Latest video releases reviewed

HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN ****

Directed by Alfonso Cuarón. Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Gary Oldman, Michael Gambon, David Thewlis, Alan Rickman, Emma Thompson, Maggie Smith PG cert

The inspired casting of the three youngsters in the leads continues to pay dividends in the third and most satisfying film in the J.K. Rowling series. Director Cuarón, in a striking collaboration with cinematographer Michael Seresin, invests the film with an aptly darker, more sinister atmosphere than its predecessors, without ever losing the spirit of adventure at the heart of the stories. Michael Dwyer

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS **

Directed by Frank Coraci. Starring Jackie Chan, Steve Coogan, Jim Broadbent, Cécile de France, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kathy Bates, Owen Wilson, Rob Schneider 12 cert

Nasty adaptation of Jules Verne's tale whose only big idea is to focus attention on Jackie Chan's more than usually pugnacious Passepartout. As often happens when movie producers set out to make a film for everybody - kung fu fans, infants, geography teachers - the resulting hodgepodge pleases precisely nobody. Donald Clarke

THUNDERBIRDS *

Directed by Jonathan Frakes. Starring Brady Corbet, Soren Fulton, Vanessa Anne Hudgens, Bill Paxton, Ben Kingsley, Sophia Myles, Anthony Edwards PG cert

International Rescue's Tracy brothers are imprisoned in Thunderbird 5 and their children must rescue them. Nobody with two functioning frontal lobes will enjoy this ghastly adaptation of the great TV series. But, for those of us old enough to remember the original, the experience is like having little bits of your childhood chewed up and spat contemptuously back in your face. Donald Clarke