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Review Warner Home Video / Rio Bravo [1959]
Actors & Directors
  • Angie Dickinson
  • Ricky Nelson
  • John Wayne
  • Dean Martin
  • Howard Hawks
  • Walter Brennan
Release date: 2006-06-01
Run time: 136 min.
RRP: £13.99
Price: £3.28

Review Rio Bravo [1959] / Warner Home Video:

When it comes down to naming the best Western of all time, the list usually narrows to three completely different pictures: Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo, Hawks' Red River and John Ford's The Searchers. About the only thing they all have in common is that they all star John Wayne. But while The Searchers is an epic quest for revenge and Red River, a sweeping cattle-drive drama, Rio Bravo is a much calmer film. Basically, it comes down to Sheriff John T Chance (Wayne), his alcoholic friend Dude (Dean Martin), the hotshot new kid Colorado (Ricky Nelson), and deputy-sidekick Stumpy (Walter Brennan), sittin' around in the town jail, drinkin' black coffee, shootin' the breeze, and occasionally singin' a song. Hawks-who, like his pal Ernest Hemingway, lived by the code of "grace under pressure"-said he made Rio Bravo as a rebuke to High Noon, in which sheriff Gary Cooper begged for townspeople to help him. So, Hawks made Wayne's Sheriff Chance a consummate professional-he may be getting old and fat, but he knows how to do his job, and he doesn't want amateurs getting mixed up in his business; they could get hurt. If the configuration of characters sounds familiar, it should: Hawks remade Rio Bravo two more times-as El Dorado in 1967, with Wayne, Robert Mitchum, and James Caan; and as Rio Lobo in 1970, with Wayne, Jack Elam, and Christopher Mitchum. The film achieved additional notoriety in the 90s when Quentin Tarantino revealed that he uses it as a litmus test for prospective girlfriends. -Jim Emerson, Amazon. com.

Review Tartan Video / The Seventh Seal [Blu-ray] [1957]
Actors & Directors
  • Bibi Andersson
  • Gunnel Lindblom
  • Bertil Anderberg
  • Gunnar Bjornstrand
  • Max Von Sydow
  • Ingmar Bergman
Release date: 2007-12-03
Run time: 96 min.
RRP: £24.99
Price: £16.53

Review The Seventh Seal [Blu-ray] [1957] / Tartan Video:


Review Universal Pictures UK / Foreign Correspondent
Actors & Directors
  • Joel McCrea
  • George Sanders
  • Herbert Marshall
  • Alfred Hitchcock
  • Martin Kosleck
  • Laraine Day
Release date: 2003-04-21
Run time: 115 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £3.82

Review Foreign Correspondent / Universal Pictures UK:

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.

Review Walt Disney Home Video / Saludos Amigos [1943]
Actors & Directors
  • Frank Graham
  • Bill Roberts
  • Jack Kinney
  • Norman Ferguson
  • Wilfred Jackson
  • Hamilton Luske
Release date: 2002-08-12
Run time: 40 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £3.98

Review Saludos Amigos [1943] / Walt Disney Home Video:


Review Universal Pictures UK / Jesus Christ Superstar [2000]
Actors & Directors
  • Glenn Carter (III)
  • Jérôme Pradon
  • Fred Johanson
  • Michael Shaeffer
  • Gale Edwards
  • Renee Castle
  • Nick Morris
Release date: 2000-10-16
Run time: 137 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £6.99

Review Jesus Christ Superstar [2000] / Universal Pictures UK:

Jesus Christ Superstar has been the definitive rock musical ever since its 1972 London stage premiere. Revived to great acclaim in the late 1990s, it has everything you'd expect from a blockbuster: great songs, strong characterisation and, crucially, a cracking story. This video is based on the 1998 London production. Director Gale Edwards pulls few punches in her efforts to draw a truly modern interpretation from a gifted cast. Pilate's cronies are sinister Darth Vader look-alikes. The whole thing has a hard, brutal edge, which both startles and thrills. And anyone who dismisses musicals as lightweight confections could do worse than look at the way Lloyd Webber and Rice treat Judas: this is a complex, well-written role. The performances are largely excellent: Jerome Pradon' Judas shines, and Renee Castle's Mary reinvents "I Don't Know How to Love Him" as a delicate exploration of her dilemma, far removed from its usual overblown treatment. Rik Mayall's relentlessly gurning Herod is less of a bonus than he would like us to believe, but will doubtless appeal to his fans. And the quality of Glenn Carter's singing in the title role makes up for a slight deficiency in the charisma department. [+]
-Piers FordOn the DVD: Die-hard groupies will appreciate the inclusion of a documentary about the making of the video, which includes interviews with the cast, the production team and Lloyd Webber and Rice. There are also previews for video productions of Cats and Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Valley Of The Dolls / Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls [1967]
Actors & Directors
  • Patty Duke
  • Barbara Parkins
  • Russ Meyer
  • Mark Robson
  • Susan Hayward
  • Sharon Tate
  • Michael Blodgett
Release date: 2004-01-05
Run time: 222 min.
RRP: £14.99
Price: £5.95

Review Valley Of The Dolls / Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls [1967] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:


Review Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / You Were Never Lovelier [1942]
Actors & Directors
  • Leslie Brooks (II)
  • Isobel Elsom
  • Adolphe Menjou
  • William A. Seiter
  • Fred Astaire
  • Rita Hayworth
Release date: 2004-05-24
Run time: 93 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £5.84

Review You Were Never Lovelier [1942] / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:


Review British Transport Films Collection / British Transport Films Collection - Vol. 3 - Running A Railway [1952]
Release date: 2006-05-29
Run time: 237 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £11.92

Review British Transport Films Collection - Vol. 3 - Running A Railway [1952] / British Transport Films Collection:


Review 20th CENTURY FOX HOME ENTERTAINMENT / The Musicals Collection (West Side Story, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Fiddler On The Roof, Man Of La Mancha, Guys & Dolls)
Actors & Directors
  • Jerome Robbins
  • Ken Hughes
  • Sophia Loren
  • Joseph L. Mankiewicz
  • Arthur Hiller
  • Norman Jewison
  • Brian Blessed
  • Natalie Wood
  • Roger Lloyd-Pack
  • Peter O'Toole
Release date: 2007-02-19
Run time: 683 min.
RRP: £34.99
Price: £11.99

Review The Musicals Collection (West Side Story, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Fiddler On The Roof, Man Of La Mancha, Guys & Dolls) / 20th CENTURY FOX HOME ENTERTAINMENT:


Review A&E Home Video / The Avengers: The Complete Emma Peel Mega-Set [1961] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Patrick MacNee
Release date: 2006-02-28
Run time: 2913 min.
Creator: Honor Blackman
Price: £41.86

Review The Avengers: The Complete Emma Peel Mega-Set [1961] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / A&E Home Video:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment / 7 Men From Now [1956]
Actors & Directors
  • Budd Boetticher
  • Lee Marvin
Release date: 2007-05-14
Run time: 75 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £4.96

Review 7 Men From Now [1956] / Paramount Home Entertainment:


Review Castaway NW [VCP] / The Great Caruso [1951]
Actors & Directors
  • Peter Brocco
  • David Bond
  • Robert Bright
  • Edith Angold
  • Ann Blyth
Release date: 2008-03-25
Creator: Peter Herman Adler
Price: £6.54

Review The Great Caruso [1951] / Castaway NW [VCP]:

ALL REGION DVD - HONG KONG IMPORT - NTSC.

Review Warner Home Video / The Searchers [1956]
Actors & Directors
  • Jeffrey Hunter
  • Ward Bond
  • Natalie Wood
  • John Wayne
  • Vera Miles
  • John Ford
Release date: 2006-06-01
Run time: 114 min.
RRP: £13.99
Price: £2.49

Review The Searchers [1956] / Warner Home Video:

A favourite film of some of the world's greatest filmmakers, including Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, John Ford's The Searchers has earned its place in the legacy of great American films for a variety of reasons. Perhaps most notably, it's the definitive role for John Wayne as an icon of the classic Western-the hero (or antihero) who must stand alone according to the unwritten code of The West. The story takes place in Texas in 1868; Wayne plays Ethan Edwards, a Confederate veteran who visits his brother and sister-in-law at their ranch and is horrified when they are killed by marauding Comanches. Ethan's search for a surviving niece (played by young Natalie Wood) becomes an all-consuming obsession. With the help of a family friend (Jeffrey Hunter) who is himself part-Cherokee, Ethan hits the trail on a five-year quest for revenge. At the peak of his masterful talent, director Ford crafts this classic tale as an embittered examination of racism and blind hatred, provoking Wayne to give one of the best performances of his career. As with many of Ford's classic Westerns, The Searchers must contend with revisionism in its stereotypical treatment of "savage" Native Americans, and the film's visual beauty (the final shot is one of the great images in all of Western culture) is compromised by some uneven performances and stilted dialogue. Still, this is undeniably one of the greatest Westerns ever made. -Jeff Shannon, Amazon. com.

Review Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / The Swimmer [1968]
Actors & Directors
  • Frank Perry
  • Marge Champion
  • Sydney Pollack
  • Tony Bickley
  • Janet Landgard
  • Janice Rule
  • Burt Lancaster
Release date: 2003-05-26
Run time: 91 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £5.01

Review The Swimmer [1968] / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:

Burt Lancaster gives one of his most daringly complex performances in The Swimmer, a fascinating adaptation of John Cheever's celebrated short story. At first it seems that middle-aged businessman Ned Merrill (Lancaster) is merely enjoying a spontaneous adventure, swimming from pool to pool among the well-tended estates of his affluent Connecticut neighbourhood. But as Ned encounters a variety of neighbours, we see from their reactions that he's on an entirely different kind of journey, balanced on the edge of some mysterious psychosis that we can't fully understand until the film's final, devastating image. A compelling portrait of loss, refracted memories, and deep-rooted emotional denial, The Swimmer sprung from the same late-60s soil that yielded similarly ground-breaking literary films such as The Graduate and Goodbye, Columbus. It's an egotistical showcase for the physical prowess of its 55-year-old star, but Lancaster turns it into something deeper, more disturbing, and completely unforgettable. -Jeff Shannon.

Review Warner Home Video / Purple Rain [1984]
Actors & Directors
  • Olga Karlatos
  • Morris Day
  • Apollonia Kotero
  • Clarence Williams III
  • Albert Magnoli
  • Prince
Release date: 2006-07-01
Run time: 107 min.
RRP: £13.99
Price: £3.29

Review Purple Rain [1984] / Warner Home Video:

While "rock musical" remains a phrase used by sadistic parents to give their offspring nightmares the genre does occasionally throw up the odd gem, Purple Rain being perhaps the shiniest example. Given the theatricality of Prince's stage shows, it was only a matter of time before the diminutive pop potentate found himself a big-screen vehicle but few could have predicted that Purple Rain would become nothing less than a cultural phenomenon. The story, co-written by one-time Starsky & Hutch scripter William Blinn, may be a somewhat hackneyed tale with His Purpleness overcoming a troubled background and musical rival Morris Day to achieve his dreams of rock stardom. However, the cast, which also includes Prince protegée Appollonia, rises above the clichés to hand in a set of performances which, while never likely to trouble the Oscars, prove that all concerned can at least play a rough approximation of themselves with minimal difficulty. What really helped push the film's box-office receipts through the roof, however, was its soundtrack featuring a clutch of hit singles-notably "When Doves Cry"-and which cemented our pint-sized hero's position as one of the globe's premiere performing artists. Sadly, subsequent attempts to re-bottle this particular brand of lightning with Under a Cherry Moon and Graffiti Moon would prove substantially less successful but Purple Rain still looks-and, more importantly sounds-rarely less than funktastic. -Clark Collis.

Review Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm / Chicago [2003]
Actors & Directors
  • Cliff Saunders (II)
  • Catherine Zeta-Jones
  • Taye Diggs
  • Rob Marshall
  • Dominic West
  • Renée Zellweger
Release date: 2003-08-04
Run time: 109 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £8.74

Review Chicago [2003] / Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm:

Adapted from the long-running stage version, this big-screen Chicago is a non-stop singing and dancing extravaganza that may well herald the welcome revival of the film musical. When the part-time lover of wannabe star Roxie (Renee Zellweger) is murdered, she is banged up with Chicago's most famous singing murderess, Velma (Catherine Zeta-Jones). They compete for the attention of the best lawyer in town, Billy Flynn (Richard Gere). Drawn to the special angle of Roxie's case (the sweetest killer to hit Chicago), Flynn offers her a taste of stardom and her daydreams of singing on stage are juxtaposed with the action. Chicago has transferred well to film, seamlessly merging Dennis Potter-esque dream sequences with the action. Though the stage show uses sets sparingly, here the look has been heavily influenced by the only successful musical of recent times, Moulin Rouge, with heavy velvets and drapery offering a rich feel to the murky underworld of 1920s Chicago clubs. The hot question is: can the movie stars cut it as performers? Surprisingly, it is Zellweger who looks most comfortable in the part, regardless of her awkward dancing. Zeta-Jones is just that little bit too butch to be believable as a flapper girl, despite her stage school roots, and lacks a certain panache. But one thing is in her favour: she's believable as the ultimate starlet bitch. Gere does not fare much better, with his tap-dancing sequence littered with cutaways (mercifully his dancing and singing is kept to a minimum). [+]
The real show-stealer is Queen Latifah, whose matron of the cells is perfect and her singing spot-on. More than anything else, though, this film will whet your appetite to see the original on the West End stage. -Nikki Disney On the DVD: Chicago on DVD demonstrates that the producers of Rob Marshall's Oscar-winning film obviously took to heart the lyrics "Give 'em the old Razzle Dazzle", as the widescreen 1. 85:1 anamorphic transfer is rich with the lush colours, vibrant tones and sparkling audio that wowed audiences in the cinema. If only the extras had been given the same treatment. There's nothing like the plethora of special features that greeted fans of Moulin Rouge here; there is a grand total of three: a passable director's commentary, a deleted song, "Class", which is so dull you don't question why it didn't make the final cut, and a making-of feature, which is entertaining but nothing new. All in all, there's a very disappointing and unimaginative selection. -Kristen Bowditch.

Review Warner Home Video / Rio Bravo [HD DVD] [1959]
Actors & Directors
  • John Wayne
  • Howard Hawks
  • Dean Martin
  • Angie Dickinson
Release date: 2008-03-17
Run time: 135 min.
RRP: £25.99
Price: £4.63

Review Rio Bravo [HD DVD] [1959] / Warner Home Video:


Review Nouveaux Pictures / La Dolce Vita [1960]
Actors & Directors
  • Marcello Mastroianni
  • Anita Ekberg
  • Federico Fellini
  • Anouk Aimée
  • Yvonne Furneaux
  • Magali Noël
Release date: 2004-09-27
Run time: 174 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £7.31

Review La Dolce Vita [1960] / Nouveaux Pictures:

At three brief hours, Fellini's cynical, engrossing social commentary, La Dolce Vita, stands as his timeless masterpiece. A rich, detailed panorama of Rome's modern decadence and sophisticated immorality, the film is episodic in structure but held tightly in focus by the wandering protagonist through whom we witness the sordid action. Marcello Rubini is a tabloid reporter trapped in a shallow high-society existence, as extraordinarily played by Marcello Mastroianni, a man of paradoxical, emotional juxtapositions: cool but tortured, sexy but impotent. He dreams about writing something important but remains seduced by the money and prestige that accompany his shallow position. He romanticises about finding true love but acts unfazed upon finding that his girlfriend has taken an overdose of sleeping pills. Instead, he engages in a ménage à trois, then frolics in a fountain with a giggling American starlet (bombshell Anita Ekberg), and in the film's unforgettably inspired finale, attends a wild orgy that ends, symbolically with its participants finding a rotting sea animal while wandering the beach at dawn. Fellini saw his film as life affirming (thus its title, "The Sweet Life"), but it's impossible to take him seriously. While Mastroianni drifts from one worldly pleasure to another, be it sex, drink, glamorous parties or rich foods, they are presented, through his detached eyes, as merely momentary distractions. His existence, an endless series of wild evenings and lonely mornings, is ultimately soulless and facile. Because he lacks the courage to change, Mastroianni is left with no alternative but to wearily accept and enjoy this "sweet" life. [+]
-Dave McCoy, Amazon. com.

Review ITV DVD / We Dive At Dawn [1943]
Actors & Directors
  • Ronald Millar
  • Anthony Asquith
  • Louis Bradfield
  • Reginald Purdell
  • Jack Watling
  • John Mills
Release date: 1999-10-11
Run time: 92 min.
RRP: £6.99
Price: £1.20

Review We Dive At Dawn [1943] / ITV DVD:

We Dive at Dawn (1943) tells of the encounter between a British submarine and a German warship in the Baltic Sea. John Mills gives a dependable performance as the submarine commander, with Eric Portman the pick of a strong supporting cast. Director Anthony Asquith finds the balance between action sequences and "in situ" dialogue, and there's an evocative score from Louis Levy. The film has long been underrated and deserves reappraisal. -Richard Whitehouse.

Review Eureka Entertainment / Chikamatsu Monogatari/ Uwasa no Onna [Masters of Cinema] [1954]
Actors & Directors
  • Kenji Mizoguchi
Release date: 2008-02-25
Run time: 186 min.
RRP: £24.99
Price: £12.94

Review Chikamatsu Monogatari/ Uwasa no Onna [Masters of Cinema] [1954] / Eureka Entertainment:


Browse Classics:

Models & Brands:
Rio Bravo [1959], The Seventh Seal [Blu-ray] [1957], Foreign Correspondent, Saludos Amigos [1943], Jesus Christ Superstar [2000], Valley Of The Dolls / Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls [1967], You Were Never Lovelier [1942], British Transport Films Collection - Vol. 3 - Running A Railway [1952], The Musicals Collection (West Side Story, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Fiddler On The Roof, Man Of La Mancha, Guys & Dolls), The Avengers: The Complete Emma Peel Mega-Set [1961] (REGION 1) (NTSC), 7 Men From Now [1956], The Great Caruso [1951], The Searchers [1956], The Swimmer [1968], Purple Rain [1984], Chicago [2003], Rio Bravo [HD DVD] [1959], La Dolce Vita [1960], We Dive At Dawn [1943], Chikamatsu Monogatari/ Uwasa no Onna [Masters of Cinema] [1954]

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