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Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / The Rocky Horror Picture Show - Single Disc Edition [1975]
Actors & Directors
  • Tim Curry
  • Barry Bostwick
  • Susan Sarandon
  • Jim Sharman
  • Patricia Quinn
  • Richard O'Brien
Release date: 2003-10-13
Run time: 169 min.
Creator: Michael White
RRP: £17.99
Price: £3.91

Review The Rocky Horror Picture Show - Single Disc Edition [1975] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

If a musical sci-fi satire about an alien transvestite named Frank-n-Furter, who is building the perfect man while playing sexual games with his virginal visitors, sounds like an intriguing premise for a movie, then you're in for a treat. Not only is The Rocky Horror Picture Show all this and more, but it stars the surprising cast of Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick (as the demure Janet and uptight Brad, who get lost in a storm and find themselves stranded at Frank-n-Furter's mansion), Meat Loaf (as the rebel Eddie), Charles Gray (as our criminologist and narrator) and, of course, the inimitable Tim Curry as our "sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania". Upon its release in 1975, the film was an astounding flop. But a few devotees persuaded a New York cinema to show it at midnight, and thus was born one of the ultimate cult films of all time. The songs are addictive (just try getting "The Time Warp" or "Toucha Toucha Touch Me" out of your head), the raunchiness amusing and the plot line utterly ridiculous-in other words, this film is simply tremendous good fun. The downfall, however, is that much of the amusement is found in the audience participation that is obviously missing from a video version (viewers in cinemas shout lines at the screen and use props-such as holding up newspapers and shooting water guns during the storm and throwing rice during a wedding scene). Watched alone as a straight movie, Rocky Horror loses a tremendous amount of its charm. Yet, for those who wish to perfect their lip-synching techniques for movie cinema performances or for those who want to gather a crowd around the TV at home for some good, old-fashioned, rowdy fun, this film can't be beat. -Jenny Brown.

Review Warner Home Video / Something To Talk About [1996]
Actors & Directors
  • Lasse Hallström
  • Dennis Quaid
  • Robert Duvall
  • Kyra Sedgwick
  • Julia Roberts
  • Gena Rowlands
Release date: 2001-01-08
Run time: 100 min.
Creator: Callie Khouri
RRP: £12.99
Price: £1.91

Review Something To Talk About [1996] / Warner Home Video:

Something to Talk About is a well-intentioned but strangely cold tale that concerns an emotionally repressed Southern belle (Julia Roberts) who separates from her husband (Dennis Quaid) after discovering he is an unabashed philanderer. Pressed by her dominating father (Robert Duvall) into reconciling with her spouse, Roberts's character chafes against so much male control over her destiny. Defended by a fiercely independent sister (a catchy performance by Kyra Sedgwick), the heroine develops the nerve to plot her own course in life while her mother (Gena Rowlands) finds the gumption to throw her own mate out of the house. The script by Callie Khouri (Thelma & Louise) is intelligent but hardly clear, and direction by Lasse Hallström (Once Around) can't keep Khouri's unfocused scenes and uncertain purpose from dissolving like sand castles in the rain. -Tom Keogh, Amazon. com.

Review Pathe Distribution / Twenty Four Hour Party People [2002]
Actors & Directors
  • Steve Coogan|James Cartwright
  • Michael Winterbottom
Release date: 2003-01-27
Run time: 117 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £4.57

Review Twenty Four Hour Party People [2002] / Pathe Distribution:

Beginning during the dawn of Factory Records-as Tony Wilson throws himself off a cliff for Granada TV-24 Hour Party People attempts to capture the essence of the ill-fated label which spawned Joy Division/New Order, The Happy Mondays and the venue that started modern Club Culture, the Hacienda in Manchester. Director Michael Winterbottom takes a very different approach to most music biographies, by making the film self-aware that it is a film and ironically looking at its own role within the history of the "Mad-chester" scene. Inspired by Wilson's autobiographical musings, the film is narrated in character by Steve Coogan as Wilson. He offers sporadic moments from his life-his "career" as a presenter at Granada and his several marriages-which in turn influence the destructive nature of the label he founded. Coogan's Wilson gives monologues to camera which remind the audience that what they are watching is only his perspective. Yet with Coogan in the title role it's impossible to ignore the similarities between Wilson and Alan Partridge; and although this adds instant humour to the film it also instantly pins Wilson with the comic "Partridge" tag of fated fool. The cinematography, on the other hand, tries faithfully to embody the feeling of the times, from grainy celluloid for the punk-like Joy Division gigs to bright, clean-cut images for the birth of the Hacienda. The film also benefits from an amazing soundtrack and strong supporting characters. It all adds up to a picture that's purely British in character: imbued with irony, down-and-out inspiration, and a touch of the surreal. On the DVD: 24 Hour Party People comes as a two-disc set, but there really is little need. [+]
Disc 1 is loaded with great extras, such as the deleted scenes, commentaries and Mad-chester musings, but the second disc is a little on the dull side. This really could have been just a single great DVD. There's an excellent screen and audio transfer that brings both the music and the lurid colours to life and the disc also offers that all-important function for hardcore clubbers: a hard of hearing option. -Nikki Disney.

Review Prism Leisure / The Rutles - All You Need Is Cash [1978]
Actors & Directors
  • John Belushi
  • Eric Idle
  • Eric Idle
  • Michael Palin
  • Neil Innes
  • Gary Weis
  • Dan Aykroyd
Release date: 2005-04-25
Run time: 73 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £1.61

Review The Rutles - All You Need Is Cash [1978] / Prism Leisure:

First screened on BBC2 in 1978, at a time when the standing of The Beatles was at its lowest, The Rutles-All You Need is Cash is the original and (pace This is Spinal Tap) best "rockumentary" spoof. Codirector Eric Idle was then enjoying success with Rutland Weekend Television, while his script displays the same feeling for the inane non-sequitur evident in his Monty Python work. The band's progress from "penniless, untalented nobodies" to "rich, untalented somebodies" is vividly brought to life-with dialogue adapted from actual Beatles interviews and newsreels, and a roster of songs sounding uncannily close to Beatles originals thanks to "Nasty" Neil Innes' genius for pastiche. Interviews with a suitably primed Mick Jagger and Paul Simon give added realism, as do cameos from George Harrison (one-time Beach Boy Rikki Fataar plays his Rutles double Stig) and Stones guitarist Ron Wood. Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi make characterful, pre-Blues Brothers appearances. On the DVD: The Rutles-All You Need is Cash has come up well in this DVD transfer. The fullscreen 4:3 ratio picture and mono sound wear their age well, enhanced by the extra scenes included. There's further interview material with Jagger and Simon, and a specially recorded, though wholly unfunny, DVD introduction from Idle, who also contributes a running commentary. All in all, this is an ideal way to get to know, or renew acquaintance with, a film that brings the swinging 60s back down to earth. -Richard Whitehouse.

Release date: 2009-01-26
RRP: £19.99
Price: £14.99

Review Perfect World - Series 1-2 - Complete / Perfect World:


Review 4dvd / Jimmy Carr - Live Stand Up [2005]
Actors & Directors
  • Dominic Brigstocke
  • Jimmy Carr
  • James Mullinger
Release date: 2005-11-07
Run time: 80 min.
Creator: Sam Pinnell
RRP: £19.99
Price: £13.49

Review Jimmy Carr - Live Stand Up [2005] / 4dvd:

Jimmy Carr-Live Stand Up 2 is yet another demonstration of just why its star is becoming one of Britain's most popular live comics. Filmed at London's Bloomsbury Theatre, it's an act that's not for the easily offended, but is bursting with laughs and some rapid-fire comeback lines. Along the way, he delivers his sharp one-liners with admirable consistency, in his trademark deadpan style. Continuing to joke around subject matters that others would choose to leave well alone, he undoubtedly sails close to the wind, but succeeds through a combination of well-written material and superb delivery. His act holds the attention right from the off too, with an opening that sees him communicating with his audience via a giant screen. Trust us, it works. And there's an unexpected highlight on the DVD too, which almost eclipses the main event. The Comedy Idol programme sees Carr judging a stand-up talent content, which throws up genuine hilarity along with some of the strangest comedic acts you're likely to have seen. Mix in that, with the main act and generous dose of further bonus material, and Jimmy Carr-Live Stand Up 2 not only offers tremendous entertainment, it's excellent value too. Heed that 18 certificate, though. [+]
-Jon Foster.

Review Network / The Fast Lady [1962]
Actors & Directors
  • James Robertson Justice
  • Stanley Baxter
  • Ken Annakin
  • Leslie Phillips
  • Julie Christie
  • Kathleen Harrison
Release date: 2004-02-02
Run time: 95 min.
Creator: Keble Howard
RRP: £9.99
Price: £7.36

Review The Fast Lady [1962] / Network:


Review Uca / Paradise Alley [1978]
Actors & Directors
  • Sylvester Stallone
  • Armand Assante
  • Terry Funk
  • Tom Waits
  • Anne Archer
  • Sylvester Stallone
Release date: 2008-11-03
Run time: 102 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £3.24

Review Paradise Alley [1978] / Uca:


Review Warner Music Vision / Blue Man Group - The Complex Rock Tour - Live [2003] (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Matthew Banks
  • Mike Datz
  • Kalen Almindinger
  • Tracy Bonham
  • Dave Anania
Release date: 2004-08-30
Run time: 91 min.
Creator: Phil Stanton
RRP: £14.99
Price: £6.40

Review Blue Man Group - The Complex Rock Tour - Live [2003] (NTSC) / Warner Music Vision:


Review Channel 4 DVD / Black Books: Series 2 [2002]
Actors & Directors
  • Dylan Moran
  • Tamsin Greig
  • Bill Bailey
Release date: 2006-06-19
Run time: 144 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £6.46

Review Black Books: Series 2 [2002] / Channel 4 DVD:

One of the few genuinely outstanding British comedy shows of the past decade, Black Books unites excellent comedic performances, very funny scripts, and plenty of rewatch value. The concept is simple enough. Bernard (expertly played by Dylan Moran) runs a bookshop. The only problems are he can't stand people, hates customers, and would far prefer to be barking out cutting remarks and drinking wine. Still, it's after drinking much of the aforementioned wine that he offers Manny (Bill Bailey, again in terrific form) a job. Manny accepts, and finds his daily life involves taking abuse from Bernard, while remaining strangely and resolutely upbeat. Fran (Tamsin Greig) meanwhile also likes her wine, and finds herself stuck between the two of them, with a few odd encounters of her own thrown in too. So far nothing particularly out of the ordinary, right? Well, mix in some of the creative force behind Father Ted, combine those aforementioned performances, and simmer to the point where episode after episode garners a cocktail of sniggers and belly laughs, and you have something really rather special. Like many of the best shows, the curtain has come down on Black Books after only three series. But the long-lasting legacy are episodes that are set to be enjoyed for a long, long time to come. [+]
-Simon Brew.

Review MGM Entertainment / City Slickers [1990]
Actors & Directors
  • Bruno Kirby
  • Billy Crystal
  • Helen Slater
  • Patricia Wettig
  • Ron Underwood
  • Daniel Stern
Release date: 2002-03-11
Run time: 109 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.49

Review City Slickers [1990] / MGM Entertainment:


Review Cinema Club / Six Shooter
Actors & Directors
  • Martin McDonagh
Release date: 2007-02-12
Run time: 26 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £3.33

Review Six Shooter / Cinema Club:


Review Uca / Greatest Ever Chick Flicks Collection (Steelbook)
Actors & Directors
  • Debra Messing
  • Gary Winick
  • Jennifer Aniston
  • John Hamburg
  • George Clooney
  • Jennifer Lopez
  • Joel Coen
  • Phillip Seymour Hoffman
  • Wayne Wang
  • Nancy Meyers
Release date: 2008-10-13
Run time: 506 min.
RRP: £34.99
Price: £16.75

Review Greatest Ever Chick Flicks Collection (Steelbook) / Uca:


Review Optimum Home Entertainment / The Early Hitchcock Collection [1929]
Actors & Directors
  • Norah Baring
  • Anny Ondra
  • Herbert Marshall
  • Alfred Hitchcock
  • Carl Brisson
  • John Longden
Release date: 2007-02-26
Run time: 755 min.
Creator: Eden Phillpotts
RRP: £34.99
Price: £16.98

Review The Early Hitchcock Collection [1929] / Optimum Home Entertainment:


Review Warner Home Video / Ocean's 11 [1960]
Actors & Directors
  • Sammy Davis Jr.
  • Angie Dickinson
  • Dean Martin
  • Lewis Milestone
  • Frank Sinatra
  • Peter Lawford
Release date: 2002-03-18
Run time: 122 min.
Creator: Jack Golden Russell
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.95

Review Ocean's 11 [1960] / Warner Home Video:

Leave it to the Chairman of the Board to rope in a great director for the first Rat Pack movie, Ocean's Eleven. Lewis Milestone (All Quiet on the Western Front) did indeed direct this 1960 caper movie starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr, Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop; but the results now seem like more of a historical artefact than a good piece of entertainment. The tone of the film is curiously serious-much more so than Steven Soderbergh's fluffy 2002 remake-one somehow expected that the Rat Pack would have made a more buoyant first picture. But it is something to see these guys together, if only for reasons of nostalgia. -Tom Keogh, Amazon. com.

Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Kung Pow - Enter the Fist [2002]
Actors & Directors
  • Steve Oedekerk
  • Leo Lee
  • Steve Oedekerk
  • Ling Ling Tse
  • Lin Yan
  • Fei Lung
Release date: 2003-01-20
Run time: 78 min.
Creator: Tom Koranda
RRP: £17.99
Price: £3.14

Review Kung Pow - Enter the Fist [2002] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

A shamelessly low-brow parody, Kung Pow: Enter the Fist is a scrambling of footage from the 1975 Hong Kong martial arts epic Tiger & Crane Fist with new material shot by director Steve Oedekerk (Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls) in which he doubles for original star Jimmy Wang Yu. Following the style set by Woody Allen in What's Up Tiger Lily?, Oedekerk also dubs all the voices, rendering the basic revenge story even more formulaic and ridiculous. The villain turns out to be working for flying saucers manned by French aliens (!) and the Chosen One hero has an odd habit of using animals as weapons (gopher nunchakas, squirrel padding) and, in the stand-out scene, doing a full-on Matrix/Crouching Tiger battle with an extremely agile killer cow. A lot of the film is just dumb, but it still manages to beat laughs out of you with its relentless goofiness. Though it might seem an ego trip for Oedekerk, he is actually a likeable leading man, pulling funny faces and deliberately dubbing even his own voice badly. On the DVD: Kung Pow: Enter the Fist on disc includes an animated draft of the kung fu cow scene, with special effects elements shown pre-mixing. There are also several deleted sequences and a director's cut of one extended fight scene. -Kim Newman.

Review Universal Studios / Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day [2008] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Frances McDormand
  • Beatie Edney
  • Tim Potter
  • Clare Clifford
  • Ciarán Hinds
  • Bharat Nalluri
Release date: 2008-08-19
Run time: 60 min.
Creator: Paul Englishby
Price: £9.75

Review Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day [2008] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Universal Studios:


Review 2 Entertain Video / Dennis Pennis - Pennis From Heaven
Actors & Directors
  • Paul Kaye
  • David Walliams
  • Matt Lucas
Release date: 2005-03-28
Run time: 150 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £5.96

Review Dennis Pennis - Pennis From Heaven / 2 Entertain Video:


Review Universal Pictures UK / The Cosby Show - Series 1 - Complete [1984]
Actors & Directors
  • Alicia Keys
  • Jay Sandrich
  • Phylicia Rashad
  • Malcolm Jamal Warner
  • Iman
  • Bill Cosby
Release date: 2008-05-19
Run time: 552 min.
RRP: £27.99
Price: £12.00

Review The Cosby Show - Series 1 - Complete [1984] / Universal Pictures UK:

Looking back at Series 1 of The Cosby Show, it's easy to forget that momentous history was being made. Not only did this immensely popular sitcom hold the #1 spot among all network TV shows for five consecutive seasons (a record that still stands), but it promoted an evolutionary progression that influenced the entire TV industry from that point forward. African Americans had enjoyed sitcom success in the past (on Julia, The Jeffersons, and Good Times), but the idealised family of Cliff and Clair Huxtable (Bill Cosby and Phylicia Rashad) represented a new and quietly revolutionary perspective; married for 21 years with five children (one in college, a detail unmentioned in the pilot episode), the Huxtables were happy and successful (he's a doctor, she's a lawyer), and issues of race were almost entirely irrelevant to the show's universal appeal. More to the point, The Cosby Show was eminently respectable family entertainment, perhaps too squeaky-clean for some tastes, but immediately popular at a time when Eddie Murphy (in Beverly Hills Cop) was honing a more profane image that Cosby disapproved of. The show was also perfectly cast for mass appeal, from the irresistible precociousness of Keshia Knight Pulliam (as the youngest and most charming Huxtable daughter, Rudy) to the stylish adolescence of Lisa Bonet (years before her controversial role in Angel Heart) as 16-year-old Denise; Malcolm-Jamal Warner as outspoken teenager Theo; Tempestt Bledsoe as sensible younger daughter Vanessa; and Sabrina LaBeauf as college student and eventual mother of twins, Sondra. Combined with the effortless chemistry of Cosby and Rashad (credited in Season 1 as Phylicia Ayers Allen), the entire cast forged an easygoing, loosely-rehearsed dynamic that was genuinely familial. -Jeff Shannon.

Review Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / You Can't Take It With You [1938]
Actors & Directors
  • Edward Arnold
  • Frank Capra
  • Mischa Auer
  • James Stewart
  • Lionel Barrymore
  • Jean Arthur
Release date: 2003-02-24
Run time: 121 min.
Creator: Robert Riskin
RRP: £12.99
Price: £5.69

Review You Can't Take It With You [1938] / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:

You Can't Take It With You, Frank Capra's 1938 populist spin on the George S Kaufman and Moss Hart play about a family of happy eccentrics, is a great deal of fun, though it significantly rewrites the original work and doesn't represent Capra (Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington) at his best. Jean Arthur plays a member of the blissful Vanderhof househ old who falls in love with a rich man's son (James Stewart) and brings him into her nutty home. Lionel Barrymore, who played such a bad guy eight years later in Capra's It's a Wonderful Life, is the wonderful Grandpa Vanderhof, who addresses God during the dinner prayer as "sir" and speaks plainly and beautifully of why it's good to be alive. Capra took this opportunity to rail against big business and champion the common man, but the overall tone of the film-typical for the director's comedies-is buoyant and snappy. -Tom Keogh, Amazon. com.

Models & Brands:
The Rocky Horror Picture Show - Single Disc Edition [1975], Something To Talk About [1996], Twenty Four Hour Party People [2002], The Rutles - All You Need Is Cash [1978], Perfect World - Series 1-2 - Complete, Jimmy Carr - Live Stand Up [2005], The Fast Lady [1962], Paradise Alley [1978], Blue Man Group - The Complex Rock Tour - Live [2003] (NTSC), Black Books: Series 2 [2002], City Slickers [1990], Six Shooter, Greatest Ever Chick Flicks Collection (Steelbook), The Early Hitchcock Collection [1929], Ocean's 11 [1960], Kung Pow - Enter the Fist [2002], Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day [2008] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Dennis Pennis - Pennis From Heaven, The Cosby Show - Series 1 - Complete [1984], You Can't Take It With You [1938]

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