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Review Warner Home Video / Soylent Green [1973]
Actors & Directors
  • Leigh Taylor-Young
  • Richard Fleischer
  • Chuck Connors
  • Charlton Heston
  • Joseph Cotten
  • Edward G. Robinson
Release date: 2003-09-29
Run time: 93 min.
Creator: Stanley R. Greenberg
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.96

Review Soylent Green [1973] / Warner Home Video:

While Soylent Green may be one of the many dystopian visions of the future, the film stands out because it's one of the few titles that addresses current environmental issues head on. Adapted from Harry Harrison's novel Make Room, Make Room, it gives us a nightmarish vision of an over-populated, polluted future on the brink of collapse-a vision that gets uncomfortably closer every year. Charlton Heston as police officer Thorn investigates a murder in between suppressing food riots and uncovers the nightmarish truth about Soylent Green, the new foodstuff being sold to the poor. The film neatly combines police procedural with conspiracy thriller. Heston's scenes are counterpointed by more elegiac ones in which the centenarian Edward G Robinson as his friend Sol broods on the world he has outlived-his death in a euthanasia chamber is a gloriously lachrymose moment, which he plays to the hilt. Heston, too, is good as Thorn, a morally equivocal cop who loots the apartments of the victims whose deaths he investigates-he's a man just getting by in an impossible world. On the DVD: Soylent Green on disc comes with a commentary from director Richard Fleischer, the highpoint of which is a memorable description of what it was like to work with the brilliant ailing, entirely deaf Robinson. He is joined by Leigh Taylor-Young whose work on the film as heroine led to years of serious environmentalist commitment. It has a useful contemporary making-of documentary and touching shots of Robinson's 100th birthday party with telegrams from Sinatra and others. The feature itself is presented in anamorphic widescreen with its original mono sound. [+]
-Roz Kaveney.

Review Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm / Alias - Complete Season 5 [2006] [2002]
Actors & Directors
  • Donald E. Thorin Jr.
  • Ron Rifkin
  • Jamie Babbit
  • Jennifer Garner
  • Jay Torres
  • Carl Lumbly
  • Fred Toye
  • Jeffrey Bell
  • Victor Garber
  • Kevin Weisman
Release date: 2006-11-20
Run time: 695 min.
RRP: £42.99
Price: £10.89

Review Alias - Complete Season 5 [2006] [2002] / Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm:


Review 4dvd / Sugar Rush Series 1 And 2 [2005]
Actors & Directors
  • Lenora Crichlow
  • Olivia Hallinan
  • Richard Lumsden
  • Philip John
  • Sean Grundy
  • Kurtis O'Brien
  • Harry Bradbeer
  • Sara Stewart
Release date: 2006-08-21
Run time: 540 min.
Creator: Liz Doran
RRP: £29.99
Price: £9.60

Review Sugar Rush Series 1 And 2 [2005] / 4dvd:


Review Warner Home Video / From the Earth to the Moon (Tom Hanks HBO Signature Edition)
Actors & Directors
  • Tom Hanks
Release date: 2006-03-20
Run time: 720 min.
RRP: £44.99
Price: £17.98

Review From the Earth to the Moon (Tom Hanks HBO Signature Edition) / Warner Home Video:


Review Optimum Home Entertainment / Historias Minimas [2002]
Actors & Directors
  • Javier Lombardo
  • Javiera Bravo
  • Antonio Benedictti
  • Carlos Sorin
Release date: 2003-10-27
Run time: 91 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £6.98

Review Historias Minimas [2002] / Optimum Home Entertainment:


Review Universal Pictures UK / Las Vegas - Series 5 - Complete [2007]
Actors & Directors
  • Molly Sims
  • Josh Duhamel
  • Vanessa Marcil
  • James Lesure
  • Tom Selleck
Release date: 2008-10-13
Run time: 779 min.
RRP: £34.99
Price: £31.02

Review Las Vegas - Series 5 - Complete [2007] / Universal Pictures UK:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Zulu [1964]
Actors & Directors
  • Jack Hawkins
  • Ulla Jacobsson
  • Michael Caine
  • James Booth
  • Cy Endfield
  • Stanley Baker
Release date: 2002-11-18
Run time: 133 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £2.20

Review Zulu [1964] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

One of the last of the classic-era widescreen epics, Zulu was also one of the last war movies to celebrate the virtues of the famous British stiff upper lip. At Rorke's Drift in 1879 a handful of British soldiers, hopelessly outnumbered by 4,000 Zulu warriors, fought one of the most celebrated defensive actions in military history. Zulu tells the story on an epic scale, bringing to life the heroism, courage, loyalty and sacrifice of those desperate hours. This is truly cast-of-thousands filmmaking, with vast action wonderfully captured in widescreen Technirama. John Barry, who also scored Goldfinger in the same year, provides a telling musical accompaniment. The superb cast includes Stanley Baker and Jack Hawkins, but Zulu's final claim to fame is that it made an instant international superstar of a young actor whose name is Michael Caine. A belated sequel arrived in 1979 in Zulu Dawn, which despite even more spectacular action and a great cast died at the box-office. It is nevertheless well worth seeing. On the DVD: Zulu on disc has excellent prologic stereo considering the age of the film, while the anamorphically enhanced 2. 35:1 transfer is crystal-clear, boasting rich colours, strong contrast and detail and only occasional minor print flaws. [+]
The original American trailer, also presented anamorphically enhanced at 2. 35:1, is a worthwhile addition. There is a very good new 45-minute "making of" (1. 77:1 anamorphic, in stereo), curiously split into two parts. The heart of the programme consists of interviews with survivors from the film, focusing on Stanley Baker's widow. The only let down is lack of input from Michael Caine and composer John Barry. The commentary by film historian Sheldon Hall, author of a forthcoming book on the movie, and Second Unit Director Robert Porter is serious and packed with information. -Gary S Dalkin.

Review Arrow Films / Tokyo Decadence [1991]
Actors & Directors
  • Miho Nikaido; Sayoko Amano; Tenmei Kano
Release date: 2007-06-11
Run time: 113 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £4.04

Review Tokyo Decadence [1991] / Arrow Films:


Review Optimum Home Entertainment / Grave Of The Fireflies [1988]
Actors & Directors
  • Isao Takahata
Release date: 2007-07-23
Run time: 90 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £6.88

Review Grave Of The Fireflies [1988] / Optimum Home Entertainment:


Review Momentum Pictures / CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - Las Vegas - Season 3 Part 2 [2001]
Actors & Directors
  • William Petersen
  • Eric Szmanda
  • Marg Helgenberger
  • Paul Guilfoyle
  • George Eads
Release date: 2004-07-05
Creator: Richard J. Lewis
RRP: £39.99
Price: £8.77

Review CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - Las Vegas - Season 3 Part 2 [2001] / Momentum Pictures:

The second half of CSI's third season serves up generous amounts of the bizarre and depraved for our voyeuristic viewing pleasure: a man driving with a wooden spike in his head, ultra-violent Robot Wars, decomposing bodies in toxic waste drums and violent death during foam-soaked debauchery all add up to a typical night's work for the Las Vegas crime lab. Standout episodes include the 90-minute special, "Lady Heather's Box", in which Grissom renews his acquaintance with the sultry bordello madam and her world of S&M. But is the delightful dominatrix the murderer? In "Night at the Movies" the plot hinges on a reworking of a Hitchcock classic and in "Play with Fire" an explosion in the lab has disastrous consequences for the team. Personal concerns come to the fore in these 12 episodes more prominently than ever before (a contrast to the show's original single-minded focus on the cases). Here, Sara Sidle's paramedic boyfriend unwittingly reveals a guilty secret when he is involved in a devastating car accident ("Crash & Burn"); Warwick witnesses his boyhood mentor falling apart when the older man's daughter is killed in a drive-by shooting ("Random Acts of Violence"); Catherine Willows' daughter and ex-husband are caught up in more violence and mayhem; and Grissom finally has to admit that his hearing problem can no longer be ignored. A welcome development is the expansion of the CSI unit and the introduction of some new, albeit secondary, team members. Guest stars include Elizabeth Berkely ("Lady Heather's Box") and Bobcat Goldthwait ("Last Laugh"). The show remains unrivalled for slick, fast-paced entertainment. On the DVD: CSI, Series 3 Part 2 is a three-disc set with a handful of minor extra features. It has two frankly rather uninspiring episode commentaries featuring the directors, scriptwriters and other crew. [+]
Better are the two small featurettes-"Making It Real" and "The Writer's Room"-that shed more light on the making of the show. -Mark Walker.

Review Touchstone / Disney / Brothers and Sisters: The Complete Second Season (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Laura Innes
  • Ken Olin
  • Sarah Jane Morris
  • Calista Flockhart
  • Dave Annable
  • Matt Shakman
  • David Paymer
  • Balthazar Getty
  • Gloria Muzio
  • Rachel Griffiths
Release date: 2008-09-23
Run time: 671 min.
Price: £32.59

Review Brothers and Sisters: The Complete Second Season (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Touchstone / Disney:


Review Momentum Pictures Home Ent / Atomised [2006]
Actors & Directors
  • Martina Gedeck
  • Nina Hoss
  • Franka Potente
  • Moritz Bleibtreu
  • Christian Ulmen
  • Oskar Roehler
Release date: 2006-10-23
Run time: 108 min.
Creator: Michel Houellebecq
RRP: £19.99
Price: £4.49

Review Atomised [2006] / Momentum Pictures Home Ent:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / The Beach [2000]
Actors & Directors
  • Patcharawan Patarakijjanon
  • Guillaume Canet
  • Leonardo DiCaprio
  • Virginie Ledoyen
  • Danny Boyle
  • Daniel York
Release date: 2000-12-27
Run time: 115 min.
Creator: John Hodge
RRP: £19.99
Price: £3.37

Review The Beach [2000] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

Leonardo DiCaprio sought to distance himself from the cloying wholesomeness of his character in Titanic, and his role in The Beach is in many ways a polar opposite. As Richard, a young American seeking to "suck in the experience" of freestyle travel in Thailand, he is a chronic liar, a pot-smoking hedonist, an amoral lover and ultimately an unstable snake in a doomed Garden of Eden. This crazy descent might be expected from the filmmakers of Trainspotting, but The Beach is a movie without a rudder, venturing into fascinating territory, promising a stimulating adventure and then careening out of control. After receiving a not-so-secret map to a secluded island from a stoned-out loony (Robert Carlyle, full of dark portent and spittle), Richard sets out to find the hidden paradise with a young French couple (Virginie Ledoyen, Guillaume Canet). What they find is a tropical commune existing in delicate balance with Thai pot farmers, and before long-as always-there is trouble in paradise. There is trouble in the movie, too, as DiCaprio is reduced to histrionics when the plot turns into a muddled mix of Lord of the Flies and Apocalypse Now, with shark attacks tossed in for shallow tension. Director Danny Boyle attempts perfunctory romance and a few audacious moves (notably DiCaprio's vision of life as a violent video game), but what's the point? Tilda Swinton registers strongly as the commune's charismatic leader, but her character-and the entire film-remains largely undeveloped, and pretty scenery is no guarantee of a laudable film. -Jeff Shannon.

Review Uca / Being John Malkovich [2000]
Actors & Directors
  • John Malkovich
  • Catherine Keener
  • Cameron Diaz
  • John Cusack
  • Spike Jonze
  • Ned Bellamy
Release date: 2006-05-08
Run time: 112 min.
Creator: Vincent Landay
RRP: £9.99
Price: £1.49

Review Being John Malkovich [2000] / Uca:

While too many films suffer the fate of creative bankruptcy, Being John Malkovich is a refreshing study in contrast, so bracingly original that you'll want to send director Spike Jonze and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman a thank-you note for restoring your faith in the enchantment of film. Even if it ultimately serves little purpose beyond the thrill of comedic invention, this demented romance is gloriously entertaining, spilling over with ideas that tickle the brain and even touch the heart. That's to be expected in a movie that dares to ponder the existential dilemma of a forlorn puppeteer (John Cusack) who discovers a metaphysical portal into the brain of actor John Malkovich. The puppeteer takes a job working as a file clerk on the seventh-and-a-half floor of a Manhattan office building; this idea alone might serve as the comedic basis for an entire film, but Jonze and Kaufman are just getting started. Add a devious co-worker (Catherine Keener), Cusack's dowdy wife (a barely recognisable Cameron Diaz), and a business scheme to capitalise on the thrill of being John Malkovich, and you've got a movie that just gets crazier as it plays by its own outrageous rules. Malkovich himself is the film's pièce de résistance, playing on his own persona with obvious delight and-when he enters his own brain via the portal-appearing with multiple versions of himself in a tour-de-force use of digital trickery. Does it add up to much? Not really. But for 112 liberating minutes, Being John Malkovich is a wild place to visit. -Jeff Shannon.

Review Playback / All Creatures Great & Small - Series 2 - Volume 1 [1978]
Actors & Directors
  • Peter Grimwade
  • Peter Davison
  • Lynda Bellingham
  • Robert Hardy
  • Christopher Timothy
  • Mary Hignett
Release date: 2003-07-07
Run time: 301 min.
RRP: £24.99
Price: £11.00

Review All Creatures Great & Small - Series 2 - Volume 1 [1978] / Playback:


Review Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment / Good Morning, Vietnam [1988]
Actors & Directors
  • Robin Williams
  • Bruno Kirby
  • Tung Thanh Tran
  • Barry Levinson
  • Forest Whitaker
  • Chintara Sukapatana
Release date: 2002-05-13
Run time: 116 min.
Creator: Mitch Markowitz
RRP: £15.99
Price: £3.98

Review Good Morning, Vietnam [1988] / Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment:

Good Morning Vietnam is a more than usually human take on America's most controversial war, an often poignant and always entertaining fictionalisation of the Vietnam years of DJ Adrian Cronauer (Robin Williams). Cronauer is employed as the voice of the US Armed Forces radio in South East Asia, but it soon emerges that his idea of entertaining the troops and the Army's are poles apart. This isn't a biopic-director Barry Levinson doesn't give any detail of Cronauer's life before Vietnam-instead it's about Cronauer discovering a better understanding of the war, the people and himself. Interspersed with the radio sequences is a gentle plot which follows Cronauer as he teaches English to some Vietnamese kids, falls for a local girl and narrowly misses being killed in a terrorist attack. However, it is the sheer frenetic genius of Williams' largely improvised radio monologues that account for the film's box office success. On the DVD: Good Morning Vietnam gets the special edition DVD with digitally remastered audio and picture. Extras include a couple of previews-both the theatrical and a teaser trailer-as well as a production diary which contains interviews with director Levinson, crew and the real Cronauer. But the best feature by far is the "Raw Monologues": introduced by Levinson, this featurette shows the process that Robin Williams went through to improvise the radio slots and is a valuable insight into the comedic talents of the film's star. -Kristen Bowditch.

Review Warner Home Video / Blow Up [1966]
Actors & Directors
  • Michelangelo Antonioni
  • David Hemmings
  • The Yardbirds
  • Vanessa Redgrave
  • Sarah Miles
Release date: 2005-07-04
Run time: 106 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £4.91

Review Blow Up [1966] / Warner Home Video:


Review Universal Pictures UK / Clint Eastwood Collection - Play Misty For Me/Joe Kidd/Two Mules For Sister Sarah/Coogan's Bluff/The Beguiled/The Eiger Sanction/High Plains Drifter/Breezy
Actors & Directors
  • Clint Eastwood
  • George Kennedy
  • John Sturges
  • Clint Eastwood
  • Don Siegel
  • John Saxon
  • Susan Clark
  • Lee J. Cobb
Release date: 2007-06-11
Run time: 807 min.
RRP: £39.99
Price: £14.00

Review Clint Eastwood Collection - Play Misty For Me/Joe Kidd/Two Mules For Sister Sarah/Coogan's Bluff/The Beguiled/The Eiger Sanction/High Plains Drifter/Breezy / Universal Pictures UK:


Review MGM Entertainment / Moonstruck [1987]
Actors & Directors
  • Olympia Dukakis
  • Norman Jewison
  • Danny Aiello
  • Vincent Gardenia
  • Nicolas Cage
  • Cher
Release date: 2000-04-24
Run time: 162 min.
Creator: John Patrick Shanley
RRP: £12.99
Price: £4.00

Review Moonstruck [1987] / MGM Entertainment:

Remember the outfit Cher wore to the Oscars when she won an Academy Award for her performance in this 1987 film? Ay-yi-yi. The actress' more retiring character in this infectious comedy leaps several psychological hurdles just giving her hair a permanent. But then the original screenplay of Moonstruck, by John Patrick Shanley (Joe Versus the Volcano), is a wonderful, gently satirical tale of an Italian-American family dealing with repression and dissatisfaction against a backdrop of cultural expectations. Cher is focused and funny as a widow who feels she should marry an older fellow (Danny Aiello), but then falls for his black-sheep brother (Nicolas Cage). Olympia Dukakis and Vincent Gardenia are perfect as her parents, and John Mahoney (of TV's Frasier) has a memorable, small role as a middle-aged man on the make who gets a lecture from Dukakis's character. Shanley's dialogue is comically stylised in a way that makes one appreciate how much words can inform an actor's performance. Taking its cues from him and director Norman Jewison (And Justice for All), the cast immerse themselves in a pool of hilariously operatic emotion. -Tom Keogh.

Review Pathe Distribution / Jean De Florette [1986]
Actors & Directors
  • Daniel Auteuil
  • Margarita Lozano
  • Claude Berri
  • Gérard Depardieu
  • Elisabeth Depardieu
  • Yves Montand
Release date: 2000-03-27
Run time: 116 min.
Creator: Marcel Pagnol
RRP: £19.99
Price: £3.74

Review Jean De Florette [1986] / Pathe Distribution:

A truly impressive French film destined to become a modern masterpiece, Jean de Florette is an evocative adaptation of the highly regarded French novel. Two 1920's farmers engage in a bitter rivalry as one tries to tend to a plot of land and the other deviously undermines his efforts in order to conceal a valuable spring. The peasant farmer (Gérard Depardieu) who comes to the countryside to tend the land he has inherited is a naive and trusting soul seeking only to provide for his wife and daughter, while his neighbour (Yves Montand) is intent on doing whatever he can to discourage and demoralise the farmer so that he can take the land for himself. This simple tale unfolds in a wrenching fashion to a tragic conclusion, bringing forth questions about human nature and the prevalence and price of greed. Along with its follow-up, Manon des Sources, this film will leave an indelible impression on anyone who sees it. -Robert Lane.

Browse Drama:

Models & Brands:
Soylent Green [1973], Alias - Complete Season 5 [2006] [2002], Sugar Rush Series 1 And 2 [2005], From the Earth to the Moon (Tom Hanks HBO Signature Edition), Historias Minimas [2002], Las Vegas - Series 5 - Complete [2007], Zulu [1964], Tokyo Decadence [1991], Grave Of The Fireflies [1988], CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - Las Vegas - Season 3 Part 2 [2001], Brothers and Sisters: The Complete Second Season (REGION 1) (NTSC), Atomised [2006], The Beach [2000], Being John Malkovich [2000], All Creatures Great & Small - Series 2 - Volume 1 [1978], Good Morning, Vietnam [1988], Blow Up [1966], Clint Eastwood Collection - Play Misty For Me/Joe Kidd/Two Mules For Sister Sarah/Coogan's Bluff/The Beguiled/The Eiger Sanction/High Plains Drifter/Breezy, Moonstruck [1987], Jean De Florette [1986]

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