S'Marvel'ous

As someone who grew up with Nicholas Hammond as Spider Man and Lou Ferringo as The Hulk I envy today's crop, who are treated to fare such as Robert Downey Jr in Iron Man and Edward Norton as Bruce Banner. Marvel have finally managed to pull their finger out and shove it up somewhere decent. What the new superhero movies lack in charm they make up for in wit, sophistication and CGI spectacle. The CGI will all look pants in eight months, but it would be churlish to complain. We're now getting a comprehensive set of comic book movies from all folds.

As many of you know, if you stay past the end credits of Iron Man you get a bonus scene where Downey Jr is approached by Samuel L Jackson wearing an eyepatch. "Hello, I'm Nick Fury and I want to have a bit of a chat." Obviously he puts it a bit less politely than that, but it's the general gist. At the same point after Incredible Hulk, Norton is sitting in a bar when Downey Jr enters. "Hello, I'm Tony Stark and I want to have a bit of a chat." Again, it's delivered a bit sexier in the film.

These dull, perfunctory scenes are all leading towards something called an Avengers movie, where these different heroes will all team up in a definitive comic book pulp mash. The secret behind the Avengers movie excitement is that no-one is actually thinking about it at the moment. Once you get Downey Jr, Edward Norton, L Jackson and whoever else in the room together you then have to establish how it's all going to work. Because when Marvel Studios sit down to have a bit of a conflab about the project they might realize that team up films, be they featuring the world's best superheroes or the world's finest actors, never quite work.

On DVD & Blu-Ray This Month

Sep 7

Dude, We Glued Our Nuts Together!
Frost/Hitler

Austen Unleashed!
The popular English author is out for revenge when her family are slaughtered by opium dealers. Zhang Ziyi stars.

Sep 14

Jon Culshaw's Funny Detective Agency
Britain's Swankiest Racist
Give My Teenager A Life Experience They'll Probably Forget - The Complete Series One

Sep 21

Sooty - Matthew's Wish
Sooty, Sweep & Soo are summoned to Matthew's deathbed to fulfill a series of tasks in this straight-to-DVD special!

Celebrity SWAT Team
Cheesemaking - The Interactive DVD Game

Sep 28

Wallander - Australian version

It's Raining Chips!
We all know the BBC weather presenting team can cope with anything. But could they run a chip shop? Daniel Corbett, Laura Tobin, Tomasz Schafernaker, Louise Lear and Michael Fish (!) are despatched to Glasgow to find out.

Ralph Fiennes At The UN