DONALD CLARKEand MICHAEL DWYERreview this week's DVD releases

TWO LOVERS ***
Directed by James Gray. Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Gwyneth Paltrow, Vinessa Shaw, Isabella Rossellini, Elias Koteas 15 cert

Phoenix plays the depressed son of a Brooklyn dry- cleaner who can't decide between the perfectly pleasant Shaw and the annoying Paltrow, who, as usual, sounds as if she has a kazoo lodged in her trachea. Phoenix gives good mumble, but Paltrow is useless and New York City – all echoing bebop – appears trapped in 1954. DC

FRIDAY THE 13TH **
Directed by Marcus Nispel. Starring Jared Padalecki, Danielle Panabaker, Aaron Yoo 18 cert

A masked lunatic chops up fornicating youths in the latest remake from Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes studio. Like the other remakes in the series, the film is awful, but not so awful as to be unwatchable. Still, the slick professionalism of the enterprise lessens rather than increases the sense of unease. DC

17 AGAIN **
Directed by Burr Steers. Starring Zac Efron, Leslie Mann, Thomas Lennon, Michelle Trachtenberg, Matthew Perry 12 cert

Perfectly tolerable if unremarkable comedy, in which Mathew Perry's disappointed psyche is magically transplanted into Efron's young body and propelled back to high school. The enormously popular Efron confirms his talent and charm, but there's nothing here we haven't seen in Big, 13 Going on 30and Back to the Future. DC

PAUL BLART: MALL COP *
Directed by Steve Carr. Starring Kevin James, Keir O’Donnell, Jayma Mays, Shirley Knight, Bobby Cannavale PG cert

James plays a lonely, overweight security guard at a New Jersey shopping centre, where he becomes an unlikely hero when it's taken over by thieves. After some half- hearted slapstick, the movie switches switches from tacky comedy to a low-rent, utterly conventional action-adventure. MD

COMRADES ****
Directed by Bill Douglas. Starring Robin Soans, Alex Norton, Wiliam Gaminara, Philip Davis, Vanessa Redgrave, James Fox, Robert Stephens, Michael Horder, Freddie Jones, Imelda
Staunton 16 cert

Bill Douglas, Scottish director of the austere, brilliant My Childhood, delivered an intimate left-wing epic with this superbly acted 1986 study of the Tolpuddle Martyrs. Featuring fine performances all round, the film (Douglas's last) combines experimentation with traditional naturalistic techniques. The extras on this BFI DVD are copious and superb. DC