Written by David Leland and directed by Alan Clarke, Made in Britain is a slice of horrible but not inaccurate life from 1982. It holds a terrific early performance from Tim Roth as a skinhead with a swastika caste-mark tattoo, who constantly bares shark-like teeth as he spits embittered, articulate defiance at caring social workers and truncheon-wielding policemen alike. Sixteen-year-old Trevor (Roth) is remanded to an assessment centre before sentencing, but remains determined to disobey the rules imposed on him by any authority figures and spends the whole 73-minute play challenging the system to smack him back down, by vandalising the Job Centre, using his case-file as a toilet, stealing cars, victimising members of the "immigrant community" and shouting bile at people. The cycle that will lead him to an adult life in prison is explained to him with blackboard diagrams, but he believes he's better off keeping his hatred burning than toeing the line to end up as a no-hoper in a society that prizes obedience over conscience. It was originally televised as one of four Leland-filmed dramas about different aspects of the British education system, which made it seem less monomaniacal in its focus on an extreme case. There's no denying that it's an honest portrait of a monster calculated to terrify even the most concerned liberals which still manages to celebrate his self-destructive defiance. A film for television rather than a TV play, it has very strong language but the violence is all in Roth's face. On the DVD: No extra features here, but it does come with optional English sub-titles, and the theme song by the Exploited over the menu. -Kim Newman.

The frantic pacing of Big Trouble is surely intentional, but the movie leaves you wanting more of. something. Not more characters-it's got plenty of those-but more room for them to breathe in a top-heavy plot that recalls Get Shorty (also directed by Barry Sonnenfeld) without reaching those heights of ingenuity. Based on the bestseller by syndicated Miami Herald columnist Dave Barry, this Miami-based mayhem bears the distinct imprint of Barry's humour, in which absurdities pile up like rush-hour traffic, involving a former journalist (Tim Allen) connected by circumstance to a wealthy schemer (Stanley Tucci), his bored wife (Rene Russo), Russian mobsters, mismatched cops (Janeane Garofalo, Patrick Warburton), power-crazed FBI agents (Heavy D, Omar Epps), a Frito-loving drifter (Jason Lee), cretinous criminals (Tom Sizemore, Johnny Knoxville), and a gigantic toad that shoots hallucinogenic saliva. Culminating in an airport bomb smuggling (prom! pting the film's delayed release after the tragedy of September 11, 2001), Big Trouble needs the brilliant cohesion of Dr Strangelove; what it gets is Sonnenfeld's knack for sustained chaos, and a few decent belly laughs. -Jeff Shannon.

This 1988 comedy starred and was scripted by John Cleese and directed by Charles Crichton, veteran Ealing Comedy director. After 1986's Clockwise-in which he played a manic loser similar to Basil Fawlty-A Fish Called Wanda saw Cleese opting for a more sympathetic lead role. Cleese plays Archie Leach (Cary Grant's real name), a barrister living a typically English life of quiet desperation, who falls prey to the American charms of Jamie Lee Curtis. Posing as a law student, she's actually involved in a diamond robbery with psychotic but occasionally clueless Kevin Kline ("The London Underground is not a revolutionary movement!") and Michael Palin, an animal rights' activist. A Fish Called Wanda is, typically of Cleese, well constructed but the romantic heart of the movie softens it a little. It was intended as a satire on Anglo-American differences but most people remember it for a running joke involving squashed dogs, the chips up Palin's nose and the scene where Cleese is hung out of a window by his ankles. The same cast reassembled for 1997's vastly inferior Fierce Creatures. -David Stubbs A Fish Called Wanda was the blockbuster which proved that John Cleese could be a movie star in his own right. Directed by the Veteran Charles Crichton, who made the 1951 Ealing Comedies classic The Lavender Hill Mob, Wanda combined Ealing-comedy capers and Basil Fawlty-esque farce with contemporary big-screen swearing and black comedy. The plot develops in classic film noir style as Cleese's lawyer, Archie Leech, gets sucked into the double-crossing aftermath of a London diamond heist. [+]

The most acclaimed film in cinema history, Citizen Kane receives extra bolstering each time it tops a "greatest films ever" list. As a piece of filmmaking it ticks all the right boxes: a precociously talented director and lead actor in Orson Welles, Gregg Toland's innovative cinematography, a strong screenplay by Welles and Herman J Mankiewicz, rich scoring from Bernard Herrmann, and so on. For its time, it was technically groundbreaking, and laid out a blueprint for Hollywood filmmaking that's still influential. But, most importantly, as a viewing experience it's still one of the most mesmerising and beautiful films in existence. From its opening scenes-Kane's eerie Gothic mansion, his lone figure muttering the word "Rosebud" as he dies, journalists discussing the newsreel footage of his obituary-Kane lays out an enigma: who exactly was this man? Looping flashbacks build up a portrait of a contradictory figure who, despite living in the public eye, remained a mystery at heart. A testament to the corrupting influence of money, fame and the media and at its centre the tale of a man in search of love, Citizen Kane is a personal tragedy on an epic scale. Technically, it's a lesson in filmmaking in itself whose daring aesthetics nonetheless remain unobtrusive. It's doubtful that a debut director will ever be given such free reign by a studio again and even if this happened, it's doubtful that such a masterpiece would be created. On the DVD: Citizen Kane in this DVD special edition is beautifully remastered and comes with a feature illustrating the before and after of the restoration process. A 50-minute documentary, "Anatomy of a Classic", hosted by Barry Norman, delves into the making of the film as well as trying to deal with some of the myths that surround it, like the (untrue) rumour that Welles ran over both time and budget. [+]

Writer-director John Sayles's finest film to date is a sprawling, multilayered exploration of American boundaries-cultural, racial, sexual, temporal-set in a tiny Texas town on (naturally) the border of Mexico. Comparable in scope and detail to such wonderful movies as Nashville, Boogie Nights, or Sayles's own City of Hope, Lone Star plays like a fertile novel, weaving its numerous characters in and out of its large canvas and repays numerous repeated viewings. Sayles centres this tapestry with a murder mystery and touching romance, both containing origins rooted in the past. As the film opens, the skeleton of the town's corrupt, hated former sheriff, Charlie Wade (played in flashbacks with creepy intensity by Kris Kristofferson) is discovered in a nearby desert. While numerous people had reason to kill Wade, the current sheriff (Chris Cooper) believes that his own father, Wade's beloved successor, did the deed. As he unravels the mystery, he rekindles a love affair with his high school sweetheart (Elizabeth Peña) that forces the couple to relive and repair past scars. Along the way, Sayles veers off on other tangents, introducing more of the culturally divided town's characters and studying how the past haunts each of their present lives. The ease with which Sayles pulls this fragmented approach together is mesmerising. He effortlessly dissolves flashbacks into contemporary action, thematically mirroring several stories simultaneously. As usual, the performances are passionate but low-key, and Sayles writes his actors natural dialogue that both captures a deep-felt understanding for regional and cultural differences and portrays the lasting effect this has on the town's citizens. [+]

Freely adapted from Robert Ludlum's 1980 bestseller, The Bourne Identity starts fast and never slows down. The twisting plot revs up in Zurich, where amnesiac CIA assassin Jason Bourne (Matt Damon), with no memory of his name, profession, or recent activities, recruits a penniless German traveler (Run Lola Run's Franka Potente) to assist in solving the puzzle of his missing identity. While his CIA superior (Chris Cooper) dispatches assassins to kill Bourne and thus cover up his failed mission, Bourne exercises his lethal training to leave a trail of bodies from Switzerland to Paris. Director Doug Liman (Go) infuses Ludlum's intricate plotting with a maverick's eye for character detail, matching breathtaking action with the humorous, thrill-seeking chemistry of Damon and Potente. Previously made as a 1988 TV movie starring Richard Chamberlain, The Bourne Identity benefits from the sharp talent of rising stars, offering intelligent, crowd-pleasing excitement from start to finish. -Jeff Shannon On the DVD: Created to take advantage of the sequel playing in cinemas at the same time as this release, the "Explosive Extended" edition of The Bourne Identity is neither. Unlike many special editions, this is a still a single disc and several of the original DVD features-like the DTS and commentary tracks-are jettisoned for more extras, most of which are lightweight 3- to 6-minute featurettes. The new beginning and ending is incorrectly advertised as an extended edition-the feature is the same as the theatrical, and the new footage is seen à la carte, with explanations. These "bookend scenes" were shot after 9/11, an insurance policy for the filmmakers who were unsure how a spy film would play. Fortunately, the scenes were dropped and the results here are more a curio than anything else. [+]

If Clive Barker had written an episode of The Twilight Zone, it might have looked something like Cube. A handful of strangers wake up inside a bizarre maze, having been spirited there during the night. They quickly learn that they have to navigate their way through a series of chambers if they have any hope of escape but the problem is that there are lethal traps awaiting if they choose their route unwisely. Having established some imaginative and grisly punishments in store for the hostages, cowriter and director Vincenzo Natali turns his attention to the characters, for whom being trapped amplifies their best and worst qualities. The film is, in fact, similar to a famous episode of Rod Serling's old television series, though Natali's explanation for why these poor people are being put through hell is a lot closer to the spirit of The X-Files. Cube has some solid moments of suspense and drama and the sets are appropriately striking: one is tempted to believe at first the characters are lost inside a computer chip. -Tom Keogh.