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Actors & Directors
  • Philip Madoc
  • Gillian Elisa
  • Geraint Lewis
  • Sharon Morgan
Release date: 2009-03-16
Run time: 580 min.
RRP: £24.99
Price: £18.29

Review A Mind To Kill - Series 1 [1994] / Network Distribution (Defunct):


Review Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm / Chicago [2003]
Actors & Directors
  • Cliff Saunders
  • Rob Marshall
  • Catherine Zeta-Jones
  • Richard Gere
  • Taye Diggs
  • Renée Zellweger
Release date: 2003-08-04
Run time: 109 min.
Creator: Maurine Dallas Watkins
RRP: £19.99
Price: £6.00

Review Chicago [2003] / Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm:

Adapted from the long-running stage version, this big-screen Chicago is a non-stop singing and dancing extravaganza that may well herald the welcome revival of the film musical. When the part-time lover of wannabe star Roxie (Renee Zellweger) is murdered, she is banged up with Chicago's most famous singing murderess, Velma (Catherine Zeta-Jones). They compete for the attention of the best lawyer in town, Billy Flynn (Richard Gere). Drawn to the special angle of Roxie's case (the sweetest killer to hit Chicago), Flynn offers her a taste of stardom and her daydreams of singing on stage are juxtaposed with the action. Chicago has transferred well to film, seamlessly merging Dennis Potter-esque dream sequences with the action. Though the stage show uses sets sparingly, here the look has been heavily influenced by the only successful musical of recent times, Moulin Rouge, with heavy velvets and drapery offering a rich feel to the murky underworld of 1920s Chicago clubs. The hot question is: can the movie stars cut it as performers? Surprisingly, it is Zellweger who looks most comfortable in the part, regardless of her awkward dancing. Zeta-Jones is just that little bit too butch to be believable as a flapper girl, despite her stage school roots, and lacks a certain panache. But one thing is in her favour: she's believable as the ultimate starlet bitch. Gere does not fare much better, with his tap-dancing sequence littered with cutaways (mercifully his dancing and singing is kept to a minimum). [+]
The real show-stealer is Queen Latifah, whose matron of the cells is perfect and her singing spot-on. More than anything else, though, this film will whet your appetite to see the original on the West End stage. -Nikki Disney On the DVD: Chicago on DVD demonstrates that the producers of Rob Marshall's Oscar-winning film obviously took to heart the lyrics "Give 'em the old Razzle Dazzle", as the widescreen 1. 85:1 anamorphic transfer is rich with the lush colours, vibrant tones and sparkling audio that wowed audiences in the cinema. If only the extras had been given the same treatment. There's nothing like the plethora of special features that greeted fans of Moulin Rouge here; there is a grand total of three: a passable director's commentary, a deleted song, "Class", which is so dull you don't question why it didn't make the final cut, and a making-of feature, which is entertaining but nothing new. All in all, there's a very disappointing and unimaginative selection. -Kristen Bowditch.

Review Uca / Double Team [1997]
Actors & Directors
  • Mickey Rourke
  • Natacha Lindinger
  • Hark Tsui
  • Jean-Claude Van Damme
  • Dennis Rodman
  • Paul Freeman
Release date: 2004-03-08
Run time: 89 min.
Creator: Paul Mones
RRP: £5.99
Price: £2.00

Review Double Team [1997] / Uca:

Look ma, no script! As expected from a movie by Hong Kong action director Hark Tsui, there are many explosive, fast-paced sequences in this Jean-Claude Van Damme vehicle. Some are thrilling, others inconsequential. There is also another mumbling, overdone performance by Mickey Rourke, who looks as if he performed his own plastic surgery. Except for an unintentionally humorous ending, the only surprise is Dennis Rodman as Van Damme's partner in exploitation. Rodman has plenty of charisma, but needs someone to weed out those inferior scripts. He plays an eccentric arms dealer coerced by an avenging Van Damme into tracking down the evil and sadistically weird character played by a well-muscled Rourke. It says little for the production that the best sequence of the movie occurs a quarter of the way into the action. It concerns an escape by Van Damme from an island think tank for forcibly retired covert agents. After that, everyone should have gone home. -Rochelle O'Gorman, Amazon. [+]
com.

Review ITV DVD / Kavanagh Q.C. - The Complete Series 1 [1995]
Actors & Directors
  • Tristram Powell
  • Renny Rye
  • Paul Greengrass
  • Colin Gregg
  • John Thaw
Release date: 2004-03-15
Run time: 328 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £15.00

Review Kavanagh Q.C. - The Complete Series 1 [1995] / ITV DVD:

The fact that John Thaw was able to make his eponymous character in Kavanagh QC stand out as a unique personality distinct from the superficially similar Inspector Morse says much about his understated skills as an actor. Thaw brought his trademark mixture of curmudgeonly belligerence and gruff sensitivity to Kavanagh, but the barrister-who first appeared on our screens in 1995 while the Oxford detective was still alive and kicking-is no polished-up Morse. He is far worldlier, is married and has a family. And although he is often troubled by his cases, he is never afraid to play the system. He knows that there are devious, even superficial lawyers, some of them in his own chambers, who he must face across the courtroom, but he acknowledges them as an unavoidable aspect of the world in which he works. The plots are often convoluted, but Kavanagh's wielding of the trusty sword of truth is always irresistible, particularly when the case involves some kind of high-level government aberration. "The End of Law" is a case in point; a particularly nasty tale about an unexceptional businessman framed for a murder which covers up an unpleasant security scandal. It's dark and dirty and full of troubling compromises. In the end, as with most of his cases, Kavanagh's craggy features convey a subtle hint of the sourness which comes with his chosen territory. -Piers Ford.

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: £0.94

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 Universal Pictures UK / Tremors 4: The Legend Begins [2003]
Actors & Directors
  • S.S. Wilson
  • Michael Gross
  • Brent Roam
  • August Schellenberg
  • Billy Drago
  • Sara Botsford
Release date: 2004-04-19
Run time: 98 min.
Creator: Scott Buck
RRP: £12.99
Price: £4.21

Review Tremors 4: The Legend Begins [2003] / Universal Pictures UK:


Review Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm / Mimic [1998]
Actors & Directors
  • Guillermo del Toro
  • Alexander Goodwin
  • Giancarlo Giannini
  • Jeremy Northam
  • Mira Sorvino
  • Charles S. Dutton
Release date: 2005-08-01
Run time: 101 min.
Creator: Matthew Robbins
RRP: £14.99
Price: £3.13

Review Mimic [1998] / Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm:

An ultracreepy blend of horror and fantasy (think of it as Beauty and the Bugs) from Mexican director Guillermo del Toro (Cronos) about giant cockroaches in the subway tunnels beneath Manhattan. Like its DNA-altered spawn (the title refers to the way some insects evolve to resemble their predators), Mimic is not your everyday bug picture, but a more poetic (though quite gruesome) sort of film, literally crawling with bizarre, striking images. In this case, the mutant bugs are not the result of evil atomic experiments (as in Them!), but are the unexpected side effect of work done by an entomologist (Mira Sorvino) and her Centre for Disease Control officer husband (Jeremy Northam), who, in a last-ditch effort to control a roach-carried disease epidemic that was killing children, released a genetically altered form of sterile cockroaches beneath the city. They stopped the virus, but. Also starring Charles Dutton, Giancarlo Giannini, F. Murray Abraham, and Josh Brolin. -Jim Emerson.

Review Warner Home Video (Icon) / Basic [2003]
Actors & Directors
  • Samuel L. Jackson
  • John Travolta
  • Tim Daly
  • John McTiernan
  • Giovanni Ribisi
  • Connie Nielsen
Release date: 2004-01-19
Run time: 98 min.
Creator: James Vanderbilt
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.95

Review Basic [2003] / Warner Home Video (Icon):

Basic is a military mystery that offers multi-layered deception as its dramatic raison d'etre, but with plenty of machismo attitude as befitting a semi-effective thriller from Die Hard director John McTiernan. John Travolta stars as an ex-Army Ranger-turned-DEA agent, recruited by an Army investigator (Connie Nielsen) to solve the fratricide of a reviled Sergeant (Samuel L Jackson) who was allegedly killed while commanding a Special Forces training mission in the hurricane-swept rainforests of Panama. Two survivors (Giovanni Ribisi in a showboat role and Brian Van Holt) recall the ill-fated mission as the truth unfolds, Rashomon-style, in a series of repetitive flashbacks. Tricky enough to hold one's attention as it grows increasingly irrelevant, Basic is so enamoured of its bogus ingenuity that its ultimate twist is a letdown. A second viewing might prove rewarding, if only to confirm that it all holds together. -Jeff Shannon.

Review Optimum Home Entertainment / Maniac Cop [1988]
Actors & Directors
  • Richard Roundtree
  • Tom Atkins
  • Laurene Landon
  • William Smith
  • Bruce Campbell
  • William Lustig
Release date: 2004-06-28
Run time: 81 min.
Creator: Larry Cohen
RRP: £5.99
Price: £2.92

Review Maniac Cop [1988] / Optimum Home Entertainment:


Review Network / Exotica [1995]
Actors & Directors
  • Don McKellar
  • Bruce Greenwood
  • Mia Kirshner
  • Atom Egoyan
  • Elias Koteas
  • David Hemblen
Release date: 2005-08-01
Run time: 100 min.
Creator: Robert Lantos
RRP: £19.99
Price: £7.93

Review Exotica [1995] / Network:


Review Warner Home Video / Stephen King's The Shining [1997]
Actors & Directors
  • Steven Weber
  • Wil Horneff
  • Rebecca De Mornay
  • Melvin Van Peebles
  • Mick Garris
  • Courtland Mead
Release date: 2003-02-10
Run time: 273 min.
Creator: Stephen King
RRP: £13.99
Price: £4.09

Review Stephen King's The Shining [1997] / Warner Home Video:

Stephen King's The Shining is a new adaptation from the author himself, made for American television, that bears very little resemblance to the 1980 Stanley Kubrick version. Which is not surprising since Kubrick practically threw out most of King's novel and presented his own version of the story. Here King redresses the balance in a mini-series that follows his original almost to the letter, and manages to be effectively creepy despite the budget and censorship limitations of the TV format. Stephen Weber takes over the role of Jack Torrance, the caretaker who slowly descends into madness in the haunted Overlook Hotel. His performance is as far from Jack Nicholson as you could get, with his insanity building slowly and menacingly rather than being virtually mad from the get-go. Rebecca de Mornay is superb as Wendy Torrance, struggling to hold her fragile family together amid the spooky goings on. Young Courtlan Mead plays Danny, whose unique gifts give the story its title, as one of those infuriating TV brats who overacts left right and centre. Fortunately, there are enough creepy moments and a fair few frights to hold the whole thing together: the woman in the bathtub scene being a stand out shocker. Sure, there is nothing quite like Nicholson's "Here's Johnny!" moment, but this is the story King wanted to tell and it still shines brighter than most of the other recent screen adaptations of his work. On the DVD: Stephen King's The Shining is a nicely packaged set, with the film spread over two discs complete with a commentary featuring Stephen King himself, instantly making this set a must-have for his fans. [+]
There are also several deleted scenes which add some interest to parts of the movie. The transfer is good, considering its TV origins, and the crisp sound captures every spooky moment on this well-thought-out and presented set. -Jonathan Weir.

Actors & Directors
  • Jason Hughes
  • John Nettles
Release date: 2008-10-06
Run time: 105 min.
RRP: £16.99
Price: £10.91

Review Midsomer Murders - The Magician's Nephew / Acorn Media:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Speed / Speed 2 - Cruise Control [1997]
Actors & Directors
  • Jason Patric
  • Keanu Reeves
  • Joe Morton
  • Sandra Bullock
  • Jan de Bont
  • Dennis Hopper
Release date: 2004-01-05
Run time: 131 min.
Creator: Randall McCormick
RRP: £14.99
Price: £5.18

Review Speed / Speed 2 - Cruise Control [1997] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:


Review MGM Entertainment / The Dark Half [1993]
Actors & Directors
  • Amy Madigan
  • Timothy Hutton
  • George A. Romero
  • Robert Joy
  • Julie Harris
  • Michael Rooker
Release date: 2001-10-22
Run time: 116 min.
Creator: Stephen King
RRP: £12.99
Price: £2.78

Review The Dark Half [1993] / MGM Entertainment:

Although it lacks the creepy subtleties of Stephen King's celebrated novel, George Romero's underrated adaptation of The Dark Half is among the best films based on King's fiction, with Romero taking care to honour the central theme while serving up some gruesome gore in the film's much-criticised finale. Inspired by King's own admission that he wrote several novels under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, The Dark Half explores the duality of a writer's impulse, ranging from literary respectability to the viscerally cathartic thrills of exploitative pulp fiction. Author and teacher Thad Beaumont (Timothy Hutton) finds himself torn between those extremes when he "kills" his profitable alter ego, George Stark (the bestselling dark half to Thad's light), who then assumes evil, autonomous form (again played by Hutton) to defend lethally his role in Thad's creative endeavours. Forced to wrestle with this evil manifestation of his own unformed twin, Thad must fight to protect his wife (Amy Madigan), their twin babies and himself. While Romero skilfully develops the twin/duality theme to explore the writer's dilemma, Hutton is outstanding in his dual roles, playing Stark (in subtly fiendish makeup) as a redneck rebel with a knack for slashing throats. Julie Harris adds class in a supporting role, and horror fans will relish Romero's climactic showdown, in which swarms of sparrows seal Stark's fate. It favours a pulp sensibility with clunky exposition to explain Stark's existence, but The Dark Half is a laudable effort from everyone involved. -Jeff Shannon, Amazon. com.

Review Icon Home Entertainment / Loaded [2007]
Actors & Directors
  • Vinnie Jones
  • Corey Large
  • Chace Crawford
  • Monica Keena
  • Alan Pao
  • Jesse Metcalfe
Release date: 2008-09-29
Run time: 95 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £8.49

Review Loaded [2007] / Icon Home Entertainment:


Review Tokyo Shock / The Machine Girl [2007] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Noboru Iguchi
  • Asami
  • Minase Yashiro
  • Nobuhiro Nishihara
  • Kentaro Shimazu
  • Honoka
Release date: 2008-06-03
Run time: 96 min.
Creator: Yoshinori Chiba
Price: £8.61

Review The Machine Girl [2007] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Tokyo Shock:


Review Universal Pictures UK / Law And Order - Criminal Intent - Series 1 - Complete [2001]
Actors & Directors
  • Kathryn Erbe
  • Courtney B. Vance
  • Vincent D'Onofrio
  • Jamey Sheridan
Release date: 2005-02-28
RRP: £44.99
Price: £31.35

Review Law And Order - Criminal Intent - Series 1 - Complete [2001] / Universal Pictures UK:


Review Universal Pictures UK / Monk - Season 4 - Complete
Actors & Directors
  • Tony Shalhoub
Release date: 2006-10-30
RRP: £27.99
Price: £10.98

Review Monk - Season 4 - Complete / Universal Pictures UK:


Review Warner Home Video / Osmosis Jones [2001]
Actors & Directors
  • Brandy Norwood
  • Chris Rock
  • Bobby Farrelly
  • William Shatner
  • Laurence Fishburne
  • Peter Farrelly
  • David Hyde Pierce
Release date: 2002-03-18
Run time: 95 min.
Creator: Marc Hyman
RRP: £12.99
Price: £2.79

Review Osmosis Jones [2001] / Warner Home Video:

After the stiff attempts at realism in many recent features, it's a treat to see broad cartoon-style animation on the big screen in Osmosis Jones, a spoof of cop movies set inside the human body. The title character (voice by Chris Rock) is a street-smart white blood cell, working for Frank's immune system. He and Drix (David Hyde Pierce), an over-the-counter cold capsule, are reluctant partners fighting what appears to be a minor infection. Osmosis discovers Frank has really contracted a fatal virus, Thrax (Laurence Fishburne): he battles a corrupt body politic led by a venal mayor (William Shatner) to save Frank's life and win the affection of the mayor's aide, Leah (Brandy Norwood). Rock's motor-mouth delivery can get annoying, but it contrasts nicely with straight arrow Drix (imagine a fussy Buzz Lightyear). Excellent drawing and a powerful vocal performance make Thrax a genuinely frightening villain. Osmosis Jones is about two-thirds animation and one-third live action, which is why two-thirds of the film is entertaining and funny, and one-third is not. The life Osmosis and Drix save belongs to Frank, a slob played in live-action sequences by Bill Murray, who's undercut rather than supported by Chris Elliott and Molly Shannon. Shamelessly over-the-top performances make the human characters seem flatter than the two-dimensional cartoons. The live action was shot by the Farrelly brothers and features lots of gross-out gags about zits, flatulence, vomit, etc. [+]
The audience endures these leaden segments, waiting to get back to the animation-and the real comedy. Suitable for ages 9 and up: profanity, violence, bodily function jokes. -Charles Solomon, Amazon. com.

Review Umbrella Entertainment / Spoorloos / The Vanishing
Actors & Directors
  • George Sluizer
  • Gwen Eckhaus
  • Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu
  • Gene Bervoets
  • Bernadette Le Saché
  • Johanna ter Steege
Release date: 2003-04-09
Run time: 106 min.
Creator: Tim Krabbé
RRP: £12.48
Price: £7.86

Review Spoorloos / The Vanishing / Umbrella Entertainment:

When a young Dutch husband discovers that his wife has gone missing during their return to Holland from a bicycling trip in France, he begins a three-year search that forms the basis of this unsettling psychological thriller from 1988, originally titled Spoorloos. The missing woman's whereabouts remain a mystery, but the film provides an early introduction to her abductor, a seemingly normal family man whose domestic tranquillity hides a meticulous, methodical madness. As the despondent husband advertises all over France and Holland for his missing wife, this game of cat-and-mouse escalates into a strategy of psychological horror, revealing certain facts and merely suggesting others to create an intense atmosphere of dread and anticipation. A film that Alfred Hitchcock would certainly have admired, The Vanishing leads to an unforgettable conclusion that's sure to send chills down your spine. Ironically, this film's director, George Sluizer, also made the inferior 1993 American remake starring Keifer Sutherland and Jeff Bridges. -Jeff Shannon.

Browse Crime, Thrillers & Mystery:

Models & Brands:
A Mind To Kill - Series 1 [1994], Chicago [2003], Double Team [1997], Kavanagh Q.C. - The Complete Series 1 [1995], Changing Lanes [2002], Tremors 4: The Legend Begins [2003], Mimic [1998], Basic [2003], Maniac Cop [1988], Exotica [1995], Stephen King's The Shining [1997], Midsomer Murders - The Magician's Nephew, Speed / Speed 2 - Cruise Control [1997], The Dark Half [1993], Loaded [2007], The Machine Girl [2007] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Law And Order - Criminal Intent - Series 1 - Complete [2001], Monk - Season 4 - Complete, Osmosis Jones [2001], Spoorloos / The Vanishing

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