DONALD CLARKEand MICHAEL DWYERreview this week's new DVD releases

JIM JARMUSCH COLLECTION
Mystery Train****
Night on Earth****
Dead Man*****
When Jim Jarmusch emerged in 1984 with the insidiously effective Stranger Than Paradise, cinemagoers could have been forgiven for feeling that his deceptively simple style – Bresson by way of Warhol – did not promise longevity. As things turned out, the Ohioan has emerged as one of America's most reliably impressive, constantly surprising film-makers. The second volume of the Jim Jarmusch Collection contains two fine exercises in creative eccentricity ( Night on Earthand Mystery Train) and one bona fide classic. Dead Man, an existential western filmed in dreamy monochrome, stars Johnny Depp as (significant this) William Blake, a reserved clerk who is sent to work in a frontier town named (significant this) Machine. After being shot by a prostitute's fiance, Blake makes his way into the wilderness, where he encounters various eccentrics and prepares for a meaningfully meaningless death. Scored by Neil Young and featuring a rare late appearance by Robert Mitchum, Dead Manis reason enough to buy this attractively packaged collection from Optimum Entertainment. DC

TROPIC THUNDER ***
Directed by Ben Stiller. Starring Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr, Nick Nolte, Steve Coogan, Tom Cruise 16 cert

Bizarre and amusing satire, with Stiller, Black and Downey Jr as three arrogant movie stars attempting to shoot an epic Vietnam drama in hostile territory. Downey Jr's take on his character, who has undergone a pigmentation treatment to play a black man, is never less than dangerously hilarious. The director's cut adds little worth watching. DC

ELITE SQUAD/TROPA D'ELITE ****
Directed by José Padilha. Starring Wagner Moura, Andre Ramiro, Caio Junqueira 18 cert

This exciting, politically dubious Brazilian drama concerns itself with a savage paramilitary branch of the Rio police. Whether you view the picture, which takes place during a visit by the Pope, as a celebration of the force's methods or an ironic denunciation of totalitarianism, it demands to be seen. DC

JAR CITY ****
Directed by Baltasar Kormákur. Starring Ingvar Eggert Sigurdsson 16 cert

Gripping procedural thriller from Iceland in which a detective uncovers 30-year- old secrets while investigating the murder of an old rogue. What sets the film apart is its unsettling sense of place. There are some nice natural vistas, but, for the most part, this is a country of peeling paint, unfriendly strangers and truly horrendous food. The DVD is barebones. DC

MARRIED LIFE **
Directed by Ira Sachs. Starring Pierce Brosnan, Chris Cooper, Patricia Clarkson, Rachel McAdams, David Wenham 12 cert

An adulterer (Cooper) tells his best friend (Brosnan) that he intends to leave his wife (Clarkson) for a young war widow (McAdams), but his plan spirals out of control in this knowing 1949-set comedy-thriller. Director Sachs models it on classic film noir, but the result is closer to soap opera performed by a classy cast. MD

IMPORT/EXPORT ***
Directed by Ulrich Seidl. Starring Ekateryna Rak, Paul Hofmann, Michael Thomas, Maria Hofstatter 18 cert

Seidl's gloomy Austrian epic tells two parallel stories. In the first a young woman leaves her jobs as a sex worker and nurse to encounter different miseries. The second begins with a rough fellow failing to make it as a security guard. Seidl has a gift for composing striking images, but the film's unrelenting bleakness tends towards the adolescent. DC

THE POPE'S TOILET/EL BAÑO DEL PAPA ***
Directed by César Charlone and Enrique Fernández. Starring César Troncoso, Virginia Méndez 15 cert

Perfectly enjoyable piece of folk cinema following the efforts of a Uruguayan village to prepare for a visit by the Pope. Some erect food stands. The hero builds a lavatory. Despite its general good nature, this eccentric film is prepared to make some poisonously accusing gestures towards church and state. Worth a glance. DC