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Review Mgm Home Ent.(Europe) Ltd. / James Bond - You Only Live Twice (Ultimate Edition 2 Disc Set) [1967]
Actors & Directors
  • Lewis Gilbert
  • Donald Pleasence
  • Akiko Wakabayashi
  • Sean Connery
  • Charles Gray
  • Lois Maxwell
Release date: 2006-07-17
Run time: 112 min.
RRP: £16.99
Price: £3.98

Review James Bond - You Only Live Twice (Ultimate Edition 2 Disc Set) [1967] / Mgm Home Ent.(Europe) Ltd.:


Review Universal Pictures UK / The Equalizer - Series 1 - Complete [1985]
Actors & Directors
  • Edward Woodward
Release date: 2008-04-21
Run time: 1012 min.
RRP: £34.99
Price: £13.51

Review The Equalizer - Series 1 - Complete [1985] / Universal Pictures UK:


Review Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / Warriors Of Heaven And Earth [2003]
Actors & Directors
  • Zhao Wei Wei
  • He Ping
  • Jiang Wen
  • Kiichi Nakai
Release date: 2004-12-13
Run time: 110 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £3.71

Review Warriors Of Heaven And Earth [2003] / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:

Anybody hungering for a good old-fashioned Western needs to check out Warriors of Heaven and Earth, which-although it's set in 7th-century China-has all the valor and spectacle of a John Ford picture. It also has a goofy supernatural streak, for the chopsocky crowd. The opening 10 minutes or so offer an alarmingly convoluted plot, but it swiftly settles down. What's going on is that a long-exiled Japanese hit man (Kiichi Nakai), hired to kill a renegade Chinese warrior (Jiang Wen), temporarily teams up with his quarry in order to escort a camel caravan along the Spice Road. Of course, they are menaced by a brutal warlord, and beautiful Zhao Wei (So Close) is mixed in there too. Director He Ping (Red Firecracker, Green Firecracker) captures some magnificent vistas in the Gobi Desert, but more importantly he sketches the codes or honor and behavior essential to any such tale. -Robert Horton.

Review Warner Home Video / We Are Marshall [2006]
Actors & Directors
  • David Strathairn
  • Matthew McConaughey
  • Anthony Mackie
  • Ian McShane
  • McG
  • Matthew Fox
Release date: 2007-10-22
Run time: 126 min.
RRP: £13.99
Price: £4.61

Review We Are Marshall [2006] / Warner Home Video:

There seems to be no end to "beating-the-odds" American football movies these days, but We Are Marshall, based on a true story, is in the top tier of that clutch of movies. Matthew McConaughey plays Jack Lengyel, who becomes head coach-more or less by default-of Marshall University's rebuilding varsity American football team in Huntington, West Virginia, after the school's 37-member team and coaches (and a number of others) die in a plane crash in the Appalachian Mountains on November 14, 1970. Facing an indifferent college president (David Strathairn) ready to shut the football program down, a morose assistant coach (Matthew Fox of Lost fame), and a charged-up player (Anthony Mackie) who missed the doomed flight due to an injury, Lengyel is faced with fielding a new team and putting the players through their paces. There are the usual, perhaps too-familiar, training montages and field action, but screenwriter Jamie Linden and director McG (Charlie's Angels) also draw some very good performances from the likes of Kate Mara and Ian McShane, contributing to an emotional tapestry conveying a powerful sense of how such a sizable loss affects a small community. -Sally Giles.

Review Warner Home Video / Ben 10: Race Against Time [2007] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Alex Winter
  • Haley Ramm
  • Christien Anholt
  • Graham Phillips
  • Don McManus
  • Beth Littleford
Release date: 2008-04-08
Run time: 67 min.
Creator: Mitch Watson
Price: £5.63

Review Ben 10: Race Against Time [2007] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Warner Home Video:


Review Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm / Kill Bill, Volume 2 [2004]
Actors & Directors
  • Quentin Tarantino
  • Daryl Hannah
  • Michael Madsen
  • Uma Thurman
  • Lucy Liu
  • David Carradine
Release date: 2004-08-16
Run time: 131 min.
Creator: Harvey Weinstein
RRP: £17.99
Price: £2.95

Review Kill Bill, Volume 2 [2004] / Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm:

"The Bride" (Uma Thurman) gets her satisfaction-and so do we-in Quentin Tarantino's "roaring rampage of revenge", Kill Bill, Vol. 2. Where Vol. 1 was a hyper-kinetic tribute to the Asian chop-socky grindhouse flicks that have been thoroughly cross-referenced in Tarantino's film-loving brain, Vol. 2-not a sequel, but Part Two of a breathtakingly cinematic epic-is Tarantino's contemporary martial-arts Western, fuelled by iconic images, music and themes lifted from any source that Tarantino holds dear, from the action-packed cheapies of William Witney (one of several filmmakers Tarantino gratefully honours in the closing credits) to the spaghetti epics of Sergio Leone. Tarantino doesn't copy so much as elevate the genres he loves, and the entirety of Kill Bill is clearly the product of a singular artistic vision, even as it careens from one influence to another. Violence erupts with dynamic impact, but unlike Vol. 1, this slower grand finale revels in Tarantino's trademark dialogue and loopy longueurs, reviving the career of David Carradine (who plays Bill for what he is: a snake charmer), and giving Thurman's Bride an outlet for maternal love and well-earned happiness. Has any actress endured so much for the sake of a unique collaboration? As the credits remind us, "The Bride" was jointly created by "Q&U", and she's become an unforgettable heroine in a pair of delirious movie-movies (Vol. 3 awaits, some 15 years hence) that Tarantino fans will study and love for decades to come. [+]
-Jeff Shannon.

Review Universal Pictures UK / Alias Smith And Jones - Series 1 - Complete [1971]
Actors & Directors
  • Ben Murphy
  • Leslie Martinson
  • Pete Duel
  • Douglas Heyes
  • Richard Benedict
Release date: 2007-06-11
Run time: 752 min.
RRP: £29.99
Price: £15.08

Review Alias Smith And Jones - Series 1 - Complete [1971] / Universal Pictures UK:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment (UK) / Mission Impossible: Ultimate Missions Collection (5 Disc Box Set)
Actors & Directors
  • Tom Cruise
Release date: 2006-11-06
Run time: 344 min.
RRP: £37.99
Price: £7.99

Review Mission Impossible: Ultimate Missions Collection (5 Disc Box Set) / Paramount Home Entertainment (UK):


Review Eureka Entertainment / The Black Shield Of Falworth [1954]
Actors & Directors
  • Tony Curtis
  • Janet Leigh
  • Rudolph Mate
Release date: 2008-11-10
Run time: 95 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £9.98

Review The Black Shield Of Falworth [1954] / Eureka Entertainment:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Die Hard 4.0 (2 Disc Special Edition) [2007]
Actors & Directors
  • Bruce Willis
  • Len Wiseman
  • Maggie Q
  • Mary Elizabeth Winstead
  • Justin Long
  • Timothy Olyphant
Release date: 2007-10-29
Run time: 123 min.
RRP: £24.99
Price: £6.50

Review Die Hard 4.0 (2 Disc Special Edition) [2007] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

Twelve years after Die Hard with a Vengeance, the third and previous film in the Die Hard franchise, Die Hard 4. 0 finds John McClane (Bruce Willis) a few years older, not any happier, and just as kick-ass as ever. Right after he has a fight with his college-age daughter (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), a call comes in to pick up a hacker (Justin Long, Dodgeball) who might help the FBI learn something about a brief security blip in their systems. Now any Die Hard fan knows that this is when the assassins with foreign accents and high-powered weaponry show up, telling McClane that once again he's stumbled into an assignment that's anything but routine. Once that wreckage has cleared, it is revealed that the hacker is only one of many hackers who are being targeted for extermination after they helped set up a "fire sale," a three-pronged cyberattack designed to bring down the entire country by crippling its transportation, finances, and utilities. That plan is now being put into action by a mysterious team (Timothy Olyphant, Deadwood, and Maggie Q, Mission: Impossible 3) that seems to be operating under the government's noses. Die Hard 4. 0 uses some of the cat-and-mouse elements of Die Hard with a Vengeance along with some of the pick-'em-off-one-by-one elements of the now-classic original movie. And it's the most consistently enjoyable installment of the franchise since the original, with eye-popping stunts (directed by Len Wiseman of the Underworld franchise), good humour, and Willis's ability to toss off a quip while barely alive. Yippee-ki-ay! -David Horiuchi.

Review Warner Home Video / Barry Lyndon [1975]
Actors & Directors
  • Ryan O'Neal
  • Patrick Magee
  • Stanley Kubrick
  • Marisa Berenson
  • Hardy Krüger
  • Steven Berkoff
Release date: 2001-09-10
Run time: 177 min.
Creator: William Makepeace Thackeray
RRP: £13.99
Price: £3.90

Review Barry Lyndon [1975] / Warner Home Video:

Perhaps Stanley Kubrick's most underrated film, Barry Lyndon-adapted from the picaresque novel by William Makepeace Thackeray-inhabits the 18th century in the way A Clockwork Orange and 2001: A Space Odyssey inhabit the future: perfect sets, costumes and cinematography capture characters whose rises and falls are at once deeply tragic and absurdly comical. Narrated in avuncular form by Michael Hordern, the film follows the fortunes of Redmond Barry (Ryan O'Neal), a handsome Irish youth forced to flee his hometown after a duel with a cowardly English officer (Leonard Rossiter). Stripped of his small fortune by a deferential highwayman, Barry joins the British army and fights in the Seven Years War, attempting a desertion that leads him into the Prussian army. A position as a spy on an exquisitely painted con man (Patrick Magee) leads to a life of gambling around the courts of Europe, and just before the intermission our hero achieves all he could want by marrying a wealthy, titled beautiful widow (Marisa Berenson). However, Part Two reveals that Barry can no more be a clockwork orange than the protagonist of Kubrick's previous film, and his spendthrift ways, foolhardy pursuit of social advancement and unwise treatment of his new family lead to several disasters, climaxing in another horrific, yet farcical duel. Shot almost entirely in the "magic hour", that point of the day when the light is mistily perfect, with innovative use of candlelight for interiors, Barry Lyndon looks ravishing, but the perfection of its images is matched by the inner turmoil of its seemingly frozen characters. Kubrick is often accused of being unemotional, but his restraint is all the more affecting when, for example, Barry is struck by the deaths of those close to him, his wife writhes into madness or his stepson (Leon Vitali) vomits before he can stand his ground in a duel. On the DVD: The extras are skimpy, a trailer and a list of awards, a French alternate soundtrack and subtitles in seven languages. However, the film-"digitally restored and remastered"-is served superbly by the medium. Letterboxed to 1. [+]
59:1 (which fits the 14:9 option of a widescreen TV), with a 5. 1 Dolby Digital soundtrack, the print looks and sounds wonderful, which not only allows a fresh appreciation of the wit and beauty of the film but shows just how good the apparent underplaying (unusual in Kubrick films) of the cast is. -Kim Newman.

Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Dude, Where's My Car? [2001]
Actors & Directors
  • Ashton Kutcher
  • Jennifer Garner
  • Seann William Scott
  • Danny Leiner
  • Kristy Swanson
  • Marla Sokoloff
Release date: 2001-12-10
Run time: 79 min.
Creator: Philip Stark
RRP: £12.99
Price: £2.66

Review Dude, Where's My Car? [2001] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

An entry into an already rather overcrowded market, Dude, Where's My Car? is a very dumb but exuberant comedy aimed fairly and squarely at the teen market. An attempt to recreate the classic feel of certain movies from the late 80s and early 90s, it centres around two hopeless individuals (Jesse and Chester) and their efforts to piece together the night before and, more importantly, find Jesse's car. The plot-such as it is, takes in many a convoluted turn with the introduction of transsexual strippers and aliens but still finds itself stretched thin over the course of the meagre 79 minutes. The film's aspirations are clear. With it's central duo and infuriating use of catchphrases it is almost a direct steal from Wayne's World and Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, both of which are leagues ahead in terms of writing, performance and general style. The humour here is base and far too obvious, concentrating on the old standbys of sex and toilets, plus a small dig at blind children along the way. For a better example of such humour head for the genuinely funny American Pie or, for a teen comedy with actual intelligence and panache, the peerless 10 Things I Hate About You. On The DVD: The extensive range of extra features are in keeping with the overall style of the project. The audio commentary from director Danny Leiner and his two main stars is simply a succession of in-jokes and childish hysterics, while the behind the scenes documentary is equally banal. There is a selection of extended scenes, trailers and TV spots plus a music video from Grand Theft Auto, the best thing about the whole package. [+]
-Phil Udell.

Review Network / Danger UXB: The Complete Series Special Edition [1979]
Release date: 2006-06-19
Run time: 650 min.
Creator: John Whitney
RRP: £29.99
Price: £13.25

Review Danger UXB: The Complete Series Special Edition [1979] / Network:


Review Warner Home Video / Batman Begins - 2 Disc Edition [2005]
Actors & Directors
  • Liam Neeson
  • Christian Bale
  • Katie Holmes
  • Ken Watanabe
  • Michael Caine
  • Christopher Nolan
Release date: 2005-10-21
Run time: 134 min.
Creator: David S. Goyer
RRP: £16.99
Price: £6.60

Review Batman Begins - 2 Disc Edition [2005] / Warner Home Video:

Just when you though that the Batman franchise was dead and buried-certainly after the abomination that was 1997's Batman & Robin-along comes director Christopher Nolan to brilliantly bring it all back to life with the astonishingly strong Batman Begins. Nolan, whose curriculum vitae already features Memento and Insomnia, focuses his attention where films in the franchise haven't gone before-by examining that character of Batman himself. Thus, the story here is the genesis of the character, from the death of Bruce Wayne's parents, harrowing training with the mysterious League of Shadows, right through to the Dark Knight's first appearances on the street of a crime-ridden, moody Gotham City. Nolan plays several trump cards in his take on the Batman legacy, and none pay off quite so handsomely as his casting. Christian Bale is an immense force in the dual role of Bruce Wayne and Batman, bringing a brooding anger and genuine unease to the Batsuit. He's backed with strong turns from Tom Wilkinson, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Gary Oldman, and Cillian Murphy as the unstable Scarecrow. In spite of a last twenty minutes that can't quite sustain the tone of what's gone before, Batman Begins is a major achievement, and one of the finest superhero movies to date. Easily the best of the Dark Knight's big screen adventures, it manages to be a blockbuster film that's unpredictable, compulsive, superb to look at and well worth many repeated viewings. A staggering achievement, particularly considering the state the Batman franchise had got itself into. -Simon Brew.

Review MGM Entertainment / James Bond - Tomorrow Never Dies (Ultimate Edition 2 Disc Set) [1997]
Actors & Directors
  • Ricky Jay
  • Jonathan Pryce
  • Teri Hatcher
  • Michelle Yeoh
  • Pierce Brosnan
  • Roger Spottiswoode
Release date: 2006-07-17
Run time: 114 min.
RRP: £16.99
Price: £3.98

Review James Bond - Tomorrow Never Dies (Ultimate Edition 2 Disc Set) [1997] / MGM Entertainment:


Review Entertainment in Video / The Trench [1999]
Actors & Directors
  • William Boyd
  • Julian Rhind-Tutt
  • Daniel Craig
  • James D'Arcy
  • Danny Dyer
  • Paul Nicholls
Release date: 2000-05-01
Run time: 112 min.
Creator: Xavier Marchand
RRP: £19.99
Price: £4.44

Review The Trench [1999] / Entertainment in Video:


Review Warner Home Video / Mars Attacks! [1997]
Actors & Directors
  • Sarah Jessica Parker
  • Jack Nicholson
  • Annette Bening
  • Glenn Close
  • Pierce Brosnan
  • Tim Burton
Release date: 1998-05-11
Run time: 102 min.
Creator: Woody Gelman
RRP: £13.99
Price: £2.48

Review Mars Attacks! [1997] / Warner Home Video:

It's enlightening to view Tim Burton's Mars Attacks! as his twisted satire of the blockbuster film Independence Day, which was released earlier the same year, although the movies were in production simultaneously. Burton's eye-popping, schlock tribute to 1950s UFO movies actually plays better on video than it did in cinemas. The idea of invading aliens ray-gunning the big-name movie stars in the cast is a cleverly subversive one, and the bulb-headed, funny-sounding animated Martians are pretty nifty, but it all seemed to be spread thin on the big screen. On video, however, the movie's kooky humour seems a bit more concentrated. The Earth actors (most of whom get zapped or kidnapped for alien science experiments) include Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, Danny DeVito, Martin Short, Sarah Jessica Parker, Rod Steiger, Michael J Fox, Lukas Haas, Jim Brown, Tom Jones and Pam Grier. -Jim Emerson.

Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (Single Disc Edition) [2003]
Actors & Directors
  • Russell Crowe
  • Billy Boyd
  • Edward Woodall
  • Peter Weir
  • James D'Arcy
  • Paul Bettany
Release date: 2004-04-05
Run time: 139 min.
Creator: Patrick O'Brian
RRP: £15.99
Price: £0.99

Review Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (Single Disc Edition) [2003] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

Aside from some gripping battles and a storm sequence to rival anything seen on screen, Peter Weir's Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is as much about daily shipboard life during the Napoleonic era-especially the relationship between Captain Aubrey (Russell Crowe) and Doctor Stephen Maturin (Paul Bettany)-as it is about spectacle. Aubrey is a powerful figure whose experience and strength of character commands unwavering trust and respect from his crew; Crowe seems in his element naturally enough. Bettany, though, is his match on screen as Aubrey's intellectual foil. Director Weir successfully translates their relationship from novel to screen by subtly weaving in their past history and leaving viewers-whether they've read Patrick O'Brian's books or not-to do the thinking. Although the film's special effects ate up a huge budget they never overtake the drama, with careful characterisation and painstaking attention to historical accuracy taking centre stage. Matching action to detail, drama to humour and special effects to well-sketched characters, Master and Commander is a deeply satisfying big-screen experience, breathing a bracing gust of sea air into Hollywood megabuck filmmaking. -Laura Bushell On the DVD: Master & Commander's single-disc edition displays the full glories of the big screen experience, with Dolby Digital 5. 1 and DTS sound options that make the most of the resounding battle scenes as well as the small but vital details of creaking planks and lapping waves, while the sweeping CinemaScope (2. 35:1) photography anamorphically formatted for 16:9 widescreen splendidly reproduces Peter Weir's painterly compositions. It's a tad disappointing, then, to note the lack of a director's commentary (surely such an insightful director as Weir would have plenty to say) and the excessive promotional material-cinema trailers and plugs for Fox DVDs- that plays even before the main menu screen appears: anyone who has bought this title for repeat viewing deserves not to be subjected to such a broadside of soon-to-be-out-of-date advertising. [+]
-Mark Walker.

Review Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / The Professionals [1966]
Actors & Directors
  • Burt Lancaster
  • Robert Ryan
  • Jack Palance
  • Lee Marvin
  • Woody Strode
  • Richard Brooks
Release date: 2003-06-16
Run time: 112 min.
Creator: Frank O'Rourke
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.85

Review The Professionals [1966] / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:

Director Richard Brooks' marvellous ode to friendship, loyalty and disillusionment The Professionals may not have the stylistic bravado or fatalistic doom of Sam Peckinpah's more famous The Wild Bunch, but Brooks' storytelling is simple and steady and just as insightful. The difference is that Brooks is a lot more optimistic. Lee Marvin and Burt Lancaster are buddies who have drifted into oblivion after fighting together in the Mexican Revolution. Marvin, the principled loyalist and munitions expert, lost his wife and his heart. Lancaster, the dynamite expert and unprincipled adventurer, keeps losing his pants. They team up with wrangler Robert Ryan and archer Woody Strode to rescue the beguiling Claudia Cardinale, who has been kidnapped by their old revolutionary buddie Jack Palance. So it's back into bloody Mexico they go on a "mission of mercy" for railroad tycoon Ralph Bellamy, who's paying handsomely for the return of his wife. But nothing is what it seems in this exciting, existential adventure, which was beautifully shot by Conrad Hall. Sarcastic quips, philosophical musings and heart-rending reversals underlie Brooks' humanistic sentiments. These are tired, world-weary men who somehow find the strength and the will to pull together for the sake of love and commitment. [+]
Through it all, Brooks seems to be lamenting a decline in professionalism much deeper than his story. He's decrying Hollywood and the society at large, anticipating Peckinpah's later strategy. -Bill Desowitz.

Review Samurai X / Samurai X - Deluxe Complete Collection [2007]
Release date: 2007-05-07
Run time: 300 min.
RRP: £49.99
Price: £11.96

Review Samurai X - Deluxe Complete Collection [2007] / Samurai X:


Browse Action & Adventure:

Models & Brands:
James Bond - You Only Live Twice (Ultimate Edition 2 Disc Set) [1967], The Equalizer - Series 1 - Complete [1985], Warriors Of Heaven And Earth [2003], We Are Marshall [2006], Ben 10: Race Against Time [2007] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Kill Bill, Volume 2 [2004], Alias Smith And Jones - Series 1 - Complete [1971], Mission Impossible: Ultimate Missions Collection (5 Disc Box Set), The Black Shield Of Falworth [1954], Die Hard 4.0 (2 Disc Special Edition) [2007], Barry Lyndon [1975], Dude, Where's My Car? [2001], Danger UXB: The Complete Series Special Edition [1979], Batman Begins - 2 Disc Edition [2005], James Bond - Tomorrow Never Dies (Ultimate Edition 2 Disc Set) [1997], The Trench [1999], Mars Attacks! [1997], Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (Single Disc Edition) [2003], The Professionals [1966], Samurai X - Deluxe Complete Collection [2007]

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