Zombieland

(15, 84 mins, Sony Pictures, DVD 15.99/Blu-ray 24.99)

Stars: Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin, Bill Murray, Amber Heard

AMERICA has been ravaged by a contagion which has metamorphosed all but the lucky few into flesh-chomping predators. Columbus (Eisenberg), the deadpan narrator, makes his way back home to see his family and encounters gun-toting hard man, Tallahassee (Harrelson), and Wichita (Stone) and Little Rock (Breslin). Zombieland is a bloody hilarious jaunt, which strikes an irreverent tone echoing Shaun Of The Dead.

A Serious Man

(15, 101 mins, Universal Pictures (UK), DVD 15.99/Blu-ray 19.99)

Stars: Michael Stuhlbarg, Sari Lennick, Fred Melamed, Jessica McManus, Aaron Wolff, Richard Kind, David Kang

PHYSICS lecturer Larry Gopnik (Stuhlbarg) is knocked for six when wife Judith (Lennick) announces she wants a divorce so she can marry mutual friend Sy (Melamed). The children daughter Sarah (McManus) and son Danny (Wolff) don't appear fussed. Larry tries to sort out myriad problems himself but every good deed only leads to more misery. A Serious Man is a deceptively simple portrait of a family in crisis, distinguished by a sharp script and terrific ensemble cast.

Following the unbearable tension of No Country For Old Men and the frippery of Burn After Reading, this wicked black comedy finds Joel and Ethan Coen in a quirky hinterland where they previously bowled strikes with The Big Lebowski.

The Fourth Kind

(15, 94 mins, Entertainment In Video, DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £24.99)

Stars: Milla Jovovich, Will Patton, Elias Koteas, Hakeem Kae-Kazim, Corey Johnson, Enzo Cilenti, Mia McKenna-Bruce, Raphael Coleman

OLATUNDE Osunsanmi’s fact-based thriller deals with encounters by alien abduction and centres on psychologist Dr Abigail Tyler (Jovovich), who runs a practice in Nome, Alaska. An abnormally high number of people claim to have been subjected to experimentation at the hands of visitors from another planet and Abigail grows increasingly disturbed by similarities in her patients’ accounts.

Colleague Abel Campos (Koteas) is supportive but while Sheriff August (Patton), is a hardened and gnarled cynic.

Since truth is stranger than fiction, surely a documentary would convey the point far more succinctly?