After the huge lavish spectacles of previous tours, U2 decided to tone things down a bit for Elevation, which accompanied their All That You Can't Leave Behind album. Just as the album marked a return to a simpler more stripped-down sound, so the live shows did away with the glitter-ball lemons and huge stadiums, returning to smaller venues and all-together more intimate shows. From the small stage with its heart-shaped walkway, and a minimum of special effects, the emphasis is on the music, and from start to finish Elevation provides a welcome reminder of what a great band U2 are. Recorded in Boston, the show features a healthy mixture of new and old tracks, which--considering they were written over the course of two decades--sound as fresh and relevant as ever. From classics such as "Sunday Bloody Sunday", "Where the Streets Have No Name" and "I Will Follow" right up to instant favourites such as "Beautiful Day" and "Elevation", every track is stunningly executed. If you saw the concerts, this is a worthy lasting souvenir, if you didn't, watch this recording and you'll be kicking yourself that you didn't go.

On the DVD: With the full concert on the first disc, the second one contains a wealth of superb extras. For starters there's the "Another Perspective", which enables you to watch the concert from alternative points of view--the "Fancam" (from the heart of the crowd ensconced within the heart-shaped walkway) and the "Directorcam" (from the production office where director Hamish Hamilton creates his masterpiece). There's also a Road Movie, which gives a time-lapse photography look behind the scenes of a day on the road, and an insight into how to turn an empty, cold impersonal indoor arena into an intimate, spectacular concert venue. It also includes some alternative live takes of some of the key tracks from the album, including a fantastic performance of "Beautiful Day" from the rooftops of Dublin. With the concert offered in a choice of sound ratios (Dolby 5.1, PCM Stereo) the songs sound even greater. As concert DVDs go, Elevation is a definite benchmark. --Helen Marquis

A fish out of water tale - a particularly tall elf is banished from his community for, er, being too tall, and must find his destiny in the world of normal people.

One of the big Elizabethan-era films of 1998, Shekhar Kapur's Elizabeth serves up a brimming goblet of religious tension, political conspiracy, sex, violence and war. England in 1554 is in financial and religious turmoil as the ailing Queen "Bloody" Mary attempts to restore Catholicism as the national faith. She has no heir, and her greatest fear--that her Protestant half-sister Elizabeth will assume the throne after her death--is realised. Still, the late Queen Mary has her loyalists. The newly crowned Elizabeth finds herself knee-deep in dethroning schemes while also dodging assassination attempts. Her advisers (including Sir William Cecil, superbly played by Richard Attenborough) beg her to marry any one of her would-be suitors to stabilise England's empire. No matter that she already has a lover. The passionate Robert Dudley (Joseph Fiennes) is married, however, and shows he cannot stand up to the growing strength of the Queen. With the help of her aide Walsingham (Geoffrey Rush), Elizabeth strikes against her enemies before they get to her first. But her rise ultimately entails rejecting love and marriage to redefine herself as the indisputable Virgin Queen.

Cate Blanchett's Oscar-nominated performance as the naive and vibrant princess who becomes the stubborn and knowing queen is both severe and sympathetic. Her ethereal, pale beauty is equal parts fire and ice, her delivery of such lines as "There will be only one mistress here and no master!" expressed with command rather than hysterics. As striking as Blanchett's performance is the film's lavish and dramatic production design. The cold, dark sets paired with the lush costuming show the golden age of England's monarchy emerging from the Middle Ages. Rich velvet brushes over the dank stones while power is achieved at any price, and with such attention to physical detail, Elizabeth fully immerses you into its compelling chronicle of pioneering feminism and revisionist history. --Shannon Gee

Ellen Degeneres represents the comic's triumphant return to stand-up after the cancellation of her controversial sit-com. It is a tighter set than one might expect, given the besottedness of the audience to which she is playing, and whenever she drifts into hippy-dippy New Age pieties it can be guaranteed that they will be subverted within seconds. The principal reference to her coming-out and the furore it created is an opening section in which she declines to talk about it and instead offers a hysterically funny interpretative dance version. Other highlights of the set include a prolonged meditation on what you do after zoning out in the middle of a conversation and why talking about Gloria Estefan always helps, discussions of the terrible consequences of meditation, or wanting to buy some cheese, and an account of a social interaction with God, who serves a very nice peppery Chablis. Her forté is the slightly surreal extended narrative which goes in strange directions--a bit like a cross between Victoria Wood and Eddie Izzard; Ellen Degeneres shares with both those comics a slightly worrying need to be loved.

On the DVD: the DVD comes without any features other than chapter selection; it is presented in crisp Dolby sound and a 4:3 video ratio. --Roz Kaveney