Geoff Cox’s guide to new DVD releases (11.10.11)

Set in New York City, Keira Knightley delivers a mature performance as a writer, Joanna Reed, struggling for self-confidence after a poorly received first novel.

And she begins to suspect that her property-developer husband, Michael (Sam Worthington), is getting a bit too cosy with stunningly beautiful work colleague Laura (Eva Mendes).

As he heads off on a business jaunt, leaving her in their swish apartment, the film cuts back and forth to track events at home and away.

Joanna runs into an old flame – Alex (Guillaume Canet), Gallic and smug, in that order – which puts Joanna’s integrity on the spot.

While the twin-track storytelling gets a bit predictable, Knightley brings her side of the tale alive and an ever-present rippling piano score adds a touch of class.

> Psychological thriller RETREAT (15: Sony) is a real nail-biter about a couple’s desperate attempt to rekindle their love despite tremendous grief.

Martin (Cillian Murphy) and Kate (Thandie Newton) are taking a break on a seemingly uninhabited island when a blood-soaked stranger, Jack (Jamie Bell), stumbles through their door with a story about a virus sweeping across Europe.

In a series of tense twists, the captive pair try to outwit the charismatic, but volatile, Jack to unravel the truth.

Loyalties divide and merge and paranoia sets in, culminating in a violent conclusion.

> Straight-to-DVD heist movie SET UP (15: Lionsgate) shows just how far Die Hard star Bruce Willis’s career has gone downhill with a vengeance.

This one is definitely not a Brucie bonus as it’s as predictable as it sounds.

As soon as you read the publicity blurb – “an explosive story of high-risk robbery, friendship and betrayal” – you know you’ve been here many times before.

The crime of the century goes pear-shaped for a group of friends when one of them makes off with all the goods.

Sonny (Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson) seeks revenge by teaming up with a mobster (Willis) to get back what he sees as rightfully his.

Ryan Phillippe, Randy Couture and James Remar appear in a film that’s more of a damp squib than explosive.

> And here’s another Hollywood veteran whose career has been on the wane for some time...

In THE NEW DAUGHTER (15: Entertainment In Video), Kevin Costner plays John, a newly divorced father who moves into a rural South Carolina home with his daughter Louisa and son Sam.

But when the girl starts behaving in a bizarre and increasingly violent way, John must uncover the truth behind her transformation.

Is the shocking secret of the home’s former owners to blame and how far will a father go to protect his daughter from an ancient evil determined to possess her? Oh dear, Kev...where did it all go wrong?

> French movie POINT BLANK (15: Sony) is a must-see for all lovers of seat-edge suspense.

Violent strangers threaten to kill the pregnant wife of a Paris hospital employee unless he smuggles out an injured patient in this blisteringly exciting crime thriller.

Rugged Gilles Lellouche is perfect as the ‘wrong place, wrong time, wrong man’ whose life spirals out of control as he’s drawn into a web of police corruption and murder in high places. Roschdy Zem is also terrific playing the sinister convalescent he’s forced to buddy up with.

Together the pair are hunted across the city in a series of relentlessly paced action-packed chase sequences.

The wife-in-jeopardy scenes are startling in a film teeming with technical virtuosity, tension and surprise twists.

> In gritty prison thriller SCREWED (18: Lionsgate), ex-soldier Sam (James D’Arcy) takes a guard job and finds himself drawn into a dangerous web of booze, drugs and corruption.

Based on the book by former prison officer Ronnie Thompson, the film is a fresh take on the incarceration genre, offering a story from the unique perspective of those in charge.

> A m,an (Adrien Brody) fights to survive in the wilderness after regaining consciousness in a badly damaged car at the bottom of a mountain ditch in WRECKED (15: Universal).

He has no memory of who he is or how he got there.After freeing himself from the wreckage, he struggles against the elements and predators.