Blu-ray

This sci-fi/thriller and directorial debut from Alex Garland (who previously penned the scripts for 28 Days Later, Sunshine and Dredd), focuses on slowly-built tension rather than wall-to-wall action, but is all the better for it. Imbued with a pervasive sense of things-not-being-quite-what-they-seem, Ex_Machina compels you to focus your attention until it reaches its unnerving conclusion.

A masked killer starts knocking off beautiful models at a haute couture fashion house in Mario Bava's eye-popping 1964 proto-slasher Blood and Black Lace (aka Six Women for the Murderer).

The Long Good Friday stars Bob Hoskins as Harold Shand, an old-fashioned East End gangster who aspires to become a legitimate businessman. With the financial support of the American Mafia he dreams of renovating London's derelict Docklands, but not even Shand can keep things on track when his business is targeted by the IRA.

In Christopher Nolan's latest smash, a secret NASA expedition heads to another galaxy in an effort to find a new home for humanity after a devastating crop blight threatens to leave the Earth uninhabitable within a few generations. Following signals sent by earlier probes, the astronauts have a trio of potentially suitable planets to investigate, but the fact that they orbit a supermassive black hole means that time will pass differently for the crew than it does for those they left behind on Earth...

Thanks to the likes of How to Train Your Dragon 2, Big Hero 6, The Boxtrolls and The LEGO Movie, 2014 will be remembered as a bumper year for animated films. And while it didn't enjoy the same kind of box office success, The Book of Life is just as deserving of praise as those others.

When Superman's clumsy clone Bizarro makes his own Justice League using equally inept clones of Batman, Wonder Woman et al, the real versions face their toughest (and silliest) challenge yet. Fun for LEGO and DC Comics fans of all ages, this CG animation look pretty super on Blu-ray and comes equipped with a suitably dynamic DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack.

In the 'not too distant future' of 2018 the world is ruled over by giant corporations and the population is gripped by a popular and bloodthirsty new mix of roller derby and gladiatorial combat called rollerball. However, when champion player Jonathan E. (James Caan) threatens to become too popular and powerful, the secret cabal that runs the sport decides it's time to make an example of him.