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Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Predator 2 (2 Disc Special Edition) [1990]
Actors & Directors
  • Gary Busey
  • Danny Glover
  • Stephen Hopkins
  • Kevin Peter Hall
Release date: 2005-04-18
Run time: 103 min.
RRP: £22.99
Price: £5.17

Review Predator 2 (2 Disc Special Edition) [1990] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

Predator wreaked havoc in the jungle and struck box-office gold, so Hollywood logic dictated that Predator 2 should raise hell in the big, bad city. Los Angeles, to be specific, and this near-future L. A. (circa 1997) is an ultra-violent playground for the invisibility-cloaked alien that hunted Arnold Schwarzenegger in the previous film. Scant explanation is given for the creature's return, and because Ah-nuld was busy making Total Recall, Danny Glover was awkwardly installed as the maverick cop (is there any other kind?) who defies a government goon (Gary Busey) to curtail the alien's inner-city killing spree. But why bother, when the victims are scummy Colombian drug lords? Don't look for intelligent answers; director Stephen Hopkins favors wall-to-wall action over sensible plotting, allowing Stan Winston's more prominently featured Predator to join the ranks of iconic movie monsters. And anticipating Alien vs. Predator, there's a familiar-looking skull in the Predator's trophy case! -Jeff Shannon.

Review Warner Home Video / The Swarm [1978]
Actors & Directors
  • Katharine Ross
  • Richard Chamberlain
  • Olivia de Havilland
  • Michael Caine
  • Irwin Allen
  • Richard Widmark
Release date: 2003-02-17
Run time: 149 min.
Creator: Stirling Silliphant
RRP: £12.99
Price: £2.86

Review The Swarm [1978] / Warner Home Video:

Legendarily chintzy "event" producer Irwin Allen (The Towering Inferno) went out with a gargantuan buzz-on with this jaw-droppingly goofy disaster flick. No cliché is left unturned, as a hyperactive strain of hallucination-inducing killer bees get it into their microscopic brains to derail a commuter train, destroy a nuclear power plant and otherwise decimate a veritable cornucopia of washed-up actors (Fred MacMurray, Henry Fonda, Richard Widmark, Patty Duke, Slim Pickens and narcoleptic dreamboat Richard Chamberlain are just a few of the legendary has-beens to get fatally stung by what appears to be airborne coffee grounds). Be sure to stay tuned through the closing credits for a (lawsuit-preventing?) coda absolving the good ol' hardworking American honeybee of any and all sinister charges depicted herein. The Swarm is an irresistibly hilarious chunk of honey-roasted cheese-70s style. -Andrew Wright The Swarm was one of many 1970s disaster epics masterminded by producer Irwin Allen. Unfortunately, it comes from the tail end of the public's fascination with the genre, a fact not unreasonably attributed at the time to this also being Allen's first full-length directorial debut. In retrospect, it's perhaps understandable that the threat of killer bees was never going to seem as spectacular as The Towering Inferno or The Poseidon Adventure. Nevertheless, there's plenty to admire in the concept, which at least went so far as to research its subject matter, even if the explanation for how the bad-tempered little critters came to be in the vicinity of Houston is a little shaky. Michael Caine heads a typically all-star cast. Ironically, the first thing Richard Chamberlain's character says is that he's arrived under protest. [+]
In fact, he along with Henry Fonda, Olivia de Havilland and several others do look rather reluctant to plough through their roles, especially when that involves being bombarded with forcefully blown bee replica debris. At least the effects go some way to redress the lack of punch in the performances (or sense in the plot). Cheesy and clichéd by today's standards it may be, but in the mutant insect sub-genre, The Swarm remains one of the best, helped along by a fine Jerry Goldsmith score. On the DVD: The Swarm arrives on DVD in a surprisingly clean transfer that picks out both the primary colours and great swathes of beige in the 1970s fashions and decorations. 2. 35:1 anamorphic is perfect for capturing the scale of the bees' attack, although the merely stereo soundtrack is a let down considering what fun effects could be achieved mixing the humming drone through various channels. There's a trailer and information on key cast and crew, but the real treat is the 22-minute "Inside the Swarm" documentary. Clearly this was aired on TV at the time of release, but puts to shame the uninformative equivalent promos of today. All the cast are animated in their descriptions of what's being shot around them. And naturally Allen the Showman is the most animated of all. -Paul Tonks.

Review MGM Entertainment / Posse [1993]
Actors & Directors
  • Charles Lane
  • Mario Van Peebles
  • Mario Van Peebles
  • Stephen Baldwin
  • Big Daddy Kane
  • Tommy 'Tiny' Lister
Release date: 2004-03-01
Run time: 106 min.
Creator: Sy Richardson
RRP: £12.99
Price: £2.68

Review Posse [1993] / MGM Entertainment:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Tigerland / The Thin Red Line [2000]
Actors & Directors
  • Matthew Davis
  • Jim Caviezel
  • Colin Farrell
  • Joel Schumacher
  • Terrence Malick
  • Adrien Brody
  • Sean Penn
Release date: 2005-06-06
Run time: 256 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £6.61

Review Tigerland / The Thin Red Line [2000] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:


Review 4 Front Video / Mulholland Falls [1996]
Actors & Directors
  • Lee Tamahori
  • Melanie Griffith
  • Nick Nolte
  • Jennifer Connelly
  • Chazz Palminteri
  • Michael Madsen
Release date: 2004-03-22
Run time: 107 min.
Creator: Peter Dexter
RRP: £5.99
Price: £0.99

Review Mulholland Falls [1996] / 4 Front Video:


Review 4 Front Video / King Of The Kickboxers [1990]
Actors & Directors
  • Don Stroud
  • Lucas Lowe
  • Loren Avedon
  • Keith Cooke
  • Richard Jaeckel
  • Billy Blanks
Release date: 2004-12-27
Run time: 91 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £4.63

Review King Of The Kickboxers [1990] / 4 Front Video:


Review Momentum Pictures / Haven [2006]
Actors & Directors
  • Orlando Bloom
  • Bill Paxton
  • Frank E. Flowers
  • Stephen Dillane
  • Agnes Bruckner
  • Rachel Miner
Release date: 2007-07-23
Run time: 95 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £2.70

Review Haven [2006] / Momentum Pictures:


Review First Look Pictures / Maniac Cop III: Badge of Silence [1993] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Bobby Di Cicco
  • Grand L. Bush
  • Gretchen Becker
  • Caitlin Dulany
  • Robert Davi
Release date: 2004-05-25
Run time: 85 min.
Creator: Joel Goldsmith
Price: £3.05

Review Maniac Cop III: Badge of Silence [1993] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / First Look Pictures:


Review Sony Pictures / Casino Royale [UMD Mini for PSP] [2006]
Actors & Directors
  • Crispin Bonham Carter
  • Tom Chadbon
  • Urbano Barberini
  • John Chancer
  • Jesper Christensen
Release date: 2007-03-13
Run time: 144 min.
Creator: Nicolas Dodd
Price: £6.66

Review Casino Royale [UMD Mini for PSP] [2006] / Sony Pictures:


Review Walt Disney Video / Return to Snowy River [1988] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Brian Dennehy
  • Tony Barry
  • Peter Cummins
  • John Bird
  • Tom Burlinson
  • Geoff Burrowes
Release date: 2003-04-22
Run time: 99 min.
Creator: Bruce Rowland
Price: £4.03

Review Return to Snowy River [1988] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Walt Disney Video:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment / The High And The Mighty [1954]
Actors & Directors
  • John Wayne
  • William A. Wellman
Release date: 2007-05-14
Run time: 141 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £5.48

Review The High And The Mighty [1954] / Paramount Home Entertainment:


Review Pathe Distribution / No Escape [1994]
Actors & Directors
  • Ray Liotta
  • Martin Campbell
  • Kevin J. O'Connor
  • Kevin Dillon
  • Stuart Wilson
  • Lance Henriksen
Release date: 2003-10-06
Run time: 118 min.
Creator: Richard Herley
RRP: £5.99
Price: £3.89

Review No Escape [1994] / Pathe Distribution:


Review Contender Entertainment Group / Duelist [2007]
Actors & Directors
  • Lee Myung-Se
  • Ha Jiwon; Gang Dongwon; Ahn Sungki;Song Youngchang
Release date: 2007-07-02
Run time: 109 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £3.49

Review Duelist [2007] / Contender Entertainment Group:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Rapid Fire [1992]
Actors & Directors
  • Raymond J. Barry
  • Brandon Lee
  • Nick Mancuso
  • Powers Boothe
  • Dwight H. Little
  • Kate Hodge
Release date: 2003-06-30
Run time: 91 min.
Creator: Cindy Cirile
RRP: £5.99
Price: £3.30

Review Rapid Fire [1992] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

Rapid Fire was the penultimate film starring Brandon Lee before his untimely death on the set of The Crow. It's a standard martial arts thriller in which Lee plays Jake Lo, a young arts student who witnesses a gangland execution and is unwittingly drawn into a pitched standoff between the mafia, a Chinese drug syndicate and Ryan, a downbeat but resolute Chicago cop (Powers Boothe) determined to nail his prey. With a plot that careens through every genre cliché, Lee's smouldering looks and showy fighting skills carry the film. The martial arts sequences (which Lee co-choreographed) are nicely staged, but given the unusual settings-the penultimate fight takes place in a Chinese laundry-could have been even more inventive. The workmanlike direction by Dwight H Little (Marked for Death, Free Willy 2) fails to inject much into the material. In particular, traumatised by seeing his Special Agent father die in the Tiananmen Square massacre, Jake Lo's attraction to both a corrupt FBI agent and Ryan as surrogate father figures could have been given more resonance given the loss of Brandon Lee's own father at an early age. With hundreds of bloodless deaths, cringe-worthy dialogue and a dated power rock soundtrack, Rapid Fire looks and feels like a TV film. And on that level, at least, it's entertaining. On the DVD: The main feature is presented in letterboxed widescreen. Sound and picture quality are very good. [+]
Subtitles are provided for ten languages (Czech, Danish, Finnish, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norweigian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish) and in English for the hard of hearing. Extra features are limited to chapter selection and a theatrical trailer. -Chris Campion.

Review Prism Leisure / The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn [1985]
Actors & Directors
  • Jim Dale
  • Anne Shropshire
  • Peter H. Hunt
  • Frederic Forrest
  • Patrick Day
  • Sada Thompson
Release date: 2001-09-01
Run time: 211 min.
Creator: Mark Twain
RRP: £5.99
Price: £4.90

Review The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn [1985] / Prism Leisure:


Review Universal Studios / Death Race [Blu-ray] [2008]
Actors & Directors
  • Natalie Martinez
  • Joan Allen
  • Tyrese Gibson
  • Paul W.S. Anderson
  • Jason Statham
  • Ian McShane
Release date: 2008-12-21
Run time: 105 min.
Creator: Robert Thom
Price: £24.77

Review Death Race [Blu-ray] [2008] / Universal Studios:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment UK / The Naked Gun [1988] [1989]
Actors & Directors
  • O.J. Simpson
  • Leslie Nielsen
  • Priscilla Presley
  • Ricardo Montalban
  • George Kennedy
  • David Zucker
Release date: 2001-04-09
Run time: 82 min.
Creator: Pat Proft
RRP: £15.99
Price: £1.14

Review The Naked Gun [1988] [1989] / Paramount Home Entertainment UK:

Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker, the creative troika behind Airplane!, scored another hit with this big-screen adaptation of their short-lived television show Police Squad!. Deadpan as ever, Leslie Nielsen revives his TV role of Lt Frank Drebin, the idiot with a detective's badge. The jokes come thick and fast, gathering a momentum that lasts until the final act. Ricardo Montalban is a perfect foil as a villain whose aquarium is invaded by Drebin during routine questioning, and George Kennedy is delightful in a self-parodying part as an earnest but obtuse lawman. There's a hilarious bit when Drebin-wearing a live police wire while going to the bathroom-can be overheard over the loudspeakers at a speech given by a flustered mayor (Nancy Marchand). And yes, that's OJ Simpson as a detective who ends up on the wrong side of numerous Drebin blunders. -Tom Keogh, Amazon. com.

Review Warner Home Video / Enter The Dragon [1973]
Actors & Directors
  • Robert Clouse
  • Bruce Lee
  • Kien Shih
  • Angela Mao
  • Ahna Capri
  • John Saxon
Release date: 2001-10-15
Run time: 98 min.
Creator: Michael Allin
RRP: £12.99
Price: £0.90

Review Enter The Dragon [1973] / Warner Home Video:

The last film completed by Bruce Lee before his untimely death, Enter the Dragon was his entrée into Hollywood. The American-Hong Kong co-production, shot in Asia by American director Robert Clouse, stars Lee as a British agent sent to infiltrate the criminal empire of bloodthirsty Asian crime lord Han (Shih Kien) through his annual international martial arts tournament. Lee spends his days taking on tournament combatants and nights breaking into the heavily guarded underground fortress, kicking the living tar out of anyone who stands in his way. The mix of kung fu fighting (choreographed by Lee himself) and James Bond intrigue (the plot has more than a passing resemblance to Dr. No) is pulpy by any standard, but the generous budget and talented cast of world-class martial artists puts this film in a category well above Lee's primitive Hong Kong productions. Unfortunately he's off the screen for large chunks of time as American maverick competitors (and champion martial artists) John Saxon and Jim Kelly take centre stage, but once the fighting starts Lee takes over. The tournament setting provides an ample display of martial arts mastery of many styles and climaxes with a huge free-for-all, but the highlight is Lee's brutal one-on-one with the claw-fisted Han in the dynamic hall-of-mirrors battle. Lee narrows his eyes and tenses into a wiry force of sinew, speed and ruthless determination. - Sean Axmaker, Amazon. com.

Review Salvation Films / The Bunker - The Evil Is Within [2002]
Actors & Directors
  • Jason Flemyng
  • Christopher Fairbank
  • Andrew Lee Potts
  • Rob Green
  • Andrew Tiernan
  • Simon Kunz
Release date: 2003-04-21
Run time: 90 min.
Creator: Clive Dawson
RRP: £15.99
Price: £4.40

Review The Bunker - The Evil Is Within [2002] / Salvation Films:


Review Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / Seven Seconds [2005]
Actors & Directors
  • Peter Lee-Wilson
  • Simon Fellows
  • Dhobi Oparei
  • Wesley Snipes
  • Serge Soric
  • Tamzin Outhwaite
Release date: 2005-09-12
Run time: 92 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £0.95

Review Seven Seconds [2005] / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:


Browse Action & Adventure:

Models & Brands:
Predator 2 (2 Disc Special Edition) [1990], The Swarm [1978], Posse [1993], Tigerland / The Thin Red Line [2000], Mulholland Falls [1996], King Of The Kickboxers [1990], Haven [2006], Maniac Cop III: Badge of Silence [1993] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Casino Royale [UMD Mini for PSP] [2006], Return to Snowy River [1988] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The High And The Mighty [1954], No Escape [1994], Duelist [2007], Rapid Fire [1992], The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn [1985], Death Race [Blu-ray] [2008], The Naked Gun [1988] [1989], Enter The Dragon [1973], The Bunker - The Evil Is Within [2002], Seven Seconds [2005]

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