DVD Find the Perfect Gift    Send a Gift Certificate
Search 
Home › Crime, Thrillers & Mystery
Review 4 Front Video / Sneakers [1992]
Actors & Directors
  • David Strathairn
  • Phil Alden Robinson
  • Jo Marr
  • Sidney Poitier
  • Gary Hershberger
  • Robert Redford
Release date: 2005-06-06
Run time: 120 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £4.68

Review Sneakers [1992] / 4 Front Video:

This enjoyable thriller, written and directed by Phil Alden Robinson (the screenwriter of Field of Dreams), follows a raggedy group of corporate security experts who get in over their heads when they accept an assignment poaching some hot hardware for the National Security Agency. Robert Redford plays the group's guru, an ageing techno-anarchist who has been hiding from the feds since the early 1970s; his companionable gang of freaks includes Dan Aykroyd, David Strathairn, Mary McDonnell, the late River Phoenix, and Sidney Poitier, as a veteran CIA operative turned "sneaker. " The technological black box that everybody is after, an array of computer chips that can decode any encrypted message, isn't a very plausible invention, but it's a serviceable McGuffin, and the megalomania of the master plotter played by Ben Kingsley has more resonance than most. Modest inferences can be drawn about the very latest high-tech threats to civil liberties. -David Chute, Amazon. com.

Review Universal Pictures UK / Jaws 2 [1978]
Actors & Directors
  • Murray Hamilton
  • Jeannot Szwarc
  • Roy Scheider
  • Jeffrey Kramer
  • Lorraine Gary
  • Joseph Mascolo
Release date: 2001-07-30
Run time: 111 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £1.89

Review Jaws 2 [1978] / Universal Pictures UK:

Judged entirely on its own merits, Jaws 2 isn't a bad film. It even has some passably scary moments (Brody discovering a charred body in the waves; the swimming boy racing the shark back to his dinghy). But it's absolutely impossible to judge this movie on its own merits. Despite being given a great big Panavision camera to play with director Jeannot Szwarc can't hide his TV-movie origins, nor can the script, both of which spend far too long landlocked with the bickering inhabitants of Amity Island. Where the original film boldly set out to sea with Robert Shaw's Ahab-like Quint, in a misplaced desire to attract a teenage audience this movie dwells at interminable length on the courting rituals of the local youth; where Spielberg's original is a masterpiece of pacing and carefully timed tension-building, Jaws 2 sags terribly whenever the plastic shark swims out of sight. Roy Scheider comes off best, reprising his role as Chief Brody, while Lorraine Gary's role as his wife is expanded (she must be a glutton for punishment: she also starred in Jaws 4: The Revenge). Taken as a sequel Jaws 2 is inferior in every way; taken as an unassuming TV movie it's a respectable, workmanlike effort; but looking forward at what was to follow, it begins to look like a minor masterpiece. -Mark Walker.

Review Pathe Distribution / The Hole [2001]
Actors & Directors
  • Daniel Brocklebank
  • Keira Knightley
  • Desmond Harrington
  • Thora Birch
  • Nick Hamm
  • Laurence Fox
Release date: 2004-07-19
Run time: 98 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.19

Review The Hole [2001] / Pathe Distribution:

Despite copious swearing and a corporate rock soundtrack, The Hole might, more appropriately, have begun with a title sequence of silhouettes cavorting in front of a fiery backdrop; it owes far more to Tales of the Unexpected than the slick US teen movies (I Know What You Did Last Summer, The Faculty) it tries so hard to imitate. This British horror flick displays the same cheap production values as the 1970's series, but rather than staying within the confines of a half-hour TV slot, The Hole stretches its thin, but promising, premise over 90 minutes. Based on Guy Burt's novel, the story follows three rich kids from an exclusive English boarding school who avoid their school field trip by hiding out in an underground bunker. Liz (a suitably embarrassed Thora Birch) tags along for the ride in the hope that she may consummate her crush on Mike Steel (Desmond Harrington), the school's resident American hipster. They are then left imprisoned, which should be the cue for The Breakfast Club Goes Insane but isn't, as director Nick Hamm eschews the straightforward in favour of clumsy flashbacks and contrived plot twists, robbing the film of any tension or shock and turning it into a tiresome stretch in the company of four very disagreeable stereotypes. The Hole is a witless movie, entirely lacking the self-referential humour and technical skill of its better American counterparts. If you want classic British horror, try Peeping Tom or The Wicker Man instead. The Hole is a movie that may be set deep underground, but ultimately it's a very shallow experience. On the DVD: the extras add nothing to this movie. The theatrical trailer and widescreen 2. [+]
35:1 ratio come as standard. Of the nine deleted scenes the original coda for the end of the movie is the only one worth seeing purely because it is so ludicrous. Director Hamm's po-faced commentary sheds little illumination into this deep, dark hole. -Tom Nash.

Review 4 Front Video / The Chamber [1997]
Actors & Directors
  • Chris O'Donnell
  • Raymond J. Barry
  • James Foley
  • Robert Prosky
  • Gene Hackman
  • Faye Dunaway
Release date: 2005-06-06
Run time: 108 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £3.47

Review The Chamber [1997] / 4 Front Video:


Review Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / The Lady From Shanghai [1948]
Actors & Directors
  • Glenn Anders
  • Orson Welles
  • Ted De Corsia
  • Everett Sloane
  • Orson Welles
  • Rita Hayworth
Release date: 2003-08-18
Run time: 87 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.65

Review The Lady From Shanghai [1948] / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:

Legend has it that Orson Welles more or less conned studio boss Harry Cohn over the phone into making The Lady from Shanghai by grabbing the title from a nearby paperback. In any case, this is one of Welles's most fascinating works, a bizarre tale of an Irish sailor (Welles) who accompanies a beautiful woman (Rita Hayworth) and her handicapped husband (Everett Sloane) on a cruise and becomes involved in a murder plot. But never mind all that (the aforementioned legend also claims that Cohn offered a reward to anyone who could explain the plot to him). The film is really a dream of Welles's driving preoccupations both on and off-screen at the time: the elusiveness of identity, the mystique of things lost, and most of all the director's faltering marriage to Hayworth. In the tradition of male filmmakers who indirectly tell the story of their love affairs with leading ladies, Welles tells his own, photographing Hayworth as a deconstructed star, an obvious cinematic creation, thus reflecting, perhaps, a never-satisfied yearning that leads us back to the mystery of Citizen Kane. -Tom Keogh.

Review Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / Perfect Stranger [2007]
Actors & Directors
  • Halle Berry
  • Patti D'Arbanville
  • James Foley
  • Bruce Willis
  • Gary Dourdan
  • Giovanni Ribisi
Release date: 2007-09-10
Run time: 104 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £2.93

Review Perfect Stranger [2007] / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:

In Perfect Stranger, ace New York Courier reporter Rowena Price (Halle Berry) will do anything to get her story-even if it verges on the unethical. After her plans to out a US senator's homosexual relationship with an intern are thwarted, Price's next chance at a big scoop falls right into her lap. When her friend Grace (Nicky Lynn Aycox) is found murdered, the main suspect is revealed to be Harrison Hill (Bruce Willis), a philandering high-powered advertising exec with a very jealous wife. With some help from her right-hand tech guru, Miles (Giovanni Ribisi), Rowena goes undercover as a temp at Hill's agency, where her own good looks are bound to draw Hill closer to her, taking her to the facts behind Grace's murder. No simple plot description can truly explain James Foley's (At Close Range) twisty, techy thriller. It begins with a false set-up, takes a whole other route, and makes a series of bizarre 11th hour revelations that not even the most seasoned viewer would predict. The always watchable Berry makes us root for a character whose methods aren't always the most scrupulous, and Giovanni Ribisi does a lot with the 'sidekick' role. Anastas Michos's cinematography gives Manhattan a slightly sinister glow of cool blue, appropriate to this tale in which nothing is what it seems, and trusting in someone is sure to cause regret-or worse. Perfect Stranger may occasionally defy logic, but that is not likely to deter those hungering for a handsomely made, star-fuelled studio film with plenty of surprises.

Review Mgm Home Ent. (Europe) Ltd. / James Bond - The Man With The Golden Gun (Ultimate Edition 2 Disc Set) [1974]
Actors & Directors
  • Christopher Lee
  • Roger Moore
  • Britt Ekland
  • Clifton James
  • Maud Adams
  • Guy Hamilton
Release date: 2006-07-17
Run time: 119 min.
RRP: £16.99
Price: £3.01

Review James Bond - The Man With The Golden Gun (Ultimate Edition 2 Disc Set) [1974] / Mgm Home Ent. (Europe) Ltd.:


Review Network / Tales Of The Unexpected - The Complete Second Series
Actors & Directors
  • Michael Gambon
  • John Gielgud
  • Joan Collins
  • Joseph Cotton
Release date: 2006-07-24
Run time: 400 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £6.54

Review Tales Of The Unexpected - The Complete Second Series / Network:


Review Warner Home Video / Bonnie And Clyde [Blu-ray] [1967]
Actors & Directors
  • Clyde Howdy
  • Warren Beatty
  • Arthur Penn
  • Ken Mayer
  • James Stiver
  • Garry Goodgion
Release date: 2008-05-05
Run time: 107 min.
RRP: £24.99
Price: £13.49

Review Bonnie And Clyde [Blu-ray] [1967] / Warner Home Video:

Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Gene Hackman, Michael J. Pollard.

Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Sliver [1993]
Actors & Directors
  • Sharon Stone
  • Tom Berenger
  • Polly Walker
  • Phillip Noyce
  • Martin Landau
  • Colleen Camp
Release date: 2006-08-07
Run time: 103 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £3.77

Review Sliver [1993] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

A guilty pleasure but nothing more, Sliver is a tame thriller, made at the height of Sharon Stone's fame as she rode high off the back of Basic Instinct. Where Sliver goes wrong though is in effectively trying to transpose the elements that made Stone's name into the film (right down to getting Basic Instinct scribe Joe Ezterhas to pen the script) It doesn't work, but you can't deny that the mess it all ends up as isn't strangely entertaining. The plot follows Stone's character as she rents a room in an elegant block of flats. So far so good. But then there's the small matter that someone is using an extensive surveillance system to watch Stone and the other inhabitants of the flats. Could it be Alec Baldwin? Could it be Tom Berenger? As the two of them fight for Stone's affections-replete with obligatory sex scenes-there's a high chance you won't actually be that bothered, as the film desperately tries to grasp what made Basic Instinct a major hit, yet fairly brutally fails. But still, there's fun to be had. The acting is evenly under par, and Phillip Noyce's direction is far from his best, yet thanks to a series of unintentional giggles and a fairly snappy pace, Sliver does has its moments. Just not that many of them…-Simon Brew.

Review Universal Pictures UK / Untraceable [2008]
Actors & Directors
  • Diane Lane
Release date: 2008-06-23
Run time: 97 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £8.35

Review Untraceable [2008] / Universal Pictures UK:

Untraceable fuses Saw with The Net in a perverse yet moralistic story about a psychopath who broadcasts acts of torture over the internet-all to better reveal the twisted underbelly of the American public, who hasten the victims' deaths simply by looking at the website. FBI agent Jennifer Marsh (Diane Lane, her mature-sexy mojo tamped down but still simmering in the corners of her eyes and the nape of her neck) launches a cyberhunt for the killer, only to find herself and her team caught up in his murderous scheme. It's hard to make tapping on a keyboard and staring at a computer screen exciting, but Untraceable does its best by making Marsh and her cybercrimebusting partner (Colin Hanks, King Kong) rattle off cascades of jaunty techno-jargon and do impressive bits of long-distance surveillance. The movie aims for the audience that flocked to see Ashley Judd in thrillers like Kiss the Girls and Double Jeopardy, but it's hard to say if fans of Lane's romantic fare like Under the Tuscan Sun or Must Like Dogs will enjoy the queasy violence. Nonetheless, the cast-including Mary Beth Hurt (The World According to Garp) as Marsh's mother-does a solid job and the movie clips along at an aggressive pace, maintaining tension throughout. -Bret Fetzer.

Review Mgm Home Ent. (Europe) Ltd. / James Bond - Thunderball (Ultimate Edition 2 Disc Set) [1965]
Actors & Directors
  • Adolfo Celi
  • Terence Young
  • Lois Maxwell
  • Claudine Auger
  • Bernard Lee
  • Sean Connery
Release date: 2006-07-17
Run time: 125 min.
RRP: £16.99
Price: £3.34

Review James Bond - Thunderball (Ultimate Edition 2 Disc Set) [1965] / Mgm Home Ent. (Europe) Ltd.:


Review Universal Pictures UK / Law And Order - Special Victims Unit - Series 4 - Complete
Actors & Directors
  • Steve Shill
  • Mariska Hargitay
  • Sherilyn Fenn
  • Judith Light
  • Christopher Meloni
  • Pam Grier
Release date: 2007-09-10
Run time: 1025 min.
RRP: £44.99
Price: £23.78

Review Law And Order - Special Victims Unit - Series 4 - Complete / Universal Pictures UK:


Review Warner Home Video / Absolute Power [1997]
Actors & Directors
  • Ed Harris
  • Gene Hackman
  • Clint Eastwood
  • Scott Glenn
  • Clint Eastwood
  • Laura Linney
Release date: 2000-04-03
Run time: 116 min.
RRP: £13.99
Price: £3.87

Review Absolute Power [1997] / Warner Home Video:

Director Clint Eastwood's 1997 box-office hit stars himself as Luther Whitney, a highly skilled thief who finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time, witnessing the murder of a woman involved in a secret tryst with the US president (played by Gene Hackman). Determined to clear his name, Whitney cleverly eludes a tenacious detective (Ed Harris) while investigating a corruption of power reaching to the highest level of government. Adapted by veteran screenwriter William Goldman from David Baldacci's novel, this thriller balances expert suspense with well-drawn characters and an intelligent plot that's just a pounding heartbeat away from real White House headlines. Absolute Power features the great Judy Davis in a memorable supporting role as the White House chief of staff who desperately attempts to cover up the crime. -Jeff Shannon, Amazon. com.

Review Taggart / Taggart - 25th Anniversary Edition [2008]
Release date: 2008-10-20
Run time: 300 min.
RRP: £24.99
Price: £16.98

Review Taggart - 25th Anniversary Edition [2008] / Taggart:


Review Odeon Entertainment / They Made Me A Fugitive [1947]
Actors & Directors
  • Alberto Cavalcanti
  • Trevor Howard
Release date: 2008-05-26
Run time: 99 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £5.98

Review They Made Me A Fugitive [1947] / Odeon Entertainment:


Review ITV DVD / Inspector Morse - Series 3
Actors & Directors
  • John Thaw
  • Kevin Whately
Release date: 2007-02-19
Run time: 409 min.
RRP: £24.99
Price: £7.72

Review Inspector Morse - Series 3 / ITV DVD:


Review Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / Gothika [2004]
Actors & Directors
  • John Carroll Lynch
  • Robert Downey Jr.
  • Bernard Hill
  • Mathieu Kassovitz
  • Halle Berry
  • Charles S. Dutton
Release date: 2004-08-09
Run time: 98 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £2.49

Review Gothika [2004] / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:

The title of Gothika prepares you for a spooky, atmospheric thriller with an emphasis on supernatural mystery. The best way to appreciate the movie itself is to understand that it's a waking nightmare that needn't make sense in the realm of sanity. Making a flashy Hollywood debut after his superior 2000 thriller The Crimson Rivers, French actor-director Mathieu Kassovitz pours on the dark and stormy atmosphere, trapping a competent psychologist (Halle Berry) in the prison ward where she treated inmates (including Penelope Cruz) until she was committed for killing her husband (Charles S. Dutton), who was also her boss. Did a car crash cause her to suffer ghostly delusions, or is a young girl-dead for four years-sending clues from beyond the grave? Berry has to prove her innocence while Kassovitz keeps everything-including the viewer and costar Robert Downey Jr. (as Berry's colleague)-in the dark about just where the nonsensical plot is leading. There's a better movie in here somewhere, among the catwalks and crannies of the impressive prison-castle setting, and Berry gives 100% in a performance that's consistent with the movie's overwrought tone. Attentive viewers will identify the killer early on, and the ending is anticlimactic, but Gothika serves up a few good shocks for ghost-story connoisseurs. -Jeff Shannon.

Review Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / White Nights [1985]
Actors & Directors
  • Jerzy Skolimowski
  • Taylor Hackford
  • Helen Mirren
  • Gregory Hines
  • Mikhail Baryshnikov
  • Geraldine Page
Release date: 2006-07-10
Run time: 131 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £4.98

Review White Nights [1985] / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:

Sometimes movies are built around a great idea begging for a story, in this case pairing ballet legend Mikhail Baryshnikov with tap great Gregory Hines. The resulting storm of dance in White Nights, as one would expect, is great, but the story is a little forced. Baryshnikov plays (in parallel to his own life) a Russian defector to the U. S. who ends up a prisoner in the motherland after his plane is forced to land in Leningrad during an emergency. Hines is an American expatriate who gets involved with the situation. Director Taylor Hackford (An Officer and a Gentleman) punctuates an escape scenario and relationship dilemmas with as many dance sequences as possible, and the result is a wobbly, unconvincing tale with some furious footwork. Fortunately, performances carry the day, as the two male leads are both very strong as actors, and the supporting cast-Isabella Rossellini, Helen Mirren, and filmmaker Jerzy Skolimowski (Moonlighting)-is terrific. -Tom Keogh.

Review Starz Home Entertainment / Flowers In The Attic [1987]
Actors & Directors
  • Louise Fletcher
  • Victoria Tennant
  • Jeb Stuart Adams
  • Jeffrey Bloom
  • Kristy Swanson
Release date: 2005-02-21
Run time: 93 min.
RRP: £14.99
Price: £3.98

Review Flowers In The Attic [1987] / Starz Home Entertainment:


Browse Crime, Thrillers & Mystery:

Models & Brands:
Sneakers [1992], Jaws 2 [1978], The Hole [2001], The Chamber [1997], The Lady From Shanghai [1948], Perfect Stranger [2007], James Bond - The Man With The Golden Gun (Ultimate Edition 2 Disc Set) [1974], Tales Of The Unexpected - The Complete Second Series, Bonnie And Clyde [Blu-ray] [1967], Sliver [1993], Untraceable [2008], James Bond - Thunderball (Ultimate Edition 2 Disc Set) [1965], Law And Order - Special Victims Unit - Series 4 - Complete, Absolute Power [1997], Taggart - 25th Anniversary Edition [2008], They Made Me A Fugitive [1947], Inspector Morse - Series 3, Gothika [2004], White Nights [1985], Flowers In The Attic [1987]

Top headlines:
Search 
DVD Rental: try it for free