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Review Arrow Films / The Girl Of Your Dreams [1998]
Actors & Directors
  • Fernando Trueba
  • Rosa Maria Sardà
  • Santiago Segura
  • Antonio Resines
  • Jorge Sanz
  • Penélope Cruz
Release date: 2003-04-14
Run time: 121 min.
Creator: Rafael Azcona
RRP: £15.99
Price: £17.13

Review The Girl Of Your Dreams [1998] / Arrow Films:


Review Buena Vista Home Entertainment / Desperate Housewives: The Complete First Season [2005] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Fred Gerber
  • Nicollette Sheridan
  • Teri Hatcher
  • Marcia Cross
  • Arlene Sanford
  • Felicity Huffman
  • Eva Longoria Parker
  • David Grossman
  • Charles McDougall
  • Jeffrey Melman
Release date: 2005-09-20
Creator: Adam Barr
Price: £32.37

Review Desperate Housewives: The Complete First Season [2005] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Buena Vista Home Entertainment:


Review Funimation Prod / Fullmetal Alchemist: Season 2 - Part 2 (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Aaron Dismuke
  • Tôru Ôkawa
  • Vic Mignogna
  • Romi Pak
  • Rie Kugimiya
Release date: 2008-03-11
Run time: 30 min.
Creator: Shô Aikawa
Price: £22.27

Review Fullmetal Alchemist: Season 2 - Part 2 (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Funimation Prod:


Review Warner Home Video / Billy Liar [1963]
Actors & Directors
  • Ethel Griffies
  • Wilfred Pickles
  • Mona Washbourne
  • Julie Christie
  • Tom Courtenay
  • John Schlesinger
Release date: 2002-02-25
Run time: 94 min.
Creator: Willis Hall
RRP: £13.99
Price: £5.14

Review Billy Liar [1963] / Warner Home Video:

Billy Liar was the multimedia phenomenon of its era. Starting out as a novel by Yorkshire writer Keith Waterhouse, it rapidly became a long-running stage play, adapted by Waterhouse with playwright Willis Hall, which lead to the movie, scripted by Waterhouse and Hall for John Schlesinger to direct, then a stage musical and finally a spin-off TV series. Do you get the feeling it caught the mood of the times? The basic set-up owes a lot to James Thurber's classic short story The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Our hero, Billy Fisher, lives at home in a Bradford semi with his nagging parents and works as a lowly clerk in an undertaker's parlour. But, in his imagination he lives a rich and varied fantasy life as gallant military leader, suave socialite, best-selling novelist and so forth. Trouble is, he can't always keep fantasy and reality apart, any more than he can the keep two girls he's engaged to separate. Not to mention his other problems…. Schlesinger's direction brings out the desperation behind the comedy, and Tom Courtenay, at once defiant and hangdog, slips perfectly into the role created on stage by Albert Finney. But the whole cast's a joy, not least the great Leonard Rossiter as undertaker Mr Shadrach, Billy's saturnine boss. And then there's Julie Christie-the luminous spirit of the Swinging 60s-in her first starring role as the girl who offers Billy a chance of real escape. [+]
At the end, when she takes the train to London, away from the smoke and the grimness "oop" north, the whole British New Wave went with her. On the DVD: just the theatrical trailer which is a fairly crass affair. There's been no remastering, it seems, but both sound and vision are clean enough and the print preserves the original's full 2. 35:1 widescreen ratio. -Philip Kemp.

Review Columbia TriStar / Better Than Sex [2000] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Simon Bossell
  • David Wenham
  • Catherine McClements
  • Kris McQuade
  • Susie Porter
  • Jonathan Teplitzky
Release date: 2003-07-29
Run time: 95 min.
Creator: Marc Bonduel
Price: £6.31

Review Better Than Sex [2000] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Columbia TriStar:


Review Warner Home Video / Corvette Summer [1978] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Eugene Roche
  • William Bryant
  • Richard McKenzie
  • Matthew Robbins
  • Mark Hamill
  • Annie Potts
Release date: 2005-08-30
Run time: 104 min.
Price: £5.84

Review Corvette Summer [1978] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Warner Home Video:


Review Image Entertainment / Gentlemen of Fortune [1971] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Saveli Kramarov
  • Evgeni Leonov
  • Georgi Vitsin
  • Aleksandr Seryj
  • Radner Muratov
  • Natalya Fateyeva
Release date: 2002-12-10
Run time: 88 min.
Creator: Viktoriya Tokareva
Price: £13.98

Review Gentlemen of Fortune [1971] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Image Entertainment:


Review Universal Pictures UK / Love Actually / Bridget Jones's Diary / Notting Hill [1999]
Actors & Directors
  • Martine McCutcheon
  • Liam Neeson
  • Hugh Grant
  • Roger Michell
  • Julia Roberts
  • Laura Linney
  • Sharon Maguire
  • Richard Curtis
Release date: 2004-11-22
Creator: Helen Fielding
RRP: £32.99
Price: £17.49

Review Love Actually / Bridget Jones's Diary / Notting Hill [1999] / Universal Pictures UK:


Review TLA Releasing / The Silly Age [2007] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Iván Carreira
  • José Ángel Egido
  • Susana Tejera
  • Pavel Giroud
  • Mercedes Sampietro
  • Carla Paneca
Release date: 2008-03-18
Run time: 90 min.
Creator: Ulises Hernandez
Price: £8.31

Review The Silly Age [2007] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / TLA Releasing:


Review Entertainment in Video / Private Parts [1997]
Actors & Directors
  • Robin Quivers
  • Howard Stern
  • Paul Giamatti
  • Fred Norris
  • Betty Thomas
  • Mary McCormack
Release date: 1999-10-11
Run time: 105 min.
Creator: Michael Kalesniko
RRP: £15.99
Price: £19.95

Review Private Parts [1997] / Entertainment in Video:

Give credit to director Betty Thomas for making the notorious Howard Stern, self-proclaimed "king of all media", into a nerdish but appealing media rebel who loves his wife and family. Even if you hate Stern's rude radio show, you may discover that the underdog charm of this warm, whimsical film (based on Stern's autobiography) turns you into a fan-for the length of the film at least. Stern delivers a winning performance as the clumsy college kid and aspiring disc-jockey-turned-demon-shock-jock, who becomes an unlikely hero as he battles station managers, network executives and conservative "arbiters of decency" in the name of unfettered bad taste. Mary McCormack is fine as his understanding wife, Alison, and long-time Stern sidekicks Robin Quivers and Fred Norris acquit themselves nicely appearing as themselves. -Sean Axmaker, Amazon. com.

Review Warner Home Video / Charlie Chaplin - The Great Dictator [1940]
Actors & Directors
  • Paulette Goddard
  • Charles Chaplin
  • Jack Oakie
  • Charles Chaplin
  • Henry Daniell
  • Reginald Gardiner
Release date: 2003-09-22
Run time: 126 min.
Creator: Willard Nico
RRP: £12.99
Price: £18.99

Review Charlie Chaplin - The Great Dictator [1940] / Warner Home Video:

The Great Dictator was Charles Chaplin's first fully talking picture, a scathing comic assault on Adolf Hitler, which these days will mostly play like brilliant slapstick. But in 1940, with America still neutral, it was the boldest anti-Nazi statement Hollywood had then put on screen. The thin plot doesn't matter, being just a peg for writer-director Chaplin's almost consistently inventive and hilarious set-pieces featuring himself in the duel roles of Adenoid Hynkel, the ludicrous anti-Semitic Dictator of Tomania, and an innocent Jewish barber who happens to be a Tomanian hero of the Great War. In the latter role he affectionately spins a variation on his beloved Tramp character while briefly romancing a lacklustre Paulette Goddard, costar of his equally satirical Modern Times (1936). Yet it's as Hynkel/Hitler that Chaplin really shines, from a side-splitting opening speech to some Duck Soup-style madness with rival leader Napaloni, played with flamboyant swagger by Jack Oakie. While the finale, a clarion call for a brave new world united by science and technological progress that seems to emanate straight from 1936's Things to Come, may jar, the comedic approach to a deadly serious subject has proved lastingly influential, from Dr Strangelove (1964) to Life is Beautiful (1997). On the DVD The Great Dictator is presented in the original 4:3 black and white with strong, clear mono sound and a picture so sharp and detailed that, bar a few very minor instances of damage, the film could have been shot yesterday. Also included are French and Italian dubbed versions and an English Dolby Digital 5. 1 version of the soundtrack, which is best avoided. The disc features multiple subtitle options, including English for hard of hearing. [+]
Disc Two begins with a superb 55-minute documentary, directed by film historian Kevin Brownlow and Michael Kloft, narrated by Kenneth Branagh and coproduced by the BBC. The Tramp and the Dictator goes seriously in-depth to explore the parallels between the world's most loved and hated men, drawing on many interviews and remarkable rare footage, including colour sequences of the making of The Great Dictator shot by Chaplin's brother, Sydney. Next comes the complete 25 minutes of that home-movie footage, including coverage of the original abandoned ending, and a seven-minute deleted scene from Sunnyside (1918), which inspired the barber scene. Finally there is a poster gallery and a scene from Monsieur Verdoux (1947) concerning the rise of Hitler and fascism. Marvellous stuff, though a commentary could have added considerably to the already remarkable silent colour material. -Gary S Dalkin.

Review Paramount Home Entertainment (UK) / Sex and the City Series 5 [1999]
Actors & Directors
  • Sarah Jessica Parker|Kim Cattral|Kristin Davies|Cynthia Nixon
Release date: 2003-11-17
Price: £22.99

Review Sex and the City Series 5 [1999] / Paramount Home Entertainment (UK):

It was a short but sweet fifth season for Sex and the City, as HBO's resident comediennes found themselves affected by forces beyond their control-the pregnancies of both Sarah Jessica Parker and Cynthia Nixon. A truncated shooting schedule to accommodate the actresses forced this season to be reduced to a mere eight episodes, but they and the writers forged ahead, creating a handful of episodes that if short in content were long on emotion and laughs. Carrie and Miranda wrestled with their solitary lifestyles, albeit with new attachments-Miranda had new baby Brady and single motherhood, while Carrie found herself in the world of publishing as the author of a real-life book of her columns. Charlotte wondered if she'd ever find another man, while Samantha finally got rid of the one that had been vexing her far too much. If the season as a whole felt less than the sum of its parts, those parts were some of the best comedy in the show's history. The season's climactic episode, "I Love a Charade", was one of the series' best episodes ever, equally touching and funny, and grounded the show in an emotional maturity that announced that, after all their wild travails, these women had truly grown up. -Mark Englehart.

Review Prism Leisure / Beautiful Joe [2000]
Actors & Directors
  • Stephen Metcalfe
  • Jurnee Smollett
  • Sharon Stone
  • Billy Connolly
  • Gil Bellows
  • Dillon Moen
Release date: 2002-10-14
Run time: 94 min.
Creator: Jon Ein
RRP: £5.99
Price: £0.23

Review Beautiful Joe [2000] / Prism Leisure:

Beautiful Joe is a well-intentioned film. The problem is that it tries for both comedy and drama, and succeeds in neither. Amiable Irishman Joe (Billy Connolly), after one of the worst days imaginable, decides to leave his adopted New York home and seek adventure. Unfortunately, he runs into Hush (Sharon Stone) and gets "Far More Adventure than He Bargained For". Stone's character is the standard beautiful-but-messed-up-woman-who-needs-rescuing that is for some mystifying reason supposed to be appealing. And yes, of course she has a mute son who just might speak if only he had the right reason. Stone is "stretching" herself here, and is clearly eager to play a character: she mugs, she drawls, she wiggles and she cries. Not a scrap of scenery escapes her gullet; at times her attempts at comedy actually become sort of upsetting. Ally McBeal's Gil Bellows turns in a similarly inept and cartoonish "comic" performance. Beautiful Joe's one saving grace is Connolly, who manages to rise above his fellow cast members and the bizarre editing to turn in a charming, dignified performance. [+]
-Ali Davis, Amazon. com.

Review Dragon Dynasty / Robin-B-Hood [2006] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Biao Yuen
  • Jackie Chan
  • Benny Chan
  • Louis Koo
  • Charlene Choi
  • Michael Hui
Release date: 2007-12-26
Run time: 125 min.
Creator: Alan Yuen
Price: £9.56

Review Robin-B-Hood [2006] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Dragon Dynasty:


Review Fox Lorber / Love Etc... [1998]
Actors & Directors
  • Yvan Attal
  • Thibault de Montalembert
  • Charles Berling
  • Élodie Navarre
  • Marion Vernoux
  • Charlotte Gainsbourg
Release date: 2000-04-05
Run time: 105 min.
Creator: Julian Barnes
Price: £6.40

Review Love Etc... [1998] / Fox Lorber:


Review 20th Century Fox / Boston Legal: Season 2 [2005] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Julie Bowen
  • Ellie Kanner
  • Adam Arkin
  • Mark Valley
  • Justin Mentell
  • James Spader
  • Arlene Sanford
  • Rene Auberjonois
  • James R. Bagdonas
  • Bill D'Elia
Release date: 2006-11-21
Run time: 1145 min.
Price: £30.54

Review Boston Legal: Season 2 [2005] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / 20th Century Fox:


Review Clear Vision Ltd / Minder - Series 4 - Part 3 Of 4 - Episodes 7 To 9 [1979]
Actors & Directors
  • George Cole
  • Patrick Malahide
  • Glynn Edwards
  • Dennis Waterman
  • Gary Webster
Release date: 2002-06-10
Run time: 153 min.
Creator: Laura Julian
RRP: £15.99
Price: £1.82

Review Minder - Series 4 - Part 3 Of 4 - Episodes 7 To 9 [1979] / Clear Vision Ltd:


Review MGM / Wild at Heart [1990] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Crispin Glover
  • David Lynch
  • Laura Dern
  • Willem Dafoe
  • J.E. Freeman
  • Nicolas Cage
Release date: 2004-12-07
Run time: 124 min.
Creator: Michael Kuhn
Price: £6.61

Review Wild at Heart [1990] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / MGM:

David Lynch's 1990 Wild at Heart is an utterly random and ugly experience with pockets of startling imagery and inspired set pieces. Based on a Barry Gifford novel, the film stars Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern as lovers on the lam whose relationship is tested and who meet some truly dangerous wackos (including an almost-simian Willem Dafoe). Lynch's thoughts seem to be everywhere, and he expects the audience to keep up with a story that seems more a collection of avant-garde whims than a coherent vision with the intuitive brilliance of his Blue Velvet. Cage gives one of his more chaotic performances, but then he was just reading Lynch's signposts. -Tom Keogh.

Review Columbia TriStar / Far Away, So Close [1994] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Bruno Ganz
  • Otto Sander
  • Aline Krajewski
  • Nastassja Kinski
  • Martin Olbertz
  • Wim Wenders
Release date: 2000-09-12
Run time: 140 min.
Creator: Richard Reitinger
Price: £13.26

Review Far Away, So Close [1994] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Columbia TriStar:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Jack The Bear [1993]
Actors & Directors
  • Marshall Herskovitz
  • Gary Sinise
  • Robert J. Steinmiller
  • Miko Hughes
  • Art LaFleur
  • Danny DeVito
Release date: 2005-08-15
Run time: 94 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £1.09

Review Jack The Bear [1993] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:


Models & Brands:
The Girl Of Your Dreams [1998], Desperate Housewives: The Complete First Season [2005] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Fullmetal Alchemist: Season 2 - Part 2 (REGION 1) (NTSC), Billy Liar [1963], Better Than Sex [2000] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Corvette Summer [1978] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Gentlemen of Fortune [1971] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Love Actually / Bridget Jones's Diary / Notting Hill [1999], The Silly Age [2007] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Private Parts [1997], Charlie Chaplin - The Great Dictator [1940], Sex and the City Series 5 [1999], Beautiful Joe [2000], Robin-B-Hood [2006] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Love Etc... [1998], Boston Legal: Season 2 [2005] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Minder - Series 4 - Part 3 Of 4 - Episodes 7 To 9 [1979], Wild at Heart [1990] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Far Away, So Close [1994] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Jack The Bear [1993]

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