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Review Uca / Layer Cake/Snatch/Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels (Steelbook)
Actors & Directors
  • Jason Statham
  • Vinnie Jones
  • Guy Ritchie
  • Matthew Vaughn
  • Nick Moran
  • Daniel Craig
  • Brad Pitt
Release date: 2008-09-22
Run time: 310 min.
RRP: £24.99
Price: £18.51

Review Layer Cake/Snatch/Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels (Steelbook) / Uca:


Review Lions Gate / Diary of a Mad Black Woman [2005] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Kimberly Elise
  • Cicely Tyson
  • Shemar Moore
  • Darren Grant
  • Tyler Perry
  • Steve Harris
Release date: 2005-06-28
Run time: 116 min.
Creator: Reuben Cannon
Price: £6.24

Review Diary of a Mad Black Woman [2005] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Lions Gate:


Review Buena Vista Home Entertainment / Popular: Season Two [2000] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Leslie Bibb
  • Sara Rue
  • Arvin Brown
  • Carly Pope
  • Christopher Gorham
  • Aaron Schneider
  • Tamara Mello
  • Jamie Babbit
  • Craig Zisk
  • Lawrence Trilling
Release date: 2005-03-08
Run time: 946 min.
Price: £33.19

Review Popular: Season Two [2000] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Buena Vista Home Entertainment:


Review High Fliers / Black Irish [2007]
Actors & Directors
  • Michael Angarano
  • Tom Guiry
  • Brad Gann
  • Brendan Gleeson
Release date: 2008-09-08
Run time: 96 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £7.16

Review Black Irish [2007] / High Fliers:


Review 20th Century Fox / Next Stop, Greenwich Village [1976] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Paul Mazursky
  • Ellen Greene
  • Shelley Winters
  • Lenny Baker
  • Christopher Walken
  • Lois Smith
Release date: 2005-12-13
Run time: 111 min.
Creator: Anthony Ray
Price: £3.66

Review Next Stop, Greenwich Village [1976] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / 20th Century Fox:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / M.A.S.H. [1969]
Actors & Directors
  • Sally Kellerman
  • Robert Duvall
  • Donald Sutherland
  • Tom Skerritt
  • Elliott Gould
  • Robert Altman
Release date: 1998-08-24
Run time: 111 min.
Creator: Ring Lardner Jr.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £3.99

Review M.A.S.H. [1969] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

It's set during the Korean War, in a mobile army surgical hospital. But no one seeing MASH in 1970 confused the film for anything but a caustic comment on the Vietnam War; this is one of the counterculture movies that exploded into the mainstream at the end of the 1960s. Director Robert Altman had laboured for years in television and sporadic feature work when this smash-hit comedy made his name (and allowed him to create an astonishing string of offbeat pictures, culminating in the masterpiece Nashville). Altman's style of cruel humour, overlapping dialogue, and densely textured visuals brought the material to life in an all-new kind of war movie (or, more precisely, antiwar movie). Audiences had never seen anything like it: vaudeville routines played against spurting blood, fuelled with open ridicule of authority. The cast is led by Elliott Gould and Donald Sutherland, as the outrageous surgeons Hawkeye Pierce and Trapper John McIntyre, with Robert Duvall as the uptight Major Burns and Sally Kellerman in an Oscar-nominated role as nurse "Hot Lips" Houlihan. The film's huge success spawned the long-running TV series, a considerably softer take on the material; of the film's cast, only Gary Burghoff repeated his role on the small screen, as the slightly clairvoyant Radar O'Reilly. -Robert Horton MASH-a 1970 comedy-drama set among surgeons drafted into the Korean war-was a breakthrough not just for director Robert Altman but for movie-making in general. Although set in the 50s, there are few who did not realise that the film's anti-war messages were directed at the US involvement in Vietnam. Indeed, the Pentagon banned US servicemen from seeing the film. [+]
Starring Donald Sutherland as Hawkeye Pierce and Elliot Gould as Trapper John McIntyre, two hip young surgeons drafted against their will. Their general attitude-while never corroding either their humanity or their professionalism as surgeons-is one of insolence towards military authority and the arbitrary structures and regulations continually droning from the tannoy system. The film, too, thrives on a lack of attention to conventional order, with its cross-dialogue and random, episodic style reflecting the vivacious and unbuttoned feel of the content. However, MASH has dated and much of what seemed like "liberating" high jinks, today smacks of sexist, frathouse boorishness and harassment, especially at the expense of Major "Hotlips" Hoolihan (Sally Kellerman), while the episode in which "Painless" plans a suicide out of a fear of being gay reflects the persistence of homophobia even in 60s counterculture. Despite this MASH feels ahead of its time and certainly sharper and blacker than the too-cute sitcom it spawned. On the DVD: this is an excellent restoration, overseen by Altman himself, in which any obfuscation from the original have been cleaned up, especially the sound quality. As well as a commentary from Altman, there are three separate documentaries, featuring interviews with Altman, the cast and screenwriter Ring Lardner Jr, who had been blacklisted during the anti-Communist witch-hunt which swept through Hollywood in the 1950s. We learn he was initially appalled at how little of his script Altman actually used but was mollified by the Academy Award he received. Altman is candid about the making of the movie ("It wasn't released by Fox, it escaped from Fox"). There's an abundance of similarly rich, anecdotal material here. -David Stubbs.

Review Electric Pictures / The Eighth Day [1996]
Actors & Directors
  • Pascal Duquenne
  • Isabelle Sadoyan
  • Daniel Auteuil
  • Henri Garcin
  • Miou-Miou
  • Jaco van Dormael
Release date: 1997-05-19
Run time: 113 min.
Creator: Philippe Godeau
RRP: £15.99
Price: £11.89

Review The Eighth Day [1996] / Electric Pictures:


Review Wolfe Video / Leaving Metropolis [2002] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Brad Fraser
  • Vince Corazza
  • Cherilee Taylor
  • Troy Ruptash
  • Thom Allison
  • Lynda Boyd
Release date: 2004-04-06
Run time: 88 min.
Creator: Paul Stiles
Price: £11.03

Review Leaving Metropolis [2002] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Wolfe Video:


Review Eureka Entertainment / Steamboat Bill Jr [1928]
Actors & Directors
  • Tom Lewis
  • Marion Byron
  • Buster Keaton
  • Charles Reisner
  • Buster Keaton
  • Ernest Torrence
  • Tom McGuire
Release date: 2001-06-18
Run time: 97 min.
Creator: Carl Harbaugh
RRP: £19.99
Price: £9.20

Review Steamboat Bill Jr [1928] / Eureka Entertainment:

Steamboat Bill Jr dates from 1928 and is the last great film Buster Keaton made before he gave up his independence and signed for MGM. Buster is the rather fey son of an elderly steamboat owner who is being driven out of business by a wealthy competitor. More by accident than intention Buster turns things around and gets the girl as well. The last 15 minutes are truly astonishing: a storm sequence in which a whole town is blown apart, with Buster experiencing a series of amazing escapes as buildings fall down around his ears. On the DVD: The print is a good one, best seen in the 4:3 ration, with unobtrusive organ music added. As a nautical extra there's The Boat, a 1921 short (the print not in such a good state as the feature), in which in the course of launching his newly built craft Buster manages to wreck his house, tip his car into the river and sink the boat. And that's only the beginning. -Ed Buscombe.

Review Warner Home Video / Replacements [2000] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Gene Hackman
  • Keanu Reeves
  • Faizon Love
  • Orlando Jones
  • Brooke Langton
  • Howard Deutch
Release date: 2000-11-28
Run time: 118 min.
Creator: Vince McKewin
Price: £4.58

Review Replacements [2000] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Warner Home Video:

The opening scenes of The Replacements see American football team, the Washington Sentinels, in dire straits. The players have walked out in a protest over pay at a vital point in the season, forcing the Sentinels' owner to bring veteran coach Jimmy McGinty (Gene Hackman) out of retirement to put together a replacement team. He assembles a group of oddballs and misfits including failed quarterback Shane Falco (Keanu Reeves), a boozing Welsh brawler (Rhys Ifans), a convicted former football pro, a deaf mute, a psychopathic ex-cop, a sumo wrestler and a kleptomaniac (Orlando Jones) who has trouble catching the ball. It is Falco's job to pull the team together and overcome his own problems to take the Sentinels to the playoffs. Howard Deutch (Pretty in Pink, Grumpier Old Men) directs this variation on a losers-make-good storyline that runs like Police Academy on the playing field. Keanu plays the Steve Guttenberg role. Sandra Bullock clone Brooke Langton provides the all-too-predictable cheerleading love interest, while Rhys Ifans delivers light relief as the team's chain-smoking kicker. On the DVD: The main feature is presented in letterboxed widescreen format with Dolby Digital 5. 1 sound in three languages (English, Spanish and Italian). There are optional subtitles in 20 different languages. [+]
Interactive menus are slickly designed like the yard markings on an American football field and provide access to a range of special features. As well as a theatrical trailer and commentary by director Howard Deutch, there is a 15-minute HBO special "The Making of the Replacements" hosted by Orlando Jones and a 10-minute "Actors Guide to Football" which provides a detailed look at the way the entirely authentic football sequences were planned and filmed. -Chris Campion.

Review Warner Home Video / Jack Frost [1999]
Actors & Directors
  • Kelly Preston
  • Joseph Cross
  • Michael Keaton
  • Troy Miller
  • Mark Addy
  • Andrew Lawrence
Release date: 2000-10-11
Run time: 97 min.
Creator: Steve Bloom
RRP: £6.99
Price: £0.99

Review Jack Frost [1999] / Warner Home Video:

Whatever you do, don't confuse this Jack Frost with the 1997 comedic horror flick of the same name (its tagline: "He's chillin. and killin'"). This family film stars Michael Keaton as Jack Frost, an aspiring musician, loving husband and occasionally absent father. Frost's life is unexpectedly cut short by a car accident and a year after his death he comes back as-you guessed it-a snowman, to help his family heal (Kelly Preston and Joseph Cross as wife and son Gabby and Charlie, respectively). The sudden death may affect sensitive younger viewers but by the time Frost returns the movie is more light-hearted and the film's message is a worthy one. There's an underlying theme that supports independence, and Gabby isn't saddled with a new dude by the film's end. There's also a good rapport developed between father and son, and especially mother and son. If an audience can take that huge leap of faith to accept the premise (as youthful audiences will no doubt be able to do), this is entertaining family fare. [+]
-N F Mendoza.

Review Rhino Home Video / Mystery Science Theater 3000: Mitchell [1998] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Michael J. Nelson
  • Joe Don Baker
  • Andrew V. McLaglen
  • Kevin Murphy
  • Trace Beaulieu
  • Joel Hodgson
Release date: 2001-11-20
Run time: 97 min.
Creator: Paul Chaplin
Price: £8.16

Review Mystery Science Theater 3000: Mitchell [1998] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Rhino Home Video:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Ally McBeal - Season 1 Part 2 [1998]
Actors & Directors
  • Calista Flockhart
Release date: 2002-10-07
Run time: 470 min.
Creator: David E. Kelley
RRP: £19.99
Price: £5.00

Review Ally McBeal - Season 1 Part 2 [1998] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:


Review MGM / Heavy Traffic [1973] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Joseph Kaufmann
  • Mary Dean Lauria
  • Beverly Hope Atkinson
  • Frank DeKova
  • Ralph Bakshi
  • Terri Haven
Release date: 2000-09-05
Run time: 77 min.
Creator: Steve Krantz
Price: £5.29

Review Heavy Traffic [1973] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / MGM:


Review Image Entertainment / Sinderella and the Golden Bra/Goldilocks and the Three Bares [1964] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Netta Mallina
  • Loel Minardi
  • Allison Louise Downe
  • Herschell Gordon Lewis
  • Rex Marlow
  • Guy Bonde
  • William Kerwin
  • Lili St. Cyr
Release date: 2003-05-20
Run time: 140 min.
Creator: Frank Squires
Price: £11.44

Review Sinderella and the Golden Bra/Goldilocks and the Three Bares [1964] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Image Entertainment:


Review Columbia TriStar / The Mother [2003] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Anne Reid
  • Peter Vaughan
  • Roger Michell
  • Anna Wilson-Jones
  • Daniel Craig
  • Danira Govich
Release date: 2004-10-12
Run time: 112 min.
Creator: Hanif Kureishi
Price: £50.95

Review The Mother [2003] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Columbia TriStar:

The movies have their share of gray-haired men romancing young women, but the spectacle of a sexual relationship between an old woman and a young man is still exotic enough for The Mother to startle audiences. Newly widowed Anne Reid, sixtyish, finds herself disenchanted with her indifferent children, and drawn to a studly handyman (Daniel Craig, from Sylvia). The observant directorial hand of Roger Michell guides them through some brutally frank sex scenes, without ignoring the psychological mess that underlies it all. It comes as no surprise that this scenario springs from the mind of Hanif Kureishi, who's been poking at British propriety since My Beautiful Laundrette. The film offers no characters to actually like, which makes it a bitter course to navigate. But Anne Reid's gutsy performance, which carries zero trace of glamour, is certainly a bold venture that asks no pity. -Robert Horton.

Review 2 Entertain Video / Pat And Margaret [1994]
Actors & Directors
  • Duncan Preston
  • Gavin Millar
  • Celia Imrie
  • Victoria Wood
  • Julie Walters
  • Thora Hird
Release date: 1997-07-02
Run time: 83 min.
Creator: Ruth Caleb
RRP: £5.99
Price: £14.99

Review Pat And Margaret [1994] / 2 Entertain Video:


Review MGM / Her Best Move [2006] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Norm Hunter
  • Leah Pipes
  • Lalaine
  • Daryl Sabara
  • Lisa Darr
  • Scott Patterson
Release date: 2008-08-19
Run time: 101 min.
Creator: Didier Rachou
Price: £7.63

Review Her Best Move [2006] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / MGM:


Review Polygram USA Video / Topsy-Turvy [2000] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Mike Leigh
  • Roger Heathcott
  • Jim Broadbent
  • Dexter Fletcher
  • Allan Corduner
  • Sukie Smith
Release date: 2000-06-20
Run time: 160 min.
Creator: Simon Channing Williams
Price: £6.99

Review Topsy-Turvy [2000] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Polygram USA Video:

At first glance, a musical period comedy-drama about Gilbert and Sullivan seems an odd fit for director Mike Leigh, who made his name with searing, intense contemporary dramas such as Secrets and Lies and Career Girls. What could the Victorian world of light opera offer a film-maker who specialises in the world of modern-day middle-class England? Plenty, as it turns out. A wonderful meditation on the creation of art, Topsy-Turvy catches Gilbert and Sullivan at a crossroads in their illustrious careers. Having scored numerous hits (like The Pirates of Penzance and HMS Pinafore), they've reached a creative dry spot with their latest, Princess Ida. Composer Sullivan (Allan Corduner) despairs of ever being taken seriously, and vows to write a "serious" piece, much to the consternation of librettist Gilbert (Jim Broadbent), who's flummoxed and unyielding when asked to change another of his whimsical, "topsy-turvy" scenarios. All seems lost when, thanks to his wife's insistence, Gilbert attends a Japanese exposition in London, and faster than you can say "Three little maids from school are we", inspiration strikes. The rest, as they say, is history, but Leigh re-creates the creative process with meticulous and loving care, from the writing of The Mikado to its staging (wherein Gilbert acts as director), costuming, orchestration, rehearsal, and ultimate premiere. Some may balk at the running time of the film (almost three hours), but it's a journey well worth taking, down to the precise details of late-19th-century London. Still, you'll know you're in Mike Leigh territory, with his precise characterisations and a heartfelt, melancholy ending. And no one has a way with actors like Leigh. [+]
This peerless ensemble, headed up by Broadbent in an Oscar-worthy performance, inhabit their characters like a second skin, and it's wonderful to see an authentic-feeling period drama in which the actors resemble real people and you don't expect someone glamorous like Helena Bonham Carter or Rupert Everett to pop up. Gilbert and Sullivan aficionados will revel in the re-enactments of The Mikado (newcomers will likely be won over, too). All in all, a breathtaking film. -Mark Englehart, Amazon. com.

Review Pablo Francisco / Pablo Francisco: Ouch! Live from San Jose [2006] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Release date: 2006-11-14
Run time: 69 min.
Price: £5.93

Review Pablo Francisco: Ouch! Live from San Jose [2006] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Pablo Francisco:


Models & Brands:
Layer Cake/Snatch/Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels (Steelbook), Diary of a Mad Black Woman [2005] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Popular: Season Two [2000] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Black Irish [2007], Next Stop, Greenwich Village [1976] (REGION 1) (NTSC), M.A.S.H. [1969], The Eighth Day [1996], Leaving Metropolis [2002] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Steamboat Bill Jr [1928], Replacements [2000] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Jack Frost [1999], Mystery Science Theater 3000: Mitchell [1998] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Ally McBeal - Season 1 Part 2 [1998], Heavy Traffic [1973] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Sinderella and the Golden Bra/Goldilocks and the Three Bares [1964] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The Mother [2003] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Pat And Margaret [1994], Her Best Move [2006] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Topsy-Turvy [2000] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Pablo Francisco: Ouch! Live from San Jose [2006] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

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