Father Ted is one of those rare sitcoms that defies categorisation--it owes as much to Flann O'Brien and Samuel Beckett as it does to Monty Python--and its blend of satire, character comedy and anarchic surrealism has made it a cult favourite around the world. Exiled to remote Craggy Island, Father Ted shares a house with the breathtakingly stupid Father Dougal Maguire and the constantly inebriated Father Jack, who has a small vocabulary and a taste for furniture polish. Their housekeeper, Mrs Doyle, takes care of them with a never-ending supply of tea and sandwiches: "Go on now, Father, won't you try one? They're diagonal." Together they fight boredom by dressing up as Elvis, startling ducks at the fair and provoking nuns. This set compiles the entire three-year series. --Simon Leake

Is it a sitcom? Is it a serious documentary about the Catholic priesthood? No, it's The Very Best of Father Ted, a choice collection of episodes from Graham Linehan and Arthur Matthews' affably surreal sitcom. Ted's the normal one, as evidenced by his moving Song for Europe entry, "My Lovely Horse"--a modern classic if ever there wasn't one. Gasp as "poor idiot boy" Father Dougal becomes a rollerblading fiend in "Cigarettes and Alcohol and Rollerblading"; be amazed as super Ted saves Craggy Island from a deadly milk-float in the stunning blockbuster sequel "Speed 3" (well, it's faster and more fun than Speed 2); fall off the window-sill as devoted housekeeper Mrs Doyle utters the line that's almost Shakespearean in its sublimity, "Cup of tea, Father?". Graham Norton pops up to annoy everyone in "The Mainland", there's a whole host of Elvis impersonators in "Competition Time", and meanwhile Father Jack doesn't need an excuse to hit the bottle (or to smash one over someone's head) in any episode. Not saying Mass has probably never been so much fun.

On the DVD: The Very Best of Father Ted on disc has six episodes as opposed to five on the video release: the extra one is the Christmas special, "A Christmassy Ted". Extra features are selected commentaries by Graham Linehan and Ardal O'Hanlan, a clip compilation of each character, and a rather poor photo gallery. Picture is 4:3 and sound basic stereo. --Gary S Dalkin

In this extremely pleasant sequel to the Father of the Bride the pangs of the middle age catch up with Tracy as he is not able to accept the fact that his 'little baby' is going to be a mother.

Billy Crystal plays the straight man to neurotic Robin Williams when these two very different individuals join forces to find a runaway teenager. Both, you see, have been told they are the boy's father by Nastassja Kinski, with whom each had once been involved. This Disney production is based on the more humorous French farce, Les Compères, by Francis Veber (who cowrote this adaptation). It has its moments as breezy entertainment, but the plot is sloppy enough to seem more like slapstick than sophisticated comedy. The gags are contrived, and it fails to unfold with believability, or grace. More interesting than the writing are the performances, as Crystal brings surprising depth to his cynical lawyer and Williams is exceptionally fine-tuned as a suicidal and dippy writer with a very kind heart. --Rochelle O'Gorman, Amazon.com --This text refers to the VHS edition of this video

Shot in the UFA studios with a big movie star in the lead and all the special effects and production design resources any blockbuster of its time could wish for, FW Murnau's 1926 Faust represents a step up from his better-known Nosferatu. Oddly, Faust is a less familiar film than the vampire quickie and this release affords fans a chance to see what Murnau can do with an equally major fantasy story. Adapted neither from Marlowe's play Dr Faustus nor Goethe's verse drama, the script scrambles various elements of the legend and presents a Faust (Gosta Ekman) driven to summon the Devil by despair as a plague rages through the town, desperate to gain enough learning to help his neighbours. When this deal doesn't quite work out, because he is stoned by townsfolk who notice his sudden fear of the cross, Mephisto (Emil Jannings) offers Faust instead renewed youth and an opportunity to seduce a famously beautiful Italian noblewoman and then to return to his home village and get involved with the pure Gretchen (Camilla Horn). Like most versions of the story, it's episodic and some sections are stronger than others: the great stuff comes in the plague and initial deal sequences, though it picks up again for the tragic climax as Gretchen becomes the central figure and suffers horribly, freezing in the snows and burning at the stake. Jannings' devil, a gruesomely humorous slice of ham, is one of the great silent monster performances, reducing everyone else to a stick figure, and Murnau faces the challenge of topping his Nosferatu imagery by deploying a battalion of effects techniques to depict the many magical journeys, sudden appearances and transformations.

On the DVD: Often seen in ragged, incomplete prints projected at the wrong speed, this is a decently restored version, running a full 115 minutes with a complete orchestral score. The original materials show some of the damage to be expected in a film of its vintage, but the transfer is excellent, displaying the imaginative art direction and camerawork to superb advantage. Aside from a nicely eerie menu, the sole extra is a full-length commentary originating in Australia: written by historian Peter Spooner but read by narrator Russell Cawthorne (who mispronounces the odd name). This provides an interesting wealth of background detail, such as Murnau's attempt to cast Hollywood's Lillian Gish as Gretchen, and delivers a balanced assessment of the film itself. --Kim Newman