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Review Entertainment in Video / Assault On Precinct 13 [2005]
Actors & Directors
  • Brian Dennehy
  • Jean-Francois Richet
  • John Leguizamo
  • Ethan Hawke
  • Gabriel Byrne
  • Laurence Fishburne
Release date: 2005-06-27
Run time: 104 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £1.25

Review Assault On Precinct 13 [2005] / Entertainment in Video:

Action buffs will have a fine time with the spray of bullets, shattering glass, and pyrotechnic silliness that makes up the bulk of Assault on Precinct 13. Updated from the little-known cops-and-robbers classic John Carpenter made in 1976 (two years before he made his name with Halloween), this high-concept thriller is mostly a lowbrow kill-fest, and is very happy with itself for being so efficient in both categories. A decrepit police station on its last night before retirement-New Year's Eve, no less-plays unexpected home to a gang of criminals who become snowbound in the basement lockup. Another mysterious gang of people who stealthily gather in the blizzard outside want one of the particularly nasty criminals (Laurence Fishburne) dead, and they'll take the rest of the precinct down too, by golly. The odd lot of characters trapped inside include a burned-out sergeant (Ethan Hawke), a sexpot secretary (post-Sopranos Drea de Matteo), an even sexier police psychologist (Maria Bello), and various other good guys and bad guys who variously go down in blazes of guts, glory, bullets, and fire. Hawke and Fishburne are opposite sides of the coin: the law, and the bathroom scale. Their need to partner in order to survive the guns outside is the movie's moral conflict, and both actors chew on Precinct 13's peeling walls and scuffed floors to drive the point home every chance they get. Obvious filmmaking fakery abounds in everything from the irksome snowstorm, frequent gunshots to the head, and a shadowy forest that conveniently presents itself in an industrial section of Detroit for the climactic showdown. No matter, this Assault is for non-thinkers who want blood and gunpowder, with no messy slowdowns for logic, please. -Ted Fry.

Review Warner Home Video / Strangers On A Train (1951)
Actors & Directors
  • Leo G. Carroll
  • Ruth Roman
  • Alfred Hitchcock
  • Robert Walker
  • Farley Granger
  • Laura Elliot
Release date: 2001-04-09
Run time: 96 min.
RRP: £13.99
Price: £4.70

Review Strangers On A Train (1951) / Warner Home Video:

From its cleverly choreographed opening sequence to its heart-stopping climax on a rampant carousel, this 1951 Hitchcock classic readily earns its reputation as one of the director's finest examples of timeless cinematic suspense. It's not just a ripping-good thriller but a film student's delight and a perversely enjoyable battle of wits between tennis pro Guy (Farley Granger) and his mysterious, sycophantic admirer, Bruno (Robert Walker), who proposes a "criss-cross" scheme of traded murders. Bruno agrees to kill Guy's unfaithful wife, in return for which Guy will (or so it seems) kill Bruno's spiteful father. With an emphasis on narrative and visual strategy, Hitchcock controls the escalating tension with a master's flair for cinematic design, and the plot (coscripted by Raymond Chandler) is so tightly constructed that you'll be white-knuckled even after multiple viewings. Strangers on a Train remains one of Hitchcock's crowning achievements and a suspenseful classic that never loses its capacity to thrill and delight. -Jeff Shannon.

Review Playback / Monk - Series 2 - Complete
Actors & Directors
  • Bitty Schram
  • Ted Levine
  • Jason Gray-Stanford
  • Tony Shalhoub
Release date: 2005-07-18
Run time: 678 min.
RRP: £28.99
Price: £9.69

Review Monk - Series 2 - Complete / Playback:

Monk: Series Two finds the popular cable dramedy all the more satisfying and fun in its second year. Relationships between the series' core characters have (against all odds) actually deepened and sweetened, while the new whodunit storylines challenge obsessive-compulsive investigator hero Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub) in fresh and novel ways. There are no big changes, but there is more compassion, even friendship, exchanged between Monk and his former boss, Captain Leland Stottlemeyer (Ted Levine), and grudging admiration for the difficult private sleuth from Stottlemeyer's second-in-command, Lieutenant Disher (Jason Gray-Stanford). As for Monk's crucial bond with his long-suffering assistant, Sharona (Bitty Schram), well, nothing comes easier than before. On the other hand, Sharona continues to draw Monk out of his self-obsession by giving him someone to care about. Highlights include the strong season opener, "Mr. Monk Goes Back to School," starring Andrew McCarthy as a science teacher whom Monk instantly suspects of killing a colleague. (The latter's death was disguised as a suicide. ) Monk's investigation leads him to take, with many pitfalls and funny moments, a post at the school as a substitute teacher. But the episode also demonstrates the series' increasing preference for mysteries that concern how a crime was committed rather than who did it. [+]
Also good is "Mr. Monk Goes to Mexico," in which Monk finds himself in a panic without bottled water while working alongside two south-of-the-border equivalents (in looks and personality) of Stottlemeyer and Disher. "Mr. Monk Meets the Playboy" stars Gary Cole as a girlie-mag publisher who blackmails the chivalrous Monk by acquiring, and threatening to print, old topless photos of Sharona. One of the season's best shows, "Mr. Monk and the Paperboy," finds the fastidious, orderly detective in a major freakout when his own home becomes a crime scene. Still a comic joy and still stimulating for mystery buffs, Monk: Series Two is highly recommended. Among appealing guest stars are Rachel Dratch, Glenne Headley, Tim Curry, and John Turturro as Monk's Mycroft-like brother. -Tom Keogh.

Review Hollywood Pictures Home Video / The Sixth Sense [1999]
Actors & Directors
  • Bruce Willis
  • Toni Collette
  • Glenn Fitzgerald
  • Haley Joel Osment
  • M. Night Shyamalan
  • Olivia Williams
Release date: 2001-01-08
Run time: 103 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £6.42

Review The Sixth Sense [1999] / Hollywood Pictures Home Video:

"I see dead people," whispers little Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment), scared to affirm what is to him now a daily occurrence. This peaked nine-year old, already hypersensitive to begin with, is now being haunted by seemingly malevolent spirits. Child psychologist Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) is trying to find out what's triggering Cole's visions, but what appears to be a psychological manifestation turns out to be frighteningly real. It might be enough to scare off a lesser man, but for Malcolm it's personal-several months before, he was accosted and shot by an unhinged patient, who then turned the gun on himself. Since then, Malcolm has been in turmoil-he and his wife (Olivia Williams) are barely speaking, and his life has taken an aimless turn. Having failed his loved ones and himself, he's not about to give up on Cole. The Sixth Sense, M Night Shyamalan's third feature, sets itself up as a thriller, poised on the brink of delivering monstrous scares, but gradually evolves into more of a psychological drama with supernatural undertones. Many critics faulted the film for being mawkish and New Age-y, but no matter how you slice it, this is one mightily effective piece of filmmaking. The bare bones of the story are basic enough, but the moody atmosphere created by Shyamalan and cinematographer Tak Fujimoto made this one of the creepiest pictures of 1999, forsaking excessive gore for a sinisterly simple feeling of chilly otherworldliness. Willis is in his strong, silent type mode here, and gives the film wholly over to Osment, whose crumpled face and big eyes convey a child too wise for his years; his scenes with his mother (Toni Collette) are small, heartbreaking marvels. [+]
And even if you figure out the film's surprise ending, it packs an amazingly emotional wallop when it comes, and will have you racing to watch the movie again with a new perspective. You may be able to shake off the sentimentality of The Sixth Sense, but its craftsmanship and atmosphere will stay with you for days. -Mark Englehart M Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense sets itself up as a thriller, poised on the brink of delivering monstrous scares, but gradually evolves into more of a psychological drama with supernatural undertones. Many critics faulted the film for being mawkish and New Agey, but no matter how you slice it, this is one mightily effective piece of filmmaking. The bare bones of the story are basic enough, but the moody atmosphere created by Shyamalan and cinematographer Tak Fujimoto made this one of the creepiest pictures of 1999, one that forsakes excessive gore for a sinisterly simple feeling of chilly otherworldliness. Bruce Willis is in his strong, silent type mode here, and gives the film wholly over to Haley Joel Osment, whose crumpled face and big eyes convey a child too wise for his years; his scenes with his mother (Toni Collette) are small, heartbreaking marvels. And even if you figure out the film's surprise ending, it packs an amazing emotional wallop when it comes; it will have you racing to watch the movie again with a new perspective. You may be able to shake off the sentimentality of The Sixth Sense, but its craftsmanship and atmosphere will stay with you for days. -Mark Englehart.

Review MGM Entertainment / James Bond Ultimate Pierce Brosnan - Goldeneye/Tomorrow Never Dies/The World Is Not Enough/Die Another Day
Actors & Directors
  • Michael Madsen
  • Pierce Brosnan
  • Roger Spottiswoode
  • Lee Tamahori
  • Michael Apted
  • Martin Campbell
  • Rosamund Pike
  • John Cleese
  • Halle Berry
Release date: 2006-11-27
Run time: 488 min.
RRP: £34.99
Price: £25.18

Review James Bond Ultimate Pierce Brosnan - Goldeneye/Tomorrow Never Dies/The World Is Not Enough/Die Another Day / MGM Entertainment:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Shining Through [1992]
Actors & Directors
  • Melanie Griffith
  • John Gielgud
  • Michael Douglas
  • Joely Richardson
  • Liam Neeson
  • David Seltzer
Release date: 2003-06-30
Run time: 127 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £3.98

Review Shining Through [1992] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

Based on a novel by Susan Isaacs, Shining Through is uncomfortably close to Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious. This World War II drama concerns a love affair between a spy (Michael Douglas) and a secretary (Melanie Griffith) that goes south when duty turns him cold and pushes her into dangerous, behind-the-lines intelligence work. Liam Neeson plays the gentleman Nazi unwittingly providing Griffith with cover as domestic help. The best parts of the film are the twists and turns in the romance (Douglas is very good at playing a character who can turn off all feeling at will) at the beginning; the German scenes are less compelling despite such high stakes for the heroine. The climax-taking us back to Notorious whether it wants to or not-is quite gripping, largely due to Douglas's performance. -Tom Keogh.

Review Starz Home Entertainment / Roman Polanski Box Set [1962]
Actors & Directors
  • Roman Polanski
  • Zygmunt Malanowicz
  • Jacqueline Bisset
  • Donald Pleasence
  • Jolanta Umecka
  • Leon Niemczyk
Release date: 2003-08-25
Run time: 306 min.
RRP: £40.99
Price: £11.78

Review Roman Polanski Box Set [1962] / Starz Home Entertainment:


Review Uca / Mercury Rising [1998]
Actors & Directors
  • Bruce Willis
  • Kim Dickens
  • Harold Becker
  • Chi McBride
  • Alec Baldwin
  • Miko Hughes
Release date: 2008-01-15
Run time: 107 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £1.66

Review Mercury Rising [1998] / Uca:

Take off your thinking caps and toss 'em in a corner, 'cos you won't need 'em when you're watching this deliriously dumb thriller from 1997. Bruce Willis stars as a demoted FBI agent who comes to the aid of an autistic boy whose mind holds a potentially deadly secret. It seems that by gazing on a puzzle magazine and making order out of a hidden system of numbers, the 9-year-old autistic boy (Miko Hughes) has accidentally deciphered a sophisticated top-secret government code. This makes him the prime target of the ruthless bureaucrat (Alec Baldwin, in one of his silliest roles) and Willis comes to the rescue. This formulaic thriller sets up this plot with a lot of entertaining urgency but you can't give any thought to Mercury Rising or the whole movie collapses under the weight of its own illogic and nonsense. The redeeming values are the performances of Willis, young Hughes and newcomer Kim Dickens as a woman who agrees (perhaps too easily, it seems) to aid Willis in his plot to out manoeuvre the bad guys. Mercury Rising is not a waste of time compared to other formulaic thrillers but its entertainment value depends on how much you enjoy being smarter than the movie. -Jeff Shannon.

Review Criterion / The Small Back Room [1949] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • David Farrar
  • Jack Hawkins
  • Milton Rosmer
  • Kathleen Byron
  • Emeric Pressburger
  • Michael Powell
  • Cyril Cusack
Release date: 2008-08-19
Run time: 107 min.
Price: £16.26

Review The Small Back Room [1949] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Criterion:


Review Optimum Home Entertainment / Biggie And Tupac [2002]
Actors & Directors
  • Nick Broomfield
Release date: 2002-08-26
Run time: 107 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £3.75

Review Biggie And Tupac [2002] / Optimum Home Entertainment:


Review Live/Artisan / Belly [1999] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Taral Hicks
  • Nas
  • Hassan Johnson
  • DMX
  • Hype Williams
  • Tionne 'T-Boz' Watkins
Release date: 2004-01-20
Run time: 105 min.
Price: £5.14

Review Belly [1999] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Live/Artisan:


Review Universal Pictures UK / Crossfire [1947]
Actors & Directors
  • Robert Mitchum
  • Gloria Grahame
  • Robert Young
  • Robert Ryan
  • Edward Dmytryk
Release date: 2007-02-12
Run time: 82 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £4.97

Review Crossfire [1947] / Universal Pictures UK:

Crossfire was nominated for the 1947 Best Picture Oscar won by Gentleman's Agreement. Gentlemen may propose, if not agree, that Crossfire was better. Like its upscale rival, the film noir raises the specter of anti-Semitism in America: just after World War II, an affable Jew (Sam Levene) is beaten to death by one of several GIs out "crawling. " Solving the crime takes all night, but for the audience the killer's identity is scarcely in doubt; Robert Ryan's chilling study in psychopathic bigotry scored him his lone Oscar nomination. He's nearly matched in creepiness by Paul Kelly as an odd nightbird married to sultry Gloria Grahame. Two other worthy Roberts-Young and Mitchum-respectively play the police detective and the Army sergeant wondering which of his guys is a murderer. Incidentally, the hot button in the Richard Brooks novel was not anti-Semitism but homophobia-a sweaty subtext in Edward Dmytryk's film. -Richard T. Jameson.

Review MGM / Death Wish 3 [1985] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Gavan O'Herlihy
  • Deborah Raffin
  • Ed Lauter
  • Charles Bronson
  • Michael Winner
  • Martin Balsam
Release date: 2004-02-03
Run time: 91 min.
Price: £3.48

Review Death Wish 3 [1985] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / MGM:


Review Paramount / The Hunt for Red October [Blu-ray] [1990] [US Import]
Actors & Directors
  • James Earl Jones
  • Scott Glenn
  • Sean Connery
  • Sam Neill
  • Alec Baldwin
  • John McTiernan
Release date: 2008-07-29
Run time: 135 min.
Price: £11.76

Review The Hunt for Red October [Blu-ray] [1990] [US Import] / Paramount:

Before Harrison Ford assumed the mantle of playing Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan hero in Patriot Games, Alec Baldwin took a swing at the character in this John McTiernan film and hit one to the fence. If less instantly sympathetic than Ford, Baldwin is in some respects more interesting and nuanced as Ryan, and drawing comparisons between both actors' performances can make for some interesting post-movie discussion. That aside, The Hunt for Red October stands alone as a uniquely exciting adventure with a fantastic co-star: Sean Connery as a Russian nuclear submarine captain attempting to defect to the West on his ship. Ryan must figure out his true motives for approaching the US. McTiernan (Predator, Die Hard) made an exceptionally handsome movie here with action sequences that really do take one's breath away. -Tom Keogh.

Review Warner Home Video / The Thin Man Collection : The Thin Man / Shadow Of The Thin Man / The Thin Man Goes Home / After The Thin Man / Another Thin Man / The Song Of The Thin Man (6 Disc Box Set) [1934]
Actors & Directors
  • Maureen O'Sullivan
  • Barry Nelson
  • W.S. Van Dyke
  • William Powell
  • Myrna Loy
  • Keenan Wynn
Release date: 2005-09-19
Run time: 589 min.
RRP: £45.99
Price: £27.97

Review The Thin Man Collection : The Thin Man / Shadow Of The Thin Man / The Thin Man Goes Home / After The Thin Man / Another Thin Man / The Song Of The Thin Man (6 Disc Box Set) [1934] / Warner Home Video:


Review Universal Pictures UK / Psycho/The Birds
Actors & Directors
  • Tippi Hedren
  • Vera Miles
  • Rod Taylor
  • Jessica Tandy
  • Alfred Hitchcock
  • Anthony Perkins
Release date: 2006-12-26
Run time: 222 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £6.98

Review Psycho/The Birds / Universal Pictures UK:

Psycho For all the slasher pictures that have ripped off Psycho (and particularly its classic set piece, the "shower scene"), nothing has ever matched the impact of the real thing. More than just a first-rate shocker full of thrills and suspense, Psycho is also an engrossing character study in which director Alfred Hitchcock skilfully seduces you into identifying with the main characters-then pulls the rug (or the bathmat) out from under you. Anthony Perkins is unforgettable as Norman Bates, the mama's boy proprietor of the Bates Motel; and so is Janet Leigh as Marion Crane, who makes an impulsive decision and becomes a fugitive from the law, hiding out at Norman's roadside inn for one fateful night. -Jim Emerson The Birds Vacationing in northern California, Alfred Hitchcock was struck by a story in a Santa Cruz newspaper: "Seabird Invasion Hits Coastal Homes". From this peculiar incident, and his memory of a short story by Daphne du Maurier, the master of suspense created one of his strangest and most terrifying films. The Birds follows a chic blonde, Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren), as she travels to the coastal town of Bodega Bay to hook up with a rugged fellow (Rod Taylor) she's only just met. Before long the town is attacked by marauding birds, and Hitchcock's skill at staging action is brought to the fore. Beyond the superb effects, however, The Birds is also one of Hitchcock's most psychologically complicated scenarios, a tense study of violence, loneliness, and complacency. What really gets under your skin are not the bird skirmishes but the anxiety and the eerie quiet between attacks. The director elevated an unknown model, Tippi Hedren (mother of Melanie Griffith), to being his latest cool, blond leading lady, an experience that was not always easy on the much-pecked Ms. [+]
Hedren. Still, she returned for the next Hitchcock picture, the underrated Marnie. Treated with scant attention by serious critics in 1963, The Birds has grown into a classic and-despite the sci-fi trappings-one of Hitchcock's most serious films. -Robert Horton.

Review Odeon Entertainment / Blind Corner [1963]
Actors & Directors
  • Lance Comfort
  • Barbara Shelley
  • William Sylvester
Release date: 2008-08-18
Run time: 80 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £6.87

Review Blind Corner [1963] / Odeon Entertainment:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Rules Of Engagement [2000]
Actors & Directors
  • Samuel L. Jackson
  • Guy Pearce
  • Ben Kingsley
  • Bruce Greenwood
  • William Friedkin
  • Tommy Lee Jones
Release date: 2001-03-05
Run time: 122 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £4.77

Review Rules Of Engagement [2000] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

Rules of Engagement opens strongly with a Vietnam battle sequence that sets the stage for the rest of the story. But then director William Friedkin knows a thing or two about staging harrowing action sequences, and if you don't believe that, you've never seen The French Connectionor To Live and Die in LA. Unfortunately, Friedkin can't do much about the implausible plot that follows, in which the Marine commander, played by the always-terrific Samuel L Jackson, is accused of slaughtering innocent civilians (who actually were shooting at him and his men). He must rely on an old Marine buddy-a lawyer played by Tommy Lee Jones-to get him through the jury-rigged court martial. But the central premise-that an evil presidential aide would perjure himself and destroy evidence simply to maintain good relations with US allies in the Middle East, rather than defending a highly decorated Marine colonel who risked his life-is inevitably hard to swallow. And the ending is even flimsier. -Marshall Fine, Amazon. com.

Review Infinity / Sharing The Secret [2000]
Actors & Directors
  • Alison Lohman
Release date: 2006-06-26
Run time: 90 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £5.32

Review Sharing The Secret [2000] / Infinity:


Review Universal Pictures UK / The Killers [1946+1964] Doublefeature
Actors & Directors
  • Ava Gardner
  • Edmund O'Brien
  • Albert Dekker
  • Don Siegel
  • Burt Lancaster
  • Robert Siodmak
  • John Cassavetes
Release date: 2007-10-29
Run time: 195 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £7.96

Review The Killers [1946+1964] Doublefeature / Universal Pictures UK:


Browse Crime, Thrillers & Mystery:

Models & Brands:
Assault On Precinct 13 [2005], Strangers On A Train (1951), Monk - Series 2 - Complete, The Sixth Sense [1999], James Bond Ultimate Pierce Brosnan - Goldeneye/Tomorrow Never Dies/The World Is Not Enough/Die Another Day, Shining Through [1992], Roman Polanski Box Set [1962], Mercury Rising [1998], The Small Back Room [1949] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Biggie And Tupac [2002], Belly [1999] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Crossfire [1947], Death Wish 3 [1985] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The Hunt for Red October [Blu-ray] [1990] [US Import], The Thin Man Collection : The Thin Man / Shadow Of The Thin Man / The Thin Man Goes Home / After The Thin Man / Another Thin Man / The Song Of The Thin Man (6 Disc Box Set) [1934], Psycho/The Birds, Blind Corner [1963], Rules Of Engagement [2000], Sharing The Secret [2000], The Killers [1946+1964] Doublefeature

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