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Review Acorn Media / Cold Comfort Farm [1995]
Actors & Directors
  • Stephen Fry
  • Joanna Lumley
  • John Schlesinger
  • Ian McKellen
  • Kate Beckinsale
  • Freddie Jones
Release date: 2005-06-13
Run time: 98 min.
RRP: £16.99
Price: £7.34

Review Cold Comfort Farm [1995] / Acorn Media:


Review Warner Home Video / Beetlejuice [Blu-ray] [1988]
Actors & Directors
  • Robert Goulet
  • Catherine O'Hara
  • Michael Keaton
  • Tim Burton
  • Duane Davis
  • Glenn Shadix
Release date: 2008-10-06
Run time: 88 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £11.98

Review Beetlejuice [Blu-ray] [1988] / Warner Home Video:


Review 2 Entertain Video / Open All Hours - Series 4
Actors & Directors
  • Sydney Lotterby
  • David Jason
  • Lynda Baron
  • Ronnie Barker
Release date: 2005-10-31
Run time: 177 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £6.57

Review Open All Hours - Series 4 / 2 Entertain Video:


Review 2 Entertain Video / Only Fools And Horses - The Complete Series 2 [1981]
Actors & Directors
  • Mandie Fletcher
  • Patrick McManus
  • Roger Liddement
  • Grant Stevens
  • Pete Chesterfield
Release date: 2001-04-02
Run time: 231 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £5.50

Review Only Fools And Horses - The Complete Series 2 [1981] / 2 Entertain Video:

Although at first glance a series about a family of lovable spivs who get into endless scrapes as they duck and dive their way through life must have sounded like a complete non-starter, but John Sullivan's quickfire scripts for Only Fools and Horses and the spot-on performances by Jason (Del), Lyndhurst (Rodney) and Pierce (Grandad) combine to perfection in this beautifully crafted classic comedy. As there's no padding at all in OFAH it's almost essential to own it in recorded form just to pick up on all the brilliant detail, so having an entire eight-episode series in a single package is even better. This second series both begins and ends with complications involving women, opening with Rodney's dangerous liaison with a policewoman and closing with Del's infatuation with Heather, who has ambitions as an actress. Along the way, there's a bit of trouble with the Spanish police, some North Korean (sic) porcelain, a rather eventful painting job in a Chinese restaurant and generally more laughs than you can shake a Pringle sweater at. On the DVD: the DVD comes in at a whopping 231 minutes-the whole series on one disc, which is handy-and has an episode/scene index. -Roger Thomas.

Review ITV DVD / The Darling Buds Of May - Complete Series [1991]
Actors & Directors
  • Rodney Bennett
  • Catherine Zeta-Jones
  • David Giles
  • David Jason
  • Pam Ferris
  • Philip Franks
Release date: 2005-02-07
RRP: £39.99
Price: £17.99

Review The Darling Buds Of May - Complete Series [1991] / ITV DVD:


Review Jimmy Carr / Jimmy Carr - Live Collection
Release date: 2006-11-13
Run time: 155 min.
RRP: £22.99
Price: £16.44

Review Jimmy Carr - Live Collection / Jimmy Carr:


Review Cinema Club / Short Circuit [1986]
Actors & Directors
  • John Badham
  • Fisher Stevens
  • Ally Sheedy
  • G.W. Bailey
  • Austin Pendleton
  • Steve Guttenberg
Release date: 2004-04-05
Run time: 95 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £19.90

Review Short Circuit [1986] / Cinema Club:

John Badham's family-orientated adventure comedy Short Circuit, though obviously hatched in the wake of E. T. and Star Wars, manages to create its own identity through a sweet tone and an affectionate sense of fun. Military robot Number 5, a well-armed killing machine, is zapped by lightning during a test and emerges with a wacky sense of humour and a new peace-loving philosophy. Ally Sheedy (who debuted in Badham's hit WarGames) is the animal-lover whose home is sanctuary for a zoo-full of strays and who adopts the adolescent robot. Steve Guttenberg is the goofy but reclusive robotics designer who goes off in search of his creation to save him from the gun-happy army. The mix of gentle slapstick and innocent romance makes for a harmless family comedy. It veers toward the terminally cute, what with Number 5's hyperactive antics and E. T. -ish voice, and the mangled grammar of Guttenberg's East Indian sidekick (Fisher Stevens) threatens to become offensive, but Badham's breezy direction keeps the film on track. [+]
Sheedy and Guttenberg deliver spirited and engaging performances, but most importantly the robot emerges as a real person. Give credit to designer Syd Mead, an army of puppeteers and robotics operators, and the cartoony voice of Tim Blaney: Number 5 is alive. -Sean Axmaker.

Review 2 Entertain Video / Little Britain Abroad : Complete BBC Special [2006]
Actors & Directors
  • David Walliams
  • Matt Lucas
  • Dawn French
  • Steve Coogan
  • Peter Kay
Release date: 2007-11-19
Run time: 64 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £4.68

Review Little Britain Abroad : Complete BBC Special [2006] / 2 Entertain Video:


Review Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm / The Nightmare Before Christmas (2 Disc Collector's Edition) [1993]
Actors & Directors
  • Catherine O'Hara
  • Chris Sarandon
  • Danny Elfman
  • Glenn Shadix
  • Tim Burton
  • William Hickey
Release date: 2008-10-06
Run time: 73 min.
RRP: £17.99
Price: £10.98

Review The Nightmare Before Christmas (2 Disc Collector's Edition) [1993] / Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm:


Review Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm / Don't Be A Menace To South Central While Drinking Your Juice In The Hood [1996]
Actors & Directors
  • Paris Barclay
  • Shawn Wayans
  • Marlon Wayans
Release date: 2005-09-19
Run time: 85 min.
RRP: £17.99
Price: £3.77

Review Don't Be A Menace To South Central While Drinking Your Juice In The Hood [1996] / Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm:


Review Universal Pictures UK / Imagine Me And You [2006]
Actors & Directors
  • Matthew Goode
  • Lena Headey
  • Darren Boyd
  • Ol Parker
  • Piper Perabo
Release date: 2006-10-16
Run time: 90 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £4.97

Review Imagine Me And You [2006] / Universal Pictures UK:

Writer/director Ol Parker's debut takes its title from "Happy Together" by the Turtles ("Imagine me and you / and you and me") and its inspiration from the romantic comedies of Richard Curtis (Love Actually). There's a twist. Flower shop owner Luce (Lena Headey, The Brothers Grimm) is gay. Newlywed Rachel (a convincingly UK-accented Piper Perabo, Lost and Delirious) is straight. The two meet at Rachel's wedding-Luce designed the floral arrangements-and feel an instant connection. Rachel brushes it off. After all, the charming Heck (Matthew Goode, Match Point) was her best friend long before he became her husband. Shortly after the ceremony, however, she begins to feel as if something is missing. She starts making excuses to see Luce. First it's to thank her for the flowers, then it's to invite her to dinner with Heck and their on-the-make pal Cooper (a hilarious Darren Boyd). [+]
who's crushed when he discovers that Luce prefers women. Rachel, meanwhile, finds married life pleasant enough, but only really feels alive when she's with Luce. It's tricky, because she loves Heck and doesn't want to hurt his feelings, so she and Luce decide to stop seeing each other. But the bond between the two is too powerful for either to resist. What it may lack in originality, Imagine Me & You makes up for in an enchanting soundtrack and sensitive performances from its three likable leads. -Kathleen C. Fennessy.

Review Icon Home Entertainment / Starter For 10 [2006]
Actors & Directors
  • Mark Gatiss
  • Alice Eve
  • Catherine Tate
  • Rebecca Hall
  • James McAvoy
Release date: 2007-04-23
Run time: 93 min.
RRP: £17.99
Price: £4.00

Review Starter For 10 [2006] / Icon Home Entertainment:

Compared to James McAvoy's previous picture, The Last King of Scotland, this comedy may seem trivial, but trivia has its pleasures. Produced by Tom Hanks and adapted by David Nicholls from his 2003 novel, Starter for Ten doesn't tackle major historical events, but it also takes place in the past. After a prologue establishing his childhood in provincial Essex, Brian (McAvoy) takes off for Bristol University in 1985 and immediately sets his sights on the campus quiz team. If he makes the cut, he'll get to compete on University Challenge, a show he used to watch the show with his late father, who encouraged his son's quest for knowledge. For all his book smarts, though, Brian is rather naïve about the ways of the world, unlike his friend Spencer (Dominic Cooper, The History Boys), who remains in town. As Brian and his teammates prepare for the competition, he falls for co-eds Alice (Alice Eve) and Rebecca (Rebecca Hall, The Prestige), struggles to repair his fraying friendship with Spencer, and confronts feelings of betrayal over his mother's new boyfriend. For the most part, Starter for Ten explores standard-issue college concerns, but with abundant wit, whimsy, and a soundtrack stuffed with Thatcher-era favorites, like the Smiths and New Order. While the resolution to Brian's romantic dilemma hardly comes as a surprise, the climactic quiz show is a nail-biter. Mostly, the film is a fine showcase for the multi-talented McAvoy, who confirms that he can handle light comedy as gracefully as dark drama. -Kathleen C. [+]
Fennessy END.

Review Contender Entertainment Group / Will and Grace: Complete Series 5
Actors & Directors
  • Megan Mullally
  • Debra Messing
  • Eric McCormack
  • Sean Hayes
Release date: 2006-04-03
RRP: £49.99
Price: £10.00

Review Will and Grace: Complete Series 5 / Contender Entertainment Group:


Review Warner Home Video / Best In Show [2001]
Actors & Directors
  • Don Lake
  • Michael Hitchcock
  • Jennifer Coolidge
  • Christopher Guest
  • Jane Lynch
  • Christopher Guest
Release date: 2001-09-10
Run time: 87 min.
RRP: £13.99
Price: £2.67

Review Best In Show [2001] / Warner Home Video:

No-one can deny that the British love their dogs, but Best in Show proves that the Americans are just as canine crazy. Christopher Guest's (This is Spinal Tap, Waiting for Guffman) latest mockumentary looks at the lives and dodgy doggie loves of the contestants in the USA's most prestigious dog show, The Mayflower. The comedy is observational and mostly improvised, but there are also some genuinely hilarious set pieces and running gags as well as some perfectly timed one-liners, all of which repay repeated viewing. Owners really do become like their dogs as Guest presents a parade of brilliantly observed caricatures, revealing their human weaknesses and quirks and defying you not to find something immensely likeable about each one. Guest slowly introduces us to the principal players in a series of formal interviews and fly-on-the-wall profiles. Meet life partners Scott Donlan and Stefan Vanderhoof with their kimonos and matching Shih Tzus; a trophy wife who shares a love of soup and snow peas with her aged, billionaire husband; the suburban couple, Gerry and Cookie Fleck (brilliantly underplayed by co-writer Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara); incredibly highly strung lawyers the Swans and their dysfunctional Weimaraner; and Guest himself as the drawling Southern fishing shop owner and bloodhound breeder Harlan Pepper. This is Guest at his irreverent best. On the DVD: The pin-sharp widescreen 1. 85:1 anamorphic picture means the viewer can really appreciate the film's cinematic nuances, and the Dolby Digital 5. 1 soundtrack means that you don't miss any of the dialogue subtleties either. [+]
But the principal attractions are the 15 or so deleted scenes and the brilliant audio commentary by Guest and Eugene Levy which adds yet another comedic dimension to this mockumentary. The theatrical trailer is also thrown in for good measure. The only feature missing is the profiles of real dog owners and their canine loves that featured on the Region 1 version. -Kristen Bowditch.

Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Eddie Murphy Raw [1987]
Actors & Directors
  • Eddie Murphy
Release date: 2004-11-22
Run time: 87 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £3.59

Review Eddie Murphy Raw [1987] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

The audacious concert film Eddie Murphy Raw rubbed some people the wrong way upon its release in 1987, but there's no denying that between Murphy's more insensitive bits about women and gay men is some of his most inspired material. While the young comedian indulges an unattractive homophobia and rants about the sexual manipulativeness of all females, he makes up for it with an amazing story about being chided by Bill Cosby for obscene humor and does a great impression of Mr. T falling under the spell of a Jedi mind trick. The best stuff comes deep into the show, particularly a long tale of being pressured into a fight at a club, resulting in a phone call to Murphy's drunk father, the latter in the middle of a verbal attack on his wife. The scene is genuinely horrifying and funny, testament to Murphy's early reputation as heir to Richard Pryor's mercilessly autobiographical brilliance. -Tom Keogh.

Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / In Her Shoes [2005]
Actors & Directors
  • Curtis Hanson
  • Mark Feuerstein
  • Jackie Geary
  • Cameron Diaz
  • Shirley Maclaine
  • Toni Collette
Release date: 2006-03-13
Run time: 125 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £1.64

Review In Her Shoes [2005] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

In Her Shoes just gets better and better as it goes along. As adapted by Erin Brockovich screenwriter Susannah Grant, this is one of those rare movies that actually improves on its source material (Jennifer Weiner's "chick lit" bestseller), with thoughtful direction by Curtis Hanson, the L. A. Confidential Oscar-winner who approaches any chosen genre with Hawksian versatility. At first it seems like Weiner's novel might yield a standard melodrama of sibling rivalry, but the polar opposition of smart, plain-looking Philadelphia lawyer Rose (the always-excellent Toni Collette) and her sexy, illiterate, irresponsible sister Maggie (Cameron Diaz) is just the starting point. In Her Shoes becomes a moving, richly developed character study that deals with painful loss, long-term guilt, negative self-image, and the discovery of a heretofore unknown grandmother named Ella (played with delicate nuance by Shirley MacLaine), whose re-entry into the sisters' lives sets the stage for the well-earned emotions of a satisfying reconciliation. As Maggie takes stock of her dismal life while staying with Ella at a Florida "retirement home for active seniors," Hanson never condescends to these likable characters, and never goes for the easy laughs in a setting that could have devolved into Cocoon-like comedy. The movie's all the more endearing for treating its male characters (played by Mark Feuerstein, Ken Howard, and Richard Burgi) with equal depth and sympathy, further enhancing a classy tearjerker that viewers of both genders can thoroughly enjoy. - Jeff Shannon.

Review Cinema Club / Pat & Margaret [1994]
Actors & Directors
  • Victoria Wood
  • Duncan Preston
  • Julie Walters
  • Celia Imrie
  • Thora Hird
  • Gavin Millar
Release date: 2007-05-21
Run time: 85 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £6.98

Review Pat & Margaret [1994] / Cinema Club:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Ferris Bueller's Day Off [1987]
Actors & Directors
  • John Hughes
  • Matthew Broderick
  • Kristy Swanson
  • Max Perlich
  • Ben Stein
  • Lyman Ward
Release date: 2000-07-31
Run time: 99 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £3.47

Review Ferris Bueller's Day Off [1987] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

Like a soda pop left open all night, Ferris Bueller's Day Off seems to have lost its effervescence over time. Sure, Matthew Broderick is still appealing as the perennial truant, Ferris, who takes one memorable day off from school. Jeffrey Jones is nasty and scheming as the principal who's out to catch him. Jennifer Grey is winning as Ferris' sister (who ends up making out in the police station with a prophetic vision of Charlie Sheen). But there's a definite sense that this film was of a particular time frame: the 80s. It's still fun, though. There's Ferris singing "Twist and Shout" during a Chicago parade, and a lovely sequence in the Art Institute. But don't get it and expect your kids to love it the way you did. Like it or not, it's yours alone. -Keith Simanton, Amazon. [+]
com.

Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Big Nothing [2006]
Actors & Directors
  • Simon Pegg
  • Jon Polito
  • Alice Eve
  • Jean-Baptiste Andrea
  • David Schwimmer
  • Natascha McElhone
Release date: 2007-04-16
Run time: 86 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £4.46

Review Big Nothing [2006] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Houseboat [1958]
Actors & Directors
  • Cary Grant
  • Martha Hyer
  • Harry Guardino
  • Eduardo Ciannelli
  • Melville Shavelson
  • Sophia Loren
Release date: 2003-01-13
Run time: 105 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £2.94

Review Houseboat [1958] / Paramount Home Entertainment:


Browse Comedy:

Models & Brands:
Cold Comfort Farm [1995], Beetlejuice [Blu-ray] [1988], Open All Hours - Series 4, Only Fools And Horses - The Complete Series 2 [1981], The Darling Buds Of May - Complete Series [1991], Jimmy Carr - Live Collection, Short Circuit [1986], Little Britain Abroad : Complete BBC Special [2006], The Nightmare Before Christmas (2 Disc Collector's Edition) [1993], Don't Be A Menace To South Central While Drinking Your Juice In The Hood [1996], Imagine Me And You [2006], Starter For 10 [2006], Will and Grace: Complete Series 5, Best In Show [2001], Eddie Murphy Raw [1987], In Her Shoes [2005], Pat & Margaret [1994], Ferris Bueller's Day Off [1987], Big Nothing [2006], Houseboat [1958]

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