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Review Universal Pictures Video / Shadow Of A Doubt [1942]
Actors & Directors
  • Joseph Cotten
  • Teresa Wright
  • Hume Cronyn
  • Wallace Ford
  • Alfred Hitchcock
  • Henry Travers
Release date: 2005-10-17
Run time: 103 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £2.98

Review Shadow Of A Doubt [1942] / Universal Pictures Video:

Alfred Hitchcock considered this 1943 thriller to be his personal favourite among his own films, and although it's not as popular as some of Hitchcock's later work, it's certainly worthy of the master's admiration. Scripted by playwright Thornton Wilder and inspired by the actual case of a 1920s serial killer known as "The Merry Widow Murderer," Shadow of a Doubt sets a tone of menace and fear by introducing a psychotic killer into the small-town comforts of Santa Rosa, California. That's where young Charlie (Teresa Wright) lives with her parents and two younger siblings, and where murder is little more than a topic of morbid conversation for their mystery-buff neighbour (Hume Cronyn). Charlie was named after her favourite uncle, who has just arrived for an extended visit, and at first Uncle Charlie (Joseph Cotten) gets along famously with his admiring niece. But the film's chilling prologue has already revealed Uncle Charlie's true identity as the notorious Merry Widow Murderer, and the suspense grows almost unbearable when young Charlie's trust gives way to gradual dread and suspicion. Through narrow escapes and a climactic scene aboard a speeding train, this witty thriller strips away the fa ade of small-town tranquillity to reveal evil where it's least expected. And, of course, it's all done in pure Hitchcockian style. -Jeff Shannon.

Review Warner Home Video / Lady in the Water [HD DVD] [2006] [US Import]
Actors & Directors
  • Paul Giamatti
  • Bryce Dallas Howard
  • Bill Irwin
  • Jared Harris
  • Mary Beth Hurt
  • M. Night Shyamalan
Release date: 2006-12-19
Run time: 109 min.
Price: £13.73

Review Lady in the Water [HD DVD] [2006] [US Import] / Warner Home Video:


Review Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / Half Past Dead [Blu-ray] [2002]
Actors & Directors
  • Ja Rule
  • Morris Chestnut
  • Steven Seagal
  • Don Michael Paul
Release date: 2008-08-25
Run time: 98 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £11.97

Review Half Past Dead [Blu-ray] [2002] / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:


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: £3.46

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


Review Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / Population 436
Actors & Directors
  • Michelle Maclaren
  • Peter Outerbridge
  • Fred Durst
  • R.H. Thomson
  • Charlotte Sullivan
  • Jeremy Sisto
Release date: 2006-07-17
Run time: 88 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £2.36

Review Population 436 / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:


Review Optimum Home Entertainment / Twisted Nerve [1968]
Actors & Directors
  • Frank Finlay
  • Roy Boulting
  • Phyllis Calvert
  • Billie Whitelaw
  • Hywel Bennett
  • Hayley Mills
Release date: 2007-06-04
Run time: 112 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £5.10

Review Twisted Nerve [1968] / Optimum Home Entertainment:


Review 20th Century Fox / Only the Strong [1994] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Geoffrey Lewis
  • Paco Christian Prieto
  • Stacey Travis
  • Mark Dacascos
  • Sheldon Lettich
  • Todd Susman
Release date: 2003-12-16
Run time: 95 min.
Price: £3.19

Review Only the Strong [1994] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / 20th Century Fox:


Review ITV DVD / Cadfael - The Complete Series 4 [1997]
Actors & Directors
  • Graham Theakston
  • Sebastian Graham Jones
  • Anthony Green (II)
Release date: 2004-07-19
Run time: 226 min.
RRP: £14.99
Price: £6.12

Review Cadfael - The Complete Series 4 [1997] / ITV DVD:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / The Clearing
Actors & Directors
  • Willem Dafoe
  • Pieter Jan Brugge
  • Helen Mirren
  • Robert Redford
Release date: 2005-02-21
Run time: 91 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £0.40

Review The Clearing / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:


Review Lions Gate Home Entertainment / The Gift [2001]
Actors & Directors
  • Keanu Reeves
  • Katie Holmes
  • Sam Raimi
  • Greg Kinnear
  • Giovanni Ribisi
  • Cate Blanchett
Release date: 2001-09-17
Run time: 107 min.
RRP: £13.99
Price: £1.99

Review The Gift [2001] / Lions Gate Home Entertainment:

No one was better suited than Sam Raimi to fulfil co-writer Billy Bob Thornton's vision of The Gift. This supernatural whodunnit is set in the wooded and swampy Southern US town of Brixton, Georgia, which is altogether familiar territory for the director of the Evil Dead movies and producer of the TV series American Gothic. Raimi skilfully builds a sense of tension and unease, using his camera initially with pleasing restraint before letting rip with skewed angles and unpredictable editing effects in a series of disturbing dreams. These belong to local "Fortune Teller" Annie (a mesmerising Cate Blanchett), who "witnesses" the murder of a local good-time girl in her nightmares. As clues and red herrings pile up, it should become obvious that this is a tale more about people and place than plotting and the paranormal. After A Simple Plan it's clear that Raimi has become a mature film-maker as capable of handling psychological horror as he is at providing shocks. The top-notch ensemble cast give wholly believable performances, making the small-town setting and spooky events come alive superbly. Giovanni Ribisi and Keanu Reeves are ticking timebombs of problems, while Hilary Swank and Greg Kinnear are pathetic yet sympathetic bystanders. This is a movie of startling visions both in front of the camera and behind. On the DVD: The deliberately diluted colour looks great in the 1:85:1 widescreen ratio. [+]
Swamp oaks loom tall and shadowy while streaks of sunlight pick out the brighter end of the spectrum. A Dolby Digital 5. 1 track does justice to the dream sequence sound effects and Christopher Young's score dominated by scratch violin. The typical body of extras are included: a trailer, over-the-top TV and radio spots, but surprisingly no biographies for such a stellar cast. The "Making of" featurette is the usual clip-dominated TV promo and is seven minutes, not the advertised 10. Far better is a selection of interviews with Blanchett, Raimi (in constant suit and tie), Kinnear, Ribisi, Swank and Reeves. This is much more revealing about the production, but is also closer to 11 minutes than the stated 15. -Paul Tonks.

Review Universal Pictures UK / Jaws 2/Jaws 3/Jaws - The Revenge
Actors & Directors
  • Dennis Quaid
  • Joseph Sargent
  • Simon MacCorkindale
  • Joe Alves
  • Lea Thompson
  • Jeannot Szwarc
  • Roy Scheider
  • Bess Armstrong
Release date: 2006-10-02
Run time: 291 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £7.29

Review Jaws 2/Jaws 3/Jaws - The Revenge / Universal Pictures UK:


Review Momentum Pictures / Where The Truth Lies [2005]
Actors & Directors
  • Atom Egoyan
  • Alison Lohman
  • David Bacon
  • Colin Firth
Release date: 2006-04-24
Run time: 103 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £3.12

Review Where The Truth Lies [2005] / Momentum Pictures:


Review Paramount / Payback: Straight Up - The Director's Cut [HD DVD] [2006] [US Import]
Actors & Directors
  • Maria Bello
  • Lucy Liu
  • James Coburn
  • Brian Helgeland
  • Jack Conley
  • Stephen Cinabro
Release date: 2007-04-10
Run time: 90 min.
Price: £7.99

Review Payback: Straight Up - The Director's Cut [HD DVD] [2006] [US Import] / Paramount:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Changing Lanes [2002]
Actors & Directors
  • Roger Michell
  • Ben Affleck|Samuel L. Jackson|Sydney Pollack|Toni Collette
Release date: 2003-06-02
Run time: 95 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £0.98

Review Changing Lanes [2002] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

Changing Lanes finds director Roger Michell (Notting Hill) going American but not Hollywood, working from a script written by Michael Tolkin (The Player) and newcomer Chip Taylor. The result is something like Falling Down squared. It all starts with a car collision in New York. An alcoholic insurance salesman Doyle Gipson (Samuel L Jackson), hurrying for a vital hearing at which he might lose access to his kids, is entangled with yuppie lawyer Gavin Banek (Ben Affleck), himself speeding to a court hearing at which he must present an important document to secure his firm's custodianship of a 100 million dollar foundation. Doyle wants to handle things by the book and spurns Gavin's offer of a blank cheque, which prompts the lawyer to drive off, leaving Doyle in the rain and doomed not to make the court in time, though he leaves behind the crucial document. Over the course of the day, things escalate as Gavin tries to get the file back and an embittered Doyle refuses. In a game of deadly tit-for-tat, Gavin hires a hacker to wipe out Doyle's financial records, while Doyle resorts to sabotaging Gavin's car. The script is carefully balanced: assuming our natural sympathy for the put-upon Jackson as opposed to the smooth Affleck, we are carefully shown that the picture is not that simple-Jackson wouldn't be in a custody hearing if this was the first time his life ran out of control, while the whole crisis forces Affleck (whose unethical bosses want him to forge the document) to reassess his fast-track life. It's fable-like rather than credible, but the suspense ratchets ever higher and there are some fine speeches well delivered by the stars. -Kim Newman.

Review Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / Panic Room - Special Edition [2002]
Actors & Directors
  • Kristen Stewart
  • David Fincher
  • Forest Whitaker
  • Jodie Foster
  • Dwight Yoakam
  • Jared Leto
Release date: 2004-07-19
Run time: 107 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £3.86

Review Panic Room - Special Edition [2002] / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:

An effective exercise in "confined cinema", Panic Room is a finely crafted thriller that ultimately transcends the thinness of its premise. David Koepp's screenplay is basically Wait Until Dark on steroids, so director David Fincher (Seven, The Game) compensates with elaborate CGI-assisted camera moves, jazzing up his visuals. A relocated New York divorcée (Jodie Foster) and her diabetic daughter (Kristen Stewart) fight for their lives against a trio of tenacious burglars (Jared Leto, Forest Whitaker, Dwight Yoakam) in their new Manhattan townhouse. They're safe in a customised, impenetrable "panic room", but the burglars want what's in the room's safe, so mother and daughter (and Koepp and Fincher) must find clever ways to turn the tables and persevere. Suspense and intelligence are admirably maintained, with Foster (who replaced the then-injured Nicole Kidman) relying on her Silence of the Lambs resourcefulness. It's not as viscerally satisfying as Fincher's previous thrillers, but Panic Room definitely holds the viewer's attention. -Jeff Shannon, Amazon. com.

Review 4 Front Video / Fear [1996]
Actors & Directors
  • Reese Witherspoon
  • James Foley
  • Mark Wahlberg
  • Alyssa Milano
  • Amy Brenneman
  • William Petersen
Release date: 2005-04-04
Run time: 93 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £1.78

Review Fear [1996] / 4 Front Video:


Review MGM Entertainment / Colors [1988]
Actors & Directors
  • Robert Duvall
  • Grand L. Bush
  • Sean Penn
  • Randy Brooks
  • Maria Conchita Alonso
  • Dennis Hopper
Release date: 2001-07-09
Run time: 127 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.21

Review Colors [1988] / MGM Entertainment:

Directed by Dennis Hopper, Colors is a superior 1988 action movie set among the street gangs of LA that teams up Robert Duvall as Hodges, the elder cop, with young hothead partner Danny McGavin (Sean Penn). Investigating a murderous feud between the “Bloods” and the “Crips”, Duvall attempts to impress upon the impetuous Penn the value of a more cautious, easy-going approach in dealing with gang members, rather than trying to charge in among them. The film as a whole was one of the first to take a serious, unromantic and unstereotypical look at gang culture, at how youngsters are sucked into it, how few options are actually open to these macho hoodlums and how little they have in the way of family, community and stability other than the gangs. The partnership between Penn and Duvall by contrast, though well played, is pretty much the standard old cop/young cop set-up, right down to Duvall's frequent, ominous remarks about how close he is to retirement. While the action is sometimes disjointed and the relationships between the gangs at times confused, it at least helps to dispel the usual Hollywood good vs. evil dynamic. Instead, there's a more ambient sense of violence, desperation, retribution and recrimination. Penn's doomed relationship with a “homegirl” indicates that while the LAPD may capture a few felons, they've little chance of capturing the hearts and minds of the criminalised poor. Later films such as John Singleton's Boyz 'n the Hood (1991) would go further in exploring how life looks from the gangsta perspective. On the DVD: The films is presented in an anamorphic 16:9 widescreen version, with the usual chapter and language selections. [+]
The only other feature is the original, detailed but run-of-the-mill trailer. -David Stubbs.

Review Miramax / Gone Baby Gone (Ws Dub Sub Ac3 Dol) [2007] ( REGION1 ) (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Casey Affleck
  • Ed Harris
  • Michelle Monaghan
  • Ben Affleck
  • John Ashton
  • Morgan Freeman
Release date: 2008-02-12
Run time: 114 min.
Price: £6.99

Review Gone Baby Gone (Ws Dub Sub Ac3 Dol) [2007] ( REGION1 ) (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Miramax:


Review Optimum Home Entertainment / Stormy Monday
Actors & Directors
  • Sting
  • Tommy Lee Jones
  • Sean Bean
  • Melanie Griffith
Release date: 2006-04-10
Run time: 93 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £4.97

Review Stormy Monday / Optimum Home Entertainment:


Review Columbia TriStar / Leon: The Professional [1995] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Natalie Portman
  • Luc Besson
  • Danny Aiello
  • Gary Oldman
  • Peter Appel
  • Jean Reno
Release date: 2005-01-11
Run time: 133 min.
Price: £7.61

Review Leon: The Professional [1995] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Columbia TriStar:

Luc Besson (The Fifth Element) made his American directorial debut with Leon, a stylised thriller about a French hit man (Jean Reno) who takes in an American girl (Natalie Portman) being pursued by a corrupt killer cop (Gary Oldman). Oldman is a little more unhinged than he should be, but there is something genuinely irresistible about the story line and the relationship between Reno and Portman. Rather than cave in to the cookie-cutter look and feel of American action pictures, Besson brings a bit of his glossy style from French hits La Femme Nikita and Subway to the production of The Professional, and the results are refreshing even if the bullets and explosions are awfully familiar. -Tom Keogh.

Browse Crime, Thrillers & Mystery:

Models & Brands:
Shadow Of A Doubt [1942], Lady in the Water [HD DVD] [2006] [US Import], Half Past Dead [Blu-ray] [2002], Biggie And Tupac [2002], Population 436, Twisted Nerve [1968], Only the Strong [1994] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Cadfael - The Complete Series 4 [1997], The Clearing, The Gift [2001], Jaws 2/Jaws 3/Jaws - The Revenge, Where The Truth Lies [2005], Payback: Straight Up - The Director's Cut [HD DVD] [2006] [US Import], Changing Lanes [2002], Panic Room - Special Edition [2002], Fear [1996], Colors [1988], Gone Baby Gone (Ws Dub Sub Ac3 Dol) [2007] ( REGION1 ) (REGION 1) (NTSC), Stormy Monday, Leon: The Professional [1995] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

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