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Review Uca Catalogue / Short Circuit 2 [1988]
Actors & Directors
  • Michael McKean
  • Kenneth Johnson
  • Fisher Stevens
  • Cynthia Gibb
  • Tim Blaney
  • Jack Weston
Release date: 2004-04-12
Run time: 106 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £3.83

Review Short Circuit 2 [1988] / Uca Catalogue:


Review 2 Entertain Video / Red Dwarf : Complete BBC Series 8 [2003] [1988]
Actors & Directors
  • Craig Charles
  • Graeme Hart
  • Eric Haynes
Release date: 2006-03-27
Run time: 240 min.
RRP: £22.99
Price: £9.49

Review Red Dwarf : Complete BBC Series 8 [2003] [1988] / 2 Entertain Video:


Review Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm / Pretty Woman [1990]
Actors & Directors
  • Julia Roberts
  • Amy Yasbeck
  • Richard Gere
  • Tom Nolan
  • Hank Azaria
Release date: 2001-07-02
Run time: 115 min.
RRP: £17.99
Price: £1.95

Review Pretty Woman [1990] / Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm:

Like a pumpkin that transforms into a carriage, some very shrewd casting (and the charisma of Julia Roberts, in particular) morphed this story of a Hollywood whore into a Disneyfied Cinderella story-and a mainstream megahit. This is the movie that made Roberts a star, her charms helping tremendously to carry viewers over the rough spots in the script (which was originally to be a cynical tale about prostitution called 3000-after the amount of money Richard Gere's character pays the prostitute to stay with him for the week). Gere is the silver-haired Wall Street knight who sweeps streetwalker Roberts into a fantasy world of room service at the Regent Beverly Wiltshire Hotel and fashion boutique shopping on Rodeo Drive. The supporting cast is also appealing, including Laura San Giacomo as Roberts's hooker pal, Hector Elizondo as the hotel manager, Jason Alexander, Ralph Bellamy and Hank Azaria. -Jim Emerson, Amazon. com On the DVD: With a beautiful bubble effect offering a touch of fantasy to the special features menu, the viewer might expect a disc packed with lavish offerings. Unfortunately the extras are a little more spartan than the menu would have us believe, consisting of a theatrical trailer and a cringe-worthy pop video of "Wild Women Do", complete with a bouncing camera and "arty" black-and-white shots. The worst of these features comes in the form of the "production trailer", a useless addition which attempts to briefly summarise the film's underlying themes with inter-cut comments from the actors and directors on the original trailer (already featured in its pure form on the disc) and which offers little additional information of any merit. The disc does, however, come into its own when Gary Marshall takes the helm for the director's commentary: he has an entertaining and amusing narrative style, which is upbeat and direct like his film, and his comments really bring to life the fairy-tale narrative. Add to this a widescreen 1. [+]
85:1 presentation, which will make you feel as if Richard Gere has just swept you off your feet. -Nikki Disney.

Review 2 Entertain Video / Dad's Army - Series 1/Lost Episodes Of Series 2 [1968]
Actors & Directors
  • John Le Mesurier
  • Arthur Lowe
  • Clive Dunn
Release date: 2004-09-13
Run time: 270 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £6.94

Review Dad's Army - Series 1/Lost Episodes Of Series 2 [1968] / 2 Entertain Video:


Review Buena Vista Home Entertainment / The Golden Girls - The Complete First Season
Actors & Directors
  • Estelle Getty
  • Betty White
  • Rue McClanahan
  • Beatrice Arthur
Release date: 2005-06-27
Run time: 616 min.
RRP: £29.99
Price: £9.46

Review The Golden Girls - The Complete First Season / Buena Vista Home Entertainment:

Launched during the neon-lit 1980s, The Golden Girls shed light on a side of Miami ignored by Miami Vice. In other words, no drugs, no murder-just four women of "a certain age," spending their golden years in the sun. Like the theme, "Thank You for Being a Friend," the long-running sitcom was about friendship (not crime). As for the "girls," they were tart-tongued Dorothy, former farm girl Rose, Southern belle Blanche, and Dorothy's salty Sicilian mother Sophia. All were widows, with the exception of the divorced Dorothy. Created by Emmy-winning producer Susan Harris, The Golden Girls re-ignited the careers of 1970s TV veterans Arthur and White. At the same time, it made stars of McClanahan, by playing a comic version of A Streetcar Named Desire's Blanche Dubois, and the scene-stealing Getty, made to look older than her actual age (she and Arthur were born the same year). The Golden Girls ran for seven seasons and spawned spin-off The Golden Palace (without Arthur) and a British version called The Brighton Belles. By the end of its run in 1992, it had garnered numerous awards, including two Emmys for best comedy series. In addition, each of the four actresses received a well-deserved Emmy for her efforts. [+]
-Kathleen C. Fennessy, Amazon. com.

Review Universal Pictures UK / The Vicar Of Dibley: Holy Wholly Happy Ending (BBC)
Actors & Directors
  • Dawn French
  • Roger Lloyd-Pack
Release date: 2007-11-26
Run time: 109 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £3.11

Review The Vicar Of Dibley: Holy Wholly Happy Ending (BBC) / Universal Pictures UK:

Bringing to an end one of the most successful British sit-coms of the last decade, Vicar Of Dibley: Holy Wholly Happy Ending is a fitting conclusion to one of the most enjoyable programmes of recent times. There are two feature episodes here, which feature the now-traditional Vicar Of Dibley cast of characters. Dawn French, of course, takes the lead role as Geraldine Grainger, but in the traditional of all good sit-coms, she's joined by a terrific supporting cast. Highlights include Gary Waldhorn as David Horton, Emma Chambers as Alice and Roger Lloyd Pack's Owen. The laughs are then spread fairly evenly, and very frequently, between the whole ensemble. The focus of these final episodes, however, is Geraldine's romance with Harry (Richard Armitage), and while the script (co-written by Richard Curtis) treads a comfortable and predictable path through this particular storyline, that's besides the point. It's the warmth and charm of the characters of The Vicar Of Dibley that win through here, and ultimately deliver an appropriate send-off for the series. So while it's a pity that The Vicar Of Dibley has finally drawn to an end, Holy Wholly Happy Ending proves to be a great way to go for a show that'll be fondly remembered and frequently rewatched for many years to come. Amen to that. -Simon Brew.

Review Entertainment in Video / The Wedding Singer [1998]
Actors & Directors
  • Drew Barrymore
  • Frank Coraci
  • Matthew Glave
  • Christine Taylor
  • Allen Covert
  • Adam Sandler
Release date: 1999-06-28
Run time: 93 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £2.69

Review The Wedding Singer [1998] / Entertainment in Video:

Don't just think of The Wedding Singer as an Adam Sandler comedy-though it most certainly is that. But also think of it as the tip of the wave of the 1980s nostalgia craze that followed on the heels of the 1970s nostalgia craze. Set in the post-disco, new wave era, the film tells the story of Robbie Hart (Sandler), the king of small-town wedding-band singers, who once dreamt of being a rock star. But his contentment with life shatters when his fiancée stands him up at the altar. After wallowing in self-pity (by musically attacking the next wedding couple he serenades) and swearing off women, he helps a new friend, Julia (Drew Barrymore), get ready for her impending nuptials-only to find himself falling in love with her. If you're a Sandler fan, you'll enjoy him as an actual adult, though a wise-cracking one. And dig all those kooky 80s reference jokes and that greatest-hits-of-early-MTV soundtrack. -Marshall Fine.

Review Anchor Bay / Freebird
Actors & Directors
  • Peter Bowles
  • Phil Daniels
  • Gary Stretch
  • Geoff Bell
Release date: 2008-06-02
Run time: 89 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £11.98

Review Freebird / Anchor Bay:


Review Teachers / Teachers Complete Series 1-4
Release date: 2006-11-06
Run time: 2000 min.
RRP: £59.99
Price: £31.97

Review Teachers Complete Series 1-4 / Teachers:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment / First Wives Club, The [1996]
Actors & Directors
  • Bronson Pinchot
  • Victor Garber
  • Elizabeth Berkley
  • Marcia Gay Harden
  • Hugh Wilson
  • Goldie Hawn
Release date: 2000-10-02
Run time: 98 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.98

Review First Wives Club, The [1996] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler and Diane Keaton prove revenge is a dish best served cold. Former college buddies, they reunite at the funeral of a dear friend who took a swan dive onto Fifth Avenue. All three discover they share the same unhappy history of husbands who dove into middle-age by dumping them for trophy wives. Forming a warring triumvirate, they decide to get even, and along the way remind themselves of long-forgotten capabilities. The action gets a little too "wacky" at times, but the gals are great. Portraying an ageing actress, Hawn is sometimes a little too flamboyant, but there is much fun to be had in her flashiness, especially when she pokes fun at Tinseltown and her persona. Instead of her usual brashness, Midler stretches herself and shows us a woman who is not just unhappy, but also deeply sorrowful. Not that she isn't quick with a wisecrack, but her expressive face alone tells the story of her marriage. As the repressed and guilt-ridden spouse of a self-involved ad executive, Keaton finds her anger, and her voice, when her psychiatrist (Marcia Gay Harden) oversteps ethical boundaries. Watching Keaton grow from an ineffectual homemaker into a powerful businessperson reminds us that it has been far too long since she has done a comedy. [+]
Director Hugh Wilson smartly chose supporting players who each brought something unique to the film. However, he does not maintain the first hour's effervescent humour throughout the film, as the ending is weakened by a softening of the wives' resolve. -Rochelle O'Gorman.

Review Buena Vista Home Entertainment / The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou
Actors & Directors
  • Anjelica Huston
  • Bill Murray
  • Cate Blanchett
  • Wes Anderson
  • Willem Dafoe
  • Owen Wilson
Release date: 2005-07-04
Run time: 114 min.
RRP: £22.99
Price: £4.03

Review The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou / Buena Vista Home Entertainment:

In The Life Aquatic, director Wes Anderson takes his familiar stable of actors on a field trip to a fantasy aquarium, complete with stop-motion, candy-striped crabs and rainbow seahorses. And though Anderson does expand his horizons in terms of retro-special effects and a whimsical use of color, fans will otherwise find themselves in well-charted waters. As The Life Aquatic opens, Zissou (Bill Murray), a self-involved, Jacques Cousteau-like filmmaker, has just released a documentary depicting the death of his best friend Esteban, who was eaten by some sort of sea creature-possibly a jaguar shark. Zissou's troubles also include his waning popularity with the public, and a nemesis (Jeff Goldblum) who hogs up all the grant money. Hope arrives in the form of Ned Plimpton (Owen Wilson), an amiable Kentuckian who may be Zissou's son. Despite his lack of enthusiasm for fatherhood, Zissou welcomes Ned-and Ned in turn saves Zissou's new documentary (in which he seeks revenge on the jaguar shark) in more ways than one. One of Wes Anderson's greatest achievements as a director to date has been launching the autumnal melancholy phase of Bill Murray's career, starting with Rushmore in 1998, and Murray delivers a similarly comedic yet low-key performance here. Unfortunately, Zissou is one of the few characters in this ensemble to achieve multi-dimensionality. Even co-star Wilson doesn't get to develop Ned much beyond Noble Southerner, and he ends up seeming more like a prop for illustrating Zissou's emotional development rather than his own man. The Life Aquatic probably won't be remembered as a great film, but it is still one that no Anderson (or Murray) fan can afford to miss. [+]
-Leah Weathersby, Amazon. com.

Review Paramount Home Entertainment / The Heartbreak Kid [2007]
Actors & Directors
  • Malin Akerman
  • Bobby Farrelly
  • Peter Farrelly
  • Rob Corddry
  • Ben Stiller
  • Jerry Stiller
  • Michelle Monaghan
Release date: 2008-02-04
Run time: 111 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £3.78

Review The Heartbreak Kid [2007] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

The Heartbreak Kid reunites Ben Stiller with his There's Something About Mary directorial team, The Farrelly Brothers. Between them, they've conjured a sporadically funny comedy, that may not repeat what they'd all achieved before, but is still worthy of a spin. The premise follows Stiller as his character is effectively railroaded into marriage, only for him to discover on his honeymoon that his wife isn't all he thought she was. Big debts, ropey music taste and, ahem, `bedroom demands' soon open his eyes on their honeymoon. And when, on the same honeymoon, he meets Michelle Monaghan's Miranda, The Heartbreak Kid migrates into a chaotic comedy, with a risqué edge. It's fair to say that The Heartbreak Kid lacks the level of gut-busting laughs, or the consistency, of There's Something About Mary, with perhaps one too many contrivances required to keep it motoring. What's more, the final act isn't particularly satisfying, loosely tying up strands with little conviction. Yet in spite of that, The Heartbreak Kid does muster its fair share of laughs, and few can match Ben Stiller in this kind of role. With energetic performances and some memorable moments married up to the gags, chances are you'll happily forgive the film its weaker moments, and enjoy it for the sound Saturday night comedy it clearly is. -Jon Foster.

Review Warner Home Video / A Cinderella Story [2004]
Actors & Directors
  • Mark Rosman
  • Hilary Duff
  • Chad Michael Murray
Release date: 2005-03-28
Run time: 91 min.
RRP: £13.99
Price: £2.50

Review A Cinderella Story [2004] / Warner Home Video:


Review Pathe Distribution / 24 Hour Party People - Single Disc Edition [2002]
Actors & Directors
  • Nigel Pivaro
  • John Thomson
  • Steve Coogan
  • Shirley Henderson
  • Michael Winterbottom
  • Lennie James
Release date: 2004-07-19
Run time: 117 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.29

Review 24 Hour Party People - Single Disc Edition [2002] / Pathe Distribution:

Beginning during the dawn of Factory Records-as Tony Wilson throws himself off a cliff for Granada TV-24 Hour Party People attempts to capture the essence of the ill-fated label which spawned Joy Division/New Order, The Happy Mondays and the venue that started modern Club Culture, the Hacienda in Manchester. Director Michael Winterbottom takes a very different approach to most music biographies, by making the film self-aware that it is a film and ironically looking at its own role within the history of the "Mad-chester" scene. Inspired by Wilson's autobiographical musings, the film is narrated in character by Steve Coogan as Wilson. He offers sporadic moments from his life-his "career" as a presenter at Granada and his several marriages-which in turn influence the destructive nature of the label he founded. Coogan's Wilson gives monologues to camera which remind the audience that what they are watching is only his perspective. Yet with Coogan in the title role it's impossible to ignore the similarities between Wilson and Alan Partridge; and although this adds instant humour to the film it also instantly pins Wilson with the comic "Partridge" tag of fated fool. The cinematography, on the other hand, tries faithfully to embody the feeling of the times, from grainy celluloid for the punk-like Joy Division gigs to bright, clean-cut images for the birth of the Hacienda. The film also benefits from an amazing soundtrack and strong supporting characters. It all adds up to a picture that's purely British in character: imbued with irony, down-and-out inspiration, and a touch of the surreal. On the DVD: 24 Hour Party People comes as a two-disc set, but there really is little need. [+]
Disc 1 is loaded with great extras, such as the deleted scenes, commentaries and Mad-chester musings, but the second disc is a little on the dull side. This really could have been just a single great DVD. There's an excellent screen and audio transfer that brings both the music and the lurid colours to life and the disc also offers that all-important function for hardcore clubbers: a hard of hearing option. -Nikki Disney.

Review Universal Pictures UK / The Return Of The Pink Panther [1975]
Actors & Directors
  • Blake Edwards
  • Peter Sellers
  • Herbert Lom
  • Andre Maranne
  • Christopher Plummer
  • Catherine Schell
Release date: 2006-03-06
Run time: 108 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £4.16

Review The Return Of The Pink Panther [1975] / Universal Pictures UK:

Peter Sellers's third go-around as the prideful but bumbling Inspector Jacques Clouseau is funny enough, but this 1975 Blake Edwards revival of the Sellers-Clouseau connection is a little weak in comparison to predecessors The Pink Panther and A Shot in the Dark (both made in 1964). Costar Christopher Plummer actually gets some of the most interesting screen time as a retired cat burglar whom Clouseau accuses of getting back into the business. (If it sounds like there might be a To Catch a Thief vibe mixed in here, you're right. ) Herbert Lom is hilarious as Clouseau's psychologically eroding boss, and Clouseau's ritualistic collisions with valet Cato (Burt Kwouk) are great examples of Edwards's delicious comic timing. -Tom Keogh.

Review Dreamworks Home Entertainment / Mouse-Hunt [1998]
Actors & Directors
  • Vicki Lewis
  • Maury Chaykin
  • Lee Evans
  • Gore Verbinski
  • Nathan Lane
  • Eric Christmas
Release date: 2005-07-04
Run time: 98 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £2.58

Review Mouse-Hunt [1998] / Dreamworks Home Entertainment:

What might have been a one-note family comedy becomes something more thanks to the comic brilliance of co-stars Nathan Lane and Lee Evans, as well as the distinctive, dark-fable look given the film by a little-known director named Gore Verbinksi (could he be the next Tim Burton?). Lane and Evans play idiotic brothers who inherit a house and all but destroy it in pursuit of one small, pesky mouse. The guys are always the butt of the sight gags-most of which are very funny-but their considerable powers as slapstick artists are also at play. The climactic scene at an auction was the funniest scene in any American movie in 1997, the year of Mouse Hunt's release. -Tom Keogh.

Review Fabulous Films Ltd. / Dark Star -- 30th Anniversary Special Edition [1974]
Actors & Directors
  • John Carpenter
  • Cal Kuniholm
  • Dan O'Bannon
  • Dre Pahich
  • Adam Beckenbaugh
  • Brian Narelle
Release date: 2004-04-19
Run time: 79 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £5.48

Review Dark Star -- 30th Anniversary Special Edition [1974] / Fabulous Films Ltd.:

Dark Star is absurd, surreal and very funny. John Carpenter once described it as "Waiting for Godot in space. " (It's also, surely, one of the primary inspirations for Red Dwarf. ) Made at a cost of practically nothing, the film's effects are nevertheless impressive and, along with the number of ideas crammed into its 83 minutes, ought to shame makers of science fiction films costing hundreds of times more. The story concerns the Dark Star's crew who are on a 20-year mission to destroy unstable planets and make way for future colonisation. The smart bombs they use to effect this zoom off cheerfully to do their duty. But unlike Star Trek, in which order prevails, the nerves of this crew are becoming increasingly frayed to the point of psychosis. Their captain has been killed by a radiation leak that also destroyed their toilet paper. "Don't give me any of that 'Intelligent Life' stuff," says Commander Doolittle when presented with the possibility of alien life. "Find me something I can blow up. [+]
" When an asteroid storm causes a malfunction, Bomb Number 20 (the most cheerful character in the film) has to be repeatedly talked out of exploding prematurely, each time becoming more and more peevish, until they have to teach him phenomenology to make him doubt his existence. And the film's apocalyptic ending, lifted almost wholly from Ray Bradbury's story "Kaleidoscope", has the remaining crew drifting away from each other in space, each to a suitably absurd end. -Jim Gay.

Review 2 Entertain Video / Hotel Babylon : Complete BBC Series 2 [2007]
Actors & Directors
  • Julian Clary
  • Alexander Armstrong
  • Tamzin Outhwaite
  • Mark Heap
  • Kacey Ainsworth
Release date: 2008-03-17
Run time: 468 min.
RRP: £29.99
Price: £12.98

Review Hotel Babylon : Complete BBC Series 2 [2007] / 2 Entertain Video:

Series two of Hotel Babylon picks up and quickly adopts the style of the popular preceding season. Once again following the things you never see at a luxury hotel-along with what the staff get up to when you're not looking-it's hardly classic television, but you can't deny its irresistible mix of entertainment. So, with a cast led by Tamzin Outhwaite and Max Beesley, and with a few surprising star guests, Hotel Babylon soon gets down to business. Across this second series there's the arrival of a Premiership football team, for instance, along with a bit of politics and a few gangsters too. All of these sit side-by-side with the antics of the staff themselves, who aren't short of a few scandals to keep the entertainment factor powering along. What sets Hotel Babylon aside from many of the shows that seem to quickly come and go is the sheer sense of fun. It's an ideal show to switch on and relax to, rarely requiring you to engage your brain, but not falling short when it comes to outright enjoyment. Based around the book by Imogen Edwards-Jones, Hotel Babylon enjoys good performances, zippy direction and plenty going on. And, crucially, it works as a happily diverting piece of television, with a giddy sense of soap opera about it. -Jon Foster.

Review Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm / Kinky Boots [2005]
Actors & Directors
  • Nick Frost
  • Chiwetel Ejiofor
  • Linda Bassett
  • Joel Edgerton
  • Julian Jarrold
Release date: 2006-02-06
Run time: 107 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £3.71

Review Kinky Boots [2005] / Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm:

When you are a tall strapping man who dresses like a woman for a living, finding a pair of sexy but durable shoes can be worth your weight in gold. Lola (Chiwetel Ejiofor)-a drag queen also known as Simon-finds her shoe salvation in straight-laced Charlie Price (Joel Edgerton), who has inherited his father's shoe factory. Unable to pay the bills making traditional loafers and wingtips, Charlie agrees to make Lola a pair of kinky boots that turn out to be so fabulous the pair end up going into business together. They face a few obstacles, such as the bawdy union workers who aren't too keen on taking orders from a drag queen who's more of a man than they are. Then there's Charlie's posh real estate girlfriend, who wants to convert the factory into pricey condos. While the movie doesn't provide any real surprises (or even any scenes as suggestive as its title might suggest), the film (which is loosely based on a true story) is highly entertaining that will delight fans of both comedy and shoes. -Jae-Ha Kim.

Review ITV DVD / The Plank [1967]
Actors & Directors
  • Stratford Johns
  • Graham Stark
  • Tommy Cooper
  • Eric Sykes
  • Jim Dale
Release date: 2004-10-18
Run time: 51 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.98

Review The Plank [1967] / ITV DVD:


Browse Comedy:

Models & Brands:
Short Circuit 2 [1988], Red Dwarf : Complete BBC Series 8 [2003] [1988], Pretty Woman [1990], Dad's Army - Series 1/Lost Episodes Of Series 2 [1968], The Golden Girls - The Complete First Season, The Vicar Of Dibley: Holy Wholly Happy Ending (BBC), The Wedding Singer [1998], Freebird, Teachers Complete Series 1-4, First Wives Club, The [1996], The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, The Heartbreak Kid [2007], A Cinderella Story [2004], 24 Hour Party People - Single Disc Edition [2002], The Return Of The Pink Panther [1975], Mouse-Hunt [1998], Dark Star -- 30th Anniversary Special Edition [1974], Hotel Babylon : Complete BBC Series 2 [2007], Kinky Boots [2005], The Plank [1967]

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