“The Beginning” is set 600 years ago in Feudal Thailand and follows the frankly god-awful life of Tien who is forced into fighting to avenge the slaughter of his family. After being taken in and trained by a vicious group of bandit outlaws he becomes one of the most dangerous, accomplished and feared warriors in the land.

And yes that is the plot, give or take a couple of bits of double-crossing and lost love. It’s lucky that the martial arts sequences are so spectacular, though one in particular goes on for so long it teeters on the brink of ridiculousness, because the plot sure isn’t going to help this survive.

The DVD and Blu-Ray versions are out on 15th February.

Amongst the outsiders he encounters is witty co-worker Em Lewin (Kristen Stewart) who instantly captures his heart. Clueless to her secret affair with rocker turned maintenance man Mick Connell (Ryan Reynolds), he sets out to win her affections, but not without the typical teen trials and tribulations thrown in along the way.

Adventureland is available from February 8th 2010 on Blu-Ray, DVD, and VOD.

It’s contrived and obvious – and doesn’t deviate from that with any enormous surprises, but just keeps ploughing the rom-com genre. The two leads are pleasant and convincing enough but without some originality it’s difficult to be sold on the story, let alone the characters.

This really is one just for those who are either Rom-com completists or like the work of Bullock/Reynolds. Not my cup of tea.

Maybe this is the dilemma of the DVD distributor these days – with so much choice on digital TV, and on-demand television gaining ground, what is the selling point of the Box-set?

In the case of the Series 12 of the Simpsons DVD Boxset the selling point is the imaginative and detailed extras, as well as appealing to the Simpsons completists out there. You’ve got episode commentaries, deleted scenes, animation showcase and a whole lot more.

And then there are the 21 episodes – some great, some middling but worth a watch.

So it’s a good boxset, if you like that sort of thing.

Unfortunately this is no exception.  Dragonball Evolution tells of High School student Goku and his mysterious dragonball that he receives from his grandfather when he turns 18.  Despite being called a Dragonball and having the name Goku, apparently he is unaware that it might have powers!

Of course there are not only more Dragonballs out there – 7 in total – but there is also an evil adversary out to collect them all.  The wonderfully named Lord Piccolo kills Goku’s grandfather while trying to find the dragonball, setting Goku off on his mission to collect all 7 before Piccolo can get them all, seize control of the world and then destroy it – an act which makes the seizing control bit a tad pointless….

The cast isn’t too bad with Chow Yun Fat (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and James Marsters (Buffy, Angel) but the whole thing is only a little diverting and probably not worth the effort!

Max Payne, which is available soon on DVD and Blu-ray (April 13th), is about a rogue cop (Mark Wahlberg) who is determined to get revenge for the death of his family. He joins forces with Russian mobster, Mona Sax (Mila Kunis) who is looking to avenge her sister’s death.

They set out to hunt down the killer and find themselves investigating deep into the dark New York underworld which is crawling with conspiracy, experimental drugs and betrayal. Their mission to find the truth and discover who is behind the murders brings a torrent of violence and surprises for the pair.

The narrative for Max Payne is very flaky and confusing; the sequences seem too short and don’t knit together well. There is too little detail about Max Payne’s drive at the beginning of the film meaning that the audience isn’t able to get into the plot properly so, by the time the real action and the explanations begin, well we’ve already lost interest.

Director John Moore’s attempt at a neo-noir feel for this film seems very much out of place and just doesn’t work well with the way the story is put across. Much of the acting throughout also feels quite poor and Mark Wahlberg just doesn’t pull off the Max Payne character very well at all. All in all, it is a bit of a disaster and fans of the game will likely be disappointed.

Max Payne will be released onto DVD with a harder cut of the film and an animated graphic novel (the story of Michelle Payne) and will hit Blu-ray with the same special features and a few more extras including: digital copy, Picture in Picture feature ‘Walkthrough’s and Cheats’, commentary by the Director, Production Designer and Visual Effects Supervisor.

This black comedy, based on the book by Chuck Palahnuik, follows Victor through his strange life. He works at a Colonial-Williamsburg-themed park by light and haunts sex-addiction groups looking for an easy catch by night. In between all of this, he sits in wait for wealthy patrons at local restaurants and when he spots one, he pretends to choke to death, hoping they will come to his rescue and later offer kind financial donations to go towards his mothers hospital stay.

Choke is a very bizarre film and unique to say the least. It is entertaining enough but, not the easiest of films to watch as it does leave you wondering what exactly is going on.

Choke is now available on DVD (from 23rd March) with special features including: Commentary with director/actor/writer Clark Gregg and actor Sam Rockwell, five deleted scenes, gag reel and five featurettes.

Fish is about to give up hope when his nephew Matt (Josh Gad) asks him to play with his high school rock band A.D.D who need a drummer for their prom gig.

Fish’s desire for music and the rock’n'roll lifestyle is reignited as A.D.D kick off their career and embark on their first tour. Fish grabs his second chance at success with both hands and hopes to reach the dizzy heights of music fame.

The Rocker is a fun film with an interesting plot and some good characters. It isn’t a side-splitting comedy but, there is still plenty of humour throughout, making it an entertaining watch.

The Rocker is about to hit DVD shelves (9th March) packed with special features, including: Audio commentary by director Peter Cattaneo and actor Rainn Wilson, Audio commentary by actors Josh Gad, Teddy Geiger, Emma Stone and Jason Sudeikis, 10 deleted scenes, gag reel, 7 featurettes, Vesuvius gags plus ‘I’m not Bitter’ music video.

Into the Wild Green Yonder is not a good start for a Futurama newbie as we are not given the background to how pizza delivery boy Philip J. Fry made it from being cryogenically frozen as 2000 began, and then brought back to life on New Year’s Eve 2999.  That sort of info would be useful to any stranger to the Futurama world.

In this film mankind stands on the brink of a wondrous new Green Age, but ancient dark forces, “three times older than time itself”, are determined to wreak destruction.  Which sounds more dramatic until you mention the universe’s largest mini-golf course, Bender’s trysts with a fembot married to the mob, and Leela turning eco-terrorist hunted by Zapp Brannigan.

All in all it’s a good episode of Futurama that just about stands up to being spread into a feature.

The fourth and final Feature-length Futurama hits the DVD and Blue-ray shelves packed with bonus features such as an audio commentary by creator Matt Groening, a making-of mockumentary, and “Zapp brannigan’s Guide to Making Love at a Woman”.