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Review Acorn Media / The Good Life - Series 3 [1975]
Actors & Directors
  • Paul Eddington
  • Penelope Keith
  • Noel Howlett
  • Richard Briers
  • Felicity Kendal
Release date: 2004-07-12
Run time: 180 min.
Creator: John Esmonde
RRP: £24.99
Price: £6.16

Review The Good Life - Series 3 [1975] / Acorn Media:


Review Universal Pictures UK / Top Hat [1935]
Actors & Directors
  • Fred Astaire
  • Mark Sandrich
  • Erik Rhodes
  • Ginger Rogers
  • Eric Blore
  • Edward Everett Horton
Release date: 2006-10-02
Run time: 93 min.
Creator: Sándor Faragó
RRP: £9.99
Price: £3.50

Review Top Hat [1935] / Universal Pictures UK:

Even the best Fred and Ginger musicals are merely lavish excuses for some of the most elegant dancing ever put on screen, and Top Hat is no exception. The story is a silly but timeless tale of mistaken identity that compounds itself to extremes. Fred Astaire is the famous American hoofer Jerry Travers, in London preparing for a new show with his befuddled producer Horace Hardwick (the always entertaining Edward Everett Horton) when he falls for Dale Tremont (Ginger Rogers), a lovely, wisecracking American girl as light on her feet as Jerry. Dale believes Jerry to be Horace, the husband of her best friend Madge (Helen Broderick) and rebuffs his advances by marrying her dressmaker Alberto (Erik Rhodes), but in the best tradition of musical comedy, true love finds its own way. Practically the entire cast of the 1934 hit The Gay Divorcee reunites for this frothy confection, along with director Mark Sandrich, designer Van Nest Polglase, and choreographer Hermes Pan. Irving Berlin provides a tuneful score, including "Cheek to Cheek", which provides a classic duet for Astaire and Rogers, and "Top Hat, White Tie and Tails", which remains one of Astaire's finest solo numbers. Polglase outdoes himself with sets both elegant and outrageous and Hermes Pan's choreography is as smooth as ever, but ultimately it is the grace and chemistry of the leads that makes Top Hat top entertainment. -Sean Axmaker.

Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Brazil [1985]
Actors & Directors
  • Jonathan Pryce
  • Terry Gilliam
  • Kim Greist
  • Katherine Helmond
  • Robert De Niro
  • Ian Holm
Release date: 2003-05-19
Run time: 137 min.
Creator: Tom Stoppard
RRP: £15.99
Price: £3.99

Review Brazil [1985] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

If Franz Kafka had been an animator and film director-oh, and a member of Monty Python's Flying Circus-this is the sort of outrageously dystopian satire one could easily imagine him making. However, Brazil was made by Terry Gilliam, who is all of the above except, of course, Franz Kafka. Be that as it may, Gilliam sure captures the paranoid-subversive spirit of Kafka's The Trial (along with his own Python animation) in this bureaucratic nightmare-comedy about a meek governmental clerk named Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) whose life is destroyed by a simple bug. Not a software bug, a real bug (no doubt related to Kafka's famous Metamorphosis insect) that gets smooshed in a printer and causes a typographical error unjustly identifying an innocent citizen, one Mr. Buttle, as suspected terrorist Harry Tuttle (Robert De Niro). When Sam becomes enmeshed in unravelling this bureaucratic glitch, he himself winds up labelled as a miscreant. The movie presents such an unrelentingly imaginative and savage vision of 20th-century bureaucracy that it almost became a victim of small-minded studio management itself-until Gilliam surreptitiously screened his cut for the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, who named it the best movie of 1985 and virtually embarrassed Universal into releasing it. -Jim Emerson If Franz Kafka had been an animator and film director-oh, and a member of Monty Python's Flying Circus-Brazil is the sort of outrageously dystopian satire one could easily imagine him making. In fact it was made by Terry Gilliam, who is all of the above except, of course, Franz Kafka. Be that as it may, Gilliam captures the paranoid-subversive spirit of Kafka's The Trial (along with his own Python animation) in this bureaucratic nightmare-comedy about a meek government clerk named Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) whose life is destroyed by a simple bug. [+]
It's not a software bug but a real bug (no doubt related to Kafka's famous Metamorphosis insect) that gets squashed in a printer and causes a typographical error unjustly identifying an innocent citizen, one Mr Buttle, as suspected terrorist Harry Tuttle (Robert De Niro). When Sam becomes enmeshed in unravelling this bureaucratic tangle, he himself winds up labelled as a miscreant. The movie presents such an unrelentingly imaginative and savage vision of 20th-century bureaucracy that it almost became a victim of small-minded studio management itself-until Gilliam surreptitiously screened his cut for the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, who named it the best movie of 1985 and virtually embarrassed Universal into releasing it. -Jim Emerson On the DVD: Brazil comes to DVD in a welcome anamorphic print of the full director's cut-here running some 136 minutes. Disappointingly the only extra feature is the 30-minute making-of documentary "What Is Brazil?", which consists of on-set and behind-the-scenes interviews. There's nothing about the film's controversial release history (covered so comprehensively on the North American Criterion Collection release), nor is Gilliam's illuminating, irreverent directorial commentary anywhere to be found. The only other extra here is the ubiquitous theatrical trailer. A welcome release of a real classic, then, but something of a missed opportunity. -Mark Walker.

Review Comic Relief / The Catherine Tate Comic Relief Special - Limited Edition (Exclusive to Amazon.co.uk) [2007]
Actors & Directors
  • Tony Blair
  • Daniel Craig
  • David Tennant
  • Catherine Tate
  • Lenny Henry
Release date: 2007-04-23
Run time: 34 min.
RRP: £5.00
Price: £2.69

Review The Catherine Tate Comic Relief Special - Limited Edition (Exclusive to Amazon.co.uk) [2007] / Comic Relief:


Review 2 Entertain Video / Blackadder's Christmas Carol [1988]
Actors & Directors
  • Hugh Laurie
  • Stephen Fry
  • Richard Boden
  • Miranda Richardson
  • Rowan Atkinson
  • Tony Robinson
Release date: 2002-11-18
Run time: 43 min.
Creator: Richard Curtis
RRP: £12.99
Price: £4.86

Review Blackadder's Christmas Carol [1988] / 2 Entertain Video:

Among the many films and TV shows which add a new twist to Charles Dickens' classic tale, Blackadder's Christmas Carol is the most ingenious. Made between Blackadder the Third (1987) and Blackadder Goes Forth (1989), the inspired concept is to recast the self-serving Edmund Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson) in Dickens' Scrooge role, but rather than a misanthropic miser make him the most kind-hearted man in England. Tony Robinson's Baldrick is as moronic as ever, while Robbie Coltrane plays the Spirit of Christmas like a forerunner to his Hagrid in the Harry Potter movies, showing Edmund visions of past and future to not quite the desired effect. Hugh Laurie returns as the Prince Regent from Blackadder the Third and the entire court from Blackadder II (1986) is reassembled for japes involving a merry seasonal death warrant. Miranda Richardson is outrageously capricious as Elizabeth I, then takes the character a stage further in a decadent space opera future which also sees Patsy (Nursie) Byrne as an android. Though not quite as laugh-out-loud funny as the regular Blackadder series this is an excellent Yuletide special. On the DVD: Blackadder's Christmas Carol offers nothing extra on DVD other than the inclusion of optional subtitles. The sound is mono but crystal clear and the 4:3 image is good considering the source material is a TV studio production shot on video. -Gary S Dalkin.

Review Warner Home Video / Blazing Saddles (30th anniversary edition) [1974]
Actors & Directors
  • Mel Brooks
  • Mel Brooks
  • Cleavon Little
  • Madeline Kahn
  • Slim Pickens
  • Gene Wilder
Release date: 2004-07-19
Run time: 89 min.
RRP: £14.99
Price: £3.74

Review Blazing Saddles (30th anniversary edition) [1974] / Warner Home Video:

Mel Brooks scored his first commercial hit with this raucous Western spoof starring the late Cleavon Little as the newly hired (and conspicuously black) sheriff of Rock Ridge. Sheriff Bart teams up with deputy Jim (Gene Wilder) to foil the railroad-building scheme of the nefarious Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman). The simple plot is just an excuse for a steady stream of gags, many of them unabashedly tasteless, that Brooks and his wacky cast pull off with side-splitting success. The humour is so juvenile and crude that you just have to surrender to it; highlights abound, from Alex Karras as the ox-riding Mongo to Madeline Kahn's uproarious send-up of Marlene Dietrich as saloon songstress Lili Von Shtupp. Adding to the comedic excess is the infamous campfire scene involving a bunch of hungry cowboys, heaping servings of baked beans and, well, you get the idea. -Jeff Shannon.

Review 2 Entertain Video / Only Fools and Horses - The Complete Series 4 [1985] [1981]
Actors & Directors
  • John Challis
  • Buster Merryfield
  • Roger Lloyd-Pack
  • Nicholas Lyndhurst
  • David Jason
Release date: 2001-10-01
Run time: 207 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £5.99

Review Only Fools and Horses - The Complete Series 4 [1985] [1981] / 2 Entertain Video:

Only Fools and Horses is perhaps the last great and universally popular British sitcom. Series 4 reached 1985; Grandad has sadly passed on, to be replaced at Nelson Mandela House by Uncle Albert (Buster Merryfield). Only Fools and Horses improved with age and the fourth series was still confined to the half-hour format, is good but not vintage (that occurred during Delboy's "Yuppy" years). Episodes such as "It's Only Rock'n'Roll", in which Rodney joins a band, show all the failings sitcoms usually expose when getting to grips with such alien subject matter: the situations have yet to involve the full complement of the entire Nag's Head ensemble and there are still occasional disturbing racial references. However, Uncle Albert's introduction does bring the series up a notch, as his furtive brandy-swilling, yarn-spinning and doddery bungling swiftly get on Delboy and Rodney's wick (though he's not without some cleverly introduced pathos), while episodes such as "Watching the Girls Go By" and "As One Door Closes" build effectively up to the sort of big, laugh-out-loud final twists that would become the series' trademark. On the DVD: full screen, no special features, sadly, except scene selection. -David Stubbs.

Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / The Simpsons - Season 6
Actors & Directors
  • Dan Castellanata
  • Nancy Cartwright
  • Harry Shearer
  • Yeardley Smith
  • David Silverman
  • Wesley Archer
  • Julie Kavner
  • Jim Reardon
  • Susie Dietter
  • Mark Kirkland
Release date: 2005-10-17
Run time: 575 min.
RRP: £39.99
Price: £23.40

Review The Simpsons - Season 6 / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

Another series of everyone's favourite family, another collection of cracking episodes, and with 25 episodes to choose from, including some of the very best ever, you're a little spoiled for choice. First aired back in the mid-nineties, the show had really hit its stride following a massively successful fifth series and this series marks a particularly popular period in the show's history, with celebrity interest bringing a gamut of guest appearances. So, we see Winona Rider in `Lisa's Rival', Kelsey Grammar in `Sideshow Bob Roberts' Meryl Streep in `Bart's Girlfriend' and Mel Brooks and Susan Sarandan in `Homer vs. Patty and Selma'. But perhaps the most notable, certainly the most amusing, guest vocal is offered by Patrick Stewart in the barnstormingly funny `Homer The Great', which also features one of the funniest Simpsons' songs ever-`The Stonecutters Song'. Other highlights include Bart vs. Australia (`Hey, I think I hear a dingo eating your baby!'), Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy, in which Homer and Grampa Simpson attempt to sell their homemade viagra-like revitalising tonic to the world, and Two Dozen and One Greyhounds, featuring the second of the great Simpsons' songs to appear here-`See My Vest'. And to top it all off, there's part one of the only ever Simpsons two-parter, `Who Shot Mr. Burns'. [+]
The two-parter prompted months of speculation over in the US when first aired and remains an expertly executed slice of Simpsons' history. This is The Simpsons on top form. Guest appearances, wonderful animation, tongue in cheek humour and the usual abundance of belly laughs, together with a great selection of extras-it's another great collection. -Mark Oakley.

Review Universal Pictures UK / Ricky Gervais - Live - Animals/Politics/Fame [2003]
Actors & Directors
  • Dominic Brigstocke
Release date: 2007-11-12
Run time: 245 min.
RRP: £34.99
Price: £16.75

Review Ricky Gervais - Live - Animals/Politics/Fame [2003] / Universal Pictures UK:


Review Universal Pictures UK / Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels [1998]
Actors & Directors
  • Steven Mackintosh
  • Dexter Fletcher
  • Jason Statham
  • Guy Ritchie
  • Jason Flemyng
  • Nick Moran
Release date: 2004-11-02
Run time: 107 min.
Creator: Peter Morton
RRP: £17.99
Price: £2.54

Review Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels [1998] / Universal Pictures UK:

Cockney boys Tom, Soap, Eddie and Bacon are in a bind; they owe seedy criminal and porn king "Hatchet" Harry a sizeable amount of cash after Eddie loses half a million in a rigged game of poker. Hot on their tails is a thug named Big Chris who intends to send them all to the hospital if they don't come up with the cash in the allotted time. Add into the mix an incompetent set of ganja cultivators, two dimwitted robbers, a "madman" with an afro, and a ruthless band of drug dealers and you have an astonishing movie called Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Before the boys can blink, they are caught up in a labyrinth of double-crosses that lead to a multitude of dead bodies, copious amounts of drugs, and two antique rifles. Written and directed by talented newcomer Guy Ritchie, this is one of those movies that was destined to become an instant cult classic à la Reservoir Dogs. Although some comparisons were drawn between Ritchie and Quentin Tarantino, it would be unfair to discount the brilliant wit of the story and the innovative camerawork that the director brings to his debut feature. Not since The Krays has there been such an accurate depiction of the East End and its more colourful characters. Indicative of the social stratosphere in London, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is a hilarious and at times touching account of friendships and loyalty. The director and his mates (who make up most of the cast) clearly are enjoying themselves here. This comes across in some shining performances, in particular from ex-footballer Vinnie Jones (Big Chris) and an over-the-top Vas Blackwood (as Rory Breaker), who very nearly steals the show. [+]
Full of quirky vernacular and clever tension-packed action sequences, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is a triumph-a perfect blend of intelligence, humour and suspense. -Jeremy Storey.

Review Warner Home Video / Chris Rock - Never Scared
Actors & Directors
  • Chris Rock
Release date: 2005-02-28
Run time: 93 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £4.48

Review Chris Rock - Never Scared / Warner Home Video:


Review Fabulous Films Ltd. / Dark Star -- 30th Anniversary Special Edition [1974]
Actors & Directors
  • Adam Beckenbaugh
  • Brian Narelle
  • Dan O'Bannon
  • John Carpenter
  • Dre Pahich
  • Cal Kuniholm
Release date: 2004-04-19
Run time: 79 min.
Creator: Jack H. Harris
RRP: £15.99
Price: £7.87

Review Dark Star -- 30th Anniversary Special Edition [1974] / Fabulous Films Ltd.:

Dark Star is absurd, surreal and very funny. John Carpenter once described it as "Waiting for Godot in space. " (It's also, surely, one of the primary inspirations for Red Dwarf. ) Made at a cost of practically nothing, the film's effects are nevertheless impressive and, along with the number of ideas crammed into its 83 minutes, ought to shame makers of science fiction films costing hundreds of times more. The story concerns the Dark Star's crew who are on a 20-year mission to destroy unstable planets and make way for future colonisation. The smart bombs they use to effect this zoom off cheerfully to do their duty. But unlike Star Trek, in which order prevails, the nerves of this crew are becoming increasingly frayed to the point of psychosis. Their captain has been killed by a radiation leak that also destroyed their toilet paper. "Don't give me any of that 'Intelligent Life' stuff," says Commander Doolittle when presented with the possibility of alien life. "Find me something I can blow up. [+]
" When an asteroid storm causes a malfunction, Bomb Number 20 (the most cheerful character in the film) has to be repeatedly talked out of exploding prematurely, each time becoming more and more peevish, until they have to teach him phenomenology to make him doubt his existence. And the film's apocalyptic ending, lifted almost wholly from Ray Bradbury's story "Kaleidoscope", has the remaining crew drifting away from each other in space, each to a suitably absurd end. -Jim Gay.

Review South Park / South Park - Season 3
Release date: 2008-03-17
RRP: £24.99
Price: £12.85

Review South Park - Season 3 / South Park:


Review 2 Entertain Video / Red Dwarf: Series 3
Actors & Directors
  • Ed Bye
  • Rob Grant
  • Chris Barrie
  • Craig Charles
  • Danny John-Jules
  • Robert Llewellyn
Release date: 2003-11-03
Run time: 161 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £5.99

Review Red Dwarf: Series 3 / 2 Entertain Video:

The third series of Red Dwarf introduced some radical changes-all of them for the better-but the scripts remained as sharp and character-focussed as ever, making this a firm candidate for the show's best year. Gone were the dull metallic grey sets and costumes, gone too was Norman Lovett's lugubrious Holly, replaced now by comedienne Hattie Hayridge, who had previously played Hilly in the Series 2 episode "Parallel Universe". New this year were custom-made costumes, more elaborate sets, the zippy pea-green Starbug, bigger special effects and the wholly admirable Robert Llewellyn as Kryten. The benefits of the show's changes are apparent from the outset, with the mind-bending hilarity of "Backwards", in which Kryten and Rimmer establish themselves as a forwards-talking double-act on a reverse Earth. After a modest two-hander that sees Rimmer and Lister "Marooned", comes one of the Dwarf's most beloved episodes, "Polymorph". Here is the ensemble working at its best, as each character unwittingly has their strongest emotion sucked out of them. Lister loses his fear; Cat his vanity; Kryten his reserve; and Rimmer his anger ("Chameleonic Life-Forms. No Thanks"). "Body Swap" sees Lister and Rimmer involved in a bizarre attempt to prevent the ship from self-destructing. "Timeslides" delves deep into Rimmer's psyche as the boys journey haphazardly through history. [+]
Finally, "The Last Day" shows how completely Kryten has been adopted as a crewmember, when his replacement Hudzen unexpectedly shows up. On the DVD: Red Dwarf, Series 3 two-disc set maintains the high standard of presentation and wealth of extra material established by its predecessors. Among other delights there are the usual "Smeg Ups" and deleted scenes, plus another fun commentary with the cast. There's a lengthy documentary, "All Change", specifically about Series 3, a tribute to costume designer Mel Bibby, Hattie Hayridge's convention video diary, and-most fascinating-the opportunity to watch "Backwards" played forwards, so you can finally understand what Arthur Smith's backwards-talking pub manager actually says to Rimmer and Kryten in the dressing room. -Mark Walker.

Review Dreamworks Home Entertainment / Anchorman - The Legend Of Ron Burgundy [2004]
Actors & Directors
  • Will Ferrell
  • Paul Rudd
  • Christina Applegate
  • Adam McKay
Release date: 2006-06-19
Run time: 90 min.
RRP: £17.99
Price: £3.64

Review Anchorman - The Legend Of Ron Burgundy [2004] / Dreamworks Home Entertainment:

Will Farrell followed up his star-making vehicle Elf, which matched his fine-tuned comic obliviousness to a sweet sincerity, with a more arrogant variation on the same character: Ron Burgundy, a macho, narcissistic news anchor from the 1970s. Along with his news posse-roving reporter Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd, Clueless), sports guy Champ Kind (David Koechner), and dim-bulb weatherman Brick Tamland (Steve Carell, Bruce Almighty)-Burgundy rules the roost in San Diego, fawned upon by groupies and supported by a weary producer (Fred Willard, Best In Show) who tolerates Burgundy's ego because of good ratings. But when Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate, View from the Top) arrives with ambitions to become an anchor herself, she threatens the male-dominated newsroom. Anchorman has plenty of funny material, but it's as if Farrell couldn't decide what he really wanted to mock, and so took smart-ass cracks at everything in sight. Still, there are moments of inspired delirium. -Bret Fetzer.

Review Entertainment in Video / Gosford Park [2002]
Actors & Directors
  • Stephen Fry
  • Robert Altman
  • Richard E Grant
  • Ryan Phillippe
  • Kristen Scott Thomas
Release date: 2002-09-23
Run time: 137 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £2.19

Review Gosford Park [2002] / Entertainment in Video:

Gosford Park finds director Robert Altman in sumptuously fine form. From the opening shots, as the camera peers through the trees at an opulent English country estate, Altman exploits the 1930s period setting and whodunit formula of the film expertly. Aristocrats gather together for a weekend shooting party with their dutiful servants in tow, and the upstairs/downstairs division of the classes is perfectly tailored to Altman's method (Nashville, Short Cuts) of overlapping bits of dialogue and numerous subplots in order to betray underlying motives and the sins that propel them. Greed, vengeance, snobbery and lust stir comic unrest as the near dizzying effects of the plot twists are allayed by perhaps Altman's strongest ensemble to date. Maggie Smith is marvellous as Constance, a dependent Countess with a quip for every occasion; Michael Gambon, as the ill-fated host, Sir William McCordle, is one of the most palpably salacious characters ever on screen; Kristin Scott Thomas is perfectly cold, yet sexy, as Lady Sylvia, Sir William's wife; and Helen Mirren, Emily Watson and Clive Owen are equally memorable as key characters from the bustling servants' quarters below. Gosford Park manages to be fabulously entertaining while exposing human shortcomings, compromises and endless need for confession. -Fionn Meade On the DVD: Gosford Park, presented 2. 35:1-Anamorphic Widescreen transfer, is awash with the muted colours and sepia tones which permeate the film, the sound is excellent as the actors were individually miked, so you don't loose any of the dialogue giving away subtle plot developments. Extras are chunky, with deleted scenes, trailers a couple of documentaries. Most notable are the two commentaries which go a long way to unravelling some of the twistier plot devices and a Q&A session with the Altman and his crew filmed in New York. [+]
-Kristen Bowditch.

Review Mollie Sugden / Are You Being Served? - The Complete Series One to Five
Actors & Directors
  • John Inman
  • Nicholas Smith
  • Frank Thornton
  • Trevor Bannister
  • Wendy Richard
Release date: 2006-07-17
RRP: £59.99
Price: £21.74

Review Are You Being Served? - The Complete Series One to Five / Mollie Sugden:


Review Pathe Distribution / Chicken Run [2000]
Actors & Directors
  • Mel Gibson
  • Nick Park
  • Julia Sawalha
  • Lynn Ferguson
  • Phil Daniels
  • Peter Lord
  • Tony Haygarth
Release date: 2000-12-04
Run time: 81 min.
Creator: Jurgen Gross
RRP: £12.99
Price: £4.15

Review Chicken Run [2000] / Pathe Distribution:

As warming as a nice cup of tea on a cloudy day, Chicken Run is that charming singularity, a commercially successful British family movie that has near-universal appeal without compromising its inherent British pluckiness (that will be the first and last poultry-pun in this review). It invites us into the Plasticine-world of Tweedy's farm, a far-from-free-range egg factory ruled with an axe of iron by greedy Mrs. Tweedy. One intrepid chicken, Ginger (voiced by Julia Sawalha) sets her sights on breaking out the whole flock, a cast of beautifully individuated chicken characters including ditsy Babs (voiced by Jane Horrocks), matronly Bunty (Imelda Staunton) and practical-minded Mac (Lynn Ferguson). Each effort is thwarted, and Ginger repeatedly reaps a spell in the coal bunker for her troubles, prompting the first of many allusions to The Great Escape, one of several World War II films name-checked throughout. (Grown-ups will have a ball playing Spot-the-Allusion Game here. ) When an American rooster named Rocky (Mel Gibson) literally drops in from the air, the hens are set all a-flutter with excitement thinking he'll help teach them to fly away at last. But Rocky is not all he seems. Although the action sags just a fraction around the 40-minute mark, it's the set pieces that really lift this into the realm of cartoon genius: the montage of inept flying attempts, Rocky and Ginger's narrow escape from Mrs Tweedy's new pie machine (an horrific contraption of chomping steel and industrial menace) and the magnificent, soaring climax. Despite the fact British animators (such as the directors, Nick Park and Peter Lord, themselves) regularly scoop Oscars for their short films, our record in full-feature length cartoons has been scrappy at best. [+]
There have been a few highlights-Animal Farm (1955), The Yellow Submarine (1968), Watership Down (1978)-and, er, that's about it really, unless you count The Magic Roundabout: Dougal and the Blue Cat. ChickenRun, made by the Aardman production house who produced the delightful Wallace and Gromit shorts among many other treats, has proved that Britain can compete with the most calculated, merchandised and screen-tested Disney production and win. -Leslie Felperin.

Review Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / Monty Python's Life Of Brian (Immaculate Edition) [1979]
Actors & Directors
  • Terry Gilliam
  • Terence Bayler
  • Terry Jones
  • John Cleese
  • Charles McKeown
  • Graham Chapman
Release date: 2007-11-05
Run time: 90 min.
RRP: £16.99
Price: £4.84

Review Monty Python's Life Of Brian (Immaculate Edition) [1979] / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:

There is not a single joke, sight-gag or one-liner in Monty Python's Life of Brian that will not forever burn itself into the viewer's memory as being just as funny as it is possible to be, but-extraordinarily-almost every indestructibly hilarious scene also serves a dual purpose, making this one of the most consistently sustained film satires ever made. Like all great satire, the Pythons not only attack and vilify their targets (the bigotry and hypocrisy of organised religion and politics) supremely well, they also propose an alternative: be an individual, think for yourself, don't be led by others. "You've all got to work it out for yourselves", cries Brian in a key moment. "Yes, we've all got to work it our for ourselves", the crowd reply en masse. Two thousand years later, in a world still blighted by religious zealots, Brian's is still a lone voice crying in the wilderness. Aside from being a neat spoof on the Hollywood epic, it's also almost incidentally one of the most realistic on-screen depictions of the ancient world-instead of treating their characters as posturing historical stereotypes, the Pythons realised what no sword 'n' sandal epic ever has: that people are all the same, no matter what period of history they live in. People always have and always will bicker, lie, cheat, swear, conceal cowardice with bravado (like Reg, leader of the People's Front of Judea), abuse power (like Pontius Pilate), blindly follow the latest fads and giggle at silly things ("Biggus Dickus"). In the end, Life of Brian teaches us that the only way for a despairing individual to cope in a world of idiocy and hypocrisy is to always look on the bright side of life. On the DVD: Life of Brian returns to Region 2 DVD in a decent widescreen anamorphic print with Dolby 5. 1 sound-neither are exactly revelatory, but at least it's an improvement on the previous release, which was, shockingly, pan & scan. [+]
The 50-minute BBC documentary, "The Pythons", was filmed mainly on location in 1979 and isn't especially remarkable or insightful (a new retrospective would have been appreciated). There are trailers for this movie, as well as Holy Grail plus three other non-Python movies. There's no commentary track, sadly. -Mark Walker.

Review Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm / Ed Wood [1994]
Actors & Directors
  • Johnny Depp
  • Jeffrey Jones
  • Patricia Arquette
  • Martin Landau
  • Tim Burton
  • Sarah Jessica Parker
Release date: 2006-06-15
Run time: 121 min.
Creator: Scott Alexander
RRP: £14.99
Price: £3.27

Review Ed Wood [1994] / Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm:

The significance of Ed Wood, both man and movie, on the career of Tim Burton cannot be emphasised enough. Here Burton regurgitates and pays homage to the influences of his youth, just as he would continue to do with Mars Attacks! and Sleepy Hollow. Everything is just right, from the decision to shoot in black and white, the performances of Johnny Depp (as Ed) and Martin Landau (as Bela Lugosi), the re-creation of 1950s Hollywood and the evocative score by Howard (Lord of the Rings) Shore. The plot struck a poignant familiar chord with Burton, who saw the relationship between the Ed and Lugosi mirroring his own with Vincent Price. Most importantly Burton responded to the story of the struggling, misunderstood artist. For all Burton's big-budget blockbusters (Batman, Planet of the Apes), he still somehow retains the mantle of the kooky niche director. And in the mid-90s, this film actually represented the last vestiges of his independent film production. Fans can only hope he'll soon return to those roots soon. On the DVD: Ed Wood on disc has a good group commentary in which Burton is interviewed rather than expected to hold forth on his own, making his insights alongside the screenwriters, Landau, and various production heads very worthwhile. Also worthy are the featurettes on Landau's Oscar-winning make-up, the FX and the Theremin instrument employed in the score. [+]
Best of all is an extremely exotic Music Video based on that score. This doesn't seem to be a new transfer of the film, but in black and white you're less likely to notice. -Paul Tonks.

Models & Brands:
The Good Life - Series 3 [1975], Top Hat [1935], Brazil [1985], The Catherine Tate Comic Relief Special - Limited Edition (Exclusive to Amazon.co.uk) [2007], Blackadder's Christmas Carol [1988], Blazing Saddles (30th anniversary edition) [1974], Only Fools and Horses - The Complete Series 4 [1985] [1981], The Simpsons - Season 6, Ricky Gervais - Live - Animals/Politics/Fame [2003], Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels [1998], Chris Rock - Never Scared, Dark Star -- 30th Anniversary Special Edition [1974], South Park - Season 3, Red Dwarf: Series 3, Anchorman - The Legend Of Ron Burgundy [2004], Gosford Park [2002], Are You Being Served? - The Complete Series One to Five, Chicken Run [2000], Monty Python's Life Of Brian (Immaculate Edition) [1979], Ed Wood [1994]

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