Robin Hood (Extended Director’s Cut) (12)

134 mins

Universal, DVD £19.99/DVD Double Pack With Gladiator £25.99/Blu-ray £24.99/Limited Edition Steelbook Blu-ray £29.99/Blu-ray Double Pack With Gladiator £39.99)

Stars: Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Mark Strong, Oscar Isaac, Kevin Durand, Scott Grimes, Alan Doyle, Mark Addy, Matthew Macfadyen, Max von Sydow, Danny Huston.

RICHARD The Lionheart (Huston) is slain on the battlefield. Fearless archer Robin Longstride (Crowe) and friends Little John (Durand), Will Scarlet (Grimes) and Allan A’Dayle (Doyle) head back to England, posing as slain knights. Robin passes himself off as Sir Robert Loxley and continues the ruse with the dead man’s wife, Marion (Cate Blanchett), in order that she clings on to the family estate.

However, all are threatened by double-crossing Godfrey (Strong), the Sheriff of Nottingham (Macfadyen) and power-hungry Prince John (Isaac). Available as a Director’s Cut with 16 minutes of previously unseen footage, Robin Hood is a thunderous new opening chapter in the legend of the 12th Century folk hero. Shot with North-East-born director Ridley Scott’s typical bombast, this incarnation juxtaposes spectacular battle scenes with romantic interludes, political intrigue and melancholic flashbacks.

The Back-Up Plan (12)

99 mins

(Sony, DVD £17.99/DVD £22.99)

Stars: Jennifer Lopez, Alex O’Loughlin, Eric Christian Olsen, Noureen DeWulf, Michaela Watkins.

PET store owner Zoe (Lopez) enjoys a chance encounter with Stan (O’Loughlin), who runs a dairy stall at a New York farmers’ market. The fledgling romance goes from strength to strength but eventually Zoe is forced to tell Stan that in nine months, she will give birth to a pair of ginger-haired mewling tots. It’s a massive shock to the system and Stan wonders if he is ready for surrogate fatherhood.

Meanwhile, worrywart Zoe ponders whether she actually needs a man or if she should revert to her old plan of becoming a single parent. The Back-Up is a whimsical chick flick, which asserts that love happens when you least expect it.

Alan Poul’s film seems to have been written with Sandra Bullock in mind, mixing physical comedy (a pregnant Zoe falling face first into the back seat of a cab) with dewy-eyed emotional outpourings. Lopez and O’Loughlin, who flaunts his rock-hard abs during an interlude on the family goat farm, are an attractive pairing but there’s scant sexual chemistry between them.