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Review Optimum Home Entertainment / Jin-Roh [DVD] [2001]
Release date: 2007-08-20
Run time: 102 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £4.68

Review Jin-Roh [DVD] [2001] / Optimum Home Entertainment:


Review Optimum Home Entertainment / He Ran All The Way [DVD] [1951]
Actors & Directors
  • Shelley Winters
  • John Berry
  • John Garfield
  • Wallace Ford
Release date: 2009-05-04
Run time: 74 min.
Creator: Shelley Winters
RRP: £15.99
Price: £7.87

Review He Ran All The Way [DVD] [1951] / Optimum Home Entertainment:


Review Uca Catalogue / Far And Away [DVD] [1992]
Actors & Directors
  • Nicole Kidman
  • Thomas Gibson
  • Ron Howard
  • Robert Prosky
  • Barbara Babcock
  • Tom Cruise
Release date: 2003-09-08
Run time: 134 min.
Creator: Louisa Velis
RRP: £5.99
Price: £3.21

Review Far And Away [DVD] [1992] / Uca Catalogue:

Filmed in the widescreen splendour of "Panavision Super 70" and blessed with the finest production values that Hollywood clout can buy, this tale of spunky Irish immigrants forgot one crucial ingredient: a decent screenplay. The film is entertaining enough, and director Ron Howard brings his technical proficiency to the simple plot, culminating in a dynamic, breathtaking depiction of the Oklahoma land rush of 1893. But the movie is really just a vacuous vehicle for married stars Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman as (respectively) the poor tenant farmer and rich landlord's daughter who flee Ireland to be American pioneers. The scenery and the stars are never less than stunning, but Howard falls short of the mark in his attempt to match the epic sweep of films by David Lean. On the other hand, this movie is certainly never boring even if it rarely makes sense, and Lean's own Irish epic, Ryan's Daughter, is a snoozer by comparison. -Jeff Shannon, Amazon. com.

Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Three Coins In The Fountain [DVD] [1955]
Actors & Directors
  • Louis Jourdan
  • Dorothy McGuire
  • Jean Peters
  • Clifton Webb
  • Jean Negulesco
  • Maggie McNamara
Release date: 2005-08-01
Run time: 98 min.
Creator: Dorothy McGuire
RRP: £12.99
Price: £2.75

Review Three Coins In The Fountain [DVD] [1955] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:


Review Eureka Entertainment Ltd / Le Silence de la mer (Masters of Cinema) [DVD] [1949]
Actors & Directors
  • Jean-Marie Robain
  • Nicole Stephane
  • Howard Vernon
  • Jean-Pierre Melville
Release date: 2007-06-25
Run time: 85 min.
Creator: Jean-Marie Robain
RRP: £19.99
Price: £8.72

Review Le Silence de la mer (Masters of Cinema) [DVD] [1949] / Eureka Entertainment Ltd:


Review Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm / Mighty Ducks Are The Champions [DVD] [1993]
Actors & Directors
  • Stephen Herek
  • Heidi Kling
  • Emilio Estevez
  • Joss Ackland
  • Lane Smith
  • Josef Sommer
Release date: 2001-02-12
Run time: 99 min.
Creator: Steven Brill
RRP: £14.99
Price: £3.12

Review Mighty Ducks Are The Champions [DVD] [1993] / Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm:


Review Momentum Pictures / Vera Drake [DVD] [2004]
Actors & Directors
  • Jim Broadbent
  • Mike Leigh
  • Philip Davis
  • Imelda Staunton
Release date: 2005-04-25
Run time: 120 min.
Creator: Philip Davis
RRP: £19.99
Price: £2.98

Review Vera Drake [DVD] [2004] / Momentum Pictures:

The brilliant writer-director Mike Leigh (Topsy-Turvy, Secrets and Lies, Naked) has crafted an utterly compelling movie about one of the most controversial of topics. An irrepressibly hopeful housecleaner in 1950s London named Vera Drake (Imelda Staunton, Antonia and Jane, Shakespeare in Love) mothers everyone around her, from her own family to helpless shut-ins and lonely men living in tiny, isolated apartments. None of these people know that Vera also helps young women get rid of unwanted pregnancies, until the police appear and tear her world apart. Vera Drake isn't just an inspired character portrait; through simple and straightforward scenes, the movie weaves a quiet but mesmerizing portrait of how people-both wealthy and poor-cope with adversity. Though wrenching, Vera Drake has too much life to be depressing. Leigh is deservedly famous for his work with actors; every character brims with truth and Staunton's performance deserves every award it could possibly win. -Bret Fetzer.

Review Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / Zhou Yu's Train [DVD] [2002]
Actors & Directors
  • Gong Li
  • Zhou Sun
  • Tony Leung
Release date: 2005-04-25
Run time: 89 min.
Creator: Gong Li
RRP: £19.99
Price: £3.56

Review Zhou Yu's Train [DVD] [2002] / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:


Review Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / The Big Chill [DVD] [1983]
Actors & Directors
  • Kevin Kline
  • Tom Berenger
  • William Hurt
  • Glenn Close
  • Jeff Goldblum
  • Lawrence Kasdan
Release date: 1999-06-07
Run time: 100 min.
Creator: Barbara Benedek
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.17

Review The Big Chill [DVD] [1983] / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:

This seminal film about the reunion of thirtysomething friends works even better than when first released in 1983. The fine performances of the ensemble cast and a rockin' soundtrack always made this eminently enjoyable. However, the characters' often pompous blather occasionally stalled the action. Baby Boomer introspection has become so common that such navel gazing seems less problematic than it did in the early 1980s. Seven former classmates from the University of Michigan gather for the funeral of Alex, their idealistic and suicidal friend. They use their time together to become reacquainted, all the while discussing lost dreams and current hopes. (This should appeal to anyone who enjoyed that other famous reunion flick of the 1980s, John Sayles' Return of the Secaucus Seven. ) Director-cowriter Lawrence Kasdan culled finely textured performances from his cast and filled the screen with memorable details. He may manipulate us with his writing but the actors do an impressive job of pulling at our heartstrings while Aretha Franklin and Marvin Gaye play in the background. -Rochelle O'Gorman.

Review Entertainment in Video / Silk [DVD] [2007]
Actors & Directors
  • Keira Knightley
  • Michael Pitt
  • Francois Gerard
  • Koji Yakusho
  • Sei Ashina
  • Alfred Molina
Release date: 2008-03-17
Run time: 104 min.
Creator: Michael Pitt
RRP: £19.99
Price: £1.72

Review Silk [DVD] [2007] / Entertainment in Video:


Review Optimum Home Entertainment / Elite Squad [Blu-ray] [2008]
Actors & Directors
  • Jose Padilha
  • Caio Junqueira
  • Andre Ramiro
  • Wagner Moura
Release date: 2009-01-26
Run time: 115 min.
Creator: Andre Ramiro
RRP: £24.99
Price: £5.17

Review Elite Squad [Blu-ray] [2008] / Optimum Home Entertainment:


Review Uca / Heidi [DVD]
Actors & Directors
  • Emma Bolger
  • Diana Rigg
  • Robert Bathurst
  • Max Von Sydow
  • Paul Marcus
  • Pauline McLynn
Release date: 2009-06-01
Run time: 99 min.
Creator: Max Von Sydow
RRP: £9.99
Price: £3.23

Review Heidi [DVD] / Uca:

The beloved tale of Heidi, the Swiss miss whose indomitable spirit touches all those around her, despite having been dealt a harsh hand in life, gets a spunky boost in this 2005 film adaptation. A stellar cast includes Max von Sydow as Grandfather, a roiling-with-inner-rage Geraldine Chaplin as Rottenmeier, and a benevolent Diana Rigg as Grandmamma. At the centre of their world-like it or not-is Heidi, played with irrepressible optimism by the adorable Emma Bolger. As the orphaned Heidi is flung from home to home, city to city, valley to mountain, by those who profess not to want her, she accepts her fate and still manages to cast sunshine on her bleak situation. This version features breathtaking scenery-Grandfather's mountain aerie looks more like a Canadian Rockies summer spread than a place of self-imposed solitary confinement. At times the pan-European cast gives the film a feel of being the United Nations on location; Chaplin and Rigg's upper-crust British accents clash with von Sydow's clipped Swedish delivery, and Bolger's accent adorably reflects her Dublin roots. (Only the goats truly look Swiss. ) But the story of Heidi has a huge heart, and this film is family entertainment in the best sense of the word. -A. T. [+]
Hurley.

Review Arrow Films / Indochine [1991] [DVD] [1993]
Actors & Directors
  • Jean Yanne
  • Régis Wargnier
  • Catherine Deneuve
  • Linh Dan Pham
  • Vincent Perez
  • Dominique Blanc
Release date: 2001-07-30
Run time: 160 min.
Creator: Louis Gardel
RRP: £19.99
Price: £5.17

Review Indochine [1991] [DVD] [1993] / Arrow Films:

Winner of the Academy Award for best foreign-language film in 1992, Indochine is a vast, panoramic love story set in the twilight years of French Indo-China. Comparisons with David Lean are inevitable, considering director Régis Wargnier's use of the setting as a backdrop to the love-triangle between the three main characters. Catherine Deneuve gives a strong, emotionally restrained performance as Eliane, the plantation owner whose colonial paradise is slowly falling apart. Vincent Perez is magnetic yet thoughtful as the young officer Jean-Baptiste, complemented by Jean Yanne's dry cynicism as the Chief of Police knowingly fighting a losing battle for French culture. Linh Dan Pham is affecting as Camille, Eliane's adopted daughter whose journey from aristocratic ancestry to Marxist induction personifies the changing face of South-East Asia in the period around World War Two. Patrick Doyle's score reinforces the expressive sweep of the direction and "orientalisms!" are kept to a minimum. On the DVD The 16:9 wide-screen format reproduces best in the domestic scenes, and there are 30 individual chapter points, detailed in the interactive moving menu. The disc also has detailed filmographies for the main cast and director, including an entertaining "gossip" file for Deneuve. English subtitles are optional. A half-hour location report would have been worthwhile, but overall this is a persuasive presentation of one of the few genuine historical-romantic epics of the 1990s. [+]
-Richard Whitehouse.

Review Uca / Do The Right Thing [DVD] [1989]
Actors & Directors
  • Ruby Dee
  • Spike Lee
  • Richard Edson
  • Giancarlo Esposito
  • Ossie Davis
  • Danny Aiello
Release date: 2009-07-06
Run time: 114 min.
Creator: Monty Ross
RRP: £9.99
Price: £2.98

Review Do The Right Thing [DVD] [1989] / Uca:

Spike Lee's incendiary look at race relations in America, circa 1989, is so colourful and exuberant for its first three-quarters that you can almost forget the terrible confrontation that the movie inexorably builds toward. Do the Right Thing is a joyful, tumultuous masterpiece-maybe the best film ever made about race in America, revealing racial prejudices and stereotypes in all their guises and demonstrating how a deadly riot can erupt out of a series of small misunderstandings. Set on one block in Bedford-Stuyvesant on the hottest day of the summer, the movie shows the whole spectrum of life in this neighbourhood and then leaves it up to us to decide if, in the end, anybody actually does the "right thing. " Featuring Danny Aiello as Sal, the pizza parlour owner; Lee himself as Mookie, the lazy pizza-delivery guy; John Turturro and Richard Edson as Sal's sons; Lee's sister Joie as Mookie's sister Jade; Rosie Perez as Mookie's girlfriend Tina; Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee as the block elders, Da Mayor and Mother Sister; Giancarlo Esposito as Mookie's hot-headed friend Buggin' Out; Bill Nunn as the boom-box toting Radio Raheem; and Samuel L Jackson as DJ Mister Señor Love Daddy. This is a rich and nuanced film to watch, treasure and learn from-over and over again. -Jim Emerson.

Review Optimum Home Entertainment / Inland Empire [DVD] [2007]
Actors & Directors
  • Justin Theroux
  • Laura Dern
  • David Lynch
Release date: 2007-08-20
Run time: 172 min.
Creator: Justin Theroux
RRP: £17.99
Price: £4.96

Review Inland Empire [DVD] [2007] / Optimum Home Entertainment:

Though Inland Empire's three hours of befuddling abstraction could try the patience of the most devoted David Lynch fan, its aim to reinvigorate the Lynch-ian symbolic order is ambitious, not to mention visually arresting. The director's archetypes recognizable from previous movies once again construct the film's inherent logic, but with a new twist. Sets vibrate between the contemporary and a 1950s alternate universe crammed with dim lamps, long hallways, mysterious doors, sparsely furnished rooms and, this time, a vortex/apartment/sitcom set where rabbit-masked humans dwell, and a Polish town where women are abused and killed. Instead of speaking backwards, mystic soothsayers and criminals speak Polish. Filmed on video, the film's look has the sinister, frightening feel of a Mark Savage film or a bootlegged snuff movie. Constant close-ups, both in and out of focus, make Inland Empire feel as if a stalker covertly filmed it. A straightforward, hokey plot unravels during the first third of Inland Empire to ground the viewer before a dive off the deep end. Actor Nikki Grace (Laura Dern) is cast as Susan Blue, an adulterous white trash Southerner, in a film that mimics too closely her actual life with an overbearingly jealous and dangerous husband. When Nikki and co-star Devon (Justin Theroux) learn that the cursed film project was earlier abandoned when its stars were murdered, the pair lose their grasp of reality. Nikki suffers a schizophrenic identity switch to Sue that lasts until nearly the film's end. [+]
Suspense builds as Nikki's alter ego sleuths her way through surreal situations to discover her killer, culminating in Sue's gnarly death on set. Sue's actions drag on because any sign of a narrative thread disappears due to idiosyncratic editing. Non-sensical scenes still captivate, however, such as when Sue stumbles onto the soundstage where she finds Nikki (herself) rehearsing for Sue's part. In this meta-film about identity slippage, Dern's multiple characters remind one of how a victim can become the hunter in their fight for survival. Lynch's portrayal of Nikki/Sue's increasing paranoia is, in its own confusion, utterly realistic. Laura Dern has created her own Lady Macbeth, undone by her guilt over infidelity. Even though Inland Empire is too long and too random, Laura Dern's performance coupled with Lynch's video experiments make it magical. -Trinie Dalton.

Review Optimum Home Entertainment / Aimee And Jaguar [DVD] [2001]
Actors & Directors
  • Max Färberböck
  • Elisabeth Degen
  • Johanna Wokalek
  • Heike Makatsch
  • Juliane Köhler
  • Maria Schrader
Release date: 2001-10-29
Run time: 125 min.
Creator: Rona Munro
RRP: £19.99
Price: £4.48

Review Aimee And Jaguar [DVD] [2001] / Optimum Home Entertainment:


Review Contender Entertainment Group / Rec [DVD] [2007]
Actors & Directors
  • Ferran Terraza
  • Jaume Balagueró
  • Pablo Rosso
  • David Vert
  • Paco Plaza
  • Jorge Serrano
  • Manuela Velasco
Release date: 2008-08-11
Run time: 75 min.
Creator: Luis Berdejo
RRP: £17.99
Price: £6.83

Review Rec [DVD] [2007] / Contender Entertainment Group:

Rec starts with a good, solid, straightforward idea. Its plan? To focus us on TV reporters, who are following a group of firemen as they go about their shift. Said shift, however, doesn’t quite go to plan, as what starts as a seemingly standard rescue mission soon takes a disturbing, chilling turn, and this sets the scene for a very effective horror film. One of the reasons why Rec works so well is the manner in which it’s shot. It’s not the first film to adopt the handheld shooting style, and indeed there have been many clichéd attempts to follow the success of The Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield. Yet the style suits Rec well, with the photography less a gimmick, and more a legitimate storytelling device. It’s fair to say that Rec is a dish best served cold, so it’d be unfair to expand on the plot. However, be in no doubt that the mix of psychological creepiness and outright horror is very good, making the most of the claustrophobic surroundings, and wisely sidestepping many of the pitfalls of the genre. It has one or two problems, but it’s hard to quibble too much when the main feature works as well as this low-key, yet ultra-effective film does. -Jon Foster.

Review Universal Pictures UK / American Gangster [Blu-ray] [2007]
Actors & Directors
  • Denzel Washington
  • Ridley Scott
  • Ruben Santiago-Hudson
  • Ruby Dee
  • Yul Vazquez
  • Joe Morton
Release date: 2008-12-08
Run time: 176 min.
Creator: Yul Vazquez
RRP: £19.99
Price: £11.49

Review American Gangster [Blu-ray] [2007] / Universal Pictures UK:

Denzel Washington, Yul Vazquez, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Ruby Dee, Joe Morton Director: Ridley Scott

Review Warner Home Video / Dolores Claiborne [DVD] [1995]
Actors & Directors
  • Kathy Bates
  • Christopher Plummer
  • Jennifer Jason Leigh
  • Judy Parfitt
  • David Strathairn
  • Taylor Hackford
Release date: 2000-08-21
Run time: 126 min.
Creator: Tony Gilroy
RRP: £13.99
Price: £2.23

Review Dolores Claiborne [DVD] [1995] / Warner Home Video:

Dark secrets, family torments and two murders swirl around the stoic, hardened figure of Dolores Claiborne (Kathy Bates), a housekeeper accused of murdering her employer of 22 years. Then there was that timely accident that took Dolores's husband (David Strathairn) during the solar eclipse of 1975. Yet with all the sombre suffering that follows Dolores like a miasma of pain, none of it compares with the heartache of a relationship she has with her grown daughter (Jennifer Jason Leigh). Although this flick is rife with horror, it is not of the supernatural kind, but rather of the torment only real people can impose on one another. The script is full of colourful language, and director Taylor Hackford successfully weaves several plot threads and psychological dilemmas throughout this engrossing tale without diminishing any of them. He not only culls intense performances from his cast, but he also brings to life the landscape around them. When Dolores Claiborne's best-kept secret is finally given up, it occurs under the surreal backdrop of a solar eclipse that is a truly sensational bit of cinematography. -Rochelle O'Gorman Dark secrets, family torments and two murders swirl around the stoic, hardened figure of Dolores Claiborne (Kathy Bates in one of her most magnetic screen performances), a housekeeper accused of murdering her employer of 22 years. Then there was that timely accident that took Dolores's husband (David Strathairn) during the solar eclipse of 1975. Yet with all the sombre suffering that follows Dolores like a miasma of pain, none of it compares with the heartache of a relationship she has with her grown daughter (Jennifer Jason Leigh). [+]
Although Dolores Claiborne is rife with horror, it is not of the supernatural kind, but rather of the torment only real people can impose on one another. The script, adapted from Stephen King's novel, successfully weaves several plot threads and psychological dilemmas throughout this engrossing tale without diminishing any of them. Director Taylor Hackford not only culls intense performances from his cast, but also brings to life the haunting, autumnal landscape around them. When the film's best-kept secret is finally given up, it occurs under the surreal backdrop of a solar eclipse: a truly sensational piece of cinematography that crowns a movie replete with indelible images and intense emotions. -Rochelle O'GormanOn the DVD: In Dolores Claiborne, the autumnal landscape of Nova Scotia is as much a principal character as any of the actors. As a result, the film is crucially dependent on the subtleties of the cinematographer's sense of time and place. The superb clarity of the widescreen DVD transfer only enhances the movie's steely cool atmosphere. Director Taylor Hackford gives a detailed and illuminating commentary-elucidating the cast's performance and explaining the careful photography of every scene. Though the commentary is the only extra feature, it adds more real value than most two disc sets can manage. -Mark Walker.

Review Odeon Entertainment / The Impersonator/A Time To Kill [DVD]
Actors & Directors
  • John Crawford
  • John Horsley
Release date: 2009-06-22
Run time: 123 min.
Creator: John Crawford
RRP: £12.99
Price: £8.97

Review The Impersonator/A Time To Kill [DVD] / Odeon Entertainment:


Browse Drama:

Models & Brands:
Jin-Roh [DVD] [2001], He Ran All The Way [DVD] [1951], Far And Away [DVD] [1992], Three Coins In The Fountain [DVD] [1955], Le Silence de la mer (Masters of Cinema) [DVD] [1949], Mighty Ducks Are The Champions [DVD] [1993], Vera Drake [DVD] [2004], Zhou Yu's Train [DVD] [2002], The Big Chill [DVD] [1983], Silk [DVD] [2007], Elite Squad [Blu-ray] [2008], Heidi [DVD], Indochine [1991] [DVD] [1993], Do The Right Thing [DVD] [1989], Inland Empire [DVD] [2007], Aimee And Jaguar [DVD] [2001], Rec [DVD] [2007], American Gangster [Blu-ray] [2007], Dolores Claiborne [DVD] [1995], The Impersonator/A Time To Kill [DVD]

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