Blu-ray

Grainy home-movie footage shows four people standing with hoods over their heads and nooses around their necks. As a branch on the tree they are standing below gives way, all four are hoisted up into the air, their bodies kicking out in vain.

Skyline represents an obvious step-up in quality for visual effects artists-turned-filmmakers Greg and Colin Strause. But this has more to do with the fact that this surprisingly dull alien invasion drama simply isn’t as offensive as their previous directorial outing Aliens Vs Predator: Requiem (although, their commentary makes it clear that this film’s finale was originally heading in a similarly distasteful direction), rather than being a reflection on their growing talents.

This post-Lord of the Rings take on Snow White pushes many of the more familiar story elements (like the seven dwarves) into the background, in favour of a two-hour saga of fantastical creatures and armies at war.

Duncan Jones made quite a splash with his feature debut Moon, so it’s hardly a surprise that his next directorial outing arrived on a tide of expectations that would prove almost impossible to meet. While its reach outweighs its success, Source Code is still a very successful sci-fi thriller with a cracking Groundhog Day-like plot about a repetitive time travelling effort to discover the identity of a mysterious bomber before he strikes again. And while the pseudo-science driving the story sometimes becomes a little overbearing, excellent performances from the film’s two time-crossed leads, Jake Gyllenhaal and Michelle Monaghan, give it all an emotional resonance that keeps pulling you back in.

Spartacus: Blood and Sand is the ultimate in ‘guilty pleasure’ TV. Never afraid to push at the boundaries of taste and decency, this 13-episode debut season of the rollicking ‘adults only’ take on the historical story of gladiator-turned-slave-rebellion-leader Spartacus is awash with gore, sex and the most ribald and inventive swearing since Deadwood left our screens. That’s not to say that this Starz production is even half as smart as your average HBO series, but it makes up for its rampant dumbness with 300-style action scenes and plenty of naked romping (featuring everyone from Lucy ‘Xena’ Lawless to, gulp, John Hannah). Tremendous fun for lovers of trash TV.

This final season finds the stakes raised higher than ever as Spartacus' slave army wages full-scale war with the might of Rome. It's epic stuff, regularly delivering the kind of blood and thunder fans have come to expect from the show, while also taking the time to explore its characters. As with the earlier seasons, the AVC 1.78:1 1080p imagery and DTS-HD MA 5.1 sonics are first-rate. However, in order to get it on shelves so quickly Anchor Bay has had to forgo any bonus material – a blow given the copious extras accompanying the previous Blu-ray boxsets.