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Review Paramount Home Entertainment / The Godfather Trilogy : Remastered Collection - Limited Edition Steelbook Metal Packaging (Exclusive To Amazon.co.uk) [1971]
Actors & Directors
  • Robert De Niro
  • Marlon Brando
  • Al Pacino
  • Francis Ford Coppola
  • Robert Duvall
  • Diane Keaton
Release date: 2008-06-02
RRP: £29.99
Price: £17.98

Review The Godfather Trilogy : Remastered Collection - Limited Edition Steelbook Metal Packaging (Exclusive To Amazon.co.uk) [1971] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

Throughout his long, wandering, often distinguished career Francis Ford Coppola has made many films that are good and fine, many more that are flawed but undeniably interesting, and a handful of duds that are worth viewing if only because his personality is so flagrantly absent. Yet he is and always shall be known as the man who directed the Godfather films, a series that has dominated and defined their creator in a way perhaps no other director can understand. Coppola has never been able to leave them alone, whether returning after 15 years to make a trilogy of the diptych, or re-editing the first two films into chronological order for a separate video release as The Godfather Saga. The films are America's very own Shakespearean cycle: they tell a tale of a vicious mobster and his extended personal and professional families (once the stuff of righteous moral comeuppance), and they dared to present themselves with an epic sweep and an unapologetically tragic tone. Murder, it turned out, was a serious business. The first film remains a towering achievement, brilliantly cast and conceived. The entry of Michael Corleone into the family business, the transition of power from his father, the ruthless dispatch of his enemies-all this is told with an assurance that is breathtaking to behold. And it turned out to be merely prologue; two years later The Godfather, Part II balanced Michael's ever-greater acquisition of power and influence during the fall of Cuba with the story of his father's own youthful rise from immigrant slums. The stakes were higher, the story's construction more elaborate, and the isolated despair at the end wholly earned. (Has there ever been a cinematic performance greater than Al Pacino's Michael, so smart and ambitious, marching through the years into what he knows is his own doom with eyes open and hungry?) The Godfather, Part III was mostly written off as an attempted cash-in, but it is a wholly worthy conclusion, less slow than autumnally patient and almost merciless in the way it brings Michael's past sins crashing down around him even as he tries to redeem himself. [+]
-Bruce Reid, Amazon. com.

Review Contender Entertainment Group / Spooks : Complete BBC Series 5 [2007] [2006]
Actors & Directors
  • Rupert Penry-Jones
  • Omar Madha;Julian Simpson;Andy Hay
  • Peter Firth
  • Raza Jaffrey
Release date: 2007-09-10
Run time: 620 min.
RRP: £39.99
Price: £13.98

Review Spooks : Complete BBC Series 5 [2007] [2006] / Contender Entertainment Group:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment / No Country For Old Men [2008]
Actors & Directors
  • Kelly MacDonald
  • Ethan Coen
  • Josh Brolin
  • Javier Bardem
  • Stephen Root
  • Tommy Lee Jones
  • Joel Coen
Release date: 2008-06-02
Run time: 117 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £11.79

Review No Country For Old Men [2008] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

The Coen brothers make their finest thriller since Fargo with a restrained adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel. Not that there aren't moments of intense violence, but No Country for Old Men is their quietest, most existential film yet. In this modern-day Western, Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) is a Vietnam veteran who needs a break. One morning while hunting antelope, he spies several trucks surrounded by dead bodies (both human and canine). In examining the site, he finds a case filled with $2 million. Moss takes it with him, tells his wife (Kelly Macdonald) he's going away for awhile, and hits the road until he can determine his next move. On the way from El Paso to Mexico, he discovers he's being followed by ex-special ops agent Chigurh (an eerily calm Javier Bardem). Chigurh's weapon of choice is a cattle gun, and he uses it on everyone who gets in his way-or loses a coin toss (as far as he's concerned, bad luck is grounds for death). Just as Sheriff Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), a World War II veteran, is on Moss's trail, Chigurh's former colleague, Wells (Woody Harrelson), is on his. For most of the movie, Moss remains one step ahead of his nemesis. [+]
Both men are clever and resourceful-except Moss has a conscious, Chigurh does not (he is, as McCarthy puts it, "a prophet of destruction"). At times, the film plays like an old horror movie, with Chigurh as its lumbering Frankenstein monster. Like the taciturn terminator, No Country for Old Men doesn't move quickly, but the tension never dissipates. This minimalist masterwork represents Joel and Ethan Coen and their entire cast, particularly Brolin and Jones, at the peak of their powers. -Kathleen C. Fennessy.

Review Alfred Hitchcock / Hitchcock 14 Disc Box Set - Vertigo/ The Birds/ Rear Window/ Marnie/ Frenzy/ Topaz/ The Trouble With Harry/ Torn Curtain/ Psycho/ Family Plot/ Saboteur/ Shadow Of A Doubt/ Man Who Knew Too Much/ Rope
Release date: 2005-11-21
RRP: £89.99
Price: £24.98

Review Hitchcock 14 Disc Box Set - Vertigo/ The Birds/ Rear Window/ Marnie/ Frenzy/ Topaz/ The Trouble With Harry/ Torn Curtain/ Psycho/ Family Plot/ Saboteur/ Shadow Of A Doubt/ Man Who Knew Too Much/ Rope / Alfred Hitchcock:


Review Universal Pictures UK / The Kingdom [2007]
Actors & Directors
  • Jeremy Piven
  • Jamie Foxx
  • Peter Berg
  • Jason Bateman
  • Chris Cooper
  • Jennifer Garner
Release date: 2008-01-28
Run time: 106 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £3.14

Review The Kingdom [2007] / Universal Pictures UK:

Set in Saudi Arabia, The Kingdom is a political action thriller with good acting and wonderful visuals. Its so-so script, though, at times meanders aimlessly until a good explosion jolts the viewer's attention back to the screen. Jamie Foxx stars as FBI special agent Ronald Fleury, who leads an elite team into Saudi Arabia to find the terrorists who attacked American employees working in the Middle East. He has been given the unlikely deadline of five days to infiltrate the compound, with just his wit and his crew, which includes forensics expert Janet Mayes (Jennifer Garner), explosives guru Grant Sykes (Chris Cooper), and intelligence analyst Adam Leavitt (Jason Bateman). It's unclear how helpful smarmy U. S. diplomat Damon Schmidt (Jeremy Piven) will be, but Fleury knows enough to surmise that the media-hungry Schmidt might not be completely trustworthy. Foxx and Garner have wonderful screen presence, but it's Bateman and Piven who get the best lines. Director Peter Berg peppers The Kingdom with actors he has worked with in the past. Berg, who guest-starred on Alias opposite Garner, casts Tim McGraw in a small role here. [+]
(The country singer also had a co-starring role in Berg's 2004 film Friday Night Lights. ) And Kyle Chandler and Minka Kelly-two of Berg's lead actors from the Friday Night Lights television series, , make appearances in The Kingdom. The action sequences he creates are impressive and generate a sense of panic that The Kingdom producer Michael Mann (Miami Vice) undoubtedly applauds. While a tauter script would've rounded out the action nicely, the action in many cases does speak for itself. -Jae-Ha Kim.

Review Momentum Pictures / CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - Season 7 Part 2
Actors & Directors
  • Paul Guilfoyle
  • George Eads
  • Marg Helgenberger
  • Eric Szmanda
  • Robert David Hall
Release date: 2008-02-25
Run time: 499 min.
RRP: £34.99
Price: £11.68

Review CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - Season 7 Part 2 / Momentum Pictures:


Review Warner Home Video / The Wire: Complete HBO Season 5
Actors & Directors
  • Dominic West
Release date: 2008-09-22
RRP: £39.99
Price: £28.98

Review The Wire: Complete HBO Season 5 / Warner Home Video:

It's borderline tragic that one of American television's finest shows of recent times comes to an end with season five of The Wire. Long-praised for its astonishing mix of character, grit and outstandingly scripted drama, the upside is that the show sure goes out with some style. As with every season of The Wire, there's an underlying theme running alongside the exploration of both sides of Baltimore's drug problem, and this time it's the media. Fighting cutbacks, yet trying to maintain quality, the staff of The Baltimore Sun prove to be a compelling addition to the mix. On top of that, there's also Mayor Carcetti's battles at City Hall with the budget, a stretched police force looking for easy statistics, and fractions among the city's main drug dealers. Desperate times, ultimately, call for desperate measures, and it turns to McNulty to come up with a plan that threads through each of the city's factions. That The Wire has maintained its standards for five straight seasons is surely something to be celebrated all by itself. Yet what's even more remarkable is the way that it leaves our screens, seemingly forever. No character is safe and nothing is black and white, right up to the quite wonderful final episode. And what a way to go that last instalment proves to be. [+]
Giving nothing away, it's a superb fanfare to a genuinely stunning-and unequalled-piece of television drama. If you've not already, you really should find out what all the fuss about. -Simon Brew.

Review Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / Vantage Point [2008]
Actors & Directors
  • Forest Whitaker
  • Pete Travis
  • Sigourney Weaver
  • Dennis Quaid
  • William Hurt
  • Zoe Saldana
Release date: 2008-08-04
Run time: 86 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £9.94

Review Vantage Point [2008] / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:

Vantage Point, which aspires to be a cunningly twisted thriller, comes equipped with plenty of hurtling action, handheld camerawork, what-was-that? editing, and a plot that has multiple, contradictory agendas writhing like a nest of snakes. It's all set within a few blocks of a town square in Spain where a U. S. President is targeted for assassination. Although the movie lasts 90 minutes, the events it depicts are mostly over within fifteen minutes or so-but seen, rewound, and reseen from half a dozen different (you guessed it) vantage points. The first line in the credits reads "Original Film," apparently the name of the production company. "Gimmick Movie" might be more accurate. The opening reel, effectively jolting, affords an initial overview of the events through the eyes, lenses, monitors, and duelling sensibilities of a TV news producer (Sigourney Weaver), her activist-minded reporter (Zoe Saldana) and crew. Everybody's in Salamanca for the start of an international conference to reaffirm Arab-Western commitment to the fight against terrorism. Terrorism, of course, sees this as an ideal moment to break out. [+]
As gunshots and explosions reduce everything to chaos, the clock is reset to zero and we proceed to revisit the scene as experienced by several Secret Service agents (namely Dennis Quaid and Matthew Fox), an American tourist with camcorder (Forest Whitaker), sundry locals-including three who may be caught up in a love triangle or a conspiracy or both-and even the President himself (William Hurt). For a while, this is mildly diverting: that guy, or that gesture, so sinister when glimpsed across the plaza in one run-through, now appears harmless in closeup-or vice versa. But there's no real ambiguity (so stop with the careless comparisons to Kurosawa's Rashomon)-this is a shell game in which the peas aren't worth tracking. Despite decent actors, the characters might as well be holograms (although poor Forest Whitaker is saddled with "motivation" of surpassing sappiness), and the casting telegraphs several twists: one redoubtable good guy practically gives a wink-wink, nudge-nudge that he's really bad, etc. The movie declines to specify which nutjob philosophy the terrorists espouse, and their numbers are multi-ethnic. There's also a laborious suggestion that they have bloodthirsty, reactionary counterparts among the President's inner circle, which perhaps qualifies as redeeming socio-political comment and prompts a meaningless declaration of deep meaning from the Prez. The whole megilleh finally comes down to an extended car chase through impassably claustrophobic streets that would mark a lurch into unintentional self-parody-if only that point hadn't been passed a couple of rewinds earlier. -Richard T. Jameson.

Review Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / Damages - Season 1 [2007]
Actors & Directors
  • Tate Donovan
  • Rose Byrne
  • Mario Van Peebles
  • Zeljko Ivanek
  • Glenn Close
  • Ted Danson
Release date: 2008-04-14
Run time: 559 min.
RRP: £34.99
Price: £14.98

Review Damages - Season 1 [2007] / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:

Glenn Close continues the exodus of terrific movie actors and actresses who are finding the more fulfilling and meaty roles on the smaller screen. And with Damages, she's struck gold in an engrossing legal thriller. Close plays Patty Hewes, an experienced and high profile litigator. She's then joined by the eager, and considerably more wet-behind-the-ears Ellen Parsons (played by Rose Byrne), who fits into the role of her protégé. Damages then sees the pair fighting a bitter and prolonged case against Ted Danson's high-profile and very rich businessman. Where Damages differs from many in the genre is that its first season effectively covers one single case (albeit with many, many strands), much as Murder One did all those years ago. And this makes for an increasingly layered and intriguing drama, with a healthy number of twists to keep you on your toes. The entire first season is presented in this Damages set, and very gripping it is too. Superbly acted by its cast of high and lower profile actors, it brings with it a real compulsion to find out what happened next. It's where the DVD set comes in handy, as there's no longer a week between episodes to get to the next part of the story! Damages may not have been the highest profile export from the States of late, but it is one of the very best. [+]
And this set is an ideal opportunity to find out what all the fuss is about… -Jon Foster.

Review Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm / There Will Be Blood (2 disc Special Edition) [2007]
Actors & Directors
  • Paul Thomas Anderson
  • Dillon Freasier
  • Daniel Day-Lewis
  • Barry Del Sherman
  • Kevin J. O'Connor
  • Ciarán Hinds
Release date: 2008-07-07
Run time: 152 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £12.98

Review There Will Be Blood (2 disc Special Edition) [2007] / Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm:

If there's a screen performance in 2008 that comes anywhere near to matching Daniel Day-Lewis' Oscar-winning turn in There Will Be Blood, then we've come nowhere near to seeing it. A tour-de-force of acting and a career high for Day-Lewis, it's the highlight of an extraordinary, really quite daring piece of cinema. That said, we've come to expect nothing less from writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson, the man who previously brought us Boogie Nights, Magnolia and Punch Drunk Love. However, he's really topped himself in terms of ambition with There Will Be Blood, an adaptation of Upton Sinclair's book, Oil! It follows Daniel Plainview (Day-Lewis) who, when we first meet him in the film's silent opening is attempting to mine silver, before he discovers oil and slowly builds up an empire off the back of it. There Will Be Blood then follows his rise to power, given the vast riches that his oil brings him, concurrently exploring his relationship with his son. It proves to be a long, complex, stunning piece of work. There's little room in There Will Be Blood for much more than the sheer power of Day-Lewis' performance, but credit Paul Dano (last seen saying an awful lot less in Little Miss Sunshine) for attempting to go toe-to-toe with the leading man. He's a foil of sorts for Plainview, playing a man as troubled and torn as Day-Lewis' character, and it's a career high to date for the young actor. The film, too, is a match for anything Paul Thomas Anderson has done to date, and that's some achievement. With no easy resolution, and a degree of complexity in its characters that we all-too-rarely see from modern American films, There Will Be Blood is a challenging, at times breathtaking piece of cinema. [+]
It won't be to all tastes, and it adamantly refuses to give easy answers, but it's as daring as anything you'll see on screen all year. And Day-Lewis' performance ranks next to any of the all-time greats that you'd care to mention. -Simon Brew.

Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / 24: Complete Season 6 [2007] [2002]
Actors & Directors
  • Jon Cassar
  • Bryan Spicer
  • Regina King
  • Mary Lynn Rajskub
  • Brad Turner
  • James Morrison
  • Peter MacNicol
  • Kiefer Sutherland
  • D.B. Woodside
Release date: 2007-10-01
Run time: 1001 min.
RRP: £49.99
Price: £17.97

Review 24: Complete Season 6 [2007] [2002] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

The further adventures of Los Angeles' Counter Terrorism Unit's finest initially sees Kiefer Sutherland's Jack Bauer in a Chinese prison and not in good shape. But, this being 24, it's not too long before the breakneck plot has revved into gear, and the wheels are turning again on a frantic real-time ride that's thoroughly in the tradition of what's become television's finest thriller. You won't be finding plot spoilers here, because half the fun of 24 is not knowing what unexpected twist the scriptwriters have for you around the next corner. All that matters is that the world is under threat, and it's up to Jack Bauer to lead the fightback. And it's Kiefer Sutherland that's the real asset to series six; whereas particularly in season five he took a sideways step to accommodate stronger supporting characters, here he's shouldering a greater degree of the show's narrative thrust. You'd be hard pushed to declare that season six is vintage 24, but that's more to do with the context of particularly the excellent run that preceded it. But few shows can match its audacious verve, and repeated ability to surprise and enthral. So while season six may have too many villains, and may ask you to bear with it through a few troughs, there's still nothing out there to match it. Jump aboard… -Jon Foster.

Review Pathe Distribution / Michael Clayton [2007]
Actors & Directors
  • Tony Gilroy
  • Tom Wilkinson
  • George Clooney
  • Tilda Swinton
  • Sydney Pollack
Release date: 2008-02-18
Run time: 115 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £3.99

Review Michael Clayton [2007] / Pathe Distribution:

George Clooney already has one acting Oscar to his name, and it's unsurprising that immediately after the release of Michael Clayton, there were many arguing he was deserving of a second. For without a doubt, as impressive as the film is, it's very much Clooney who powers this one forward. Written and directed by Tony Gilroy, who previously adapted the Bourne movies for the big screen, Clooney takes the title role as a lawyer who goes in to do the jobs that, bluntly, nobody else wants to know about. And before long, Clooney discovers a cover-up that proves to be a mighty challenge to uncover, and one the inevitably conflicts him as a result. Aided by a superb supporting cast that includes the likes of Sydney Pollack, Tom Wilkinson and Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton at its best is a tense and effective thriller, written and directed steadfastly well by Gilroy. It's not without a few problems, most notably a comparably weak conclusion and one or two underdeveloped characters. But it's still a worthwhile film, and very much worth seeking out to simply enjoy a terrific performance from a Hollywood leading man who absolutely refuses to shy away from edgier roles. Long may he continue to do so. -Jon Foster.

Review Universal Pictures UK / American Gangster Extended Edition [2007]
Actors & Directors
  • Josh Brolin
  • Ridley Scott
  • Russell Crowe
  • Denzel Washington
Release date: 2008-03-10
Run time: 169 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £4.99

Review American Gangster Extended Edition [2007] / Universal Pictures UK:

A slow burning, yet entirely gripping, mobster film, American Gangster pits Denzel Washington's Frank Lucas against Russell Crowe's law enforcer Richie Roberts. Spread over a necessarily prolonged running time, their story is then brutally, expertly, told. And while American Gangster isn't in the league of prime Scorsese and Coppolla classics (such as Goodfellas and The Godfather), it's the nearest we've come in quite some time to something of that ilk. It's all based on a true story, which does mean you need to forgive it some of its obvious narrative conventions, yet this also lends it a gravitas that the film eagerly makes the most of. It's great too to see British director Ridley Scott tackling meatier material again. This is the man, after all, who gave us Blade Runner, Alien and Gladiator, and he duly delivers with American Gangster. His finest work it isn't, but an engrossing, explosive and hard-as-nails drama it absolutely is. What's more, American Gangster is powered by two of the finest leading man working in Hollywood right now, and it's terrific to see Washington and Crowe on top form here. And while in cinematic terms it's hardly a film that treads new ground, it's nonetheless a proper, grown-up and engrossing movie, and a very good one at that. -Jon Foster.

Review Lions Gate Home Entertainment / The Bank Job [2008]
Actors & Directors
  • Stephen Campbell Moore
  • Jason Statham
  • Saffron Burrows
  • Keeley Hawes
  • Roger Donaldson
  • David Suchet
Release date: 2008-06-30
Run time: 107 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £10.49

Review The Bank Job [2008] / Lions Gate Home Entertainment:

A cheerful, energetic, and completely entertaining movie, The Bank Job follows some small-time hoods who think they've lucked into a big-time opportunity when they learn a bank's security system will be temporarily suspended-little suspecting that they're being manipulated by government agents for their own ends. The result is that the movie doubles its pleasures: While the robbery itself has the usual suspense of a heist film, when the robbery is over the hoods find themselves being hunted by the police, the government, and brutal criminal kingpins who were storing dangerous information in a safety deposit box. The Bank Job won't win any awards, but it's enormously fun. Director Roger Donaldson (No Way Out, Species) propels the action along with vigour, zippy editing (with perfect clarity among multiple story-lines) and various colourful characters. Jason Statham (Snatch, The Transporter), as the leader of the bank robbers, successfully steps away from his usual bone-crunching roles to a more human presence. The rest of the cast-including Saffron Burrows (Deep Blue Sea), Keeley Hawes (Tipping the Velvet), David Suchet (Poirot), and many faces familiar from British film and television-give their characters the right degree of personality and flavour without getting fussy or detracting from the headlong rush of the story. A little sex, a lot of action, a sly sense of humour, and a twisty plot. If more movies had these basic pleasures, the world would be a happier place. -Bret Fetzer.

Review Acorn Media / Foyle's War - Series Five - Complete [2008]
Actors & Directors
  • Michael Kitchen
Release date: 2008-04-28
Run time: 289 min.
RRP: £24.99
Price: £13.50

Review Foyle's War - Series Five - Complete [2008] / Acorn Media:


Review Prism Leisure Corporation / The Machinist [2004] [2005]
Actors & Directors
  • Aitana Sanchez-Gijon
  • Christian Bale
  • John Sharian
  • Jennifer Jason Leigh
  • Brad Anderson
  • Michael Ironside
Release date: 2006-09-25
Run time: 98 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £1.33

Review The Machinist [2004] [2005] / Prism Leisure Corporation:


Review Warner Home Video / The Sopranos: HBO Season 6 (Part 2 - The Final Episodes) [2007]
Actors & Directors
  • Steven R. Schirripa
  • Steve Shill
  • David Nutter
  • Aida Turturro
  • Danny Leiner
  • Tony Sirico
  • James Gandolfini
  • Steve Buscemi
  • Michael Imperioli
  • Alan Taylor
Release date: 2007-11-19
Run time: 540 min.
RRP: £45.99
Price: £29.98

Review The Sopranos: HBO Season 6 (Part 2 - The Final Episodes) [2007] / Warner Home Video:


Review Revelation Films Ltd / Wire In The Blood 5 [2007]
Actors & Directors
  • Robson Green
  • Simone Lahbib
  • Peter Hoar;Paul Whittington;Richard Standeven
  • Mark Letheren
  • Emma Handy
Release date: 2008-07-07
Run time: 345 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £10.99

Review Wire In The Blood 5 [2007] / Revelation Films Ltd:


Review Entertainment in Video / American Psycho [2000]
Actors & Directors
  • Justin Theroux
  • Josh Lucas
  • Chloë Sevigny
  • Mary Harron
  • Christian Bale
  • Bill Sage
Release date: 2000-10-30
Run time: 98 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £2.93

Review American Psycho [2000] / Entertainment in Video:


Review Warner Home Video / The Wire: Complete HBO Season 4
Actors & Directors
  • Michael K. Williams
  • Sonja Sohn
  • Dominic West
Release date: 2008-03-10
Run time: 749 min.
RRP: £40.99
Price: £24.98

Review The Wire: Complete HBO Season 4 / Warner Home Video:

Even if you missed the first three seasons (the character guides and thorough episode recaps on HBO's website are recommended), and with only one season left, it's not too late to get in under The Wire. In fact, season 4 is an accessible introduction for those who know The Wire only by its street cred as arguably the very best show on television. For them especially, this season will be, as befitting its theme, a real education. Without resorting to melodramatics that other ratings-challenged series employ to gain that frustratingly elusive audience, The Wire shakes things up this season in a way that is true to the series and its characters. A major character, Dominic West's McNulty, plays a minor role as a contented street cop and family man, while a former supporting player, Jim True-Frost's Roland Pryzbylewski, goes to the head of the class as a new eighth grade teacher at beleaguered Edward Tilghman Middle School. It may take a couple of episodes to orient yourself to the Baltimore backrooms, squad rooms, classrooms, and street corners where The Wire's intense dramas play out, and new viewers may miss something in character nuance, but they will easily grasp the big picture. A politically motivated shake-up sends Major Crimes detectives Freamon (Clarke Peters) and Greggs (Sonja Sohn) to Homicide. The gloves come off in the mayoral race between black incumbent Clarence Royce (Glynn Turman) and idealistic white challenger Tommy Carcetti (Aidan Gillen). Gang leader Marlo (Jamie Hector) quietly and deliberately becomes the city's new drug kingpin, managing to subvert all surveillance efforts. Meanwhile, while "Prez" tries to reach his students, four highly at-risk kids will be drawn into the drug trade. [+]
Mere synopsis does not do The Wire justice. The series deftly juggles its myriad storylines and characters, all of whom make an impression, from Marlo's cold-blooded enforcers, Snoop (Felicia Pearson) and Chris (Gbenga Akinnagbe), to boxing instructor "Cutty" (Chad L. Coleman), determined to keep his young charges off the corners. There is not a false note in the performances or the writing. Richard Price (Clockers) and Dennis Lehane (Mystic River) again contributed episodes. That this series has only been nominated for only one Emmy (for writing) is a travesty. As engrossing as the finest novels and in a class by itself, this isn't television; it's The Wire. -Donald Liebenson.

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The Godfather Trilogy : Remastered Collection - Limited Edition Steelbook Metal Packaging (Exclusive To Amazon.co.uk) [1971], Spooks : Complete BBC Series 5 [2007] [2006], No Country For Old Men [2008], Hitchcock 14 Disc Box Set - Vertigo/ The Birds/ Rear Window/ Marnie/ Frenzy/ Topaz/ The Trouble With Harry/ Torn Curtain/ Psycho/ Family Plot/ Saboteur/ Shadow Of A Doubt/ Man Who Knew Too Much/ Rope, The Kingdom [2007], CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - Season 7 Part 2, The Wire: Complete HBO Season 5, Vantage Point [2008], Damages - Season 1 [2007], There Will Be Blood (2 disc Special Edition) [2007], 24: Complete Season 6 [2007] [2002], Michael Clayton [2007], American Gangster Extended Edition [2007], The Bank Job [2008], Foyle's War - Series Five - Complete [2008], The Machinist [2004] [2005], The Sopranos: HBO Season 6 (Part 2 - The Final Episodes) [2007], Wire In The Blood 5 [2007], American Psycho [2000], The Wire: Complete HBO Season 4

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