DVD Find the Perfect Gift    Send a Gift Certificate
Search 
Home › Drama › Comedy
Review Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / Bridget Jones's Diary [DVD] [2001]
Actors & Directors
  • Sharon Maguire
Release date: 2001-12-01
Run time: 93 min.
Creator: Colin Firth, Hugh Grant Renée Zellweger
RRP: £19.99
Price: £1.70

Review Bridget Jones's Diary [DVD] [2001] / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:

Featuring a blousy, winningly inept size-12 heroine, Bridget Jones's Diary is a fetching adaptation of Helen Fielding's runaway bestseller, grittier than Ally McBeal but sweeter than Sex and the City. The normally sylphlike Renée Zellweger (Nurse Betty, Me, Myself and Irene) wolfed pasta to gain poundage to play "singleton" Bridget, a London-based publicist who divides her free time between binge eating in front of the TV, downing Chardonnay with her friends and updating the diary in which she records her negligible weight fluctuations and romantic misadventures of the year. Things start off badly at Christmas when her mother tries to set her up with seemingly standoffish lawyer Mark Darcy (Colin Firth), whom Bridget accidentally overhears "dissing" her. Instead she embarks on a disastrous liaison with her raffish boss, Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant, infinitely more likable when he's playing a baddie instead of his patented tongue-tied fops). Eventually, Bridget comes to wonder if she's let her pride prejudice her against the surprisingly attractive Mr Darcy. If the plot sounds familiar, that's because Fielding's novel was itself a retelling of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, whose romantic male lead is Mr Darcy. An extra ironic poke in the ribs is added by the casting of Firth, who played Austen's haughty hero in the acclaimed BBC adaptation of Austen's novel. First-time director Sharon Maguire directs with confident comic zest, while Zellweger twinkles charmingly, fearlessly baring her cellulite and pulling off a spot-on English accent. Like Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill (both of which were written by this film's co-screenwriter, Richard Curtis), Bridget Jones's stock-in-trade is a very English self-deprecating sense of humour, a mild suspicion of Americans (especially if they're thin and successful) and a subtly expressed analysis of thirtysomething fears about growing up and becoming a "smug married". The whole is, as Bridget would say, v. [+]
good. -Leslie Felperin.

Review Slam Dunk Media / A Chorus Of Disapproval [1988) [DVD] [2007]
Actors & Directors
  • Jeremy Irons
  • Richard Briers
  • Anthony Hopkins
  • Prunella Scales
  • Jenny Seagrove
  • Michael Winner
Release date: 2007-05-07
Run time: 95 min.
Creator: Jeremy Irons
RRP: £5.99
Price: £1.93

Review A Chorus Of Disapproval [1988) [DVD] [2007] / Slam Dunk Media:


Review Warner Home Video / Grumpy Old Men/Grumpier Old Men [DVD] [1994] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]
Actors & Directors
  • Howard Deutch
  • Sophia Loren
  • Burgess Meredith
  • Jack Lemmon
  • Walter Matthau
  • Ann-Margret
  • Donald Petrie
Release date: 2006-08-22
Run time: 205 min.
Creator: Mark Steven Johnson
Price: £4.58

Review Grumpy Old Men/Grumpier Old Men [DVD] [1994] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] / Warner Home Video:


Review Paramount / Paper Moon [DVD] [1973] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]
Actors & Directors
  • Madeline Kahn
  • Ryan O'Neal
  • Tatum O'Neal
  • Peter Bogdanovich
  • P.J. Johnson
  • John Hillerman
Release date: 2003-08-12
Run time: 102 min.
Creator: Alvin Sargent
Price: £4.91

Review Paper Moon [DVD] [1973] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] / Paramount:


Review Peccadillo Pictures / Cockles And Muscles [DVD]
Actors & Directors
  • Olivier Ducastel & Jacques Martineau
  • Gilbert Melki; Valeria Bruni Tedeschi; Jean-Marc Barr; Jacques Bonnaffe
Release date: 2006-09-25
Run time: 90 min.
Creator: Gilbert Melki; Valeria Bruni Tedeschi; Jean-Marc Barr; Jacques Bonnaffe
RRP: £19.99
Price: £6.39

Review Cockles And Muscles [DVD] / Peccadillo Pictures:


Review Odeon Entertainment / The Adventures of Jane/Murder at 3am [1949] [DVD]
Actors & Directors
  • Dennis Price
  • Christable Leighton-Porter
  • Alfred J Goulding and Francis Searle
Release date: 2008-04-21
Run time: 111 min.
Creator: Dennis Price
RRP: £12.99
Price: £6.08

Review The Adventures of Jane/Murder at 3am [1949] [DVD] / Odeon Entertainment:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Beverly Hills Cop [DVD] [1985]
Actors & Directors
  • Eddie Murphy
  • Lisa Eilbacher
  • Judge Reinhold
  • Martin Brest
  • John Ashton
  • Ronny Cox
Release date: 2002-05-13
Run time: 101 min.
Creator: Danilo Bach
RRP: £15.99
Price: £2.28

Review Beverly Hills Cop [DVD] [1985] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

While its sequels were formulaic and safe, the first Beverly Hills Cop set out to explore some uncharted territory and succeeded. A blend of violent action picture and sharp comedy, the film has an excellent director, Martin Brest (Scent of a Woman), who finds some original perspectives on stock scenes (highway chases, police rousts) and hits a gleeful note with Murphy while skewering LA culture. Good support from Judge Reinhold and John Ashton as local cops not used to doing things the Detroit way (Murphy's character hails from the Motor City). Paul Reiser has a funny, brief moment at the beginning and Bronson Pinchot makes an hilarious impression in a great, never-to-be-duplicated scene with the star. -Tom Keogh.

Review Sony Pictures / If Only [DVD] [2004] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]
Actors & Directors
  • Paul Nicholls
  • Jennifer Love Hewitt
  • Lucy Davenport
  • Gil Junger
  • Diana Hardcastle
  • Tom Wilkinson
Release date: 2006-05-09
Run time: 92 min.
Creator: Christina Welsh
Price: £3.88

Review If Only [DVD] [2004] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] / Sony Pictures:


Review Pathe Distribution / Nowhere [DVD] [1998]
Actors & Directors
  • Chiara Mastroianni
  • James Duval
  • Rachel True
  • Nathan Bexton
  • Gregg Araki
  • Debi Mazar
Release date: 2003-06-30
Run time: 78 min.
Creator: Nicole Arbib
RRP: £5.99
Price: £1.87

Review Nowhere [DVD] [1998] / Pathe Distribution:


Review 20th Century Fox / Breaking Away [DVD] [1979] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]
Actors & Directors
  • Peter Yates
  • Daniel Stern
  • Barbara Barrie
  • Dennis Christopher
  • Jackie Earle Haley
  • Dennis Quaid
Release date: 2002-01-29
Run time: 100 min.
Creator: Steve Tesich
Price: £3.60

Review Breaking Away [DVD] [1979] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] / 20th Century Fox:


Review MGM / Teen Witch [DVD] [1989] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]
Actors & Directors
  • Robyn Lively
  • Dorian Walker
  • Dan Gauthier
  • Dick Sargent
  • Joshua John Miller
  • Caren Kaye
Release date: 2005-07-12
Run time: 90 min.
Creator: Rafael Eisenman
Price: £5.92

Review Teen Witch [DVD] [1989] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] / MGM:


Review Odeon Entertainment Ltd. / Home and Away [DVD] [1956]
Actors & Directors
  • Jack Warner
  • Thora Hird
  • Kathleen Harrison and Charles Victor
Release date: 2008-01-28
Run time: 80 min.
Creator: Thora Hird
RRP: £9.99
Price: £5.98

Review Home and Away [DVD] [1956] / Odeon Entertainment Ltd.:


Review Peccadillo Pictures / Tick Tock Lullaby [2007] [DVD]
Actors & Directors
  • Lisa Gornick
Release date: 2008-07-07
Run time: 73 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £5.82

Review Tick Tock Lullaby [2007] [DVD] / Peccadillo Pictures:


Review Cinema Club / East Is East [DVD] [1999]
Actors & Directors
  • Emil Marwa
  • Damien O'Donnell
  • Jordan Routledge
  • Archie Panjabi
  • Om Puri
  • Linda Bassett
Release date: 2001-09-10
Run time: 92 min.
Creator: Ayub Khan-Din
RRP: £9.99
Price: £17.50

Review East Is East [DVD] [1999] / Cinema Club:

A surprise hit internationally, Damien O'Donnell's feature debut is a warm, richly funny portrait of the cultural and emotional collisions of a multiracial family in 1971 Salford, where curry meets fish-and-chips and the threat of a spacehopper lurks around every corner. Adapted by Ayub Khan-Din from his own stage play, the film centres on Pakistani immigrant George Khan (huge Bollywood star Om Puri) still deeply attached to the moral and political mores of his homeland, but married to Englishwoman Ella (Linda Bassett). Despite her protestations, Khan is adamant their six sons and daughter, raised to respect traditional Muslim values, must enter into arranged marriages. Meanwhile, the children are more intent on pursuing the secret pleasures of interracial dating, bacon sandwiches and midnight forays to the nearest club. O'Donnell's direction fully exploits the often bawdy humour in the family's everyday struggles, while bringing an unexpected emotional punch to the scenes of violent confrontation which erupt as Khan becomes ever more dictatorial. The film also maintains comic momentum and dramatic intensity throughout thanks to excellent performances by Puri, Bassett and the remaining cast, including soap stars Chris Bisson (Coronation Street) and Jimi Mistry (EastEnders). Against a backdrop of 1970s pop culture, the many highlights include an oversexed dog and a giant sculpted pudenda.

Review Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / The Last Detail [DVD] [1973]
Actors & Directors
  • Otis Young
  • Randy Quaid
  • Carol Kane
  • Jack Nicholson
  • Clifton James
  • Hal Ashby
Release date: 2002-08-05
Run time: 100 min.
Creator: Robert Towne
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.33

Review The Last Detail [DVD] [1973] / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:

The Last Detail nearly didn't get a release. Columbia, for whom it was made, was alarmed by the movie's barrage of profanity and resented the unorthodox working style of its director, Hal Ashby, who loathed producers and made no secret of it. Only when the film picked up a Best Actor Award for Jack Nicholson at Cannes did the studio reluctantly grant it a release-with minimal promotion-to widespread critical acclaim. Nicholson, in one of his best roles, plays "Bad-ass" Buddusky, a naval petty officer detailed, along with his black colleague "Mule" Mulhall (Otis Young), to escort an offender from Virginia to the harsh naval prison at Portsmouth, NH. The miscreant is a naïve youngster, Meadows (Randy Quaid), who's been given eight years for stealing $40 from his CO's wife's favourite charity. The escorts, at first cynically detached, soon start feeling sorry for Meadows and decide to show him a good time in his last few days of freedom. Ashby, a true son of 60s counterculture, avidly abets the anti-authoritarian tone of Robert Towne's script. Meadows is a sad victim of the system-but so too are Buddusky and Mulhall, as they gradually come to realise. A lot of the film is very funny. Nicholson gets to do one of his classic psychotic outbursts-"I am the fucking shore patrol!"-and there are some pungent scenes of male bonding pushed to the verge of desperation. [+]
But the overall tone is melancholy, pointed up by the jaunty military marches on the soundtrack. Shot amid bleak, wintry landscapes, in buses and trains and grey urban streets, The Last Detail is a film of constant, compulsive movement going nowhere-a powerful, finely acted study of institutional claustrophobia. On the DVD: The Last Detail disc doesn't have much in the way of extras. There are abbreviated filmographies for Ashby, Nicholson and Quaid (though not for Young) and a trailer for A Few Good Men (1992). The mono sound comes up well in Dolby Digital, and the transfer preserves DoP Michael Chapman's subtle, subfusc palette and the 1. 85:1 ratio of the original. -Philip Kemp.

Review Palm Pictures / Countryman [1983] [DVD]
Actors & Directors
  • Freshey Richardson
  • Countryman
  • Basil Keane
  • Hiram Keller
  • Dickie Jobson
  • Carl Bradshaw
Release date: 2006-02-06
Run time: 96 min.
Creator: Stephane Sperry
RRP: £12.99
Price: £6.36

Review Countryman [1983] [DVD] / Palm Pictures:

A contemporary Jamaican fable with a remarkable, out-of-nowhere hero, Countryman is the story of a Rastafarian fisherman, Countryman (credited to "Himself"), who rescues a marijuana-smuggling, American couple from an airplane crash. The good deed doesn't end there, however. An ambitious and power-hungry, emerging despot, Colonel Sinclair (Basil Keane), hypes the significance of the crash to impress political leaders, maintaining the smugglers are, in fact, enemy agents plotting against the government. Thus Countryman's new friends are in great danger, and he keeps them out of harm's way between smoking spliffs and putting up a preternaturally agile fight against Sinclair's weapons-wielding thugs. The film exudes an infectious, contact-high energy, and Countryman's gravity-defying stunts should please fans of similarly spectacular martial-arts movies such as Hero. The soundtrack to this 1982 movie features some of the greats of Jamaican reggae, including Bob Marley, Toots and the Maytals, and Steel Pulse. -Tom Keogh.

Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Another 48 Hours [DVD] [1990]
Actors & Directors
  • Kevin Tighe
  • Ed O'Ross
  • Walter Hill
  • Brion James
  • Nick Nolte
  • Eddie Murphy
Release date: 2000-12-04
Run time: 91 min.
Creator: Steven E. de Souza
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.14

Review Another 48 Hours [DVD] [1990] / Paramount Home Entertainment:


Review Pathe Distribution / 8.1/2 Women [DVD] [1999]
Actors & Directors
  • Vivian Wu
  • Matthew Delamere
  • John Standing
  • Peter Greenaway
  • Amanda Plummer
  • Toni Collette
Release date: 2003-06-30
Run time: 116 min.
Creator: Michael Pakleppa
RRP: £5.99
Price: £3.30

Review 8.1/2 Women [DVD] [1999] / Pathe Distribution:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Hatari [DVD] [1963]
Actors & Directors
  • Hardy Krüger
  • Gérard Blain
  • John Wayne
  • Howard Hawks
  • Red Buttons
  • Elsa Martinelli
Release date: 2005-06-06
Run time: 158 min.
Creator: Leigh Brackett
RRP: £12.99
Price: £2.49

Review Hatari [DVD] [1963] / Paramount Home Entertainment:


Review Warner Home Video / Showdown In Little Tokyo [DVD] [1991]
Actors & Directors
  • Dolph Lundgren
  • Brandon Lee
  • Mark L. Lester
  • Toshirô Obata
  • Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa
  • Tia Carrere
Release date: 2001-06-18
Run time: 75 min.
Creator: Stephen Glantz
RRP: £13.99
Price: £2.07

Review Showdown In Little Tokyo [DVD] [1991] / Warner Home Video:

Showdown in Little Tokyo is a 1991 martial arts action comedy which, in pitting Dolph Lundgren and Brandon Lee as LA cops against Japanese drug dealers, plays like a B-movie Tango and Cash or Lethal Weapon 2 (both released just two years before). Between career highs in Rocky IV (1985) and Universal Soldier (1992) it looked as if Lundgren might make it big at the box-office, and clearly wanting to be the new Schwarzenegger he is here directed by Mark L Lester, who had earlier helmed Arnie's Commando (1985). In the event both actor and director headed for straight-to-video territory. The 75-minute running time suggests the studio lost confidence and seriously cut the movie though, as the space between the action is filled with nothing but cringe-inducing dialogue, thriller clichés and Lundgren "romancing" Tia Carrere, it still makes sense. Basing its title on John Carpenter's 1986 fantasy-comedy Big Trouble in Little China and anticipating Rush Hour (1998), Showdown in Little Tokyo alternates between crude tongue-in-cheek moments and action so ludicrous it's unintentionally hilarious. A camp disaster which simply defies belief, this is stupidly entertaining so-bad-its-good six-pack entertainment. On the DVD: There are no extras other than the trailer. The anamorphically enhanced 1. 77:1 image offers a good transfer of a grainy print. The stereo sound is clear but for a modern action film seriously lacks impact: gunshots sound like a paper bag popping. [+]
-Gary S Dalkin.

Models & Brands:
Bridget Jones's Diary [DVD] [2001], A Chorus Of Disapproval [1988) [DVD] [2007], Grumpy Old Men/Grumpier Old Men [DVD] [1994] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC], Paper Moon [DVD] [1973] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC], Cockles And Muscles [DVD], The Adventures of Jane/Murder at 3am [1949] [DVD], Beverly Hills Cop [DVD] [1985], If Only [DVD] [2004] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC], Nowhere [DVD] [1998], Breaking Away [DVD] [1979] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC], Teen Witch [DVD] [1989] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC], Home and Away [DVD] [1956], Tick Tock Lullaby [2007] [DVD], East Is East [DVD] [1999], The Last Detail [DVD] [1973], Countryman [1983] [DVD], Another 48 Hours [DVD] [1990], 8.1/2 Women [DVD] [1999], Hatari [DVD] [1963], Showdown In Little Tokyo [DVD] [1991]

Top headlines:
Search 
DVD Rental: try it for free