Firmly in the spirit of the late 90s wave of British crime films, Beautiful Creatures stars Rachel Weisz and Susan Lynch as two young Glasgow women united against their brutally abusive boyfriends. With a corpse in the bathroom, a golf bag with a secret and seedy detective on their trail Dorothy (Lynch) and Petula (Weisz) hatch an ill-conceived fake kidnapping as their passport from an impossible situation. The film is an entertaining 84 minutes, but though there are several suspense scenes and some queasily amusing black comedy the TV style direction and generic plot fail to deliver any originality. First time feature director Bill Eagles concentrates on winning strong performances from an excellent cast and referencing The Wizard of Oz (1939) (Dorothy has a dog called Pluto, rather than Toto), Wild at Heart (2000) (watch Pluto and those fingers). Added to these are references to Thelma and Louise (1991), Shallow Grave (1994), Butterfly Kiss (1995), Bound (1996), and the film its title echoes, Heavenly Creatures (1994). Considering the graphic violence against women this would have been a stronger, more honest film had it taken itself seriously. As it is, the fashionable yet often inappropriate humour prevents Beautiful Creatures making any serious point about women's reaction to male violence, the finale degenerating into routine feel-good exploitation.

On the DVD: This is a bare-bones release with brief on-screen production notes, cast and crew credits, a page about Universal's DVD email newsletter and a static menu. The Dolby Digital 5.1 sound locks most of the audio to the centre speaker, though there's plenty of dog-barking all around the room. The anamorphically enhanced 1.77-1 transfer clearly cuts off part of the original image at both sides of the screen and is often, especially in the many night scenes, far grainier than one would expect from a feature film released in the year 2000. --Gary S Dalkin

An all-star cast sparks this captivating comedy about a group of old friends whose 10-year high school reunion creates some hilariously unexpected surprises.

The seeds of love are planted when Lisa, a high-powered investment banker, receives flowers from a secret admirer.

Brendan Fraser stars in Bedazzled as Elliot, a dweebish office worker who yearns for Alison (Frances O'Connor), a coworker who barely knows he exists. When he blithely says he'd give his soul for Alison, the Devil appears in the fetching guise of Elizabeth Hurley and promises him seven wishes in exchange. Elliot is dubious at first, but agrees out of desperation. Unfortunately, his every wish always leaves the Devil with a little wiggle-room. When he asks to be rich and powerful, the Devil turns him into a drug lord beset on all sides. When he asks to be a successful, well-endowed writer, the Devil adds a male lover to the mix. The setup and situations are clever, though this Bedazzled has less bite than the original 1968 version starring Dudley Moore and Peter Cook. It does, however, provide some better comic substance for Fraser than most of his previous roles and will give his fans something to enjoy. O'Connor is entirely pleasant in her largely straight role, and Hurley fills out her part delectably by filling out a number of revealing outfits. This is an enjoyable bit of froth. --Bret Fetzer, Amazon.com