NEW TO RENT ON DVD/BLU-RAY

DVD OF THE WEEK

The Expendables 3 (Cert 12, 126 mins, Lionsgate Home Entertainment UK Ltd, Action/Thriller, also available to buy DVD £19.99/The Expendables Trilogy DVD Box Set £24.99/Blu-ray £24.99/Limited Edition Steelbook Blu-ray £29.99/The Expendables Trilogy Blu-ray Box Set £34.99 or on-demand from various streaming services)

Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Wesley Snipes, Mel Gibson, Kellan Lutz, Ronda Rousey, Glen Powell, Victor Ortiz, Antonio Banderas, Dolph Lundgren, Harrison Ford, Randy Couture, Terry Crews, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kelsey Grammer.

Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) and his crew of battle-hardened mercenaries - Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), Gunner Jensen (Dolph Lundgren), Toll Road (Randy Couture) and Hale Caesar (Terry Crews) - orchestrate a prison breakout. Their target: original Expendables member Doctor Death (Wesley Snipes), who has been off the grid for several years. The bolstered team heads to Mogadishu at the behest of chief Max Drummer (Harrison Ford), where Barney comes face-to-face with a ghost from the past: Conrad Stonebanks (Mel Gibson), co-founder of the Expendables. Faced with an adversary, who possesses state-of-the-art weaponry, Barney retires the old team and assembles a fearless younger crew comprising bareknuckle brawler Smilee (Kellan Lutz), nightclub bouncer Luna (Ronda Rousey), hacker Thorn (Glen Powell), weaponry specialist Mars (Victor Ortiz) and infuriatingly talkative former Spanish Armed Forces operative Galgo (Antonio Banderas). The Expendables 3 is an entertaining and ridiculously far-fetched tour of duty that sensibly welcomes fresh faces to the fold and provides Banderas, Ford, Gibson and Snipes with sizeable roles to turn back the clocks. "I haven't had so much fun in years," cackles Ford after he lays waste to hordes of enemy soldiers. The clash between old-school brute force and modern-day tech savvy provides the scriptwriters with a rich vein of humour. When Barney outlines his heavy-handed solution to toppling Stonebanks, Luna snorts derisively, "It's a great plan... if it was 1985." Australian director Patrick Hughes competently takes charge of this outlandish mission festooned with bone-crunching hand-to-hand combat, pithy one-liners and deafening explosions. A three-disc box set comprising The Expendables and both sequels is also available.

Rating: ***

RELEASED

The Nut Job (Cert U, 86 mins, Warner Home Video, Animation/Action/Comedy/Romance, also available to buy DVD £19.99/3D Blu-ray £24.99 or on-demand from various streaming services)

Featuring the voices of: Will Arnett, Katherine Heigl, Brendan Fraser, Liam Neeson, Rob Tinkler, Stephen Lang.

Raccoon (voiced by Liam Neeson) and his red bird sidekick Cardinal preside over the animal denizens of Liberty Park in Oakton City. Every groundhog, squirrel, mouse and mole gathers supplies to add to the winter food store except for mischievous squirrel Surly (Will Arnett). "I'm independent, which means 'looking out for number one'," Surly reminds fellow squirrels Andie (Katherine Heigl) and Grayson (Brendan Fraser). When a raid on a food cart goes disastrously wrong, Surly is banished to the city. The ravenous rodent stumbles upon a store selling nuts and he plots a daring heist with trusty rat pal, Buddy (Rob Tinkler). Little does Surly know that the new owner of the store, King (Stephen Lang), is a robber who intends to tunnel from the shop's basement to First Oakton Bank and plunder the vault. The Nut Job is a poorly paced, 1950s-set computer-animated adventure festooned with hastily sketched characters. Protagonists of the two-legged and four-legged persuasions in Peter Lepeniotis' film might be bright-eyed and - in the case of the squirrels - bushy-tailed but most of the script feels tired. The narrative lacks fluidity, most of the animals don't exist beyond a single personality trait and there's a palpable absence of jeopardy during a centrepiece bank heist. References to a certain foodstuff are sprinkled liberally throughout the dialogue - "We found it: the Lost City of Nutlantis!" - so any parents, who wake suddenly from a sneaky power-nap on the sofa, are soon reminded where they are. Vocal performances raise a smile, but little more, and the squirrelly love triangle involving Surly, Andie and Grayson is clumsily contrived.

Rating: **

Also released

The Congress (Cert 15, 123 mins, Studio Canal, Sci-Fi/Drama/Animation/Romance, also available to buy DVD £17.99/Blu-ray £22.99 or on-demand from various streaming services - see below)

NEW TO BUY ON DVD/BLU-RAY

Criminal Minds - Season 9 (Cert 15, 1025 mins, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, DVD £30.99/Complete Seasons 1-9 Collection DVD Box Set £75.99, Thriller/Drama)

A six-disc set comprising another 24 gripping episodes of the crime drama, which follows members of the FBI's Behavioural Analysis Unit (BAU) as they pit their wits against dangerous predators. This series, the death of Erin Strauss (Jayne Atkinson) leaves everyone wondering if supervising agent Aaron Hotchner (Thomas Gibson) will be promoted to Section Chief. Also, one of the team is stabbed and has visions of their dead spouse, agent Jennifer Jareau (AJ Cook) keeps a secret from the rest of the team that has devastating consequences, and Alex Blake (Jeanne Tripplehorn) risks everything including her career to protect a colleague. A 51-disc box set comprising all nine series is also available.

Remember Me (Cert 15, 168 mins, ITV Studios Home Entertainment, DVD £14.99, Thriller)

Michael Palin delivers a creepy dramatic performance far removed from his Monty Python days in this eerie three-part thriller, which was recently broadcast on BBC One. Pensioner Tom Parfitt (Palin) engineers an accident so he can move from his Yorkshire home into the comfort of residential care. On moving day, he becomes sole witness to a violent death that sends shockwaves through the residents of the coastal town of Scarborough. Police Detective Rob Fairholme (Mark Addy) investigates but he cannot extract the answers he needs from Tom, whose unease is heightened by a ghostly haunting.

From Here To Eternity: The Musical (Cert 15, 146 mins, Omniverse Vision, DVD £17.99, Musical/Romance)

Recorded live at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London, this performance of the musical play based on the uncensored version of the novel by James Jones is somewhat different from the swoonsome film starring Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift and Deborah Kerr. The soldiers of G Company are posted to Pearl Harbour shortly before the devastating attack of 1941. Platoon Sergeant Milt Warden (Darius Campbell) embarks on a passionate affair with Karen (Rebecca Thornhill), the wife of his commanding officer Captain Dana Holmes (Martin Marquez). Their dangerous liaison plays out to music by Stuart Brayson and lyrics by Tim Rice.

Still The Enemy Within (Cert 15, 113 mins, Lace DVD, DVD £15.99, Documentary)

Owen Gower's fascinating documentary offers a raw and revealing account of Britain's longest strike through the eyes of some of the people who lived through it including Joyce Sheppard, Norman Strike and Paul Symonds. Using a mosaic of interviews and rare archive footage, some of which has never been seen before, Gower's film explores the trials and tribulations of the group of miners and supporters, who were on the frontline of the strike for an entire year from 1984 to 1985 and were labelled "the Enemy Within" by Margaret Thatcher.

The Hayao Miyazaki Collection (Cert 12, 1124 mins, Studio Canal, Blu-ray £249.99, Animation/Fantasy/Drama/Comedy)

Packed with an exclusive 90-minute bonus disc, a booklet exploring the films of Hayao Miyazaki plus new artwork designs, this lavish 12-disc Blu-ray box set brings together all of the anime features directed by the revered Oscar-winning Japanese filmmaker since his debut in 1979. The set includes The Castle Of Cagliostro, Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind, Laputa - Castle In The Sky, My Neighbour Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Porco Rosso, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, Ponyo and The Wind Rises.

Time Team - Series 19 (Cert E, 506 mins, Spirit Entertainment, DVD £24.99, Special Interest)

Tony Robinson and his comrades in archaeological arms continue to unearth the rich history of Britain by digging for ruins and artefacts that have remained hidden for centuries in the enduringly popular Channel 4 series. The four-disc set includes the 11 episodes Gateholm Island, Pembrokeshire, Bitterley, Shropshire, Dunwich, Suffolk, Newmarket, Suffolk, Beadnell, Northumberland, Swansea, West Glamorgan, Earls Colne, Essex, Kenfig, South Wales, Caerleon, South Wales, Castle Hill, Crewkerne, Somerset and Clipstone, Nottinghamshire plus a Burials compilation and a Greatest Discoveries compilation.

Saving Hope - The Complete Second Season (Cert 15, 754 mins, Entertainment One, DVD £29.99, Drama/Romance)

Surgeon Charlie Harris (Michael Shanks) wakes from his coma and is shocked to discover that he can still see the spirits of the departed wandering the corridors of Hope-Zion Hospital in the second series of the supernatural Canadian hospital drama. Also, his fiancee and fellow surgeon, Alex Reid (Erica Durance), faces a life-or-death decision of her own, while colleague Dr Joel Goran (Daniel Gillies) struggles with the intense pressure of being Chief of Surgery. The six-disc set includes all 18 episodes.

Goodbye To Language (Cert 15, 60 mins, Studio Canal, DVD £19.99/3D Blu-ray £24.99, Documentary)

Revered French-Swiss writer-director Jean-Luc Godard collected the coveted Jury Prize at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival for this experimental and poetic meditation on human existence and the fragility of relationships, which is also his first film shot in 3D - available exclusively on Blu-ray. The loose narrative concerns a married woman, who meets a single man and falls head over heels in love, lighting the fuse on tensions with her husband. A dog witnesses this emotional collapse and becomes, unwittingly, a go-between as couples fracture and reunite, unable to communicate their true feelings.

The Congress (Cert 15, 123 mins, Studio Canal, DVD £17.99/Blu-ray £22.99 or on-demand from various streaming services, Sci-Fi/Drama/Animation/Romance)

Blending animation and live-action, Ari Folman's sci-fi drama features a central performance from Robin Wright as a fictionalised version of herself. Now that she is over 40, a perilous age for a film actress, Robin is finding it more difficult to get work and she looks back affectionately at past successes. Pioneering film studio Miramount offers her a tantalising deal: they will scan her to create a digital doppelganger and she will never have to act again. Moreover, this other self will remain ever youthful and can perform in physically demanding blockbusters that the real Robin would turn down as a matter of course. In exchange for relinquishing her image, Miramount will pay Robin handsomely so she can spend more time with her sickly son Aaron (Kodi Smit-McPhee), who is being cared for by Dr Barker (Paul Giamatti). After consultation with her agent Al (Harvey Keitel), Robin signs a 20-year contract with studio executive Jeff (Danny Huston). Years pass and the digital Robin becomes the most famous and popular actress in the world. When the time comes to renew the contract, the real Robin faces a thorny moral dilemma.

Finding Fela (Cert E, 120 mins, Dogwood DVD, DVD £15.99, Documentary/Musical)

Directed by Alex Gibney, who won an Oscar for his 2008 documentary Taxi To The Dark Side, Finding Fela is a cinematic tribute to the life and times of Fela Anikulapo Kuti, who jump-started the Afrobeat musical movement as a means to criticise the dictatorial Nigerian government of the 1970s and 1980s. By promoting Pan Africanist politics to his own people and the rest of the world, Kuti influenced democracy in Nigeria and the music and message of this struggle for freedom are shared today by oppressed people. Finding Fela shines a spotlight on Kuti, activist and musician, and his enduring legacy in a time of political upheaval and stark cultural divides.

TOP 10 DVD RETAIL

1 (4) Guardians Of The Galaxy

2 (-) The Inbetweeners 2

3 (9) X-Men: Days Of Future Past

4 (8) Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes

5 (3) How To Train Your Dragon 2

6 (5) The Fault In Our Stars

7 (2) Lee Evans: Monsters Live

8 (6) Mrs Brown's Boys D'Movie

9 (7) Maleficent

10 (10) Transformers: Age Of Extinction

(Chart supplied by Amazon.co.uk/DVD)

TOP 10 DVD RENTAL

1 (2) Guardians Of The Galaxy

2 (5) X-Men: Days Of Future Past

3 (1) Frozen

4 (9) The Inbetweeners 2

5 (3) How To Train Your Dragon 2

6 (8) Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes

7 (6) Maleficent

8 (7) The Fault In Our Stars

9 (4) Transformers: Age Of Extinction

10 (10) 22 Jump Street

(Chart supplied by Amazon.co.uk/DVD)

TOP 10 FILM STREAMING

1 (1) The Dark Knight Rises

2 (2) Escape Plan

3 (5) Monsters Inc.

4 (3) Non-Stop

5 (-) The Dark Knight

6 (4) Crazy, Stupid, Love

7 (6) Brave

8 (-) Nativity 2: Danger In The Manger

9 (7) Wrath Of The Titans

10 (8) Hall Pass

(Chart supplied by Amazon.co.uk/DVD)