Criminal is about right

From a Criminal remake of an old classic to Tom Cruise's latest squeeze Katie Holmes revealing her considerable talent in the pallid First Daughter, we give you a round-up of all the latest DVD reviews...

Criminal
***
Once again, Hollywood succumbs to the urge to remake - in this case, churning out an English language version of Argentinian scam flick Nine Queens, lacklustrely renamed Criminal. This is partly because the queens in question (valuable stamps) have been scrapped in favour of a rare money bill - what, were the rewriters scared we wouldn't take to stamp-collecting felons? Otherwise, the story sticks pretty closely to the original: junior conman Diego Luna hooks up with sophisticated tough nut John C Reilly and they attempt to con rich Peter Mullan into buying the above-mentioned note. The twist is pretty good, unless you've seen the original or are adept at spotting the least likely option in a given situation. But Nine Queens's lively world - in which everyone is a scammer of some sort but some are more inept than others - has been dispiritingly flattened.
Extras: None, inexcusably.
Nina Caplan

The Philadelphia Story
*****
One of the greatest comedies ever made, and the Viagra that rejuvenated Katharine 'Miss Box Office Poison' Hepburn's career, The Philadelphia Story trips wittily through the preparations for socialite Tracy Lord's second wedding. All promises to be perfect - there's even a magazine reporter (James Stewart) covering the show and falling for the bride - until hubby number one, CK Dexter Haven (Cary Grant) shows up and starts to rock the boat.
The script crackles as three of the era's best actors bounce off each other with charm and skill (Stewart won the 1940 Best Actor Oscar). In fact, the film is yar - and if you don't know what that means, give this a watch and Cary Grant will explain it to you.
Extras: Commentary, plus extra disc featuring Hepburn doc, director George Cukor doc, short and cartoon from 1940. NC

Shall We Dance?
***
Richard Gere sashays back into chick flick mode for Shall We Dance? But this time his pretty woman's not Julia. Dicky's a lawyer, bored with his marriage to Susan Sarandon. Then one day he looks out of his commuter train, spots Ms Jennifer Lopez pouting out of a dance studio window and decides to work out his midlife crisis by secretly taking up ballroom dancing. Yeah right! Implausible, even by romcom standards, it's still toe-tapping, fluffy fun thanks to sidekick Stanley Tucci, who nicely distracts from J.Lo being out-acted by her own parquet.
Extras: Commentary, dance instruction featurette, music video, deleted scenes. Larushka Ivan-Zadeh

First Daughter
**
Katie Holmes, currently much in the news as Tom Cruise's squeeze, to say nothing of her join-the-dots role as the potential Mrs Batman in Batman Begins, betrays her considerable talent in the pallid First Daughter. In it, she plays the president's only infant, just off to college and longing for a quiet life. It's quite a good idea for a chick flick (although Chelsea Clinton could probably sue for plagiarism) but director Forest Whitaker should stick to acting. This poor little rich girl story is as gloopy as an ice-cream sundae and not nearly as much fun to consume.
Extras: Commentary and two featurettes. NC