Gangsta rapped

New Jack City gets a well-deserved two-disc, special edition release, infidelity meets root canal in The Secret Lives Of Dentists and Stealth turns out to be Team America: World Police without the parody...

New Jack City
****
As the first and arguably definitive hip hop gangsta movie, New Jack City well deserves this two-disc, special edition release. Wesley Snipes is mesmeric as Tony Montana-esque baddie Nino Brown, the ruthless kingpin of the Cash Money Brothers crew, who makes sure he's in prime position when the crack epidemic of the mid-1980s hits New York - only to let his own demons bring him down.

First-time director Mario Van Peebles coaxes some stand-out performances from the rest of his eclectic cast, too, including Ice-T (in his first acting role) as the hip hop cop on Nino's trail, and Chris Rock as rapidly disintegrating crack addict Pookie.

Stylish camerawork gives the film a gloss that 15 years hasn't really dimmed and the soundtrack - which set the standard for all such films that followed - stands as a snapshot of that initial exciting crossover period between hip hop and r'n'b.

Extras: Mario Van Peebles commentary, extra disc including three new documentaries and three music videos.

The Secret Lives Of Dentists
****
A man suspects his wife of infidelity. He's devastated but, through a combination of reticence and fear of the consequences, chooses not to confront her. How do you dramatise that?

Alan Rudolph's The Secret Lives Of Dentists uses an ingenious mix of the real and the paranoia-induced imaginary as a husband and wife (Campbell Scott and Hope Davis) struggle along within the confines of their successful dental practice, their three young daughters, comfortable home and increasingly uncomfortable marriage.

Hubby picks a raffish patient, brilliantly played by Denis Leary, as chief suspect and imaginary confidant, and the result of this bizarre threesome is that rarity: a film that manages to depict the banality of misery without ever succumbing to it.

Extras: Director and cast commentary, TV featurette, gag reel and deleted scenes.

Stealth
**
Stealth is basically Team America: World Police without the parody. You could say without the puppets but, in Josh Lucas's case, that's debatable. Lucas, Jessica Biel and Jamie Foxx (who wisely ejects early on) are US Top Gunstyle pilots edged out by the Extreme Deep Invader, a robot-brained pilot that's been 'designed to evolve' - because we all know what a jolly good idea that is...

Basically, each time XXX director Rob Cohen points his camera at something, it explodes (yay!) and the result is either a tremendously fun shoot 'em up or stupid gungho orgy of destruction, depending on how you look at it. Either way, it's as stealthy as an elephant in tap shoes.