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Review Acorn Media / The Life And Adventures Of Nicholas Nickleby [2001]
Actors & Directors
  • Sophia Myles
  • Stephen Whittaker
  • James D'Arcy
  • Charles Dance
  • Diana Kent
  • John Dallimore
Release date: 2002-05-13
Run time: 200 min.
Creator: Martyn Hesford
RRP: £19.99
Price: £7.18

Review The Life And Adventures Of Nicholas Nickleby [2001] / Acorn Media:

This 2000 television adaptation confirms Nicholas Nickleby's place among television dramatists' favourite Dickens novels. It has all the vital ingredients: a sensitive, intelligent young hero cast by circumstances in the role of everyman whose fortitude is tested at every turn; romance; danger; one of Dickens' richest braces of characters; and a sense of humanity that is, at times, overwhelming. Condensing all this into three hours is no mean achievement. Martyn Edward Hesford's screenplay maintains an impressive balance between dramatic tension and allowing the characters the space they need to reveal their essential qualities. Only in the last 30 minutes does it become something of a gallop to the finishing post. True, the horrors of the boarding school could be more horrific; the grime of Victorian London and its toothless inhabitants could be grimier and less cosmetic. But as always with a superior production of a Dickens novel, the richness and depth of the drama outweigh such minor quibbles. As for the cast, James D'Arcy's Nicholas is pitch-perfect: part cipher for the injustices and despair he encounters, part emblem for the triumph of goodness, an innocent whose eyes are quickly forced open to the darker realities of life. These darker realities are congealed in Charles Dance's relentlessly chilling, heartless Ralph Nickleby. This is a deceptively complex performance; even as we cheer the gathering forces which finally extinguish his increasingly desperate power, the awful tragedy of his end still elicits a discomforting ounce of sympathy. [+]
Gregor Fisher as the one-eyed Squeers and Pam Ferris as his fearsomely lascivious wife are outstanding in an ensemble of fine character actors. And Lee Ingleby's Smike gives our tear ducts a good workout while steering just the right side of sentimentality. On the DVD: Nicholas Nickleby is presented in widescreen format with Dolby Digital soundtrack, and has all the technical qualities you might expect from the DVD release of a modern television production. Extras include cast filmographies, a Dickens biography and a list of his work, all of which add to the disc's merits as a literary educational tool. -Piers Ford.

Review 2 Entertain Video / My Family - Series 3 - Complete [2002]
Actors & Directors
  • Zoe Wanamaker
  • Robert Lindsay
Release date: 2005-09-12
Run time: 377 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £7.96

Review My Family - Series 3 - Complete [2002] / 2 Entertain Video:


Review Starz Home Entertainment / Mile High - Complete Box Set [2003]
Actors & Directors
  • Naomi Ryan
  • Tom Wisdom
  • Jo-Anne Knowles
Release date: 2008-10-06
Run time: 1751 min.
RRP: £29.99
Price: £15.98

Review Mile High - Complete Box Set [2003] / Starz Home Entertainment:


Review 4dvd / Desmond's - Series 1 - Complete [1989]
Actors & Directors
  • Charlie Hanson
  • Kim Walker
  • Norman Beaton
  • Geff Francis
  • Carmen Munroe
  • David Askey
  • Trix Worrell
Release date: 2007-10-01
Run time: 145 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £6.34

Review Desmond's - Series 1 - Complete [1989] / 4dvd:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / I Think I Love My Wife [2007]
Actors & Directors
  • Gina Torres
  • Chris Rock
  • Edward Herrmann
  • Chris Rock
  • Kerry Washington
  • Steve Buscemi
Release date: 2008-06-02
Run time: 89 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £4.95

Review I Think I Love My Wife [2007] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:


Review Pathe Distribution / Swingers [1997]
Actors & Directors
  • Doug Liman
  • Jon Favreau
  • Ron Livingston
  • Vince Vaughn
  • Patrick Van Horn
  • Heather Graham
Release date: 1999-12-06
Run time: 92 min.
Creator: Vesco Razpopov
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.96

Review Swingers [1997] / Pathe Distribution:

For anyone who wants to catch a glimpse of the Los Angeles "lounge" scene that was in vogue during the early and mid-1990s, here's the movie that virtually defined that brief but colourful nightlife milieu. As an added bonus, it just happens to be a very funny, observant story about love, loss and male bonding among a group of friends who struggle to find decent jobs by day, and lurk through Hollywood's hottest nightclubs by night. A sort of latter-day Rat Pack, they include Mike (writer-actor Jon Favreau) and his closest buddy, Trent (Vince Vaughn), who are waiting for the big show-biz break that seems to be eluding them. Mike's twisted up about the girlfriend he left back East to pursue his going-nowhere standup comedy career, and Trent uses the word "money" as an adjective ("Man, we look totally money tonight") with such frequency that you may find yourself slipping into lounge-lizard mode after watching the movie. One of the most noteworthy indie-film success stories of the 90s, Swingers is a time-capsule comedy that seized its moment in the spotlight, launched several promising careers and continues to maintain its lasting appeal. -Jeff Shannon.

Review MGM Entertainment / The Addams Family - Vol. 2 [1965]
Actors & Directors
  • Stanley Z. Cherry
  • Arthur Hiller
  • John Astin
  • Carolyn Jones
  • Ted Cassidy
  • Jackie Coogan
Release date: 2007-07-02
Run time: 524 min.
RRP: £29.99
Price: £10.48

Review The Addams Family - Vol. 2 [1965] / MGM Entertainment:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / M*A*S*H - Season Seven (Collector's Edition) [1978]
Actors & Directors
  • Harry Morgan
  • Alan Alda
  • Loretta Swit
  • Mike Farrell
  • David Ogden Stiers
Release date: 2005-05-30
Run time: 607 min.
RRP: £29.99
Price: £15.59

Review M*A*S*H - Season Seven (Collector's Edition) [1978] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

The war in Korea wages on with no end in sight, but the medical corps at the 4077th valiantly battle on against soulless military bureaucracy, tedium, and insanity. The seventh season of one of television's most decorated series continued to break new ground, with episodes such as "Point of View," which unfolds under the subjective eye of a wounded soldier. And just when you think you have these characters pegged, the writers provocatively challenged them. One of the most powerful episodes of the season, and the series, is "Preventive Medicine," in which Hawkeye (Alan Alda) takes drastic measures to stop a gung-ho colonel from further endangering his men. "Inga," another series benchmark, written and directed by Alda, finds Hawkeye threatened by an accomplished woman doctor (Mariette Hartley). Unlike Larry Linville's one-note Major Burns, David Ogden Stiers found new notes to play as Charles Emerson Winchester III. His character remains, as Hawkeye observes, "pompous, arrogant, conceited, and a total bore. " But he's also "all right" in three of his finest half-hours: "Major Ego," in which he lets a magazine profile go to his swelled head; "Rally Round the Flagg, Boys," in which he outwits camp nemesis Colonel Flagg; and "Ain't Love Grand," in which he falls for a Korean girl he meets at Rosie's Bar (the setting for another essential episode, "A Night at Rosie's," in which the company seeks refuge from the war). The seven-year itch got to Gary Burghoff, who would depart the series in season 8. Episodes such as "Hot Lips Is Back in Town," in which Radar sweetly woos a new nurse, demonstrate why he would be keenly missed. [+]
The two-part "Our Finest Hour" is anything but. It is a rehash of the season 4 classic, "The Interview," that serves as a clip episode. This is a rare misstep in another satisfying season that did this series proud. -Donald Liebenson, Amazon. com.

Review Columbia Tri-Star Home Video / The Princess Bride [1987]
Actors & Directors
  • Rob Reiner
  • Cary Elwes
  • Christopher Guest
  • Robin Wright Penn
  • Chris Sarandon
  • Mandy Patinkin
Release date: 2001-07-23
Run time: 94 min.
Creator: William Goldman
RRP: £19.99
Price: £8.00

Review The Princess Bride [1987] / Columbia Tri-Star Home Video:

Director Rob Reiner's The Princess Bride is a gently amusing, affectionate pastiche of a medieval fairytale adventure, offering a similar blend of warm, literate humour as his Stand By Me (1985) and When Harry Met Sally (1989). Adapted from his own novel, William Goldman's script plays with the conventions of such 1980s fantasies as Ladyhawke and Legend (both 1985), and with the budget never allowing for spectacle, sensibly concentrates on creating a gallery of memorable characters. Robin Wright makes a delightful Princess Buttercup, Cary Elwes is splendid as Westley and "Dread Pirate Roberts", while Mandy Patinkin makes fine Spanish avenger. With winning support from Mel Smith, Peter Cook, Billy Crystal and Carol Kane there is sometimes a Terry Gilliam/Monty Python feel to the proceedings, and the whole film is beautifully shot, with a memorably romantic main theme by Mark Knopfler. Occasionally interrupted by Peter Falk as a grandfather reading the story to his grandson, The Princess Bride is an elegant post-modern family fable about storytelling itself; a theme found in other 1980s films The Neverending Story (1984) and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988). A modest, small-scale work that manages to be both cynically modern and genuinely romantic all at once. As charming as you wish. On the DVD: The 1. 77:1 anamorphic transfer is strong, if not quite as detailed as it might be. Colours lack just a little solidity and some scenes evidence a fair amount of grain. [+]
Released theatrically in Dolby stereo, the Dolby Digital 5. 1 remix spreads the sound effectively across the front speakers but makes very little use of the rear channels indeed. Extras are limited to filmographies of five of the leading actors, and a 4:3 presentation of the theatrical trailer, which gives far too many of the film's surprises away. -Gary S Dalkin.

Review Playback / Hi-De-Hi! - Series 3 & 4 [1982] [1980]
Actors & Directors
  • Paul Shane
  • Jeffrey Holland
  • Felix Bowness
  • Ruth Madoc
Release date: 2004-04-05
Run time: 420 min.
RRP: £24.99
Price: £9.50

Review Hi-De-Hi! - Series 3 & 4 [1982] [1980] / Playback:


Actors & Directors
  • Christopher Beeny Thora Hird
Release date: 2009-03-02
Run time: 175 min.
RRP: £14.99
Price: £9.98

Review In Loving Memory - The Complete Series 1 [1979] / Network DVD:


Review Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / Monty Python's Flying Circus - Series 2 - Complete
Actors & Directors
  • Graham Chapman
  • Eric Idle
  • Terry Jones
  • John Cleese
  • Michael Palin
  • Ian McNaughtan
Release date: 2007-04-23
Run time: 186 min.
RRP: £24.99
Price: £8.30

Review Monty Python's Flying Circus - Series 2 - Complete / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:


Review 2 Entertain Video / Roman's Empire [2007]
Actors & Directors
  • Nicholas Burns
  • Mathew Horne
  • Chris O'Dowd
  • Montserrat Lombard
Release date: 2008-05-26
Run time: 180 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £7.92

Review Roman's Empire [2007] / 2 Entertain Video:


Review Universal Pictures UK / Half Baked [1998]
Actors & Directors
  • Rachel True
  • Jim Breuer
  • Harland Williams
  • Tamra Davis
  • Guillermo Diaz
  • Dave Chappelle
Release date: 2005-12-05
Run time: 79 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £3.94

Review Half Baked [1998] / Universal Pictures UK:

Cannabis comedy doesn't get more juvenile than this pro-pot goof about three stoners who come to the rescue of a fourth buddy when he's arrested for feeding a lethal dose of junk food to a diabetic police horse. Kenny (Harland Williams) is sent to jail, and to rescue him from the almost inevitable trauma of homosexual rape (giving you some idea of this movie's level of humour), his buddies set out to raise his $100,000 bail by selling high-grade weed ripped off from a pharmaceutical research lab. That's about it for the plot; the rest of the movie's a parade of marijuana jokes and amusing pot-friendly cameos by the likes of Snoop Dog, Willie Nelson, and Janeane Garofalo. As two of the bong-hitting buddies, Jim Breuer (from Saturday Night Live) and comedian Dave Chappelle do their best to disguise the movie's lack of inspiration. But no matter how hard they try to milk laughs from the one-joke premise, they can't stop the movie's title from being an apt description of the movie itself. -Jeff Shannon.

Review Dreamworks Home Entertainment / Father Of The Pride [2004]
Actors & Directors
  • Cheryl Hines
  • Orlando Jones
  • Bret Haaland
  • Daryl Sabara
  • Danielle Harris
  • Mark Baldo
  • John Goodman
Release date: 2006-06-19
Run time: 284 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £3.52

Review Father Of The Pride [2004] / Dreamworks Home Entertainment:


Review Uma Thurman / The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
Release date: 2005-07-04
Run time: 126 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £3.26

Review The Adventures of Baron Munchausen / Uma Thurman:


Review MGM Entertainment / Anything Else [2003]
Actors & Directors
  • Woody Allen
  • Christina Ricci
  • Woody Allen
  • Stockard Channing
  • Jason Biggs
  • Danny De Vito
Release date: 2005-02-14
Run time: 108 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.00

Review Anything Else [2003] / MGM Entertainment:


Review Second Sight Films Ltd. / Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em - The Specials [1973]
Actors & Directors
  • Jessica Forte
  • Dick Bentley
  • Glynn Edwards
  • Michele Dotrice
  • Michael Crawford
Release date: 2003-10-06
Run time: 140 min.
Creator: Steve Samson
RRP: £15.99
Price: £4.93

Review Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em - The Specials [1973] / Second Sight Films Ltd.:


Review Arrow Films / Erik The Viking (Director's Son's Cut) [1989]
Actors & Directors
  • Mickey Rooney
  • John Cleese
  • Tim Robbins
  • Samantha Bond
  • Eartha Kitt
Release date: 2006-10-09
Run time: 165 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £1.89

Review Erik The Viking (Director's Son's Cut) [1989] / Arrow Films:


Review Elstree Hill Entertainment / The General [1926]
Actors & Directors
  • Buster Keaton
Release date: 2004-01-12
Run time: 105 min.
RRP: £2.99
Price: £2.49

Review The General [1926] / Elstree Hill Entertainment:


Models & Brands:
The Life And Adventures Of Nicholas Nickleby [2001], My Family - Series 3 - Complete [2002], Mile High - Complete Box Set [2003], Desmond's - Series 1 - Complete [1989], I Think I Love My Wife [2007], Swingers [1997], The Addams Family - Vol. 2 [1965], M*A*S*H - Season Seven (Collector's Edition) [1978], The Princess Bride [1987], Hi-De-Hi! - Series 3 & 4 [1982] [1980], In Loving Memory - The Complete Series 1 [1979], Monty Python's Flying Circus - Series 2 - Complete, Roman's Empire [2007], Half Baked [1998], Father Of The Pride [2004], The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Anything Else [2003], Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em - The Specials [1973], Erik The Viking (Director's Son's Cut) [1989], The General [1926]

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