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Review Paramount Home Entertainment / True Grit/The Sons Of Katie Elder/The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Actors & Directors
  • John Wayne
Release date: 2008-10-06
Run time: 354 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £7.15

Review True Grit/The Sons Of Katie Elder/The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance / Paramount Home Entertainment:

True Grit A wonderful/rueful running gag in El Dorado involves the Edgar Allan Poe line "Ride, boldly ride" being mangled by toupee-wearer John Wayne into "Ride, baldy, ride. " Two years later, in True Grit, Wayne put the joke in italics by donning an eyepatch and several inches of girth to play cantankerous territorial marshal Rooster Cogburn. Critics belatedly noticed that he could be a marvelously entertaining actor, and Hollywood finally gave him the Oscar they'd failed to nominate him for in Red River, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, The Quiet Man, The Searchers, et al. But make no mistake: True Grit is a splendid movie, with lovingly textured storytelling and sturdy characters, Henry Hathaway's finest high-country action set-pieces, intoxicatingly ornate frontier language, and a couple of formidable bad guys (Jeff Corey's Tom Cheney and Robert Duvall's "Lucky" Ned Pepper). It's a compliment to say that, from a technical standpoint, the movie could have been made any time in Hathaway's 40-year career, yet its feeling for the reality of violence ceded no ground to The Wild Bunch, released around the same time. Still, the film's most sublime passage falls between bursts of gunplay: Rooster sitting on a hilltop at night recounting his life story, as John Wayne metamorphoses ineluctably into W. C. Fields. -Richard T. Jameson The Sons of Katie Elder John Wayne recovered from his first bout with cancer to appear in this 1965 film as the brother of Dean Martin, Earl Holliman, and Michael Anderson Jr. [+]
All four characters are wandering souls prone to trouble, but after the funeral of their frontier mother, they set out to avenge her death. Directed by Henry Hathaway (Wayne's director on True Grit), the film moves like a conventional, latter-day Western, with good performances from Wayne and Martin, who'd already costarred with the Duke in Howard Hawks's Rio Bravo. Nice support from Dennis Hopper (who had a legendary conflict with Hathaway on this film), Strother Martin, and George Kennedy. -Tom Keogh The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend. " That's more than the code of a newspaperman in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance; it's practically the operating credo of director John Ford, the most honoured of American filmmakers. In this late film from a long career, Ford looks at the civilising of an Old West town, Shinbone, through the sad memories of settlers looking back. In the town's wide-open youth, two-fisted Westerner John Wayne and tenderfoot newcomer James Stewart clash over a woman (Vera Miles) but ultimately unite against the notorious outlaw Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin). Ford's nostalgia for the past is tempered by his stark approach, unusual for the visual poet of Stagecoach and The Searchers. The two heavyweights, Wayne and Stewart, are good together, with Wayne the embodiment of rugged individualism and Stewart the idealistic prophet of the civilisation that will eventually tame the Wild West. This may be the saddest Western ever made, closer to an elegy than an action movie, and as cleanly beautiful as its central symbol, the cactus rose. -Robert Horton.

Review Uca Catalogue / The Bridge On The River Kwai/The Guns Of Navarone/Das Boot - The Director's Cut
Actors & Directors
  • Alec Guinness
  • David Lean
  • Jurgen Prochnow
  • Jack Hawkins
  • Herbert Gronemeyer
  • William Holden
  • J. Lee Thompson
  • Wolfgang Petersen
Release date: 2007-10-01
Run time: 505 min.
RRP: £14.99
Price: £7.64

Review The Bridge On The River Kwai/The Guns Of Navarone/Das Boot - The Director's Cut / Uca Catalogue:


Review Entertainment in Video / The Crow [Blu-ray] [1993]
Actors & Directors
  • Jon Polito
  • Michael Wincott
  • Brandon Lee
  • Ernie Hudson
  • Alex Proyas
  • David Patrick Kelly
Release date: 2007-08-13
Run time: 97 min.
RRP: £24.99
Price: £8.99

Review The Crow [Blu-ray] [1993] / Entertainment in Video:

Brandon Lee, Ernie Hudson, Michael Wincott, David Patrick Kelly, Jon Polito

Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Marked For Death [1991]
Actors & Directors
  • Basil Wallace
  • Joanna Pacula
  • Tom Wright
  • Keith David
  • Steven Seagal
  • Dwight H. Little
Release date: 2003-08-25
Run time: 89 min.
Creator: Peter Macgregor-Scott
RRP: £5.99
Price: £3.30

Review Marked For Death [1991] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

The glowering brutality that is aikido head-banger Steven Seagal's substitute for a star persona at least gives us a rancid taste of authenticity in Marked for Death, a cookie-cutter action picture. This glum lug seems really to enjoy hurting people; he snaps limbs and shatters noses with visible relish. Pitted against a gang of Jamaican gangsters who invade his (white ethnic) Chicago neighbourhood and threaten his family, retired DEA agent John Hatcher sets out to solve the case with robotic efficiency, kicking butt in just about every scene. Not quite as pudgy in this 1990 outing as he became a few films later, Seagal looks like the genuine, lethal article in the fight sequences but like a hopeless amateur when he tries to act his way out of the waterlogged-paper-bag of a script. So what else is new? The one bright spot here is Basil Wallace, a mostly unsung actor who throws himself into the showy role of the Rasta gang-boss Screwface, a garishly scarred psycho with piercing ice-blue eyes. -David Chute, Amazon. com.

Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Entrapment [1999]
Actors & Directors
  • Catherine Zeta-Jones
  • Will Patton
  • Maury Chaykin
  • Ving Rhames
  • Sean Connery
  • Jon Amiel
Release date: 2004-10-04
Run time: 109 min.
Creator: William Broyles Jr.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £2.93

Review Entrapment [1999] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

Sean Connery plays a master thief thought to be long retired, while Catherine Zeta-Jones is his foil, a hotshot insurance investigator assigned to his case. They both have a little something to hold over each other's heads, until it turns out that Zeta-Jones is a professional art thief herself and is playing on both sides of the fence. At first they eye each other with mutual distrust until they team up for a job, which goes off without a hitch. Inevitably their prickly relationship begins to thaw somewhat, and the two become attracted to each other as they plan out the massive Y2K bank scam that is the movie's climax (complete with sequel-ready ending). Entrapment plays somewhat like a 1970s caper movie revamped for the gadget-happy high-tech '90s. The plot takes a few too many laboured twists and turns, and the chemistry between the two leads is nearly non-existent, though both carry on gamely in their parts. On the other hand, there is some genuine suspense in many scenes as they go about their business, dripping with whiz-bang burglary devices. Zeta-Jones, of course, is drop-dead gorgeous, and Connery is as reliable as always in his role. The fairly flat editing and direction tends to drag the film down somewhat, but fans of caper movies, high-tech thrillers and the two leads should find plenty to like in this film. -Jerry Renshaw, Amazon. [+]
com.

Review Buena Vista Home Entertainment / Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl [2003]
Actors & Directors
  • Johnny Depp
  • Geoffrey Rush
  • Keira Knightley
  • Orlando Bloom
  • Gore Verbinski
Release date: 2003-12-01
Run time: 138 min.
Creator: Jerry Bruckheimer
RRP: £20.99
Price: £3.29

Review Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl [2003] / Buena Vista Home Entertainment:

You won't need a bottle of rum to enjoy Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, even if you haven't experienced the Disneyland theme-park ride that inspired it. There's a galleon's worth of fun in watching Johnny Depp's androgynous performance as Captain Jack Sparrow, a roguish pirate who could pass for the illegitimate spawn of rockers Keith Richards and Chrissie Hynde. Depp gets all the good lines and steals the show, recruiting Orlando Bloom (a blacksmith and expert swordsman) and Keira Knightley (a lovely governor's daughter). They set out on an adventurous quest to recapture the notorious Black Pearl, a ghost ship commandeered by Jack's nemesis Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), a mutineer desperate to reverse the curse that left him and his (literally) skeleton crew in a state of eternal, undead damnation. Director Gore Verbinski (The Ring) repeats the redundant mayhem that marred his debut film Mouse Hunt, but with the writers of Shrek he's made Pirates of the Caribbean into a special-effects thrill-ride that plays like a Halloween party on the open seas. -Jeff Shannon.

Review The Batman / The Batman - Season 1
Release date: 2006-07-17
RRP: £17.99
Price: £5.36

Review The Batman - Season 1 / The Batman:


Review Nouveaux Pictures / The Cranes Are Flying (Region 2) [1957]
Actors & Directors
  • Tatiana Samoilova; Alexei Batalov; Vassily Merkuriev; Alexander Shvorin
  • Mikhail Kalatozov
Release date: 2007-01-29
Run time: 97 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £5.98

Review The Cranes Are Flying (Region 2) [1957] / Nouveaux Pictures:


Review Warner Home Video / Shark In Venice [2008]
Actors & Directors
  • Stephen Baldwin
  • Danny Lerner
Release date: 2008-10-06
Run time: 103 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £8.98

Review Shark In Venice [2008] / Warner Home Video:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Shane [1953]
Actors & Directors
  • Jean Arthur
  • Alan Ladd
  • Jack Palance
  • George Stevens
  • Brandon De Wilde
  • Van Heflin
Release date: 2003-10-06
Run time: 113 min.
Creator: Jack Sher
RRP: £15.99
Price: £7.41

Review Shane [1953] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

Consciously crafted by director George Stevens as a piece of American myth making, Shane is on nearly everyone's shortlist of great movie Westerns. A buckskin knight, Shane (Alan Ladd) rides into the middle of a range war between farmers and cattlemen, quickly siding with the "sod-busters". While helping a kindly farmer (Van Heflin), Shane falls platonically in love with the man's wife (Jean Arthur, in the last screen performance of a marvellous career). Though the showdowns are exciting, and the story simple but involving, what most people will remember about this movie is the friendship between the stoical Shane and the young son of the farmers. The kid is played by Brandon De Wilde, an amazing child performer; his parting scene with Shane is guaranteed to draw tears from even the most stony-hearted moviegoer. And speaking of stony hearts, Jack Palance made a sensational impression as the evil gunslinger sent to clean house-he has fewer lines of dialogue than he has lines in his magnificently craggy face, but he makes them count. The photography, highlighting the landscape near Jackson Hole, Wyoming, won an Oscar. -Robert Horton.

Review Network / Silver Dream Racer
Actors & Directors
  • David Essex
  • Cristina Raines
  • Beau Bridges
  • David Wickes
Release date: 2006-02-13
Run time: 100 min.
RRP: £14.99
Price: £9.92

Review Silver Dream Racer / Network:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Elektra [2005]
Actors & Directors
  • Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa
  • Jennifer Garner
  • Rob Bowman
  • Terence Stamp
  • Goran Visnjic
  • Will Yun Lee
Release date: 2005-05-30
Run time: 93 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £0.87

Review Elektra [2005] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

While 2003's Daredevil was a conventional superhero movie, the 2005 spinoff, Elektra, is more of a wuxia-styled martial arts/fantasy flick. Elektra (Jennifer Garner) has returned to her life as a hired assassin, but she balks at an assignment to kill a single father (Goran Visnjic, ER) and his teenage daughter (Kirsten Prout). That makes her the target of The Hand, an organization of murderous ninjas, scheming corporate types, and a band of stylish supervillains seeking to eliminate Elektra and tip the balance of power in the ongoing battle of good vs. evil. As the star of Alias, Garner has proven that she can kick butt with the best of them, and some of the visual effects are impressive, but the action sequences tend to be anticlimactic, and there's not much to the story. Fans will notice numerous references to Frank Miller's comic books, but there's very little resemblance to Miller's cold-blooded killer (Elektra with an agent? Elektra referring to herself as a "soccer mom"?). Is Elektra better than Daredevil? Not really, even with the distinct advantage of having all Garner and no Ben Affleck. That could be the spinoff's greatest disappointment: after Spider-Man 2 raised the bar for comic-book movies, Elektra lowered it back to Daredevil's level. Directed by Rob Bowman (the X-Files movie), and featuring Terence Stamp as the mysterious mentor Stick, Will Yun Lee (Die Another Day) as the chief villain, and NFL-player-turned-mixed-martial-arts-champion Bob Sapp as the immovable Stone. -David Horiuchi, Amazon. [+]
com.

Review Network / The Way To The Stars [1945]
Actors & Directors
  • Douglas Montgomery
  • John Mills
  • Rosamund John
  • Michael Redgrave
  • Renee Asherson
  • Anthony Asquith
Release date: 2007-08-20
Run time: 104 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £6.91

Review The Way To The Stars [1945] / Network:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (Double Disc Edition) [2003]
Actors & Directors
  • Russell Crowe|Paul Bettany
  • Peter Weir
Release date: 2004-04-05
Run time: 139 min.
RRP: £22.99
Price: £0.99

Review Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (Double 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 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.

Review ITV DVD / Ultimate Force - Series 2 [2002]
Actors & Directors
  • Tom Clegg
  • Diarmuid Lawrence
Release date: 2005-01-24
Run time: 300 min.
Creator: Rob Heyland
RRP: £19.99
Price: £3.60

Review Ultimate Force - Series 2 [2002] / ITV DVD:


Review Optimum Home Entertainment / Rambo 3 [Blu-ray] [1988]
Actors & Directors
  • Marc De Jonge
  • Sylvester Stallone
  • Peter MacDonald
  • Richard Crenna
  • Kurtwood Smith
Release date: 2008-08-04
Run time: 97 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £10.33

Review Rambo 3 [Blu-ray] [1988] / Optimum Home Entertainment:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Predator/Predator 2 [1988]
Actors & Directors
  • Kevin Peter Hall
  • Arnold Schwarzenegger
  • Gary Busey
  • John McTiernan
  • Danny Glover
  • Carl Weathers
  • Stephen Hopkins
Release date: 2004-01-05
Run time: 205 min.
Creator: John Thomas
RRP: £14.99
Price: £4.93

Review Predator/Predator 2 [1988] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:


Review Cinema Club / The Librarian
Release date: 2006-08-21
RRP: £19.99
Price: £3.98

Review The Librarian / Cinema Club:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Die Hard [1989]
Actors & Directors
  • Paul Gleason
  • Reginald VelJohnson
  • Alan Rickman
  • Bruce Willis
  • Bonnie Bedelia
  • John McTiernan
Release date: 2007-10-22
Run time: 126 min.
Creator: Steven E. de Souza
RRP: £7.99
Price: £3.40

Review Die Hard [1989] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

This seminal 1988 thriller made Bruce Willis a star and established a new template for action stories: "Terrorists take over a (blank), and a lone hero, unknown to the villains, is trapped with them. " In Die Hard, those bad guys, led by the velvet-voiced Alan Rickman, assume control of a Los Angeles high-rise with Willis's visiting New York cop inside. The attraction of the film has as much to do with the sight of a barefoot mortal running around the guts of a modern office tower as it has to do with the plentiful fight sequences and the bond the hero establishes with an LA beat cop. Bonnie Bedelia plays Willis's wife, Hart Bochner is good as a brash hostage who tries negotiating his way to freedom, Alexander Godunov makes for a believable killer with lethal feet, and William Atherton is slimy as a busybody reporter. This film is exceptionally well directed by John McTiernan. -Tom Keogh.

Review Entertainment in Video / Domino [2005]
Actors & Directors
  • Lucy Liu
  • Mena Suvari
  • Mickey Rourke
  • Tony Scott
  • Edgar Ramirez
  • Keira Knightley
Release date: 2006-02-20
Run time: 128 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £1.74

Review Domino [2005] / Entertainment in Video:

Loosely based on the real life story of the late bounty hunter Domino Harvey, Keira Knightley quickly sheds her softer image here with an unflinching performance in the title role. As Domino, she brandishes guns, reacts against anyone who crosses her, and isn't above a lapdance to get her out of a tight spot. Yet it's the partnership she forms with Mickey Rourke's Ed Mosbey, her leader and effectively surrogate father, that sits at the core of this good-but-uneven movie, and allows both actors to excel in their roles. The story is told in flashback, as Domino is interrogated by Lucy Liu's police detective. From there, it follows the story of Domino's life, from her tragic early days, through to meeting Mosbey and her subsequent life as a bounty hunter. And, laced with strong performances and some nicely-constructed sequences, for long periods the film works well. Working against it at times though is director Tony Scott's (Man On Fire, Crimson Tide, True Romance) over-fussy directorial style, which is very much take it or leave it, but does at times get in the way of the storytelling. At the point where you want him to focus on what's happening, there's just one too many flashy shots or quick edits. Still, Domino works, and is suitably removed from the glossy, vacuous action movie you may be expecting. It's very stylised, but the script from Donnie Darko's Richard Kelly covers its bases well. [+]
And while the film itself isn't without a couple of problems, the end result is still well worth watching. -Simon Brew.

Browse Action & Adventure:

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True Grit/The Sons Of Katie Elder/The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Bridge On The River Kwai/The Guns Of Navarone/Das Boot - The Director's Cut, The Crow [Blu-ray] [1993], Marked For Death [1991], Entrapment [1999], Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl [2003], The Batman - Season 1, The Cranes Are Flying (Region 2) [1957], Shark In Venice [2008], Shane [1953], Silver Dream Racer, Elektra [2005], The Way To The Stars [1945], Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (Double Disc Edition) [2003], Ultimate Force - Series 2 [2002], Rambo 3 [Blu-ray] [1988], Predator/Predator 2 [1988], The Librarian, Die Hard [1989], Domino [2005]

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