Kimberly Peirce's follow-up to Boys Don't Cry is another issue-driven look at its era: Stop-Loss hinges on U. S. military policy allowing Iraq War soldiers to be returned to combat even after their official enlistment times are up. In this case, a band of brothers return to home turf in Brazos, Texas, only to discover that team leader Brandon King (Ryan Phillippe) has gotten a Stop-Loss order to head back to the Middle East. After some flavourful sketches of small-town Texas life and the awkwardness of re-adjustment, the movie somewhat clumsily hits the road, where there's more wheel-spinning than deep insight. Peirce and co. seem to want to hit all the Iraq War bases, which may be one reason the film lacks a strong focus. Supporting soldiers Channing Tatum and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are rather more interesting than Phillippe's brooding hero, and Abbie Cornish is stuck in a thankless torn-between-two-lovers storyline. Stop-Loss is incredibly sincere, but the film feels like a project that began with an issue and a cause, rather than compelling characters. -Robert Horton.

When Tim Burton and Michael Keaton announced that they'd had enough of the Batman franchise, director JoelSchumacher stepped in (with Burton as coproducer) to make this action-packed extravaganza starring Val Kilmer as the capedcrusader. Batman is up against two of Gotham City's most colourful criminals, the Riddler (a role tailor-made for funnyman Jim Carrey) and the diabolical Two-Face (Tommy Lee Jones), who join forces to conquer Gotham's population with a brain-draining device. Nicole Kidman plays the seductive psychologist who wants to know what makes Batman tick. Boasting a redesigned Batmobile and plenty of new Bat hardware, Batman Forever also introduces Robin the Boy Wonder (Chris O'Donnell) whose close alliance with Batman led more than afew critics to ponder the series' homoerotic subtext. No matter how you interpret it, Schumacher's take on the Batman legacy is simultaneously amusing, lavishly epic and prone to chronic sensory overload. -Jeff Shannon.

If the conflict in Bosnia has become something of a forgotten war, it's not for the want of trying from the immensely powerful BBC film Warriors, the story of five young soldiers and their harrowing experiences in the region. Opening with an extended view of the five's home lives-all are on leave when called up to form part of the UN peacekeeping mission-Peter Kosminksy invites the viewer to experience the war at a strictly personal level. And while this leaves little scope for any general political overview of events (aside from the horror of war) this is a piece of drama and not a documentary. Once transported to Bosnia, the protagonists find that their role as peacekeepers leaves them largely sidelined and unable to intervene and save lives, often forced to stand by and watch mass slaughter. Not since M*A*S*H have the absurdities of "the rules of engagement" been so eloquently examined. It is the darkening spiral that the five are sent on by these events and the relationships they form throughout them that forms the crux of the film, never demonstrated more clearly than by the return to the friends and families who see them as heroes. Bloody and sickening in parts, Warriors is given extra poignancy by the fact that it is based on the real-life testimony of British soldiers. A million miles away from the Rambos of this world this is the war film coming of age. -Phil Udell.

Series 2 of Star Trek: Voyager represents a vital blossoming of the series' potential. As Captain Janeway, Kate Mulgrew maintained Starfleet integrity in the lawless expanse of the Delta quadrant and became the ethical conscience of her still-uneasy Maquis/Starfleet crew, whose unanimous loyalty would be dramatically proven in "The '37's" (a first-season hold-over). Janeway's moral guidance would also assert itself in "Death Wish" (a "Q" episode featuring NextGen's Jonathan Frakes) and "Tuvix", in which life-or-death decisions landed squarely on her shoulders. Series 2 brought similar development to all the primary characters, deepening their relationships and defining their personalities, especially Robert Beltran as Chakotay (in "Initiations" and "Tattoo"), now firmly established as Janeway's best friend (and nearly more than that, in "Resolutions") and command-decision confidante. Solid sci-fi concepts abound in Series 2, although "Threshold" is considered an embarrassment (as confessed by co-executive producer Brannon Braga in a self-deprecating "Easter Egg" interview clip). It was a forgivable lapse in a consistently excellent season that intensified Janeway's struggle with the villainous Kazon, exacerbated by a Starfleet traitor in cahoots with the duplicitous Cardassian Seska (played by Martha Hackett, featured in a lively guest-star profile). The psychologically intense "Meld" (featuring a riveting guest performance by Brad Dourif) was a Tuvok-story highlight, and the aptly titled "Basics, Pt 1" provided an ominous cliffhanger, including a second planetary landing (in a season full of impressive special effects) that left Voyager's fate in question. DVD extras are abundant and worthwhile, especially the season 2 retrospective and "A Day in the Life of Ethan Phillips" (who plays Neelix under a daily ordeal of latex makeup). Several Easter egg surprises-including a music video performance by Tim Russ (Tuvok)-are hidden (but easily found) among the "Special Features" menus on disc 7. All in all, this was one of Voyager's finest seasons, leaving some enticing questions to be answered in season 3. [+]

Walter Hill's updated (1984), highly stylised take on biker movies still looks like a determinedly eccentric project that happens to work at times, but not at others. Michael Paré plays a biker who agrees to rescue his ex-girlfriend (a rocker played by Diane Lane) from kidnappers (led by Willem Dafoe). The ensuing battle against a nocturnal background of industrial blight, chrome, and loud music is like some fever dream of a Springsteen fan who listened to the song "Born to Run" far too often. The audacity of the film carries it a long way even after it becomes clear that Hill's experiment is crumbling under its own weight. Dafoe, who looked even spookier back then than he does now, is memorable, as are Amy Madigan and Rick Moranis. Music is by Ry Cooder, with an appearance by the Blasters. The DVD release has a widescreen presentation, optional French soundtrack, optional Spanish subtitles. -Tom Keogh.

Tim Burton's "re-imagining" of Planet of the Apes is about one thing above all else: monkey movement. But for most filmgoers, whether fans of the 1967 original or not, that's simply not enough. Thematically the story of an outsider in a society that doesn't know what to do with him chimes in nicely with Burton's other work. As always with Burton, the focus is more on what's colourfully going on around the central character (Mark Wahlberg) than his own story. It all looks stunning, of course, as make-up, set design and costumes outdo the accomplishments of the original. But otherwise a direct comparison with the classic version simply shows up holes in the Burton approach. The breakneck pace at which the pared-down plot is told makes little sense of the material and misses all the satire and social comment potential. What sold the idea to Burton was the opportunity to goof around with apes as humans: as a result the background is constantly peppered with lame visual gags which fall as flat as the unnecessary homages to Charlton Heston, who pops up repeating lines of his own dialogue from the first movie. Slick, action-packed and ultimately nonsensical, this is the film that made a monkey of Tim Burton. On the DVD: balancing out the disappointing movie experience is an exceptional 13 hours of extra material. [+]

This action-comedy from 1990 makes the critical mistake of trying to mix a potentially suspenseful plot with the kind of humour that Mel Gibson can only get away with in his Lethal Weapon movies. It doesn't work here because the movie's supposed to be a Hitchcockian thriller and Mel's wisecracking-not to mention some implausible plot twists and ridiculous chase scenes-makes it impossible to take any of this movie seriously. It works best as a lightweight vehicle for Gibson and Goldie Hawn, who bring their own established appeal to their roles as old lovers who are reunited under unexpectedly dangerous circumstances. After testifying against some drug-running killers, Mel's been safe under the protection of the FBI's witness relocation program, and Goldie coincidentally enters his life again just as the bad guys are hot on Mel's trail. They join up and go on the run from the villains and. well, let's just say director John Badham doesn't have any big surprises up his sleeve. Goldie and Mel are enjoyable, as always, but you'd have to be their biggest fan to watch this movie more than once. -Jeff Shannon, Amazon. [+]

Based on Alex Haley's bestseller, the 1977 TV mini-series Roots told the harrowing story of one man's ancestors, commencing with African warrior Kunta Kinte, captured, transported to America, stripped of his dignity, his rights, and even his name. He tries but fails to escape before accepting he can never return to Africa. He marries and bears a daughter, Kizzy, who is callously sold, then raped by her new "master". However, her son, Chicken George, a resourceful dab hand with gamecocks, lives long enough to see his own children attain a liberty of sorts following the Civil War. Roots is told in the same, accessible televisual language as The Waltons or Bonanza, yet it is never bland or evasive. It leaves no doubt as to the torment and abuse suffered by blacks, and although the series' conclusion is fictionally satisfying, for many of the black characters their only hope lies in generations yet unborn. It is sturdy enough drama but its greatest, most revolutionary effects were social. It persuaded American audiences to regard their history from a black perspective, and to see how-against odds far more desperate than those the pilgrims faced-Africans laid claim to their status as free African-Americans. Roots was massively popular, triggering a craze for genealogy and paving the way for series like 1979's Holocaust, which similarly raised the public's awareness of the slaughter of the Jews under Hitler. Most importantly, Roots changed forever the way black people were depicted on American TV. [+]

Clint Eastwood held the dual role of director and star of this 1975 spy thriller, which makes up for sluggish pacing with a breathtaking climax on a treacherous peak in the Swiss Alps. The plot kicks into gear when Eastwood, playing a retired assassin, is recruited back into a secret organisation to avenge the murder of an old friend. He's then blackmailed into making a second "hit"; this time his target is one of three men who will be attempting to conquer the Eiger, a dangerous peak in Switzerland. Himself an accomplished climber, Eastwood's character joins the expedition with George Kennedy as leader of the ground crew. Shifting loyalties, apparent betrayals, and paranoid suspicion factor into the suspenseful climax on the sheer face of the mountain. This memorable sequence-for which Eastwood performed his own mountain-climbing stunts-is effectively intense, built on a standard plot of double-cross and intrigue that was intended to combine Eastwood's screen persona with the global adventure of the James Bond films. For the most part it works-it's not one of Eastwood's better films, but it's got some first-class thrills (and a sly performance by Jack Cassidy) to grab and hold your interest. -Jeff Shannon.

The first of Alfred Hitchcock's World War II features, Foreign Correspondent was completed in 1940, as the European war was only beginning to erupt across national borders. Its titular hero, Johnny Jones (Joel McCrea), is an American crime reporter dispatched by his New York publisher to put a fresh spin on the drowsy dispatches emanating from overseas, his nose for a good story (and, of course, some fortuitous timing) promptly leading him to the "crime" of fascism and Nazi Germany's designs on European conquest. In attempting to learn more about a seemingly noble peace effort, Jones (who's been saddled with the dubious nom de plume Hadley Haverstock) walks into the middle of an assassination, uncovers a spy ring, and, not entirely coincidentally, falls in love-a pattern familiar to admirers of Hitchcock's espionage thrillers, of which this is a thoroughly entertaining example. McCrea's hardy Yankee charms are neatly contrasted with the droll English charm of colleague George Sanders; Herbert Marshall provides a plummy variation on the requisite, ambiguous "good-or-is-he-really-bad" guy; Laraine Day affords a lovely heroine; and Robert Benchley (who contributed to the script) pops up, albeit too briefly, for comic relief. As good as the cast is, however, it's Hitchcock's staging of key action sequences that makes Foreign Correspondent a textbook example of the director's visual energy: an assassin's escape through a rain-soaked crowd is registered by rippling umbrellas, a nest of spies is detected by the improbable direction of a windmill's spinning sails and Jones's nocturnal flight across a pitched city rooftop produces its own contextual comment when broken neon tubes convert the Hotel Europe into "Hot Europe". -Sam Sutherland.

Funeral in Berlin (1967) is the sequel to 1965's The Ipcress File, again featuring Michael Caine as reluctant spy Harry Palmer. It was clearly the filmmakers' intention to make Palmer a harder-nosed James Bond, and director Guy Hamilton was brought to this project in between Goldfinger and Diamonds Are Forever for that purpose. There's espionage intrigue, easy women (Eva Renzi as Samantha Steel), and gunplay. But without the gadgetry, one-liners, or even the John Barry score of the first movie, the Bond comparison runs dry. Against the backdrop of a bombed-out industrial wasteland that was Berlin in the mid-Sixties, Palmer is sent to facilitate the defection of Col. Stock (Oscar Homolka). Numerous sub-plots weave together involving indifferent chief Ross (Guy Doleman from IPCRESS), mission aide Johnnie Volkon (Paul Hubschmid), and the untrustworthy Kreutzman (Günter Meisner, who was more memorable as Slugworth in Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory). It all comes down to revealing who's working for whom and who's really defecting in the set-piece funeral of the title. The main reason the series continued (Ken Russell's OTT Billion Dollar Brain came next) was the commanding presence of Caine. It's fun to hear him try German, and he manages a few subtle comic gems, such as when a waiter asks "Bitte mein heir?" and he replies, "No. [+]