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Review MGM Entertainment / The Fortune Cookie [1967]
Actors & Directors
  • Walter Matthau
  • Cliff Osmond
  • Billy Wilder
  • Jack Lemmon
  • Ron Rich
  • Judi West
Release date: 2001-11-26
Run time: 121 min.
Creator: I.A.L. Diamond
RRP: £15.99
Price: £3.10

Review The Fortune Cookie [1967] / MGM Entertainment:


Review Universal Pictures UK / Laurel & Hardy Volume 17 - Swiss Miss/Animal Shorts [1938]
Actors & Directors
  • Oliver Hardy
  • Eric Blore
  • John G. Blystone
  • Stan Laurel
  • Della Lind
  • Walter Woolf King
Release date: 2004-05-03
Run time: 202 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £0.99

Review Laurel & Hardy Volume 17 - Swiss Miss/Animal Shorts [1938] / Universal Pictures UK:


Review Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / Friends With Money [2006]
Actors & Directors
  • Catherine Keener
  • Frances McDormand
  • Jennifer Aniston
  • Jason Isaacs
  • Joan Cusack
  • Nicole Holofcener
Release date: 2006-09-25
Run time: 88 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £1.96

Review Friends With Money [2006] / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:

With her third feature, Friends With Money, writer-director Nicole Holofcener continues to develop one of the most distinctive voices in American independent film-making. While not as purely satisfying as her previous films Walking and Talking and Lovely and Amazing, Holofcener's third feature is admirably ambitious in establishing a diverse and dynamic range of relationships among long-time girlfriends, their spouses (for better and worse), and the way in which money (or lack of it) affects them all. The have-not of the group is Olivia (Jennifer Aniston), a teacher-turned-pot-smoking housecleaner in the upscale neighbourhoods of West Los Angeles. She's drifting, uncertain of her future both professionally and romantically, while her friends Franny (Joan Cusack), Christine (Catherine Keener), and Jane (Frances McDormand) cope with the relatively enviable problems of wealthy discontentment. They've all got personal crises to resolve, and while Olivia juggles the affections of a likable louse (Scott Caan) and a lonely slob who's secretly rich (Bob Stephenson), Holofcener taps a rich vein of humor and melancholy as these women go about their daily routines, attending benefits, chatting over meals, and doting over Olivia as the "needy one" in their closed circle of friendships. All of this is richly observed and wonderfully acted (with male costars played by Greg Germann, Jason Isaacs, and Simon McBurney), but reaction to Friends With Money is strictly a matter of personal taste. Holofcener isn't telling a story so much as examining lives in various states of disarray, and she offers no false comforts or simple resolutions. Like life, Friends With Money just continues on its way, with some friends happier than others. There's plenty of truth to be found, if you know where to look. -Jeff Shannon.

Review 2 Entertain Video / Joe Pasquale - Does He Really Talk Like That? The Live Show
Actors & Directors
  • Joe Pasquale
Release date: 2005-11-21
Run time: 70 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £2.43

Review Joe Pasquale - Does He Really Talk Like That? The Live Show / 2 Entertain Video:


Review Touchstone Home Video / Runaway Bride [1999]
Actors & Directors
  • Rita Wilson
  • Hector Elizondo
  • Julia Roberts
  • Garry Marshall
  • Richard Gere
  • Joan Cusack
Release date: 2005-08-01
Run time: 112 min.
Creator: Sara Parriott
RRP: £15.99
Price: £3.33

Review Runaway Bride [1999] / Touchstone Home Video:

It took nearly a decade to find a mutually agreeable screenplay, but the stars and director of Pretty Woman finally reunited to make Runaway Bride, wisely avoiding any attempt to recapture the 1990 film's elusive magic. The result is a perfectly pleasant romantic comedy that would've fared better critically (despite boffo box office) if it hadn't been overshadowed by its blockbuster predecessor. It is certainly a more credible film than Pretty Woman, trading a far-fetched fairy tale (hooker hooks up with tycoon? bah!) for a more amiably conventional plot about big-city reporter Ike Graham (Richard Gere) who falls for a small-town handywoman Maggie Carpenter (Julia Roberts) with a nasty habit of fleeing from the altar in a recurring state of premarital panic. Both characters are instantly likeable, and the smooth dialogue by Josann McGibbon and Sara Parriott only occasionally panders to sitcom cuteness. And despite his routine sacrifice of subtle craft for commercial appeal, director Garry Marshall knows when to trust his stars and material, lending this movie a casual charm (aided by a terrific supporting cast) that never feels forced or artificial. The whole thing's utterly predictable, riding on the suspenseless question of whether Maggie will dump her sports-nut fiancé (Christopher Meloni) and tie the knot with Ike. It's a foregone conclusion after the usual games of romantic cat and mouse, but the chemistry between Roberts and Gere is undeniable, and with a decade's worth of additional stardom between them, they shine as brightly as ever. -Jeff Shannon.

Review 2 Entertain Video / The Very Best of Steptoe and Son [1962]
Actors & Directors
  • Wilfrid Brambell
  • Harry H. Corbett
Release date: 2001-10-01
Run time: 147 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.38

Review The Very Best of Steptoe and Son [1962] / 2 Entertain Video:

The Very Best of Steptoe and Son is wonderful collection of "Steptoe" moments. but not entirely what it claims to be. This selection, is in fact a collection of five episodes from the two surviving series of the four shot in colour in the 1970s-the four black and white series shot in the 1960s are neglected entirely. However by the 1970s, Wilfred Brambell and Harry H Corbett had been playing Albert and Harold Steptoe for almost a decade and the parts of the greedy needy old man and his witty feeble son were second nature to them. One of the best episodes on show here is "The Desperate Hours", which sets the father and son duo off against a similar couple-Leonard Rossiter's escaped bank robber and the old lag who taught him everything he knows-both couples come to understand the shared dynamic of their relationships. The 1970s episodes included more external shots and opened the show out from its original two-hander format-"Oh What a Beautiful Mourning", for example, introduces us to a large selection of the Steptoe clan, played by a variety of well known character actors. On the DVD: The DVD is presented in a standard television 4:3 aspect ratio and adds the luxury of Dolby Sound to the show's original mono; the Ron Grainger signature tune has never sounded so good. There are no subtitles, but the DVD includes a short account of the two stars' careers and an extended interview in which Galton and Simpson, the scriptwriters, talk about the history of the show from its origin as a one-off Comedy Playhouse episode through to the eventual decision that after the eighth series it was time to call it a day. [+]
-Roz Kaveny.

Review Sony Bmg / Tenacious D - The Complete Master Works Vol.1 [2003]
Actors & Directors
  • Liam Lynch
  • Paul F. Tompkins
  • Kyle Gass
  • Spike Jonze
  • Gabe Swarr
  • Dave Skinner
  • Tenacious D
  • Tom Gianas
  • Jack Black
  • Kirk Ward
Release date: 2003-11-24
Run time: 231 min.
Creator: Bob Odenkirk
RRP: £16.99
Price: £10.49

Review Tenacious D - The Complete Master Works Vol.1 [2003] / Sony Bmg:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment (UK) / Sex And The City : Seasons 1-6 Shoebox (18 Disc Set)
Actors & Directors
  • Sarah Jessica Parker
  • Kristin Davis
  • Kim Cattrall
  • Cynthia Nixon
Release date: 2005-10-31
Run time: 2678 min.
Price: £129.99

Review Sex And The City : Seasons 1-6 Shoebox (18 Disc Set) / Paramount Home Entertainment (UK):

Sex and the City managed, over its six-season run, to become something of an icon. It's one of those programs that's passed into pop culture; the show that launched a thousand personality tests, each asking whom you identify with most: prim and proper Charlotte, career girl Miranda, man-hungry Samantha, or introspective (but always impeccably dressed) columnist Carrie Bradshaw. The cast isn't as truly an ensemble as, say, Friends; Carrie is the main focus, with Sarah Jessica Parker's notoriously outrageous wardrobe tending to draw as much attention as the plot of the episode. Funny without being farcical, Sex and the City was also touching and aspirational. Unashamedly girly, the series created a kind of modern fantasy: four friends, each with her own distinct personality, finding her way around the battlefield of life and love in New York City. Though Sex and the City sparked controversy over whether it represented a new age of feminism, or, conversely, was deeply traditional or even damaging, it was always undeniably entertaining nonetheless. This shoebox style boxset contains all the episodes (and costs considerably less than a pair of Manolo Blahniks) and so is ideal for catching up, ready for the hotly rumoured movie version. - Sarah Dobbs.

Review Revolver Entertainment / JCVD [2008]
Actors & Directors
  • Francois Damiens
  • Karim Belkhadra
  • Mabrouk El Mechri
  • Jean-Francois Wolff
  • Anne Paulicevich
  • Jean-Claude Van Damme
Release date: 2009-02-02
Run time: 93 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £9.98

Review JCVD [2008] / Revolver Entertainment:


Review delta home entertainment / Worzel Gummidge - All Of Series Four [2002]
Actors & Directors
  • James Hill
  • Jon Pertwee;Jeremy Austin;Charlotte Coleman;Barbara Windsor;Joan Sims;Bill Maynard;Una Stubbs;Sarah Thomas;Denis Gilmore;Thorley Walters;Mike Berry;Lorraine Chase;Megs Jenkins;Geoffrey Bayldon;Norman Bird
Release date: 2002-08-05
Run time: 205 min.
RRP: £14.99
Price: £2.86

Review Worzel Gummidge - All Of Series Four [2002] / delta home entertainment:


Review Artificial Eye / Three Colours White [1993]
Actors & Directors
  • Janusz Gajos
  • Jerzy Stuhr
  • Krzysztof Kieslowski
  • Zbigniew Zamachowski
  • Aleksander Bardini
  • Julie Delpy
Release date: 2001-10-29
Run time: 88 min.
Creator: Marcin Latallo
RRP: £19.99
Price: £3.69

Review Three Colours White [1993] / Artificial Eye:

White is the second of witty Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowki's "three colours" trilogy Blue, White, and Red-the three colours of the French flag, symbolising liberty, equality and fraternity. White is an ironic comedy brimming over with the hard laughs of despair, ecstasy, ambition and longing played in a minor key. Down-and-out Polish immigrant Karol Karol is desperate to get out of France. He's obsessed with his French soon-to-be ex-wife (Before Sunrise's Julie Delpy), his French bank account is frozen, and he's fed up with the inequality of it all. Penniless, he convinces a fellow Pole to smuggle him home in a suitcase-which then gets stolen from the airport. The unhappy thieves beat him and dump him in a snowy rock pit. Things can only get better, right? The story evolves into a wickedly funny anti-romance, an inverse Romeo and Juliet. Because it's in two foreign languages, the dialogue can be occasionally hard to follow, but some of the most genuinely funny and touching moments need no verbal explanation. -Grant Balfour.

Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Confetti [2006]
Actors & Directors
  • Felicity Montagu
  • Jimmy Carr
  • Robert Webb
  • Debbie Isitt
  • Stephen Mangan
  • Martin Freeman
Release date: 2006-09-18
Run time: 96 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £0.99

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


Review Pias UK / A Home Of Your Own [2007]
Actors & Directors
  • Janet Brown
  • Bridget Armstrong
  • Ronnie Barker
  • George Benson
  • Richard Briers
  • Jay Lewis
Release date: 2006-08-07
Run time: 43 min.
Creator: Johnny Whyte
RRP: £9.99
Price: £7.62

Review A Home Of Your Own [2007] / Pias UK:


Review MGM Entertainment / Broadway Danny Rose [1984]
Actors & Directors
  • Woody Allen
  • Woody Allen
  • Sandy Baron
  • Mia Farrow
  • Nick Apollo Forte
  • Corbett Monica
Release date: 2002-02-11
Run time: 81 min.
Creator: Robert Greenhut
RRP: £15.99
Price: £3.99

Review Broadway Danny Rose [1984] / MGM Entertainment:

Broadway Danny Rose is vintage Woody Allen. Danny (Allen) is a down-at-heel theatrical agent whose regular clients include talking bird acts and a man who twists balloons into animal shapes. His faith in these eccentrics never fails, despite the fact that everyone leaves him for another agent in the end. Complications ensue when one of his clients, an overweight crooner, starts a romance with a mafia widow (excellently played by Allen's partner of the time, Mia Farrow). The mob think Danny is her boyfriend, forcing the two of them to take evasive action, at one point dodging bullets among giant floats for a forthcoming Fourth of July parade. The script is witty, the acting superb, the situations inventive. The film is shot in black and white and looks superb for it. On the DVD: The DVD is widescreen, with extremely clear sound so you won't miss a single wisecrack. Dialogue is available in French, German, Italian and Spanish as well as English. It's a pity, however-since the film is so short (84 minutes)-that there are no extras apart from the theatrical trailer. [+]
-Ed Buscombe.

Review Pinnacle Vision / At Last The 1948 Show
Actors & Directors
  • Marty Feldman
  • Ian Fordyce
  • Tim Brooke-Taylor
  • Aimi MacDonald
  • John Cleese
  • Graham Chapman
Release date: 2005-07-25
Run time: 172 min.
RRP: £3.99
Price: £3.58

Review At Last The 1948 Show / Pinnacle Vision:


Review Sony Pictures Home Ent. UK / Bewitched - Season 4
Actors & Directors
  • Agnes Moorehead
  • Dick York
  • David White
  • Elizabeth Montgomery
Release date: 2007-01-22
Run time: 803 min.
RRP: £34.99
Price: £12.88

Review Bewitched - Season 4 / Sony Pictures Home Ent. UK:


Review Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / The Mouse That Roared [1959]
Actors & Directors
  • Jack Arnold
  • Jean Seberg
  • Peter Sellers
  • David Kossoff
  • Leo McKern
  • William Hartnell
Release date: 2002-08-05
Run time: 80 min.
Creator: Stanley Mann
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.77

Review The Mouse That Roared [1959] / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:

The Mouse That Roared, originally released in 1959, is mostly remembered as a tour-de-force from peerless comic actor Peter Sellers, playing all three of the principal roles. It's worth seeing for that alone, but the film is also one of the most memorable satires of nuclear geopolitics produced during the Cold War and, along with another Sellers vehicle, Dr Strangelove, provides an unbeatable illustration of the paranoia and helplessness engendered by that period. The Mouse That Roared tells the story of the fictional European principality of Grand Fenwick. Finding itself on the wrong end of a trade dispute with the United States, and noting America's generosity in rebuilding the countries it had fought in World War II, Grand Fenwick's rulers hit upon the idea of declaring war on the US, losing, and then reaping a Marshall Plan-style hand-out. The plan, proposed by Grand Fenwick's prime minister (played by Peter Sellers), is approved by the monarch (also played by Peter Sellers), who dispatches an invasion force of chain mail-clad archers under the command of Grand Fenwick's hapless Field Marshal (also played by Peter Sellers). Due to a series of happenstances and misunderstandings, Grand Fenwick's plan goes terribly wrong, and they inflict a surprising defeat on America, with curious consequences. On the DVD: The Mouse That Roared is presented in 1. 85:1 widescreen; sound is mono. Soundtracks are available in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish, and subtitles in all those as well as most other major European languages, Hebrew and Arabic. Special features include a scene selector, and three theatrical trailers: one for this film (English audiences will get a kick out of the 1950s American announcer raving about "an hilarious new personality, Peter Sellers"), one for Sellers' much bleaker (and much funnier) Cold War satire Dr Strangelove, and one for his slight horror spoof Murder By Death. [+]
-Andrew Mueller.

Review Lionsgate / Tyler Perry's Daddy's Little Girls [2007] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Tracee Ellis Ross
  • Gabrielle Union
  • Louis Gossett Jr.
  • Tasha Smith
  • Idris Elba
  • Tyler Perry
Release date: 2007-06-12
Run time: 95 min.
Creator: Roger M. Bobb
Price: £6.41

Review Tyler Perry's Daddy's Little Girls [2007] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Lionsgate:


Review Entertainment in Video / Next Friday [2000]
Actors & Directors
  • Steve Carr
  • Ice Cube
  • John Witherspoon
  • Justin Pierce
  • Mike Epps
  • Don 'D.C.' Curry
Release date: 2000-09-25
Run time: 94 min.
Creator: DJ Pooh
RRP: £19.99
Price: £3.22

Review Next Friday [2000] / Entertainment in Video:

Written by and starring Ice Cube, this sequel to his 1995 smash Friday is an engaging farce that plays on the ludicrous charm of the original. It's Next Friday and Craig Jones (Ice Cube) has to pay the consequences for despatching Debo, the neighbourhood bully, to jail at the close of the first film. Hearing a rumour that Debo is to break out of the pen, Craig's father decides it would be safer if he holed up at his cousin Day-Day's house in the 'burbs. But as Craig finds out, this is one suburb that is filled with as much drama as the ghetto. Craig's Uncle Elroy is a layabout lottery winner with a sexually voracious young wife who has designs on her nephew. Day-day (Mike Epps) is being stalked for child support by a pregnant former girlfriend and lives in fear of his boss Pinky, a former pimp who runs a record store. His neighbours, a trio of pumped-up Chicano gangsters, are out for his blood after Craig is caught flirting with their sister Karla, and to top everything, Elroy's house is due to be repossessed in 24 hours due to tax violation. The ensuing hilarity centres around Craig's attempts to raise the necessary funds by fair means or foul. Much to Ice Cube's credit, this silly and scabrous comedy is laugh-out-loud funny without lapsing into American Pie-style frat-boy humour. On the DVD: The main feature is presented in 16:9 anamorphic format in an immaculate print with the choice of either Dolby Digital 2. [+]
0 or 5. 1 sound and optional English subtitles. Among the special features is an alternate ending which features several small dialogue changes and a re-appearance by Cube's love interest Karla that provides a more satisfying conclusion than the actual ending to the film, which has been left intentionally open for a possible sequel, Friday After Next. Music videos by Ice Cube ("You Can Do It") and Lil' Zane ("Money Stretch") seem to have been included as an incentive to buy the all-star rap soundtrack. Additional features include a theatrical trailer and cast and crew filmographies. The "making-of" featurette advertised on the sleeve does not app ear anywhere on the disc. -Chris Campion.

Review ITV DVD / Auf Wiedersehen Pet - The Complete Series 2 [1983]
Actors & Directors
  • Sandy Johnson
  • Jimmy Nail
  • Baz Taylor
  • Tim Healy
  • Anthony Garner
  • Kevin Whately
Release date: 2002-07-08
Run time: 650 min.
RRP: £44.99
Price: £12.00

Review Auf Wiedersehen Pet - The Complete Series 2 [1983] / ITV DVD:

First broadcast in 1983 with its second series airing in 1986, Auf Wiedersehen Pet was an unlikely comedy hit about a group of British labourers forced to work in Germany during the recession. Scripted by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, (previously responsible for Porridge and The Likely Lads) its main players are likeable stereotypes from all over England: Barry (Timothy Spall), the bumbling, haplessly pretentious Brummie; gentle West Country giant Bomber (Pat Roach); amiable Scouse Moxey (Christopher Fairbank); and the three Geordies, nervous Neville (Kevin Whately), loudmouth xenophobic lummox Oz (Jimmy Nail) and put-upon Dennis (Tim Healy), the reluctant gaffer of the mob. The second series saw the lads reunited to work for a dubious entrepreneur called Ally Fraser to whom Dennis owes money, and the location varying from Spain to Derbyshire. Gary Holton (cheeky cockney Wayne) died during the making of the series and Clement and La Frenais farmed out several episodes to other writers like Stan Hey, but the characters were well established by this point and the comedy held up. An episode in which the gang upset the locals of a stuffy country pub with their very presence is particularly memorable. A belated third series followed in 2002. -David Stubbs.

Models & Brands:
The Fortune Cookie [1967], Laurel & Hardy Volume 17 - Swiss Miss/Animal Shorts [1938], Friends With Money [2006], Joe Pasquale - Does He Really Talk Like That? The Live Show, Runaway Bride [1999], The Very Best of Steptoe and Son [1962], Tenacious D - The Complete Master Works Vol.1 [2003], Sex And The City : Seasons 1-6 Shoebox (18 Disc Set), JCVD [2008], Worzel Gummidge - All Of Series Four [2002], Three Colours White [1993], Confetti [2006], A Home Of Your Own [2007], Broadway Danny Rose [1984], At Last The 1948 Show, Bewitched - Season 4, The Mouse That Roared [1959], Tyler Perry's Daddy's Little Girls [2007] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Next Friday [2000], Auf Wiedersehen Pet - The Complete Series 2 [1983]

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