Victor Rebikoff Welcome to the movies at PS News.
   Each week, PS News’s film critic Victor Rebikoff will highlight the latest offerings from the silver screen and share his expert commentary for our information and guidance.

Marley and Me
(DVD release date 6 May)
   Director David Frankel, Rated PG, 120 mins

This is a beautiful and heart warming movie that centres on the lives of a young couple, Jenny and John Grogan (wonderfully portrayed by Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson).
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   At the start of their married life together they decide to get a dog – and end up with the "most stupid dog in the world" – Marley, a horribly destructive yellow Labrador.
   David Frankel’s (The Devil Wears Prada) direction is superb and this is more than a story about a man and his dog.
   The movie is gripping in its realistic portrayal of the life of a married couple coping with a growing family and their 100 pound dog, right until its tearful conclusion some 20 years later.
   Jennifer Aniston delivers one of her best performances, capturing the true essence and emotions involved in her part as a wife, a mother and crazy dog owner.
   This movie is certainly not solely about the dog, but how the dog becomes a lovable nuisance as the family grows and matures along the way.
   This is a gem of a movie that is worth watching and including in the family collection.

VIC'S VERDICT:   4 Rubber Stamps


Valkyrie
(DVD release Date 27 May)
   Director Bryan Singer, Rated M, 121 Mins

Based on actual events, director Bryan Singer (Superman Returns, X-Men) brings to life the gripping true story of a group of German officers involved in a secret plot to assassinate
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Adolph Hitler in July 1944.
   Tom Cruise plays Colonel Claus Schenk von Staffenberg, the mastermind behind the attempted assassination.
   He is joined by a stellar cast of co-conspirators including Kenneth Branagh (as Major-General Henning von Tresckow), Bill Nighy (General Friedrich Olbricht), Terence Stamp (Ludwig Beck) and academy award winner Tom Wilkinson (General Friedrich Fromm).
   Cruise’s performance is absorbing and brilliant as von Staffenberg, and the locations and settings (as revealed in the DVD) are very authentic.
   Singer’s superb direction of this historical drama has enabled him to produce a powerful movie which is both action-oriented and suspenseful-ensuring that Valkyrie has provided a captivating insight into one of history’s great assassination attempts.
   As a must see movie, this DVD certainly belongs in one’s movie library.

VIC'S VERDICT:   4 Rubber Stamps
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