Go ape for King Kong

A king-sized release dominates the new DVDs this week, with the much-anticipated release of Peter Jackson's King Kong. Also, there's an impressive debut by a promising new Franch director, a fantastic French gangster thriller and some good old American film noir

King Kong
Universal Pictures UK, 12, £24.99
Review: Larushka Ivan-Zadeh
*****

King Kong may not have been the best movie of last year but it was certainly the biggest. Peter Jackson breathed new life into that tired old dinosaur, the blockbuster, with this enthusiastic epic about a failing Depression-era film-maker (Jack Black) who picks an unknown actress (Naomi Watts) to star in his latest feature - on location on Skull Island. That's where she meets a (very) big new love interest.

Behind all the hype and the million-dollar effects (particularly those pulse-racing dinosaur fights), this lives and dies as a simple retelling of ye olde beauty and the beast fable. Less affecting than RKO's 1933 superior tear-tugger but still a must-see of modern cinema.

Extras: It's a big screen movie but more than three hours of bonus features is terrific compensation - including the natural history of Skull Island and an introduction by Peter Jackson.

Tzameti (13)
Revolver Entertainment, 15, £19.99
Review: Nina Caplan
****

Gèla Babluani's stylish, unusual thriller Tzameti (13) follows Sèbastien (George Babluani, Gèla's brother), an immigrant labourer who's working on a French roof, when he overhears the owner talking about an opportunity to make serious amounts of cash. When the man drops dead of an overdose, the intrepid 22-year-old grabs his chance - only to find himself enmeshed in a sinister game from which there is probably no escape.

Babluani has shot in black and white, with a fantastic, adroit soundtrack that cuts out abruptly when Sèbastien winds up in distinctly un-musical surroundings. The divide between the first half and the second may be rather sudden but this is an exceptional debut - and Babluani is great as the narrow-eyed, good-hearted boy caught up in circumstances he can't control.

Extras: None.

The Beat That My Heart Skipped: Special Edition
Artificial Eye, 15, £22.99
Review: Larushka Ivan-Zadeh
****

If you missed this sensational sleeper hit last year, here's a special two-disc edition incentive to get with the zeitgeist. As supposed gangster thrillers go, The Beat That My Heart Skipped is très French. Tom (hot young star Romain Duris) is a hip young gunslinger with the soul of an artist and the looks of a young De Niro. He divides his time between piano playing and extracting money via GBH. Men want to be him and women - well, y'know.

But can Tom make something of his life beyond the next cigarette? A complex little symphony around passion, loyalty, parental pressure, ambition and the redemptive power of art, this noir has it all.

Extras: Separate disc includes deleted scenes, director, writer and composer interviews, and rehearsal footage.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Warner Brothers Entertainment, 15, £17.99
Review: Larushka Ivan-Zadeh
***

Brought to you by Shane Black, revered writer of Lethal Weapon, this off-beat LA buddy comedy never quite scales the Glover/Gibson heights - despite the (on paper) dream team pairing of Robert Downey Jnr and Val Kilmer. Annoyingly, the chemistry's not there. Nor is the Kiss Kiss Bang Bang script as clever as it thinks.