Blu-ray

The title may recall memories of direct-to-video thrillers gone by, but there's nothing B-movie about this adaptation of the best-selling biography by US Navy SEAL Chris Kyle. Directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Hollywood fave Bradley Cooper, it's a handsomely-staged A-list endeavour. Unfortunately, it's immensely serious and rather lacking in thrills.

Best known for playing the superhero Birdman in a series of Hollywood blockbusters a decade earlier, washed-up actor Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton) is out to reinvent himself on Broadway. To this end, he has written a stage adaptation of a Raymond Carver short story, which he is also directing and starring in. However, as opening night looms, Riggan must contend with both his brilliant-but-volatile co-star Mike Shiner (Edward Norton) and recovering addict daughter, Sam (Emma Stone). And there's also the fact that Birdman himself keeps turning up to mock and criticise him…

Following the box office success of both Alice in Wonderland (2010) and Maleficent (2014), Disney recently embarked on producing live-action remakes of some of its most beloved animated classics. While the idea of one day having to endure Tim Burton's Dumbo (yes, really) fills us with an unspeakable dread, the series has got off to a surprisingly strong start with this live-action retelling of Cinderella, directed by Kenneth Branagh.

It's the dying days of the 20th Century and as L.A. teeters on the brink of chaos, ex-cop-turned-hustler Lenny (Ralph Fiennes) is content to carry on making a living peddling black market 'clips': recordings of other people's memories that can be experienced with the aid of a digital headpiece. But when he comes into possession of a clip showing a rapper/political activist being executed by cops, Lenny finds himself caught up in a conspiracy of silence and pursued by people on both sides of the law.

Following the downright bizarre misfire of 2013's crime drama The Counsellor, Ridley Scott went back to doing what he does best – epic blockbuster spectacle – with this lavish re-telling of the story of Moses. Every bit of the film's $140million budget is there on the screen for all to see, although some of the storytelling decisions that have been made serve to make Exodus… a bit of a mess when you get past all of the epic grandeur. It's no Gladiator, basically.

Telling the real story of Italian-American Olympic athlete turned WW2 USAF bombardier Louis Zamperini – who endured and survived more than two years in a Japanese POW camp – Unbroken was at one stage tipped for Oscar recognition. Yet director Angelina Jolie went away empty-handed, and it's easy to see why. While handsomely-staged (especially the aerial combat scenes) and well-acted, it never really grips in the way that it should, focusing too much on hammering home the 'never give up' life lesson instead of nailing the dramas of Zamperini's remarkable tale. You'll end up wondering what a director like Oliver Stone would have done with the source material.