Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
Multiple platforms

The major pre-Christmas titles are starting to roll in now, and this, the latest iteration of the popular series, is probably the biggest – and also the one fans are likely to be most sceptical about. Call of Duty's last outing, Ghosts, was not unilaterally hailed – and we wondered if it was a sign the franchise was running out of ideas. Turns out not – though some may not like the reboot, which catapults us into the future and warfare that's a lot closer to sci-fi epics Titanfall and Destiny than the grittier CoD titles of old. Of note in single-player mode, a typically sketchy storyline that starts in a future South Korea: voice acting by Kevin Spacey; highly detailed, degradable environments on a par with Battlefield 4 (as reviewed on PS4); slightly arcade-like firefights; stunning landscapes, particularly when the (again, sketchy) story lands you in Antarctica; and a long list of futuristic gadgets that allow you to, variously, see enemies through walls, turn invisible and (apparently a big deal to veteran players) jump super-high. In multiplayer mode, the new sci-fi gear and skills may prove bewildering for novice players (expect to be laser-cannon fodder for quite some time) but the general feedback from pros is they have given the series a new dimension, making battles faster and edgier. AH

CLASSIC

FOOLISH WIVES 
Kino Lorber (Unrated) 

In 1920s Monte Carlo, waves crash against rocks, fortunes are won and lost at the roulette table, and everybody from the bellboys up is on the make: this is the spiritual home of Erich von Stroheim, the Austrian immigrant who brought a new sophistication to Hollywood cinema. This 1924 silent classic confirmed Stroheim's reputation as an obsessive "total filmmaker": besides writing and directing, he plays the lead role of an "aristocratic" con artist – part ape, part vampire, all man of the world – bent on seducing a not unwilling American socialite (Miss DuPont). In his grandiosity, his flair for caricature and his low opinion of human nature, Stroheim stands at the head of a tradition that runs through Stanley Kubrick to Paul Thomas Anderson today. JW

FREE-TO-AIR

SKIMPIES
Monday, November 17
ABC 2, 9.30pm

Part of the ABC's Opening Shot series of documentaries from emerging filmmakers, Skimpies – women who pull beers in "skimpy" underwear and lingerie – follows two seasoned "skimpies", Shae and Courtney (their "stage" names) and newcomer Ash on a road trip around outback Western Australia where women providing such entertainment in mining and framing communities is still very much a thriving business. Working the bars of different pubs or rough outback roadhouses every night ("Titty Tuesday!") this doco introduces (most of) us to some intriguing bar-room skills like the "jug run" and "motorboating". It's an eye-opener for 21-year-old Ash who sets out thinking her potential new gig will be a novel way to "keep in shape, build confidence and earn fast, legal cash" as she studies at uni. Um, yeah. KN

DVD

ED WOOD 
Disney (M) 

Tim Burton's black-and-white 1994 portrait of the Z-grade director Edward D. Wood Jr (Johnny Depp) doesn't have much to do with the facts, but it's a lovely expressionist fairy tale with a highly personal moral. The Wood portrayed here is, above all, the artist as fan: a boundlessly optimistic, innocent hustler who's still capable of being thrilled by a ghost train ride, or bowing down before the star power of the aged Bela Lugosi (Martin Landau), a burnt-out junkie who becomes a close friend. Ultimately, there's nothing ironic about the film's respect for Wood's insistence on staying true to his own strange impulses – and the possibility is left open that his output might be more interesting than most "respectable" movies then or now. JW