Classic will grow on you

After all the awards and accolades, The Constant Gardener comes to DVD and remains as beautiful and absorbing as it was on the big screen. Elsewhere, 1944 film noir Laura is released and there's another five hardcore horrors in Box Of The Banned 2.

The Constant Gardener
Universal, 15, £19.99
****

Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes) is The Constant Gardener, a gentle British diplomat in Kenya who is more comfortable with nasturtiums than with politics. When his beautiful, crusading wife Tessa (Rachel Weisz) is murdered, Quayle stops cultivating his garden and begins to dig at the secrets of her death - a rotting mass of business corruption, political apathy and exploitation. Fernando Meirelles's follow-up to City Of God has a similar political engagement but none of the manic energy, possibly because it's based on a John Le Carrè book. But it's beautiful, absorbing and it's easy to see why it's been showered with awards, including Weisz's Oscar.
Extras: Featurettes, including one on filming in Kenya, deleted scenes.

Laura
Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, PG, £17.99
****

Beauties in peril are also at the heart of Otto Preminger's 1944 film noir Laura, now getting its DVD outing. Detective McPherson (Dana Andrews), investigating a murder, falls for the victim via her portrait; but Laura, it turns out, isn't dead - although someone wants her that way. Gene Tierney's enigmatic beauty is perfect for this elegant mystery and Clifton Webb does a nice line in acerbic wit as the smitten columnist blocking McPherson's route to the truth. It's a weird, fey story, which may be why it's out of fashion, but noir fans should nab it.
Extras: Commentary by David Raksin, composer of the famous theme tune, doc and mini-bios of Tierney and cast mate Vincent Price.

In Her Shoes
Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment,12, £19.99
***

Curtis Hanson's In Her Shoes is never going to be on any 'top film of the year' lists but any girl who has a sister, or wanted one, will recognise and enjoy the dynamics. Rose (Toni Collette) is the kind of woman who buys expensive shoes, lines them up and never wears them; Maggie (Cameron Diaz) is the sort of chick who borrows shoes and spills stuff on them. When her big sister chucks her out, Maggie bags Rose's best Manolos and heads for Florida to find her unknown grandmother (Shirley MacLaine in understated, rather than Terms Of Endearment, mode). The pacing is odd, the outcome predictable but it's top girly evening fodder.
Extras: Featurettes, including interviews with the Florida extras - actual retirement community inhabitants, all of whom are thrilled to be working with Diaz.

Box Of The Banned 2
Anchor Bay Entertainment, 18, £24.99
****

Boasting five hardcore horrors from the 1970s/early 1980s bloodsoaked glory age, Box Of The Banned 2 is a valuefor-money collection including Matt Cimber's surreal curiosity The Witch Who Came From The Sea, Italian sci-fi splatterfest Contamination and Tenebrae, Dario Argento's disturbingly sophisticated giallo slasher (1982), here uncut. Provocative and overtly shocking, this second instalment of 'The Ultimate Collection Of Video Nasties' is a bumper treat for genre fans. Be wary, though: nasty means nasty. If your idea of a scary movie stops at The Sixth Sense or even gosh-aren't-we-ironic ketchup chuckles such as Scream, you should heed the warning inherent in another title here, Lawrence D Foldes's virgin-munching cannibal shocker: Don't Go Near The Park (1981).
Extras: Part Two of David Gregory's calmly informative doc Ban The Sadist Videos. Larushka Ivan-Zadeh