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Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Flicka [2006]
Actors & Directors
  • Michael Mayer
  • Maria Bello
  • Ryan Kwanten
  • Dallas Roberts
  • Alison Lohman
  • Tim McGraw
Release date: 2007-08-06
Run time: 91 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.86

Review Flicka [2006] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

Can a wild horse with a bad attitude and a not-quite-wild but pretty darn sullen teenage girl with a bad attitude be the best things that ever happened to each other? Though we guess the answer pretty early on in Flicka, it doesn't diminish the feel-good family film one bit. The film is a remake of the 1947 My Friend Flicka itself based on the bestselling (and still riveting) novel by Mary O'Hara, and starring a young Roddy McDowall as the aimless teen hero. This 2006 update changes the hero to a heroine, Katy (Alison Lohman), though the dynamic is similar, and in some ways makes the appeal of the film broader. After all, young girls love their horses, and Katy's moxie and determination as she opens her heart to the wild filly, are touchingly and humanly conveyed. As Katy struggles with her relationship with her gruff dad (an excellent performance by country star Tim McGraw), she finds she can gain confidence and be the person her father wants her to be-solely by being herself as she connects with Flicka the horse. The cinematography is stunning, and showcases a part of America that once was seen and celebrated often in films, and lately so rare as to be precious. -A. T. Hurley.

Review Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm / The Ugly Dachshund [1966]
Actors & Directors
  • Parley Baer
  • Kelly Thordsen
  • Dean Jones
  • Norman Tokar
  • Suzanne Pleshette
  • Charles Ruggles
Release date: 2004-03-29
Run time: 89 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £3.72

Review The Ugly Dachshund [1966] / Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm:

When a Great Dane puppy is raised with a litter of Dachshunds, it naturally thinks it's a Dachshund too-even when it grows to 10 times the size. Dean Jones and Suzanne Pleshette star as the hapless couple who took in the galumphing dog, which wreaks havoc on their house and home. The Ugly Dachshund is mostly a series of spectacular disasters (the doggy demolition of Jones's art studio will delight kids and reduce adults to nervous wrecks), but it's held together by the convincing domestic banter of Jones and Pleshette (who was quite a dish in 1965); the pair went on to star in a couple of other Disney live-action flicks, Bluebeard's Ghost and The Shaggy D. A. Despite some racial and gender stereotypes, it's a good-natured and amusing movie in the Disney mold. Also featuring classic character actor Charlie Ruggles (Bringing Up Baby, The Parent Trap). -Bret Fetzer.

Review Sullivan Entertainment Europe Ltd / Anne Of Green Gables
Release date: 2005-09-01
RRP: £49.99
Price: £36.00

Review Anne Of Green Gables / Sullivan Entertainment Europe Ltd:


Review Contender Entertainment Group / Mist : Sheepdog Tales Complete Series 1 [2008]
Actors & Directors
  • Richard Overall
  • Mel Giedroyc
Release date: 2008-04-14
Run time: 143 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £7.98

Review Mist : Sheepdog Tales Complete Series 1 [2008] / Contender Entertainment Group:


Review Walt Disney Home Video / Confessions Of A Teenage Drama Queen [2004]
Actors & Directors
  • Sara Sugarman
  • Alison Pill
  • Glenne Headly
  • Lindsay Lohan
  • Eli Marienthal
  • Adam Garcia
Release date: 2004-10-25
Run time: 86 min.
RRP: £17.99
Price: £3.49

Review Confessions Of A Teenage Drama Queen [2004] / Walt Disney Home Video:


Review Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm / My Father The Hero [1994]
Actors & Directors
  • Steve Miner
  • Katherine Heigl
  • Lauren Hutton
  • Gérard Depardieu
  • Faith Prince
  • Dalton James
Release date: 2004-04-26
Run time: 86 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £3.27

Review My Father The Hero [1994] / Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm:


Review Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm / Walt Disney Treasures - Mickey In Living Colour [1935]
Actors & Directors
  • Mickey Mouse
Release date: 2004-05-03
Run time: 259 min.
RRP: £21.99
Price: £4.47

Review Walt Disney Treasures - Mickey In Living Colour [1935] / Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm:


Review Dreamworks Home Entertainment / Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2-disc Special Edition) [2004]
Actors & Directors
  • Jim Carrey
  • Emily Browning
  • Kara Hoffman
  • Brad Silberling
  • Jude Law
  • Liam Aiken
Release date: 2005-05-27
Run time: 103 min.
RRP: £24.99
Price: £4.53

Review Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2-disc Special Edition) [2004] / Dreamworks Home Entertainment:

If you spliced Charles Addams, Dr. Seuss, Charles Dickens, Edward Gorey, and Roald Dahl into a Tim Burtonesque landscape, you'd surely come up with something like Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. Many critics (in mostly mixed reviews) wondered why Burton didn't direct this comically morbid adaptation of the first three books in the popular series by Daniel Handler (a. k. a. "Lemony Snicket," played here by Jude Law and seen only in silhouette) instead of TV and Casper veteran Brad Silberling, but there's still plenty to recommend the playfully bleak scenario, in which three resourceful orphans thwart their wicked, maliciously greedy relative Count Olaf (Jim Carrey), who subjects them to. well, a series of unfortunate events. Along the way they encounter a herpetologist uncle (Billy Connolly), an anxious aunt (Meryl Streep) who's afraid of everything, and a variety of fantastical hazards and mysterious clues, some of which remain unresolved. [+]
Given endless wonders of art direction, costume design, and cinematography, Silberling's direction is surprisingly uninspired (in other words, the books are better), but when you add a throwaway cameo by Dustin Hoffman, Law's amusing narration, and Carrey's over-the-top antics, the first Lemony movie suggests a promising franchise in the making. -Jeff Shannon, Amazon. com.

Review ITV DVD / Great Expectations [Blu-ray] [1946]
Actors & Directors
  • David Lean
  • Martita Hunt
  • Ivor Barnard
  • Torin Thatcher
  • John Mills
  • O. B. Clarence
Release date: 2008-06-23
Run time: 113 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £13.42

Review Great Expectations [Blu-ray] [1946] / ITV DVD:


Review Sony Pictures Home Ent. UK / Zathura [2005]
Actors & Directors
  • Jonah Bobo
  • Jon Favreau
  • Dax Shepard
  • Tim Robbins
  • Kristen Stewart
  • Josh Hutcherson
Release date: 2006-06-26
Run time: 101 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £1.27

Review Zathura [2005] / Sony Pictures Home Ent. UK:

Zathura, a smart and stylish kid's adventure, launches into action when Danny (Jonah Bobo) twists the key of a dusty science fiction game-a game that unleashes a localized meteor shower and wrenches Danny's house into orbit around a distant ringed planet, bringing Danny's brother Walter (Josh Hutcherson, Kicking and Screaming) and sister Lisa (Kristen Stewart, Panic Room) along. Soon a defective robot, a rangy astronaut (Dax Shepard, Without a Paddle), and an alien spaceship enter the picture. Only by completing the game can the kids return their house to its proper space-time coordinates, but the game board falls into the hands of some nasty, carnivorous lizards. Zathura has some obligatory emotional conflict and resolution between the two brothers, but that's pretty much beside the point; what makes Zathura a delight is the wonderful design, the skillful escalation of disasters, and the adroit direction of Jon Favreau (Elf), who is quickly becoming the go-to guy for mass-market movies with wit and timing. Some situations may be too intense for younger kids; Favreau ratchets up the suspense at a few points. Based on the book by Chris Van Allsburg (Jumanji). Also featuring Tim Robbins (The Shawshank Redemption). -Bret Fetzer.

Review MGM Entertainment / The Black Stallion Returns [1983]
Actors & Directors
  • Robert Dalva
  • Kelly Reno
  • Vincent Spano
  • Allen Garfield
  • Ferdy Mayne
  • Woody Strode
Release date: 2003-04-07
Run time: 99 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.98

Review The Black Stallion Returns [1983] / MGM Entertainment:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Night At The Museum (2 Disc Special Edition) [2006]
Actors & Directors
  • Kim Raver
  • Dick Van Dyke
  • Carla Gugino
  • Steve Coogan
  • Ben Stiller
  • Shawn Levy
Release date: 2007-04-02
Run time: 104 min.
RRP: £24.99
Price: £3.98

Review Night At The Museum (2 Disc Special Edition) [2006] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

An irresistible concept meets computer-generated wonders in Night at the Museum, inspired by a 1993 children's book by Milan Trenc. Ben Stiller stars as Larry Daley, an underachieving inventor waiting for his ship to come in while getting evicted from one apartment after another for lack of funds. Larry's son needs some stability, so the well-meaning ne'er-do-well takes a job as night watchman at New York City's Museum of Natural History. What the soon-to-retire guards (Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney, Bill Cobbs) don't tell him is that an ancient pharaoh's tablet in the museum causes everything on display to come to life at night. Thus, Larry meets representations of Teddy Roosevelt, Attila the Hun, fire-worshipping cavemen, and Roman Empire soldiers, and learns to cope with an excitable T-Rex and man-eating, ancient animals. The film might have left things at that, but an added story element gives Night at the Museum some extra urgency and excitement, especially for kids: Larry becomes responsible for keeping this nightly miracle going and preventing anything in the museum from dying due to exposure to sunrise. Computer effects, as well as wildly imaginative costumes and makeup, help make the film appeal to the 8-year-old in everyone. Director Shawn Levy (The Pink Panther) works with a hugely talented cast, including Robin Williams, Owen Wilson, Ricky Gervais, Carla Gugino, and Steve Coogan. -Tom Keogh.

Review Universal Pictures UK / Problem Child/Problem Child 2/Problem Child 3
Actors & Directors
  • Greg Beeman
  • Michael Oliver
  • Amy Yasbeck
  • John Ritter
  • Laraine Newman
  • Jack Warden
  • Brian Levant
  • Dennis Dugan
Release date: 2007-04-09
Run time: 247 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £8.85

Review Problem Child/Problem Child 2/Problem Child 3 / Universal Pictures UK:


Review Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm / Popeye [1980]
Actors & Directors
  • Robert Altman
  • Ray Walston
  • Paul Dooley
  • Linda Hunt
  • Shelley Duvall
  • Robin Williams
Release date: 2006-08-07
Run time: 113 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £3.22

Review Popeye [1980] / Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm:

Nothing interests filmmaker Robert Altman more than a contained culture that mixes bare humanity with local eccentricity (think of his M*A*S*H and Nashville). So Altman's Popeye (1980), based on the old comic strip, works best as a portrait of a busy, cluttered, cartoonish town called Sweethaven. But it is much less successful as a comprehensible story about the famous sailor with massive forearms and a relationship with Olive Oyl (Shelley Duvall). Robin Williams plays Popeye with his usual brilliance for mimicry, Paul Dooley makes a credible Wimpy, and Paul L. Smith makes an impression as the oversized bully, Bluto. But this strange, disastrous film never becomes more than an expensive workshop airing out Altmanesque themes. - Tom Keogh.

Review ITV DVD / Captain Scarlet - Complete Series Box Set [1967]
Actors & Directors
  • Lian-Shin
  • David Healy
  • Janna Hill
  • Neil McCallum
  • Sylvia Anderson
Release date: 2001-09-17
Run time: 860 min.
RRP: £75.99
Price: £38.50

Review Captain Scarlet - Complete Series Box Set [1967] / ITV DVD:

First broadcast in 1967, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons was the most grown-up of all Gerry Anderson's SuperMarionation adventures. There are gadgets and toy-friendly machines galore, of course-like the Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle, the Angel Aircraft and Cloudbase itself-but, unlike the colourful fantasies of Stingray and Thunderbirds, this series' concern with an implacable, vengeful enemy, conspiracies and double-agents drew its inspiration from James Bond and the Cold War spy dramas of the 1960s. Special effects whiz Derek Meddings imbues the action sequences with a truly Bondian grandeur and, like the sinister Spectre of the Bond films, the Martian Mysterons seem all the more hostile for their unseen presence, their agents infiltrating every organisation dedicated to their destruction just as it seemed the Soviets were doing at the time. The indestructible Captain Scarlet is killed then resurrected every week (though not like South Park's Kenny), and more often than not the unstoppable Mysterons emerge triumphant, and always undefeated. The varied cast of Spectrum agents and their voice characterisations also aim at verisimilitude (Captain Scarlet, voiced by Francis Matt hews, sounds like a grim Cary Grant), while the puppetry is more realistic than ever. This box set contains all 32 episodes, with newly remastered picture and Dolby 5. 1 surround sound. The DVD box also includes extra features on each disc, plus a sixth documentary disc, "Captain Scarlet: S. I. G. [+]
". In its new digital incarnation, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons still looks and sounds like the epitome of 60s cool. -Mark Walker.

Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Home Alone 2 - Lost In New York [1992]
Actors & Directors
  • Chris Columbus
  • Catherine O'Hara
  • Tim Curry
  • John Heard
  • Macaulay Culkin
  • Brenda Fricker
Release date: 2006-11-06
Run time: 115 min.
RRP: £8.99
Price: £2.99

Review Home Alone 2 - Lost In New York [1992] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

This somewhat unpleasant 1992 sequel to the blockbuster Home Alone revisits the first film's gimmick by stranding Macaulay Culkin's character in New York City while his family ends up somewhere else. Again, the little guy meets up with colourful people on the margins of society (including a pigeon woman played by Brenda Fricker) and again he gets into a prop-heavy battle with Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern. The latter sequence is even worse than the first film in terms of violence inflicted on the two villains (director Chris Columbus, who also made the first film, can't seem to emphasise the slapstick over the graphic effects of the fight). The best running joke finds a concierge (Tim Curry) at the swank hotel where Culkin is staying trying and failing to prove that the boy is on his own. -Tom Keogh.

Review Paramount Home Entertainment / The Spiderwick Chronicles [Blu-ray] [2008]
Actors & Directors
  • Mark Waters
  • David Strathairn
  • Freddie Highmore
  • Joan Plowright
  • Mary Louise Parker
  • Nick Nolte
Release date: 2008-09-08
Run time: 97 min.
RRP: £24.99
Price: £17.98

Review The Spiderwick Chronicles [Blu-ray] [2008] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

A very good adaptation of the popular series of books by Tony DiTerllizi and Holly Black, The Spiderwick Chronicles is one of the few family films in recent years to seamlessly integrate magical elements with a potent drama that will strike a chord with many kids. An exceptionally talented Freddie Highmore (August Rush) plays twin brothers Jared and Simon Grace, caught up in a sad shock from their parents' divorce and coping with a decision by their mother (Mary-Louise Parker) to uproot the boys and their sister, Mallory (Sarah Bolger), from New York City to a small town. There, the broken family moves into a spooky old mansion passed on to them by the kids' great-aunt, Lucinda (Joan Plowright), who is spending her twilight years in managed care and whose scientist father, Arthur Spiderwick (David Strathairn), disappeared some 80 years ago. Jared, angry, defiant, and determined to live with the father who seems to have abandoned him, investigates strange happenings and discovers Arthur's secret notations on fairies, ogres, and other mythical creatures that live both in and outside the house. Having no idea where his curiosity is leading, Jared soon finds that he and his family are under siege from goblins and a powerful ogre (Nick Nolte) who wants Arthur's notebook. Suddenly, the boy who is a lightning rod for a troubled family becomes a resourceful warrior intent on saving his loved ones from powerful forces. The Spiderwick Chronicles benefits enormously from a script (partially written by John Sayles) that treats, quite seriously, the emotional pain of its human characters and makes Jared's will to survive the very real engine of an otherwise fantastic story. It helps, too, that director Mark Waters, who brings a warm and knowing touch to outlandish material (Freaky Friday), has a way of making the spectacular elements of The Spiderwick Chronicles genuine enough to stir real excitement and suspense. This is one of the better film adaptations of best-selling fiction for kids in some years. -Tom Keogh.

Review Children's Christmas Classics / Children's Christmas Classics - Snow Queen/The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe/Box Of Delights
Release date: 2006-10-30
Run time: 402 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £9.72

Review Children's Christmas Classics - Snow Queen/The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe/Box Of Delights / Children's Christmas Classics:


Review Warner Home Video / The Reef [2006]
Actors & Directors
  • Howard E. Baker
  • John Fox
Release date: 2007-06-25
Run time: 78 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £3.49

Review The Reef [2006] / Warner Home Video:


Review Warner Home Video / New York Minute [2004]
Actors & Directors
  • Mary-Kate Olsen
  • Riley Smith
  • Andy Richter
  • Ashley Olsen
  • Dennie Gordon
  • Eugene Levy
Release date: 2005-02-14
Run time: 87 min.
RRP: £13.99
Price: £2.99

Review New York Minute [2004] / Warner Home Video:

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen play good girl/bad girl sisters who suddenly find themselves on a high-speed chase escaping crooks, attracting hunks, and wreaking havoc in this lightweight comedy set in the Big Apple. Ashley plays high school scholar Jane Ryan, an overachiever with her sights set on winning a college scholarship competition. Mary-Kate plays her sister, Roxy, a rebellious teen truant who would rather be a rock star than a student. Since their mother's death, the sisters' relationship has been strained. Now their worlds collide when a day in Manhattan forces Jane and Roxy to join forces, overcoming their differences to battle an international smuggling ring while trying to make it in time for Jane's competition. While the script is predictably bland, viewers will enjoy the comedic strengths of Eugene Levy (Serendipity, American Pie) as Roxy's ubiquitous truant officer. Though the twins manage some decent slapstick, their sensuality, sexual innuendo, and suggestive disrobing is disappointing. DVD bonus features include some hilarious bloopers and alternate endings. (Ages 10 and older) -Lynn Gibson.

Browse Family Favourites:

Models & Brands:
Flicka [2006], The Ugly Dachshund [1966], Anne Of Green Gables, Mist : Sheepdog Tales Complete Series 1 [2008], Confessions Of A Teenage Drama Queen [2004], My Father The Hero [1994], Walt Disney Treasures - Mickey In Living Colour [1935], Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2-disc Special Edition) [2004], Great Expectations [Blu-ray] [1946], Zathura [2005], The Black Stallion Returns [1983], Night At The Museum (2 Disc Special Edition) [2006], Problem Child/Problem Child 2/Problem Child 3, Popeye [1980], Captain Scarlet - Complete Series Box Set [1967], Home Alone 2 - Lost In New York [1992], The Spiderwick Chronicles [Blu-ray] [2008], Children's Christmas Classics - Snow Queen/The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe/Box Of Delights, The Reef [2006], New York Minute [2004]

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