVIL ****
Dir: Sacha Gervasi
Starring: Steve 'Lips” Kudlow, Robb Reiner

For an obscure left-field gem like this a little introduction is required. Anvil are a heavy metal band who have never really made it. They can lay claim to what was apparently the heaviest heavy metal album ever made, the 1982 'classic” Metal on Metal. They call themselves the 'demigods of Canadian metal”. This is their story.
It's hard to know where to start? Should I point out the Spinal Tap references? The dial that goes up to 11? The trip to Stonehenge? The disastrous European tour organised by a band member's girlfriend? The Metallica-like meltdown while recording? The triumphant return with a gig in Japan?
This is a very strange and funny film, and all of it is dead straight. Kudlow and Reiner were school friends who vowed to rock forever and now, in their mid-fifties with crap jobs and long-suffering families, they are still rocking, only nobody seems to notice. The film is about believing in the dream and, despite everything, they do.
Many people will love this film. For metal fans it's a real treat, with a procession of talking heads such as Lars Ulrich, Slash and others lining up to testify about the band's influence. There are also cameos from a pile of famous guitarists. If you hate metal you will love the puncturing of the general silliness that surrounds the music (it really is remarkably close to Spinal Tap at times), and if you care nothing for music you may well find the cockles of your heart warmed by the very human story of enduring friendship in the face of all odds.

Despite being early in the year Bruce Willis already appears to be a shoo-in for 'Worst Hairpiece of the Year”, an award normally reserved for Nicolas Cage. Weirdest of all is that this particular fashion disaster is not worn by Bruce himself but, in Surrogates (***), by his replica (or 'surrogate”), a special inhabitable robot meant to make him look good. That aside, this is a decent enough sci-fi outing, with shades of I Robot. Most interesting is the imagined future in which everyone stays at home and sends their surrogate into the real world. Bruce is a detective and bad things have happened. The action is good, the story competent, and the only disappointment (aside from the wig) is that you can actually see a smarter 5-star movie lurking just below the surface.

In Push (***) nasty government divisions experiment on psychic kids, trying to turn them onto weapons. A girl escapes and various factions end up searching for a mysterious case, the good guys being Dakota Fanning, who can see the future, and Chris Evans, who can 'push” objects with his mind. Not dissimilar in tone to Jumper, this is a more satisfying concoction, despite its sometimes incoherent plot, combining intriguing psychic action with good performances. Particularly impressive are the cinematography, giving a colour-saturated excitement to the Hong Kong locations, and the imaginative direction from Paul McGuigan.

Renee Zellweger is a social worker with 38 cases. Then she gets given another. Case 39 (**) involves a couple of weird parents whom she suspects are going to harm their daughter. But could there be something a little strange about the cute young tot herself? Is it giving too much away to reveal that, hot on the heals of Orphan, this is yet another 'killer kid” movie? This time there's all sorts of supernatural stuff going on that, frustratingly, it doesn't get the examination it deserves. Add in an underwhelming finale and you have a tyke that you may be best not to babysit.

Mulberry St (***) is in Manhattan, and in this very effectively-made low-budget horror outing Manhattan is in trouble. News reports abound of attacks by rats and people are contracting a strange infection. OK, so you'll read the back cover of the DVD and it tells you that city dwellers are turning into 'bloodthirsty rodent-like creatures”. They are, but it isn't nearly as tacky as it sounds. Think Rec* or Quarantine as one apartment block fights to stave off the ratty ones. Not bad at all.