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Review Warner Home Video / Superman The Movie [1978]
Actors & Directors
  • Ned Beatty
  • Christopher Reeve
  • Richard Donner
  • Margot Kidder
  • Gene Hackman
  • Marlon Brando
Release date: 2006-06-01
Run time: 146 min.
Creator: Tom Mankiewicz
RRP: £12.99
Price: £0.94

Review Superman The Movie [1978] / Warner Home Video:

Modern blockbuster cinema came of age with the release of three huge science fiction/fantasy extravaganzas in the late 1970s. In 1978 Superman was the last of these, a gigantic hit unfairly overshadowed by Star Wars (1977) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). Christopher Reeve is completely convincing as both Superman and mild-mannered alter ego Clarke Kent, sparking real chemistry with Margot Kidder's fellow reporter Lois Lane. Very much a film of two halves, the opening tells the origin of Superman from the apocalyptic fate of Krypton to his nostalgically rendered boyhood in the mid-West. After a wonderful sequence introducing the Fortress of Solitude the film changes gear as the adult Clarke Kent arrives in Metropolis and Superman battles arch-nemesis Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman). Though the tone becomes lighter and introduces comedy, Superman succeeds because Donner plays the titular character straight. From Marlon Brando's heavyweight cameo to the surprisingly wrenching finale, Superman unfolds as an epic modern myth, a spiritual fable for a secular age and a fantastic entertainment for the young at heart. With breathtaking production design, still special effects, gorgeous cinematography, thrilling set-pieces, wit, romance and John Williams' extraordinarily rich music score, Superman has the power to make you believe a man can fly. On the DVD: Superman is presented in an extended director's cut which adds eight minutes to the theatrical original. The restored material is so artfully integrated many viewers may not even notice, but it would have been nice to at least have the opportunity to watch the original via seamless branching. [+]
The sound has been remixed into extraordinarily powerful Dolby Digital 5. 1-the superb main title sequence is worth the price alone-and the anamorphically enhanced 2. 35:1 image is, except for some unavoidably grainy effects shots, pristine. The commentary by Richard Donner and writer Tom Mankiewicz reveals more about the background than all but the most dedicated fan will ever need to know, while film music aficionados will revel in the opportunity to listen to John Williams' score isolated in Dolby Digital 5. 1. On the second side of the disc are a eight alternate John Williams music cues, a selection of deleted scenes and the screen tests of a variety of would-be Lois Lanes, introduced and with optional commentary by casting director Lynn Stalmaster. These are fascinating, and show how right for the part Margot Kidder really was. A DVD-ROM only feature presents the storyboards plus various Web features, while the real highlight is a 90-minute documentary divided into three sections covering pre-production, filming and special effects. The picture quality on all the extras is very good indeed. An enthralling package, DVD doesn't get much better than this. -Gary S Dalkin.

Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Superstar - Dvd [1999]
Actors & Directors
  • Bruce McCulloch
  • Elaine Hendrix
  • Mark McKinney
  • Will Ferrell
  • Molly Shannon
  • Harland Williams
Release date: 2001-01-22
Run time: 78 min.
Creator: Steve Koren
RRP: £9.99
Price: £1.99

Review Superstar - Dvd [1999] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

Superstar is a big-screen vehicle for Molly Shannon, the latest comic from the American sketch show Saturday Night Live to have a movie built around her. She isn't exactly funny-in fact, she's a little unsettling. Her creation, the neurotic Catholic schoolgirl Mary Katherine Gallagher, invites laughter because she's a little too close to the bone for anyone who grew up feeling ugly and unloved, which is a lot of people. Mary lives with her grandmother (Glynis Johns), who insists that Mary study business. Mary herself yearns to be famous and admired, though for what isn't exactly clear; she envisions some vague combination of singing, dancing, and acting that will make her a superstar. A talent show promises to be her ticket to stardom (the winning prize is a role in "a movie with positive moral values"), and she won't let her loser status or any hostile cheerleaders stand in her way. Meanwhile, Mary acts out dating fantasies with trees and signposts, envisions the school lunch room bursting into a Fame-like dance number, and longs for the biggest jock in school. What makes Superstar more than just a collection of bad high school memories is that, though the formulaic plot redeems Mary, the movie as a whole isn't so sure. Mary completely loses herself in her obsessive fantasies-many inspired by cheesy made-for-TV movies-but there's always someone watching, aghast, as Mary acts out her inner thoughts. Is she misunderstood or freakish? Superstar never commits to one side or the other, which makes it both comic and uncomfortable. [+]
-Bret Fetzer, Amazon. com.

Review 4 Front Video / The Associate [1997]
Actors & Directors
  • Dianne Wiest
  • Tim Daly
  • Donald Petrie
  • Eli Wallach
  • Bebe Neuwirth
  • Whoopi Goldberg
Release date: 2005-05-02
Run time: 109 min.
Creator: René Gainville
RRP: £5.99
Price: £3.20

Review The Associate [1997] / 4 Front Video:


Review Tla Releasing / Straight Jacket
Actors & Directors
  • Richard Day
  • Carrie Preston
  • Jack Plotnick
  • Matt Letscher
  • Michael Emerson
Release date: 2006-04-24
Run time: 96 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £3.97

Review Straight Jacket / Tla Releasing:


Review Starz Home Entertainment / Roseanne - Series 1
Actors & Directors
  • Sara Gilbert
  • John Goodman
  • Roseanne Barr
  • Alicia Goranson
  • Laurie Metcalf
Release date: 2005-09-19
Run time: 503 min.
RRP: £24.99
Price: £3.56

Review Roseanne - Series 1 / Starz Home Entertainment:

Roseanne burst onto the screen in 1988, when top-rated sitcom The Cosby Show exuded a smug Father Knows Best glossiness. In contrast, the blue-collar Conner family bickered with the offhand nastiness of real families, which didn't mean they loved each other any less. Front and center was Roseanne Barr (now known by the single name Roseanne), a former stand-up comedian who wasn't afraid to rock the boat (her fights with producers were legendary). When even the fat guys on sitcoms have svelte, hottie wives, it's hard to believe that this woman-overweight, abrasive, with a voice like a wood chipper-became top of the television heap. Roseanne spoke up for a kind of lower-class feminism; she didn't concern herself much with politics, but within the family she just as much in charge as her husband Dan (the ever-dependable John Goodman)-though in the final episode of the first season, she took a stand at her factory job that was half Norma Rae, half Cool Hand Luke. But most often the show turned the ordinary rituals of domestic life (putting the kids to bed, coping with visiting parents) into sharp comic scenarios. The stories were smartly hidden in a series of scenes that felt organic and unforced. The entire cast-one of the best ensembles ever, including theatre veteran Laurie Metcalf as Roseanne's sister Jackie; Lecy Goranson as eldest daughter Becky; Michael Fishman as youngest child D. J. ; and especially Sara Gilbert as middle daughter Darlene-swiftly cultivated the mixture of comfort and tension that marks most family relationships. [+]
The result was a portrait of American family life that rang achingly, hilariously true. Roseanne's first season was solid from the start; few shows have had such an immediate grasp of their ideal tone and rhythm. Roseanne may have been a little stiff in the first few episodes, but she developed her chops quickly. By only the third episode, in which Roseanne and Dan run into a divorced friend at a restaurant and do some impromptu evaluating of their own married life, Roseanne was already exploring the psychology behind the wisecracks. By episode 6, set in a bowling alley, Roseanne begins to truly inhabit her character, growing more physically and emotionally expansive (she herself singles out this episode as the one where she started to have fun). Roseanne was never afraid to share the spotlight; Goodman, Metcalf, and the kids all had central roles in one episode or another, and one of the most striking episodes focused on Roseanne's coworker Crystal (the underrated Natalie West), whose husband had been embedded in concrete while working on a bridge. This black comic premise gave way to surprisingly touching grief when old secrets emerged. Guest performers like George Clooney (a semi-regular in the first season), Ned Beatty (as Dan's father), Estelle Parsons (an insidious turn as Roseanne's mother), and Fred Thompson (as a domineering supervisor) always had meaty material to work with. Simply one of the best sitcoms of all time. -Bret Fetzer, Amazon. com.

Review Network / Father Came Too! [1963]
Actors & Directors
  • Peter Graham Scott
  • James Robertson Justice
  • Leslie Phillips
  • Sally Smith
  • Stanley Baxter
  • Ronnie Barker
Release date: 2005-08-15
Run time: 90 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £5.98

Review Father Came Too! [1963] / Network:


Review Cinema Club / Private Lessons [1981]
Actors & Directors
  • Eric Brown
  • Ed Begley Jr.
  • Sylvia Kristel
  • Howard Hesseman
  • Alan Myerson
Release date: 2006-02-27
Run time: 79 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £2.11

Review Private Lessons [1981] / Cinema Club:


Review MGM Entertainment / The Raven [1963]
Actors & Directors
  • Vincent Price
  • Boris Karloff
  • Roger Corman
  • Hazel Court
  • Olive Sturgess
  • Peter Lorre
Release date: 2003-10-20
Run time: 88 min.
Creator: Richard Matheson
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.30

Review The Raven [1963] / MGM Entertainment:

One of the most sublimely silly products to emanate from Roger Corman's studio, The Raven has the very loosest of connections with the Edgar Allen Poe poem that gives it its title and which Vincent Price intones sepulchrally at the beginning. A retiring magician, Craven (Price) has opted out of the power struggles of peers such as Dr Scarabus (Boris Karloff) to brood on his dead wife and bring up his daughter. The arrival of Bledlo (Peter Lorre), an incompetent drunk whom Scarabus has turned into the raven of the title, involves him in everything he had renounced-life is complicated further by the arrival of Bledlo's son Rexford, played by a staggeringly young Jack Nicholson. The special effects are almost perfunctory, yet the culminating magical duel between Price and Karloff is inventive and charming; this is one of those films that looks as if the actors enjoyed making it; while the script by Richard Matheson has a blithe awareness of its own shortcomings that makes it hard to dislike. On the DVD: The Raven comes to DVD with very boxy remastered mono sound, but is presented in its original widescreen 2. 35:1 ratio, formatted for 16:9 TVs. The only extra is the original theatrical trailer. -Roz Kaveney.

Review MGM Entertainment / Bio-Dome [1996]
Actors & Directors
  • Denise Dowse
  • Dara Tomanovich
  • Pauly Shore
  • Kevin West
  • Kylie Minogue
Release date: 2004-01-12
Run time: 91 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.59

Review Bio-Dome [1996] / MGM Entertainment:


Review Showbox Home Entertainment / What's Good for the Goose [1969]
Actors & Directors
  • Sally Geeson
  • Terence Alexander
  • Norman Wisdom
  • Menahem Golan
  • Sarah Atkinson
Release date: 2007-04-02
Run time: 96 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £2.40

Review What's Good for the Goose [1969] / Showbox Home Entertainment:


Review Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm / Oscar [1991]
Actors & Directors
  • John Landis
  • Tim Curry
  • Don Ameche
  • Sylvester Stallone
  • Kirk Douglas
Release date: 2005-02-28
Run time: 105 min.
RRP: £14.99
Price: £3.19

Review Oscar [1991] / Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm:


Review 2 Entertain Video / Aardman's Darkside Vol.1 [1998]
Actors & Directors
  • Kevin Wrench
  • Andrew Franks
  • Dave Lewis
  • David Holt
  • Darren Walsh
  • Doug Wort
Release date: 2006-09-18
Run time: 79 min.
Creator: Mike Cooper
RRP: £15.99
Price: £6.97

Review Aardman's Darkside Vol.1 [1998] / 2 Entertain Video:


Review 2 Entertain Video / Red Dwarf: Just The Shows (Vol. 1) (Series 1-4) [1988]
Actors & Directors
  • Chris Barrie
  • Ed Bye
  • Robert Llewelyn
  • Craig Charles
  • Norman Lovett
  • Danny John-Jules
Release date: 2004-10-18
Run time: 720 min.
RRP: £34.99
Price: £23.98

Review Red Dwarf: Just The Shows (Vol. 1) (Series 1-4) [1988] / 2 Entertain Video:

Notoriously, and entirely appropriately, the original outline for Doug Naylor and Rob Grant's comedy sci-fi series Red Dwarf was sketched on the back of a beer mat. When it finally appeared on our television screens in 1988 the show had clearly stayed true to its roots, mixing jokes about excessive curry consumption with affectionate parodies of classic SF. Indeed, one of the show's most endearing and enduring features is its obvious respect for the conventions of SF, even as it gleefully subverts them. The scenario owes something to Douglas Adams's satirical Hitch-Hiker's Guide, something to The Odd Couple and a lot more to the slacker SF of John Carpenter's Dark Star. Behind the crew's constant bickering there lurks an impending sense that life, the universe and everything are all someone's idea of a terrible joke. Later series broadened the show's horizons until at last its premise was so diluted as to be unrecognisable, but in the earlier episodes contained in this box set the comedy is witty and intimate, focusing on characters and not special effects. Slob Dave Lister (Craig Charles) is the last human alive after a radiation leak wipes out the crew of the vast mining vessel Red Dwarf (episode 1, "The End"). He bums around the spaceship with the perpetually uptight and annoyed hologram of his dead bunkmate, Arnold Rimmer (Chris Barrie, the show's greatest comedy asset) and a creature evolved from a cat (dapper Danny John Jules). They are guided rather haphazardly by Holly, the worryingly thick ship's computer (lugubrious Norman Lovett). -Mark Walker.

Review Tartan Video / Labyrinth of Passion [2007]
Actors & Directors
  • Cecilia Roth
  • Antonio Banderas
  • Imanol Arias
Release date: 2007-06-25
Run time: 94 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £15.21

Review Labyrinth of Passion [2007] / Tartan Video:


Review Artificial Eye / The Singer [2006]
Actors & Directors
  • Cecile De France
  • Gerard Depardieu
  • Mathieu Amalric
Release date: 2008-02-11
Run time: 110 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £7.25

Review The Singer [2006] / Artificial Eye:


Review Starz Home Entertainment / Roseanne - Series 2
Actors & Directors
  • John Goodman
  • Laurie Metcalf
  • Sara Gilbert
  • Roseanne Barr
Release date: 2006-02-06
Run time: 560 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £4.93

Review Roseanne - Series 2 / Starz Home Entertainment:


Review Universal Pictures UK / American Pie Presents Band Camp [2005]
Actors & Directors
  • Carla Alaponte
  • Steve Rash
  • Tad Hilgenbrinck
  • Arielle Kebbel
  • Tara Killian
  • Jason Earles
Release date: 2005-10-31
Run time: 87 min.
RRP: £17.99
Price: £1.68

Review American Pie Presents Band Camp [2005] / Universal Pictures UK:

A spin-off rather than a sequel, Band Camp is the fourth entry in the American Pie franchise, but the first without the original cast. Instead a new trash-talking teen takes the lead. His name is Matt (Tad Hilgenbrinck) and he's Steve Stifler's younger brother (and despite the dark hair, Hilgenbrinck does resemble Seann William Scott-without the impish charm). There's nothing the football playing party boy hates more than bandies, the geeky members of the high school band. After he gets caught "punking" his favourite victims, he's sent to the guidance counselor, a redheaded gent known as the Sherminator (Chris Owen), who recommends band camp as penance. Since Steve has moved on to become a Girls Gone Wild impresario, Matt decides he'll make his own R-rated opus, "Bandies Gone Wild. " This means spying on the well endowed camp counselors and other unwitting campers while they're showering, sunbathing, etc. When the not-so-bright triangle player gets caught yet again, his new friends abandon him, leading Stiffmeister Jr. to believe he just may have gone too far. Band Camp, which was released straight to DVD, plays more like Porky's than American Pie, and features Eugene Levy as Mr. [+]
Levenstein, AKA "Jim's Dad," the camp's conflict resolution officer and ex-porn star Ginger Lynn Allen as the camp nurse. -Kathleen C. Fennessy.

Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / M*A*S*H - Season Six (Collector's Edition) [1977]
Actors & Directors
  • Mike Farrell
  • Loretta Swit
  • Alan Alda
  • Harry Morgan
  • David Ogden Stiers
Release date: 2005-03-28
Run time: 600 min.
RRP: £29.99
Price: £19.48

Review M*A*S*H - Season Six (Collector's Edition) [1977] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:


Review Warner Home Video / The Prince And The Showgirl [1957]
Actors & Directors
  • Marilyn Monroe
  • Jeremy Spenser
  • Laurence Olivier
  • Sybil Thorndike
  • Richard Wattis
  • Laurence Olivier
Release date: 2002-08-26
Run time: 112 min.
Creator: Terence Rattigan
RRP: £12.99
Price: £1.87

Review The Prince And The Showgirl [1957] / Warner Home Video:

The Prince and the Showgirl (1957) was Marilyn Monroe's only British-made film and scores highly for curiosity value. There's something rather outrageous about this iconic American star playing a second-rate hoofer living in a theatrical boarding house in Brixton. Monroe herself is predictably good and touching as Elsie Marina, plucked from the chorus to entertain the Regent of Carpathia for the evening and ultimately smoothing his rough edges. There is, however, a rather uphill feeling all the way. The making of the movie was by all accounts a troubled experience for everybody concerned. Monroe, increasingly unreliable and exasperating, had an unsympathetic director in Laurence Olivier, also playing the Regent Charles, who hardly had the patience for a star of her mercurial talents with her own ideas of professional behaviour. His own performance as the Balkan royal is hammy and mannered and there isn't even a damp squib of sexual chemistry between them. Terence Rattigan's script, based on his successful play, is far too wordy and stage-bound. But somehow Monroe effervesces through all this adversity, aided considerably by British character actor Richard Wattis and the great Sybil Thorndyke, who became her ally during the difficult filming. Not vintage Marilyn but fascinating all the same, and she looks fantastic. [+]
On the DVD: The Prince and the Showgirl is presented in 4:3 with an occasionally muffled, apparently mono, soundtrack, giving this DVD a rather dusty quality which is in keeping with the vintage British 1950s production values. Extras include a cast list, original trailer and newsreel footage of the announcement that Marilyn was to make the film with Olivier, referred to at that stage as The Sleeping Prince. -Piers Ford.

Review Optimum Home Entertainment / Nurse On wheels [1963]
Actors & Directors
  • Juliet Mills
  • Ronald Lewis
  • Joan Sims
  • Gerald Thomas
Release date: 2007-01-22
Run time: 83 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £4.47

Review Nurse On wheels [1963] / Optimum Home Entertainment:


Models & Brands:
Superman The Movie [1978], Superstar - Dvd [1999], The Associate [1997], Straight Jacket, Roseanne - Series 1, Father Came Too! [1963], Private Lessons [1981], The Raven [1963], Bio-Dome [1996], What's Good for the Goose [1969], Oscar [1991], Aardman's Darkside Vol.1 [1998], Red Dwarf: Just The Shows (Vol. 1) (Series 1-4) [1988], Labyrinth of Passion [2007], The Singer [2006], Roseanne - Series 2, American Pie Presents Band Camp [2005], M*A*S*H - Season Six (Collector's Edition) [1977], The Prince And The Showgirl [1957], Nurse On wheels [1963]

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