Nigella Bites is an indisputably sensual addition to the canon of cookery programmes. After fearsome Fanny Craddock, dowdy Delia Smith, jolly Jamie Oliver, here is naughty Nigella Lawson. For her, the whole point of cooking is the "pleasure" of food. She espouses uncomplicated recipes for a modern generation constantly on the go and gives short shrift to dietary considerations. Her recipes duly come under such categories as "Comfort Food", "Trashy", "Party Girl" and "TV Dinners". While some might query whether recipes such as pumpkin seafood curry or one whose ingredients involve two types of potato and a Greek cheese really constitute quick, easy and convenient cooking, such qualms soon melt into insignificance.

As the parodists were quick to point out, there is something of a sexual sub-text to Nigella Bites, as much in the lingering attention on the presenter herself as the unashamed sensuality of its recipes. Watch in rapture as the camera scans up and down Nigella's curvaceous but not too well-nourished figure, zooms in on her luscious lips, follows her into her store cupboard to "see my chocolate stash", or wobbles in sympathetic ecstasy as she applies lashings of cream or expertly spatchcocks a chicken. In short, whether you're an envious female wondering how Nigella manages to juggle a hectic life and still produce such delicious culinary fare, or a couch potato male who can barely boil an egg, chances are you'll find much to delight in here. A companion book is also available.

On the DVD: Nigella Bites on disc features numerous extras, including the Christmas special episode, two extra recipes (one for pasta and bean soup, the other an aubergine dish) and, helpfully, full lists of ingredients for each recipe. --David Stubbs

In Night at the Golden Eagle, a cross-section of decrepit people live out their desperate, dead-end lives over the course of a long night at an equally decrepit LA hotel. This is the jaundiced vision of director Adam Rifkin, best known for the raucously enjoyable Detroit Rock City and the cult curiosity The Dark Backward. He's corralled some good people for this low-budget offering (Natasha Lyonne and Ann Magnuson as hookers, Vinnie Jones as a cruel pimp), but the lion's share of screen time goes to a pair of small-time crooks (Donnie Montemarano and Vinny Argiro) planning to split for Vegas in the morning. It's diverting for a while, but the bleached-sepia look and unrelenting rancidity take their toll, grinding the picture down. Even a soft-shoe shuffle for Fayard Nicholas (of the awesome Nicholas Brothers), a grace note if there ever was one, can't lift the movie out of its determined sense of gloom. --Robert Horton