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Review Warner Home Video / Troy : The Movie & More (2 Disc Special Edition) [2004]
Actors & Directors
  • Eric Bana
  • Diane Kruger
  • Orlando Bloom
  • Brad Pitt
Release date: 2006-08-07
Run time: 156 min.
RRP: £8.99
Price: £3.09

Review Troy : The Movie & More (2 Disc Special Edition) [2004] / Warner Home Video:


Review Sony Pictures / MIB: Men in Black [UMD Mini for PSP] [1997]
Actors & Directors
  • Will Smith
  • Tommy Lee Jones
  • Rip Torn
  • Linda Fiorentino
  • Barry Sonnenfeld
  • Vincent D'Onofrio
Release date: 2006-05-02
Run time: 98 min.
Creator: Ed Solomon
Price: £6.53

Review MIB: Men in Black [UMD Mini for PSP] [1997] / Sony Pictures:

This imaginative comedy from director Barry Sonnenfeld (Get Shorty) is a lot of fun, largely on the strength of Will Smith's engaging performance as the rookie partner of a secret agent (Tommy Lee Jones) assigned to keep tabs on Earth-dwelling extra-terrestrials. There's lots of comedy to spare in this bright film, some of the funniest stuff found in the margins of the major action (a scene with Smith's character being trounced in the distance by a huge alien while Jones questions a witness is a riot. ) The inventiveness never lets up, and the cast-including Vincent D'Onofrio doing frighteningly convincing work as an alien occupying a decaying human-hold up their end splendidly. -Tom Keogh, Amazon. com On the DVD: This Collector's Edition disc contains a "Visual Commentary" that features director Barry Sonenfeld and actor Tommy Lee Jones in an anecdotal conversation, but with the unique twist that they are displayed as silhouettes on your TV screen (imagine you're sitting in the back row of the cinema and they are up front) using a pointer to highlight particular events on screen. If you have a widescreen TV, the menu prompts you to switch to 4:3 mode to see this. There is also a "Visual Effects Scene Deconstruction" in which the tunnel scene and the Edgar Bug fight scene are dissected into their constituent parts; an in-depth documentary, "Metamorphosis of MIB", which charts the progress of the concept from comic book to screen; five "Extended and Alternate" scenes; trailers, including a teaser for MIB II; and Will Smith's "Men in Black" music video. -Mark Walker.

Review Adv Films / Madlax - The Complete Collection [2004]
Actors & Directors
  • Koichi Mashimo
Release date: 2008-07-28
Run time: 650 min.
RRP: £49.99
Price: £31.99

Review Madlax - The Complete Collection [2004] / Adv Films:


Review Tartan Video / War [2002]
Actors & Directors
  • Aleksei Chadov
  • Sergei Bodrov Jr.
  • Ian Kelly
  • Aleksei Balabanov
  • Ingeborga Dapkunaite
Release date: 2004-11-22
Run time: 117 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £5.97

Review War [2002] / Tartan Video:


Review Contender Entertainment Group / Relic Hunter - Vol. 1 - The Legend Of The Lost [2000]
Actors & Directors
  • Juan Carlos Velis
  • Tia Carrere
  • Lindy Booth
  • Wade Eastwood
  • John Bell
  • Christien Anholt
  • Tanja Reichert
Release date: 2002-07-08
Run time: 300 min.
Creator: Rob Gilmer
RRP: £19.99
Price: £49.99

Review Relic Hunter - Vol. 1 - The Legend Of The Lost [2000] / Contender Entertainment Group:

For Relic Hunter, star Tia Carrere was approached with the notion of playing "a female Indiana Jones". That perfectly sums up this tongue-in-cheek show. Each episode begins with a historical teaser depicting a relic in its original location and usage. It then gets stolen or lost and the team go hunt for it. Carrere's History Professor Sydney Fox is versed in arcane knowledge, but also knows how to hold her own in a fight. Her foppish assistant Nigel (Christien Anholt) always manages to bumble the search, but then gets helped out by office worker Claudia (Lindy Booth). That's the winning formula, and this first box set (which starts at the beginning of the second series) consists of six such scenarios. "The Put Back" requires the return of an artefact for a change, and sees the team in Africa racing to prevent the onset of an ancient curse. "Dagger of Death" concerns the Indian cult of Kali (per Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom). "Last of the Mochicas" (not a typo!) sees them survive a plane crash and then play a game of sleuthing to discover which other passenger is their enemy. [+]
"The Legend of the Lost" provides a well-intentioned message about why lost civilisations ought to be left lost. "Fertile Ground" comically takes Sydney from her high-school reunion to Hawaii in a partnership with her teenage sweetheart. "Gypsy Jigsaw" finally allows Claudia to shine, with her knowledge of Tarot assisting in a jaunt to Romania. All six feature terrific location shooting from around the globe and are an infectious introduction for anyone who missed the sporadic TV broadcasts. On the DVD: Relic Hunter comes to disc with the original 16:9 widescreen ratio of the show. Shame there's only a stereo mix, though. There are 12-minute interviews with stars Carrere and Anholt that are a little more informative than the biographies included. Lastly, there's a gallery of 24 behind-the-scenes and promotional stills. -Paul Tonks.

Review Uca Catalogue / Desert Heat
Release date: 2004-04-12
RRP: £5.99
Price: £2.22

Review Desert Heat / Uca Catalogue:

Versatility, thy name is Van Damme! So Arnold cries in End of Days? Hah! In this relentless revenge actioner, Jean-Claude not only cries, but has a drunk scene, suffers suicidal despair, does a little slapstick, and still manages to flash his ubiquitous butt. Which, of course, is what his legion of fans want to see him kick plenty of (other people's butts, that is; not his own). Van Damme may no longer generate any box-office heat (like 1998's Legionnaire, this bypassed cinemas to go straight to video), but he at least gives his fans what they want. Originally titled Coyote Moon, Desert Heat recalls that guilty pleasure Road House, as Eddie Lomax (Van Damme) comes to the rescue of a gallery of colourful characters terrorised by slobbering, drug-dealing bikers and rednecks in a dilapidated desert town. And this time, it's personal. As one denizen ominously observes, "There's trouble on the hoof and it's coming this way" for the three ill-fated bullies who beat up and shot Eddie and left him for dead. Despite its desert setting, Heat is an oasis for great character actors who pick up Van Damme's considerable slack. They include Danny Trejo (Con Air) as Eddie's Native American friend Johnny Sixtoes, Pat Morita (The Karate Kid), Larry Drake (Darkman), Vincent Schiavelli (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ghost), Bill Erwin (Candy Stripe Nurses), and luscious Jaime Preslly as Dottie the waitress. The director is credited as Danny Mulroon, a pseudonym for John Avildsen, the Academy Award-winning director of Rocky. His career, too, seems to be on the ropes, but he keeps punching with some welcome eccentric touches. [+]
At one point Johnny gives the recuperating Eddie a foot massage (didn't he see Pulp Fiction?). And the script offers such goodies as a lovelorn bus driver (Tom's brother, Jim Hanks) inviting Dottie to see Yojimbo, and one biker's plea for mercy from a local tough: "Jessie, we were in high school together. I signed your yearbook". -Donald Liebenson, Amazon. com.

Review New Line Home Video / The Golden Compass [2007] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Tom Courtenay
  • Anand Tucker
  • Chris Weitz
  • John Bett
  • Kathy Bates
  • Daniel Craig
  • Jim Carter
Release date: 2008-04-29
Run time: 113 min.
Creator: Alexandre Desplat
Price: £8.18

Review The Golden Compass [2007] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / New Line Home Video:


Review Warner Home Video / Get Carter [2000]
Actors & Directors
  • Miranda Richardson
  • Johnny Strong
  • Rhona Mitra
  • Rachael Leigh Cook
  • Stephen T. Kay
  • Sylvester Stallone
Release date: 2002-06-24
Run time: 102 min.
Creator: Ted Lewis
RRP: £12.99
Price: £0.82

Review Get Carter [2000] / Warner Home Video:

Why did Hollywood think it was a good idea to take Get Carter-Mike Hodges' classic 1971 study in gangster psychology-transplant the setting from decaying Tyneside to a present-day American metropolis, neuter the screenplay so that precious little of the original's acerbic humour and subtlety remain, and assign the lead role of Jack Carter, memorably taken by Michael Caine in the original, to Sylvester Stallone? No amount of Rocky-cum-Rambo routines can convince you that he's remotely inside the character, even though here Carter's psychotic side has been airbrushed out as he seeks revenge for the murder of his brother and rape of his niece. Miranda Richardson is a wearily sympathetic Gloria, and Rachel Leigh Cook a not-too-bratish Doreen (is this actually used as an American name?). Mickey Rourke looks suitably wasted as loutish businessman Cyrus; Alan Cumming is an annoyingly smug computer whizz Kinnear (wouldn't you have pulled the trigger?), while Michael Caine loses all credibility for his cameo appearance as Cliff Brumby. Did he really need the cash? On the DVD: Get Carter on disc is a classy but lifeless production. Extras include the theatrical trailer, cast and crew details, and six deleted scenes which are too brief to be more than off-cuts. Three spoken and nine subtitled languages are provided, and there's director Stephen Kay's pithy running commentary to enjoy. Even he, however, often sounds at a loss to explain just why the film was made. Thank goodness the original movie is also available on DVD. -Richard Whitehouse.

Review 20th Century Fox / Commando [1986] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • James Olson
  • Arnold Schwarzenegger
  • Rae Dawn Chong
  • Dan Hedaya
  • Mark L. Lester
  • Vernon Wells
Release date: 2007-09-18
Run time: 90 min.
Creator: Steven E. de Souza
Price: £9.57

Review Commando [1986] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / 20th Century Fox:

A massively underrated action thriller which kept Schwarzenegger occupied between blockbusters, Commando may be one of the last shoot-out films ever to have real characters in it. Not, of course, that they're anything other than stereotypes, but they're painted with such detailed, positive strokes that it's impossible not to relate to them. Arnie plays a retired military special-ops officer whose daughter (played with an expert balance of cute/feisty by Alyssa Milano) is kidnapped by the baddest of bad guys, who'll only hand her back as and when he's assassinated a tiresome banana-republic president on their behalf. Needless to say, Arnie is deeply annoyed by this, rescues the moppet single-handed amid more bullets and explosions than you can shake a stuntman's pay cheque at, and. well, why spoil the fun by revealing any more? Co-star Rae Dawn Chong gets some nice one-liners as the innocent bystander who gets caught up in the mayhem. The DVD comes with no additional features at all, but who needs 'em anyway? -Roger Thomas.

Review MGM / The Adventures of Mark Twain [1985] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Carol Edelman
  • John Morrison
  • Will Vinton
  • James Whitmore
  • Chris Ritchie
  • Gary Krug
Release date: 2006-01-31
Run time: 86 min.
Creator: Michael Gall
Price: £6.69

Review The Adventures of Mark Twain [1985] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / MGM:


Review Contender Entertainment Group / The Invisible Man, Series 1 (Box Set 1) [2000]
Actors & Directors
  • Breck Eisner
  • Vincent Ventresca
  • Carlton Prickett
Release date: 2003-03-10
Run time: 562 min.
RRP: £39.99
Price: £9.99

Review The Invisible Man, Series 1 (Box Set 1) [2000] / Contender Entertainment Group:

The Invisible Man first appeared on American TV just a couple of months in advance of Paul Verhoeven's Hollow Man in 2000. But unlike the rather overly serious movie, the idea of this series was to have as much fun with the concept as possible. Thief and con man Darien Fawkes (Vincent Ventresca) is apprehended and offered the choice of either being imprisoned or becoming a guinea pig in a scientific experiment run by his own brother. The result is the successful insertion of a Quicksilver Gland in his head, a device that secretes a substance able to bend light, causing him to become invisible at will. Unfortunately it also starts to send him insane. The mysterious Official and his Agency offer a solution. They can regularly administer an antidote, so long as he agrees to work for them in secret. Thus the series begins to explore the possibilities: Fawkes poses as a child's imaginary friend to get information; he stalks a stalker; and, of course, he does a lot of spying. In the background of the individual stories is a constant build-up of tension as both the audience and Fawkes wonder where the Agency's loyalties lie and what the constant use of the Quicksilver may do to him. At the midway point of the first series, the show adds an even weirder twist when a suspected additional Invisible Man turns out to be Fawkes himself, channelling the memories and violent temperament of the first test subject to have hosted the gland. [+]
Unpredictable and engaging, this is a show that deserved to go beyond the mere two years it managed before cancellation. On the DVD: The Invisible Man comes to DVD in a four-disc box set containing the first half of Series 1. Some weblinks and scripts of shows are accessible as DVD-ROM features, but the real score for the DVD's producers is an hour-long interview with cast members Vincent Ventresca, Paul Ben-Victor and Michael McCafferty. Much more is promised for the next box set comprising the second half of the series. -Paul Tonks.

Review MGM / Force 10 From Navarone [1978] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Franco Nero
  • Harrison Ford
  • Barbara Bach
  • Robert Shaw
  • Guy Hamilton
  • Edward Fox
Release date: 2000-03-28
Run time: 244 min.
Price: £5.76

Review Force 10 From Navarone [1978] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / MGM:

Generally underrated by critics, 1978's Force 10 from Navarone is a belated sequel to the famous 1961 World War II classic Guns of Navarone. Here a miscellaneous group of commandos and spies try to hinder the Nazis by destroying a bridge between them and the partisans. The story (based on a novel by Alistair MacLean) has nothing to do with the first film, but it is a tightly woven and entertaining piece with sharp performances and delightful character alliances. Director Guy Hamilton (Goldfinger) also brings his trademark eye for handsome vistas to the canvas, so this is hardly the shoddy and dull knockoff many reviewers have previously suggested. No classic, perhaps, but a lot of fun. -Tom Keogh, Amazon. com.

Review Lions Gate / Total Recall [Blu-ray] [1990] [US Import]
Actors & Directors
  • Marshall Bell
  • Roy Brocksmith
  • Pricilla Allen
  • Marc Alaimo
  • Ray Baker
Release date: 2006-08-29
Run time: 113 min.
Creator: Peter James
Price: £10.09

Review Total Recall [Blu-ray] [1990] [US Import] / Lions Gate:

A triple-bill of Schwarzenegger at his muscular monosyllabic best:The Running Man is an action thriller based on an early story by Stephen King. When Arnold is chosen as a contestant on the ultimate reality TV show, all hell breaks loose. Cheesy sets and a slimy role for game-show host Richard Dawson make this violent mess of mayhem a candidate for guilty pleasure; it is the kind of movie that truly devoted Arnold fans will want to watch more than once. Total Recall is the science-fiction blockbuster from 1990, loosely based on Philip K Dick's short story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale". Oscar-winning special effects and violent action propel the twisting plot, in which Arnold manipulates his manipulators in a world of dazzling high technology. Director Paul Verhoeven (RoboCop, Starship Troopers) indulges his usual penchant for gratuitous bloodshed, but the movie has enough cleverness to rise above its excesses. Terminator 2: Judgment Day is a legitimate sequel: there's more story to tell about a hulking, leather-clad android (Arnold Schwarzenegger) who arrives from the future to protect a rebellious teenager and future leader (Edward Furlong) from being killed by the tenacious T-1000 robot (Robert Patrick), whose liquid-metal construction makes him seemingly unstoppable. The fate of the future lies in the balance, with Linda Hamilton (who would later marry her director) reprising her role as the rugged woman whose son will change the course of history. -Jeff Shannon, Amazon. com.

Review Zaion / Zaion - Vol. 2
Release date: 2004-06-21
Run time: 60 min.
RRP: £20.99
Price: £3.39

Review Zaion - Vol. 2 / Zaion:


Review Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / The Detonator [2006]
Actors & Directors
  • Tim Dutton
  • Silvia Colloca
  • William Hope
  • Wesley Snipes
  • Po Chih Leong
  • Matthew Leitch
Release date: 2006-09-18
Run time: 96 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £0.52

Review The Detonator [2006] / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:


Review Universal Pictures UK / Bionic Woman - Pilot Episode [2007]
Actors & Directors
  • Michelle Ryan
  • Michael Dinner
  • Molly Price
  • Mark Sheppard
Release date: 2008-04-07
Run time: 42 min.
RRP: £2.99
Price: £2.25

Review Bionic Woman - Pilot Episode [2007] / Universal Pictures UK:


Review York Home Video / Thrill Seekers [2000] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Catherine Bell
  • Julian Richings
  • Mario Azzopardi
  • Theresa Saldana
  • Peter Outerbridge
  • Casper Van Dien
Release date: 2001-01-16
Run time: 88 min.
Creator: Kurt Inderbitzin
Price: £22.95

Review Thrill Seekers [2000] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / York Home Video:


Review Columbia TriStar / Into Thin Air: Death on Everest [1997] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Richard Jenkins
  • Peter Horton
  • Tim Dutton
  • Nathaniel Parker
  • Christopher McDonald
  • Robert Markowitz
Release date: 2001-05-22
Run time: 90 min.
Creator: Robert J. Avrech
Price: £4.29

Review Into Thin Air: Death on Everest [1997] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Columbia TriStar:

Based on the bestselling book Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, this ambitious television film benefits immensely from a lengthy location shoot, Austrian alps effectively standing-in for Mt. Everest. It tells the true story of two 1996 expeditions, one led by the careful Rob Hall (played by Nathaniel Parker), the other by the gung-ho Scott Fisher (Peter Horton). Circumstances forced the teams to join forces, after which a succession of miscalculations followed by a savage storm lead to escalating disaster. Aided by a stark, pseudo-documentary style, a bold score by Lee Holdridge and terse narration by Christopher MacDonald as Krakauer, Into Thin Air: Death on Everest has an intense emotional impact; only the lack of epic, aerial photography betraying its TV movie status. Like Titanic (1997), it is in part about hubris leading to tragedy-"We're invincible!" Fisher boasts-as well as a powerful account of the toll Everest takes not just on the body but on the mind. The book inevitably goes much further into the psychology of "the completely irrational act" of climbing the world's highest mountain, but this gripping survival drama should appeal to admirers of both Scott of the Antarctic (1948) and Alive (1992). -Gary S. Dalkin.

Review ST Clair Vision / Swords and Sorcery
Actors & Directors
  • Mark Forest
  • Kirk Morris
Release date: 2006-11-21
Run time: 801 min.
Creator: Jany Clair
Price: £8.98

Review Swords and Sorcery / ST Clair Vision:


Review Columbia TriStar / Cliffhanger [1993] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Renny Harlin
  • Rex Linn
  • Janine Turner
  • Michael Rooker
  • John Lithgow
  • Sylvester Stallone
Release date: 2000-06-13
Run time: 113 min.
Creator: James R. Zatolokin
Price: £4.01

Review Cliffhanger [1993] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Columbia TriStar:

Cliffhanger was a 1994 comeback of sorts for action hero Sylvester Stallone, this time thanks to director Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2) and some spectacularly rugged and vertigo-inducing, high-mountain terrain. The opening sequence alone delivers what the title promises, and there's an extraordinary airplane stunt that was later reprised, with modifications, in Air Force One. Stallone, looking as tough and craggy as the mountains themselves, is a rescue climber who finds himself going after a gang of crooks (headed by John Lithgow in his bad-guy mode) who've hijacked a US Treasury plane and crash landed in the Rockies with millions of bucks. Outrageous action-packed, snow-packed and scenery-packed chase sequences (featuring whirring helicopters, whooshing skis, popping gunfire and clanging pitons that earned the movie Oscar nominations for sound and sound editing) abound. -Jim Emerson, Amazon. com.

Models & Brands:
Troy : The Movie & More (2 Disc Special Edition) [2004], MIB: Men in Black [UMD Mini for PSP] [1997], Madlax - The Complete Collection [2004], War [2002], Relic Hunter - Vol. 1 - The Legend Of The Lost [2000], Desert Heat, The Golden Compass [2007] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Get Carter [2000], Commando [1986] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The Adventures of Mark Twain [1985] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The Invisible Man, Series 1 (Box Set 1) [2000], Force 10 From Navarone [1978] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Total Recall [Blu-ray] [1990] [US Import], Zaion - Vol. 2, The Detonator [2006], Bionic Woman - Pilot Episode [2007], Thrill Seekers [2000] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Into Thin Air: Death on Everest [1997] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Swords and Sorcery, Cliffhanger [1993] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

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