The Good, the Bad and the Blu-rays

In the run up to Christmas there's always one week that's almost entirely devoted to new stand-up DVDs hitting the market. This is that week. Still, ignoring all of that lot, there has to be one or two decent films mixed in, surely?

Winner of Best Documentary Feature at this year's Oscars, Undefeated comes close to being the ultimate sports movie, even if you're not a fan of this particular sport. Finding documentary gold in head coach of a high school football team, Bill Courtney, it's all about the triumph of the human spirit and one of the great underdog stories. A must see.

On a not so serious note we have The Winning Season, a Sam Rockwell vehicle to show off his comedy chops as the coach of a girls high school basketball team. This one has sat on the shelf for a while which usually isn't a good sign, but from the evidence of the trailer it looks like it might have one or two fun moments, albeit nothing we haven't seen before in Bad News Bears, Kicking and Screaming, etc.

Warner Bros. have re-released a whole stack of films from their recent back catalogue today, repackaged in these smoky black and white steelbooks that they've dubbed "the Premium Collection". Extras involved vary from disc to disc, but for once I'm not so sold on these steelbook editions as all they appear to have added is a UV copy which is pretty redundant to most people. Also, I hate it when actors' names don't line up with their faces on the cover, and this edition of Heat must be one of the worst examples I've ever seen. I can't even bear to look at it.

Running off on a tangent, I know it's childish, but this German trailer for the re-releases hasn't half put a smile on my face.

I will watch this because, well... because it's got Greta Gerwig in it, but something about Lola Versus doesn't seem right. I've got no problem with Gerwig moving on from the mumblecore films that made her name onto something a lot more mainstream, but this isn't going to be anything more than a slight, girly rom-com that's very much of its time. Maybe it's the efforts of the studio to sell it on the back of 500 Days Of Summer, which makes no sense at all as this was also the studio that brought us Club Dread, but yet they chose not to mention that one.

Starring the usually glamourous looking AnnaLynne McCord (90210) as Pauline, a teenager going through a particularly nasty phase, Excision has one hell of a supporting cast in Malcolm McDowell, John Waters and Traci Lords as the grown ups in Pauline's life. Taking elements from Teeth, The Woman and the cult classic May, Excision looks dark, fucked up and a little bit amazing.