DVDs of the week

UNCLE DREW (CERT 12) £19.99 FIRST REFORMED (CERT 15) £19.99

Emotionally scarred basketball fan Dax (Lil Rel Howery) hopes to win the coveted Rucker Classic street basketball tournament with a crew led by star player Casper (Aaron Gordon). Fierce rival Mookie (Nick Kroll) steals Dax’s well-drilled team and his materialistic girlfriend Jess (Tiffany Haddish), leaving the crestfallen loner on the brink of financial ruin. Elders in the community advise Dax to track down one-time street basketball legend Uncle Drew (Kyrie Irving). The retired hoop master agrees to return to the court on condition that he can reunite former teammates. The odds are stacked against the septuagenarians but Drew never shies away from a fight. Uncle Drew is an amiable journey of self-discovery that doesn’t deviate from a well-trodden path of cliches and dewy-eyed sentimentality. Howery is an instantly likeable ringleader, who must overcome a high school trauma described as “the ghost of white boy past” to achieve his headline-grabbing destiny. When Uncle Drew stumbles, the results are painful but the sincerity of Irving’s performance is coupled with colourful supporting turns from fellow sport stars.

Ethan Hawke delivers an uncompromising lead performance in Paul Schrader’s divisive drama, which tests the faith of a man of the church until he finally cracks. Ernst Toller (Hawke) is a former chaplain in the military who silently wrestles with the guilt of persuading his only son to serve in Iraq. The young man was killed in the line of duty and every day Ernst bears a burden of grief while tending to his flock at a close-knit Dutch Reformed church in New York. One of the congregation, Mary (Amanda Seyfried), approaches Ernst for guidance. She is pregnant with her first child but her environmentalist husband Michael (Philip Ettinger) doesn’t want the baby. Michael believes the Earth is doomed and he doesn’t want to be responsible for rearing a child on a dying planet.

FAMILY GUY, SEASON 18 (CERT 15) £27.99

Carrie Fisher provides her final vocal performance as Pawtucket Brewery boss Angela in the latest series of Seth MacFarlane’s popular animated comedy, which charts the misadventures of the dysfunctional Griffin family. This series, patriarch Peter (MacFarlane) seeks his Christmas spirit in the company of the ghost of Patrick Swayze. Also, megalomaniac baby Stewie and Brian the dog (both voiced by MacFarlane) solve a perplexing mystery in the guise of Sherlock Holmes and Watson, and Quagmire (MacFarlane again) is the victim of a shark attack. Special guest performers this series include Kristen Bell, Louis CK, Sir Ian McKellen and Amanda Seyfried. The three-disc DVD boxset includes all 20 episodes.