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Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Iron Man [Blu-ray] [2008]
Actors & Directors
  • Jeff Bridges
  • Terrence Howard
  • Gwyneth Paltrow
  • Jon Favreau
  • Shaun Toub
  • Robert Downey Jr
Release date: 2008-10-27
Run time: 126 min.
RRP: £29.99
Price: £17.98

Review Iron Man [Blu-ray] [2008] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

You know you're going to get a different kind of superhero when you cast Robert Downey Jr. in the lead role. And Iron Man is different, in welcome ways. Cleverly updated from Marvel Comics' longstanding series, Iron Man puts billionaire industrialist Tony Stark (that's Downey) in the path of some Middle Eastern terrorists; in a brilliantly paced section, Stark invents an indestructible suit that allows him to escape. If the rest of the movie never quite hits that precise rhythm again, it nevertheless offers plenty of pleasure, as the renewed Stark swears off his past as a weapons manufacturer, develops his new Iron Man suit, and puzzles both his business partner (Jeff Bridges in great form) and executive assistant (Gwyneth Paltrow). Director Jon Favreau geeks out in fun ways with the hardware, but never lets it overpower the movie, and there's always a goofy one-liner or a slapstick pratfall around to break the tension. As for Downey, he doesn't get to jitterbug around too much in his improv way, but he brings enough of his unpredictable personality to keep the thing fresh. And listen up, hardcore Marvel mavens: even if you know the Stan Lee cameo is coming, you won't be able to guess it until it's on the screen. It all builds to a splendid final scene, with a concluding line delivery by Downey that just feels absolutely right. -Robert Horton.

Review Lions Gate Home Entertainment / Dirty Dancing 20th Anniversary Collector's Edition [1987]
Actors & Directors
  • Neal Jones
  • Lonny Price
  • Patrick Swayze
  • Garry Goodrow
  • Emile Ardolino
  • Jennifer Grey
Release date: 2007-10-22
Run time: 105 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £6.00

Review Dirty Dancing 20th Anniversary Collector's Edition [1987] / Lions Gate Home Entertainment:


Review Entertainment in Video / The Notebook [2004]
Actors & Directors
  • Nick Cassavetes
  • Rachel McAdams
  • Ryan Gosling
  • Gena Rowlands
Release date: 2005-02-07
Run time: 123 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £3.99

Review The Notebook [2004] / Entertainment in Video:

When you consider that old-fashioned tearjerkers are an endangered species in Hollywood, a movie like The Notebook can be embraced without apology. Yes, it's syrupy sweet and clogged with clichés, and one can only marvel at the irony of Nick Cassavetes directing a weeper that his late father John-whose own films were devoid of saccharine sentiment-would have sneered at. Still, this touchingly impassioned and great-looking adaptation of the popular Nicholas Sparks novel has much to recommend, including appealing young costars (Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams) and appealing old costars (James Garner and Gena Rowlands, the director's mother) playing the same loving couple in (respectively) early 1940s and present-day North Carolina. He was poor, she was rich, and you can guess the rest; decades later, he's unabashedly devoted, and she's drifting into the memory-loss of senile dementia. How their love endured is the story preserved in the titular notebook that he reads to her in their twilight years. The movie's open to ridicule, but as a delicate tearjerker it works just fine. Message in a Bottle and A Walk to Remember were also based on Sparks novels, suggesting a triple-feature that hopeless romantics will cherish. -Jeff Shannon.

Review Warner Home Video / The Sopranos: HBO Season 6 (Part 2 - The Final Episodes) [2007]
Actors & Directors
  • Steve Shill
  • Michael Imperioli
  • Steven R. Schirripa
  • James Gandolfini
  • Steve Buscemi
  • David Nutter
  • Tony Sirico
  • Alan Taylor
  • Danny Leiner
  • Aida Turturro
Release date: 2007-11-19
Run time: 540 min.
RRP: £44.99
Price: £24.99

Review The Sopranos: HBO Season 6 (Part 2 - The Final Episodes) [2007] / Warner Home Video:


Review Disney / Desperate Housewives: Season 4
Actors & Directors
  • Eva Longoria Parker
  • Marcia Cross
  • Teri Hatcher
  • Larry Shaw
  • David Grossman
  • Felicity Huffman
Release date: 2008-11-03
RRP: £35.99
Price: £26.99

Review Desperate Housewives: Season 4 / Disney:


Review 2 Entertain Video / Miss Austen Regrets (BBC) [2008]
Actors & Directors
  • Greta Scacchi
  • Olivia Williams
  • Hugh Bonneville
  • Jack Huston
Release date: 2008-04-28
Run time: 85 min.
RRP: £14.99
Price: £6.97

Review Miss Austen Regrets (BBC) [2008] / 2 Entertain Video:

A BBC costume drama that focuses in on author Jane Austen as she heads towards her 40s, Miss Austen Regrets is a fine piece of television, grounded by a terrific performance from Olivia Williams (best remembered still for her supporting role in The Sixth Sense). Miss Austen Regrets finds the title character at a point where her writing career has already proved to be a success. However, there's the small matter of romance, which throws up a key paradox: given that Austen's books deal with the matter so well, how has she failed to properly address it in her personal life? It's an interesting dynamic for a drama, and it works particularly well. Miss Austen Regrets finds her considering some of her past choices, and whether she's made the right choices along the way. And buoyed by the aforementioned Williams and Imogene Poots as her young niece, it makes for highly enjoyable and rewarding television. Miss Austen Regrets sits happily alongside the recent film Becoming Jane as an interesting and well-measured dig into the author's life. And with good production values matched by a fine cast, it proves worthy not just as a fine drama, but the kind that'll be enjoyed time after time. Recommended. -Jon Foster.

Review Paramount Home Entertainment / The Godfather Trilogy : Remastered Collection - Limited Edition Steelbook Metal Packaging (Exclusive To Amazon.co.uk) [1971]
Actors & Directors
  • Robert De Niro
  • Robert Duvall
  • Marlon Brando
  • Francis Ford Coppola
  • Diane Keaton
  • Al Pacino
Release date: 2008-06-02
RRP: £29.99
Price: £17.97

Review The Godfather Trilogy : Remastered Collection - Limited Edition Steelbook Metal Packaging (Exclusive To Amazon.co.uk) [1971] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

Throughout his long, wandering, often distinguished career Francis Ford Coppola has made many films that are good and fine, many more that are flawed but undeniably interesting, and a handful of duds that are worth viewing if only because his personality is so flagrantly absent. Yet he is and always shall be known as the man who directed the Godfather films, a series that has dominated and defined their creator in a way perhaps no other director can understand. Coppola has never been able to leave them alone, whether returning after 15 years to make a trilogy of the diptych, or re-editing the first two films into chronological order for a separate video release as The Godfather Saga. The films are America's very own Shakespearean cycle: they tell a tale of a vicious mobster and his extended personal and professional families (once the stuff of righteous moral comeuppance), and they dared to present themselves with an epic sweep and an unapologetically tragic tone. Murder, it turned out, was a serious business. The first film remains a towering achievement, brilliantly cast and conceived. The entry of Michael Corleone into the family business, the transition of power from his father, the ruthless dispatch of his enemies-all this is told with an assurance that is breathtaking to behold. And it turned out to be merely prologue; two years later The Godfather, Part II balanced Michael's ever-greater acquisition of power and influence during the fall of Cuba with the story of his father's own youthful rise from immigrant slums. The stakes were higher, the story's construction more elaborate, and the isolated despair at the end wholly earned. (Has there ever been a cinematic performance greater than Al Pacino's Michael, so smart and ambitious, marching through the years into what he knows is his own doom with eyes open and hungry?) The Godfather, Part III was mostly written off as an attempted cash-in, but it is a wholly worthy conclusion, less slow than autumnally patient and almost merciless in the way it brings Michael's past sins crashing down around him even as he tries to redeem himself. [+]
-Bruce Reid, Amazon. com.

Review Warner Home Video / One Tree Hill - Series 3
Actors & Directors
  • Craig Sheffer
  • Chad Michael Murray
  • James Lafferty
  • Moira Kelly
  • Paul Johansson
Release date: 2006-10-23
Run time: 968 min.
RRP: £59.99
Price: £14.98

Review One Tree Hill - Series 3 / Warner Home Video:

The third season of the small town soap begins with the blaze that ended the second ("Like You Like an Arsonist"). Dan (played by Paul Johannson) makes it out alive, but vows to seek vengeance on the perpetrator - even if that person happens to be estranged son Lucas (Chad Michael Murray). In the following episode ("From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea"), Dan's preferred offspring returns to Tree Hill. Will Nathan (James Lafferty) and his wife Haley (Bethany Joy Galeotti) reconcile? It is her deepest desire, but Nathan has his doubts. Further changes are afoot. Haley and Brooke (Sophia Bush), for instance, move in together. which wouldn't seem so strange if they were in college rather than high school. Brooke and Lucas also try a "non-exclusive" arrangement (her idea, not his). [+]
When sexy schemer Rachel (Danneel Harris) joins the cheerleading squad, Brooke starts to regret her decision. Meanwhile, the delightfully odious Dan runs for mayor. Just when he thinks he's got it locked, Lucas's mother, Karen (Moira Kelly), throws her hat in the ring. But those developments are minor compared to the school shooting in episode 16 ("With Tired Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Slept"). Guest stars include Nada Surf ("Return of the Future") and season two favourites Fall Out Boy ("An Attempt to Tip the Scales"), while recurring characters include Peyton's birth mother Ellie (Sheryl Lee, who was Laura Palmer in Twin Peaks), and smug singer/songwriter Chris (Tyler Hilton, who plays Elvis Presley in Walk The Line), with whom Haley collaborates again. As in the previous year, the finale ("The Show Must Go On") is a cliffhanger. Special features include commentary, deleted scenes, and a featurette about the making of "With Tired Eyes. " -Kathleen C. Fennessy.

Review Buena Vista / Lost - The Complete Third Season [2007] [2005]
Actors & Directors
  • Evangeline Lilly
  • Dominic Monaghan
  • Matthew Fox
Release date: 2007-10-22
Run time: 951 min.
RRP: £59.99
Price: £22.00

Review Lost - The Complete Third Season [2007] [2005] / Buena Vista:

There's a steady pattern forming to seasons of Lost, where the narrative by turns manages to enthral and frustrate with equal measure. And the show's makers are clearly wise to this, as while elements of the third season revert to type, there's a clear and genuine effort to energise a programme that continues to stretch its simple premise as far as it can. So while Lost still compromises of a group of plane crash survivors marooned on a mysterious island, there's plenty else being thrown into the pot. Season three finds new characters, greater exposition of the mysterious `others', the obligatory background character work, and a pronounced fracturing of relations between many of the survivors. It too also manages to hint at some answers to the many conundrums that it continues to pose, not least a concluding episode that itself should keep fan debates fuelled until well into the next series. And, chief among its accomplishments, Lost still manages to keep us interested, and leaves plenty in the tank for the future as well. In short, there's little danger you'll be short-changed by Lost season three thanks to its ideas, its nerve, and the continued clues it teasingly leaves along the way. As fascinating as it always was. -Jon Foster.

Review ITV DVD / Northanger Abbey [2007]
Actors & Directors
  • Carey Mulligan
  • JJ Feild
  • Felicity Jones
  • Liam Cunningham
Release date: 2007-03-26
Run time: 93 min.
RRP: £17.99
Price: £4.97

Review Northanger Abbey [2007] / ITV DVD:


Review Momentum Pictures Home Ent / Miss Potter [2006]
Actors & Directors
  • Chris Noonan
  • Ewan McGregor
  • Renee Zellweger
  • Lucy Boynton
Release date: 2007-04-23
Run time: 88 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £4.29

Review Miss Potter [2006] / Momentum Pictures Home Ent:

Miss Potter walks that fine line between charming and cloying with pleasing sure-footedness. Apple-cheeked Renee Zellweger (Bridget Jones' Diary) once again slips into a British accent to play writer/illustrator Beatrix Potter, the creator of Peter Rabbit. Potter, born into wealth, fought the disapproval of her high society mother to do something as crass as publish a book. and to fall in love with her publisher, Norman Warne (Ewan McGregor, previously teamed with Zellweger in Down With Love). Unfortunately, their love runs into something worse than upper-class stuffiness. Miss Potter skips through Potter's life a bit too briskly at times, but Zellweger's thankfully restrained performance, McGregor's infinite charm, and some beautiful shots of the English landscape keep the movie grounded and engaging. Also featuring a crackling supporting performance by Emily Watson (Breaking the Waves) as Warne's sister Millie. -Bret Fetzer.

Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Juno [2007]
Actors & Directors
  • Jason Reitman
  • Ellen Page
  • Jennifer Garner
  • Michael Cera
  • J.K. Simmons
  • Allison Janney
Release date: 2008-06-09
Run time: 92 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £12.49

Review Juno [2007] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

Somewhere between the sharp satire of Election and the rich human comedy of You Can Count On Me lies Juno, a sardonic but ultimately compassionate story of a pregnant teenage girl who wants to give her baby up for adoption. Social misfit Juno (Ellen Page, Hard Candy, X-Men: The Last Stand) protects herself with a caustic wit, but when she gets pregnant by her friend Paulie (Michael Cera, Superbad), Juno finds herself unwilling to terminate the pregnancy. When she chooses a couple who place a classified ad looking to adopt, Juno gets drawn further into their lives than she anticipated. But Juno is much more than its plot; the stylised dialogue (by screenwriter Diablo Cody) seems forced at first, but soon creates a richly textured world, greatly aided by superb performances by Page, Cera, Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman as the prospective parents, and J. K. Simmons (Spider-Man) and Allison Janney as Juno's father and stepmother. Director Jason Reitman (Thank You For Smoking) deftly keeps the movie from slipping into easy, shallow sarcasm or foundering in sentimentality. The result is smarter and funnier than you might expect from the subject matter, and warmer and more touching than you might expect from the cocky attitude. Page's performance is deceptively simple; she never asks the audience to love her, yet she effortlessly carries a movie in which she's in almost every scene. That's star power. [+]
- Bret Fetzer, Amazon. com.

Review Contender Home Entertainment Group / Life On Mars : Complete BBC Series 1 [2006]
Actors & Directors
  • Ashley Pharoah
  • John Simm
  • Philip Glenister
  • Bharat Nalluri
  • Claire Parker (IV)
Release date: 2006-05-15
Run time: 472 min.
RRP: £39.99
Price: £12.48

Review Life On Mars : Complete BBC Series 1 [2006] / Contender Home Entertainment Group:

How would the modern face of policing cope in the land of The Sweeney? That's the question posed by Life on Mars, as DI Sam Tyler (John Simm) a modern cop transported back to 1973 after a nasty car accident. There, he finds himself dealing with the significantly rougher attitudes and behaviours of "old-school" British policing, as exemplified by his new boss, DCI Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister). It's a fish-out-of-water story, as Tyler attempts to teach his new colleagues some very modern methods, while attempting to get used to sheepskin jackets, wide lapels and man-made fibres. This first series of the hugely successful BBC programme sets the scene and introduces the characters that make up Tyler's new world, but stumbles a bit by trying too hard to explain exactly how he got there (the "coma" subplot just gets in the way). Life on Mars is at its best when Glenister is on screen-he's bigoted, chauvinistic and aggressive, and goes through each episode alternately bellowing or scowling. But he's a product of his times, and in his heart, all he wants is to catch the bad guys. For Tyler, it's all about the means, while for Hunt it's all about the ends. They may not like each other much, but their on-screen chemistry is undeniable, and just one of the things that make this excellent series so watchable. -Ted Kord.

Review Contender Home Entertainment Group / Life on Mars : Complete BBC Series 2 [2007]
Actors & Directors
  • Dean Andrews
  • Marshall Lancaster
  • Philip Glenister
  • John Simm
  • Liz White
Release date: 2007-04-16
Run time: 462 min.
RRP: £39.99
Price: £11.50

Review Life on Mars : Complete BBC Series 2 [2007] / Contender Home Entertainment Group:

It's hard to believe it's over. Life On Mars shot out of nowhere at the beginning of 2006 to become a vital, gripping drama, and this second series more than maintains the sky high standards that the first so memorably set. What makes it even more surprising is that all the ingredients were there for it to go so tragically wrong. The central premise, that for unknown reasons modern day police detective Sam Tyler wakes up in the 1970s, is fraught with potential potholes, yet the creators of Life On Mars twist it very much in their favour, delivering a skilful, taut comparison between policing then and policing now. It's this clash of approach that provides many of Life On Mars' sparks, but nonetheless, it has much more than that going for it. It boasts, for instance, a terrific level of attention to detail, and weaves in quality narrative too, with Tyler frequently caught between unravelling his predicament, the crimes before him, and his 1970s' colleagues with their 1970s' tactics. This second, and final, series wraps things up surprisingly well, and consistently delivers laughs, action and plenty of pub talk off the back of it. It's also a delight to revisit Life On Mars, and that makes this collected boxset of the episodes of season two an absolute must for any fan of gritty, interesting and terrifically entertaining British drama. Quite, quite brilliant. -Jon Foster.

Review Warner Home Video / Rome: The Complete HBO Season 2 (5 Disc Box Set) [2006]
Actors & Directors
  • Ray Stevenson
  • Michael Apted
  • Tobias Menzies
  • Kevin McKidd
  • Polly Walker
  • James Purefoy
Release date: 2007-09-10
Run time: 572 min.
Creator: Bruno Heller
RRP: £54.99
Price: £22.00

Review Rome: The Complete HBO Season 2 (5 Disc Box Set) [2006] / Warner Home Video:

Unlike another certain celebrated HBO series, Rome's end will satisfy those swept up in its lavishly mounted spectacle and invested in the human dramas of the historical figures and fictional characters. Series 2 begins in the wake of Julius Caesar's assassination, and charts the power struggle to fill his sandals between "vulgar beast" Mark Antony (James Purefoy) and "clever boy" Octavian (Simon Woods), who is surprisingly named Caesar's sole heir. The series' most compelling relationship is between fellow soldiers and unlikely friends, the honorable Lucius Vorenus (Kevin McKidd) and Titus "Violence is the only trade I know" Pullo (Ray Stevenson), who somewhat reverse roles when Vorenus is overcome with grief in the wake of his wife's suicide. Series 2 considerably ups the ante in the rivalry between Atia (an Emmy-worthy Polly Walker), who is Antony's mistress, and Servilia (Lindsay Duncan) with attempted poisonings and sickening torture. Another gripping sub plot is Vorenus's estrangement from his children, who, at the climax of the season opener are presumed slaughtered, but whose true fate may be even more devastating to the father who cursed them. Rome's second season does not scrimp on the series' sex and violence, in both cases exceedingly brutal. But in this cauldron of treachery and betrayal, words, too, are vicious, as when a defiant Atia ominously tells Octavian's new wife, Livia, "Far better women that you have sworn to [destroy me]. Go look for them now. " In writing Rome's epitaph, we come to praise this series, not to bury it. Although two seasons was not enough to establish a Rome empire, it stands as one of HBO's crowning achievements. [+]
-Donald Liebenson.

Review Sony Pictures Home Ent. UK / Hancock
Actors & Directors
  • Charlize Theron
  • Jason Bateman
  • Will Smith
  • Peter Berg
Release date: 2008-12-01
Creator: Vince Gilligan
RRP: £19.99
Price: £9.98

Review Hancock / Sony Pictures Home Ent. UK:

Hancock turns the standard superhero movie inside-out. The titular character, played by Will Smith, can fly, has super strength and is invulnerable. But he's also a sloppy, arrogant alcoholic who causes millions of dollars in property damage whenever he bothers to fight crime. When he saves the life of a PR agent named Ray (Jason Bateman, Arrested Development), Ray decides to improve Hancock's image-starting by having Hancock surrender himself to the authorities and go to prison for his lawless behaviour. The idea is that once he's in prison, the crime rate will go up and people will start realising Hancock might be of value after all. This is only the first act of Hancock though-from there, the film takes several surprising turns that shouldn't be revealed. Hancock isn't a great movie, but it is an extremely entertaining one. The script, which holds together far better than most superhero movies, has a propulsive plot, good dialogue, some compassion for its characters, and even an actual idea or two. The spectacular action at least gestures towards obeying the laws of physics, which actually makes the special effects more vivid. The three leads (Smith, Bateman, and Charlize Theron as Ray's wife, Mary) deftly balance the movie's mixture of comedy, action, and drama. [+]
All in all, a smart subversive twist on a genre that all too often takes itself all too seriously. -Bret Fetzer.

Review Universal Pictures Video / House - Season 3 (Hugh Laurie) [2006]
Actors & Directors
  • Hugh Laurie
Release date: 2007-11-19
Run time: 1008 min.
RRP: £34.99
Price: £14.74

Review House - Season 3 (Hugh Laurie) [2006] / Universal Pictures Video:

The award-winning House simply gets better and better, as its third season again delivers entertainment to a consistently high standard. Powered by Hugh Laurie in the title role-and his performance is worthy of every plaudit it's attracted-this is a medical mix of drama and highly sarcastic comedy, that's proven to be a considerable commercial and critical success. The thinking behind the show is simple. Laurie's Dr House is as reluctant, snide and miserable a medical practitioner as you're likely to find, although he happens to be a genius at solving the unsolvable cases. Along with his small team of doctors, each episode generally sees House as a medical mystery, with said team scrabbling to find the answers to devilishly complicated illnesses and diseases. But House's skill is its characters as well as its at-times ingenious plotlines. Hugh Laurie aside, Omar Epps, Jesse Spencer and Jennifer Morrison are terrific as House's long-suffering staff, while Robert Sean Leonard's Dr Wilson and Lisa Edelstein's Dr Cuddy are equally strong as his only friend and boss respectively. The third season of House shakes things up quite a lot though. A good chunk of it, for instance, is concerned with Laurie's Doctor coming under investigation from a detective who takes a dislike to House's methods. Plus there's also a superb episode set mid-flight, and plenty of character issues to deal with too. [+]
No plot spoilers here, though! In short, House is, and remains a triumph, by turns funny, dramatic and moving. And Laurie, surely in the role of a lifetime, is simply brilliant. Series four can't come quickly enough. -Simon Brew.

Review 2 Entertain Video / Doctor Who: The War Machines [1966]
Actors & Directors
  • Mike Reid
  • William Hartnell
Release date: 2008-08-25
Run time: 95 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £12.98

Review Doctor Who: The War Machines [1966] / 2 Entertain Video:

A hugely enjoyable Doctor Who adventure from the very infancy of the show, The War Machines finds William Hartnell in charge of the Tardis, and naturally enough there's an impending crisis facing the Earth. Set in the era in which the story was made, The War Machines sees the Doctor and Dodo heading off to the Post Office Tower, where they find out all about Professor Brett's new computer, WONTAN. And setting the scene for many science fiction films and television shows that would explore similar themes, WONTAN soon becomes a computer that believes machines should be in charge, and hence introduces the war machines of the story's title. Really well realised, and making the most of the resources at its disposal, The War Machines is visually impressive, but also a well-constructed story. It clearly works within many of the television conventions of the time, but Hartnell was always a strong Doctor, and the story explores its themes confidently too. It's good to have it on disc. Backed up by a substantive extras list, with a healthy slice of archive material, The War Games is a welcome DVD release, and a very good story from the archives of Doctor Who. -Jon Foster.

Review Warner Home Video / Band Of Brothers - Complete HBO Series commemorative gift set (6 Disc Box Set) [2001]
Actors & Directors
  • James Madio
  • Dexter Fletcher
  • Damian Lewis
  • Tom Hanks
  • Richard Loncraine
  • David Schwimmer
  • Mikael Salomon
  • Robin Laing
  • Phil Alden Robinson
  • David Nutter
Release date: 2002-11-05
Run time: 782 min.
RRP: £59.99
Price: £17.98

Review Band Of Brothers - Complete HBO Series commemorative gift set (6 Disc Box Set) [2001] / Warner Home Video:

A genuinely epic achievement, the 10-part World War II drama Band of Brothers is a television series that makes big-screen Hollywood war movies look small in comparison. Based on the book by historian Stephen Ambrose, the series follows the US 101st Airborne Division's "Easy" E-Company from initial training through D-Day and across Holland, Belgium, Germany and Austria until the end of the war. Coproduced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, the series take its initial inspiration from Saving Private Ryan and borrows that film's visceral visual approach to combat scenes using hand-held camerawork and de-saturated photography. But where Band of Brothers excels is in its scrupulous attention to the realities of military life (retired US Marine Captain Dale Dye, who also co-stars, is the man to credit). After the high drama of the parachute drop on D-Day, Easy's greatest trial comes during the Battle of the Bulge, when they are besieged at Bastogne in the depths of winter. In one of the most harrowing and credible depictions of war ever committed to film we see the men enduring the repeated artillery attacks of the German forces and experience, if only vicariously, some of the sheer terror of the assault, while being humbled by the soldiers' courage and determination. Such feelings are enhanced by the series' masterstroke-bookend interviews with the surviving members of Easy Company, who talk with barely suppressed emotion of the experiences we see recreated. The endorsement of these veterans elevates Band of Brothers beyond any mere "war film"-its extraordinary achievement is that it shows the horror and savagery of war without gloss or jingoism, and yet celebrates the fraternal bonds and dogged heroism of the men who fought. On the DVD: Band of Brothers arrives handsomely packaged in a six-disc box set with two episodes on each of the first five discs. Sound (Dolby 5. [+]
1) and picture (1. 78:1 widescreen) only enhance the series' epic credentials. Disc 6 contains all the extras, the meatiest of which is the marvellous 80-minute documentary "We Stand Alone Together" about the real men of Easy Company. There's also a first-rate, genuinely interesting 30-minute "making of" feature about actor boot camp, visual effects and blowing up fake trees among many other things. This is complemented by actor Ron Livingston's revealing Video Diaries of boot camp. Additionally there's a "Who's Who" section and footage of the HBO premiere at Utah Beach, plus a TV spot for car company Jeep. -Mark Walker.

Review Marion Cotillard / La Vie En Rose [2007]
Actors & Directors
  • Marion Cotillard
Release date: 2007-11-26
Run time: 135 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £4.88

Review La Vie En Rose [2007] / Marion Cotillard:


Browse Drama:

Models & Brands:
Iron Man [Blu-ray] [2008], Dirty Dancing 20th Anniversary Collector's Edition [1987], The Notebook [2004], The Sopranos: HBO Season 6 (Part 2 - The Final Episodes) [2007], Desperate Housewives: Season 4, Miss Austen Regrets (BBC) [2008], The Godfather Trilogy : Remastered Collection - Limited Edition Steelbook Metal Packaging (Exclusive To Amazon.co.uk) [1971], One Tree Hill - Series 3, Lost - The Complete Third Season [2007] [2005], Northanger Abbey [2007], Miss Potter [2006], Juno [2007], Life On Mars : Complete BBC Series 1 [2006], Life on Mars : Complete BBC Series 2 [2007], Rome: The Complete HBO Season 2 (5 Disc Box Set) [2006], Hancock, House - Season 3 (Hugh Laurie) [2006], Doctor Who: The War Machines [1966], Band Of Brothers - Complete HBO Series commemorative gift set (6 Disc Box Set) [2001], La Vie En Rose [2007]

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