Harry Palmer was Michael Caine’s perfect role. It’s not surprising it catapulted him to stardom — the working-class spy chafing against the Establishment so fitted his own views, indelibly expressed in the 1969 documentary Candid Caine. Ipcress combined styles from previous Harry Saltzman productions — kitchen-sink realism (Look Back in Anger) and cold-war spy thrillers (James Bond) — making it 003-and-a-half, according to one critic. The editor, Peter Hunt, production designer, Ken Adam, and composer, John Barry, were Bond regulars, and their work here is every bit as good. Familiar from television, Ipcress stuns on the big screen (it is rereleased this week), as the director, Sidney J Furie, and the brilliant cinematographer Otto Heller (The Ladykillers, Peeping Tom) decided on an unconventional approach. Using every inch of the widescreen frame, they isolated characters at the edges, often with the camera peering through foreground objects — a parking meter, a keyhole, spectacles, cymbals — and utilising deep focus, Dutch angles and low angles. If ever a film needs to be seen at the cinema, this is it. The DVD package compensates with well-conceived extras: the documentary; new interviews with Caine and Adam; a Phil Cornwell comedy sketch; and, for once, a commentary from director and editor that is worth listening to. Five stars
Jeff Potter
Land of the Dead
Universal, 18, 93 mins; £19.99
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Two decades after the conclusion of his seminal zombie trilogy, George A Romero returns with a reflective, Rohmer-esque meditation on mortality and the human condition ... not. Seemingly reanimated by the success of 28 Days Later and Shaun of the Dead (the latter’s stars get cameo roles here), the man who changed the conventions of the horror movie with 1968’s Night of the Living Dead has got his teeth back into what he does best: blood, guts and more guts, with a side order of sly wit and social commentary, as the inhabitants of the last human city on earth face off an army of ominously intelligent — and hungry — undead, and the threat of revolution within their own ranks. Though it lacks the sickening punch of Romero’s earlier work, Land of the Dead is still far more accomplished and pithy than most modern gorefests. The generous extras include auditions for the zombie extras (Ricky Gervais, eat your heart out) and make-up tips, which should add a little spice to your next trick-or-treat session. Three stars
Matthew Davis
Wolf Creek
Optimum, 18, 95 mins; £17.99
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This energetic Australian addition to the wobbly-camera, tight-budget, “based on a true story” horror genre follows three backpackers whose car fails in the middle of the outback, leaving them lost, hungry and at the mercy of dark forces — let’s call it the Blair Wichetty Grub Project. The largely improvised central performances perfectly capture the banality of “travelling” in the early scenes, but when the evildoing begins, it emerges that none of our three heroes has ever watched a horror movie — leaving the viewer transfixed more with rage than fear, as they royally stuff up every chance of survival, pursuing death with almost samurai dedication. The film is excellently shot, however, with a barnstorming bad guy from the veteran Aussie actor John Jarratt and a neatish final twist. As the mildly smug extras suggest, the project delivers its true purpose perfectly — it is the ideal calling card for the talented, if twisted, first-time director, Greg McLean. Two stars
Brian Schofield
Bad News Bears
Paramount, 12, 113 mins; £19.99
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The original Bad News Bears (1976) provided the blueprint for every “coach turns around misfit team” flick since. So, what does this remake offer to tweak the formula? Well, apart from seeing how many profanities it can get away with the wee brats of the Little League uttering, not much. Indeed, Richard Linklater’s film stays pretty faithful to the original: a former professional baseball player (Billy Bob Thornton) is roped into leading the pint-size team into battle against their archrivals, the Yankees. What saves it from being a pointless rehash is Thornton’s performance as the grizzled, foul-mouthed coach Morris Buttermaker, who is given some wickedly un-PC one-liners: in one scene, he opines that a draw “is like kissing your own sister”.
The acerbic script is courtesy of Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, who also worked on Bad Santa (another wickedly humorous Thornton role). Impressively, Linklater again manages to coax accomplished performances from child actors, as he did in School of Rock. Timmy Deters stands out, as a puny boy with an anger management problem; as does Brandon Craggs, playing an overweight kid on the Atkins diet. Standard extras. Three stars
Muzakkir Iqbal