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Review Warner Home Video / Julius Caesar [1953] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • James Mason
  • Joseph L. Mankiewicz
  • Louis Calhern
  • Edmond O'Brien
  • John Gielgud
  • Marlon Brando
Release date: 2006-11-07
Run time: 121 min.
Price: £9.47

Review Julius Caesar [1953] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Warner Home Video:

An examination of the relationship between political power and personal conscience, Joseph Mankiewicz's Julius Caesar is a solidly acted spectacle presented in classical, traditional form. Julius Caesar reveals its characters to be divided, complex, and contradictory-and therefore all the more human. The acting here is a veritable masterclass for aspiring thesps. As the opportunistic Marc Antony, Marlon Brando delivers the famous funeral speech with pure conviction, elsewhere casting an intense physicality that recalls his work as Stan in A Streetcar Named Desire. James Mason suggests a latent Hamlet in his turn as the honourable Brutus, while John Gielgud is positively serpentine as the lean, hungry Cassius. Louis Calhern invests Caesar with intelligence and edgy noir echoes carried over from his performance in The Asphalt Jungle (1950). Director Mankiewicz astutely balances the Renaissance view of Caesar as a power-obsessed, corrupt tyrant destined for punishment with modern suggestions that his murder may have been ill-advised. With its dark alleyways and complex hues of grey, this Julius Caesar at times owes more to Double Indemnity than Laurence Olivier. The director's scrupulous, pellucid pacing-supported in no small measure by Miklos Rozsa's stunning score-is the perfect complement for the screenplay's sophisticated, frieze-like structure. At film's end, power itself is without a master, and the spirit of Caesar has been left unrevived: and to Mankiewicz's credit, the latter is revealed to be the true tragedy of Julius Caesar. [+]
-Kevin Mulhall.

Review Cinema Club / Mesmer [1994]
Actors & Directors
  • Anna Thalbach
  • Alan Rickman
  • Roger Spottiswoode
  • David Burke
  • Donal Donnelly
  • Peter Dvorsky
Release date: 2007-01-29
Run time: 103 min.
Creator: Dennis Potter
RRP: £9.99
Price: £2.92

Review Mesmer [1994] / Cinema Club:


Actors & Directors
  • Anthony Ray
  • Ben Carruthers
  • John Cassavetes
  • Lelia Goldoni
  • Dennis Sallas
  • Hugh Hurd
Release date: 1998-03-24
Run time: 87 min.
Creator: Seymour Cassel

Review Shadows [1959] / Geneon:


Review Acorn Media / Victoria And Albert [2001]
Actors & Directors
  • James Callis
  • Patrick Malahide
  • John Erman
  • Diana Rigg
  • Jonathan Firth
  • Victoria Hamilton
Release date: 2002-08-05
Run time: 225 min.
Creator: John Goldsmith
RRP: £24.99
Price: £6.74

Review Victoria And Albert [2001] / Acorn Media:

In revealing the strength of the marriage which left Queen Victoria so devastated as a widow, the colourful costume drama Victoria and Albert could almost serve as a prequel to the film Mrs Brown. In common with that dramatisation, this TV drama features performances (and cameos) from some of Britain's finest actors, this time including Jonathan Pryce, David Suchet, Penelope Wilton, Peter Ustinov, Richard Briers and the wonderful Nigel Hawthorne as Lord Melbourne. Victoria Hamilton and Jonathan Firth are the impressive leads who command the viewer's attention through the lengthy process of turning Albert and Victoria's arranged marriage into a love story, from their first inauspicious meetings, to Albert's dissatisfaction over the impotence of his position. Concentrating as it does on Victoria's early reign means the drama does tend to skip over the couples' later years with their children and disappointments over their heir, Bertie, but overall this story has all the romance, settings, make-up and wigs of a fine costume drama. On the DVD: Victoria and Albert comes as a two-disc set that features an informative 25-minute "making of" documentary presented by the producer, that includes contributions from the Screenwriter, Director, stars Jonathan Firth and Penelope Wilton, and the Director of Photography. The filmographies are somewhat abridged but the Victoria Timeline is interesting for those wanting to learn more about the authentic history of events. -Rachel Ediss.

Review Facets / Grigori Kozintsev's Hamlet [1964]
Actors & Directors
  • Anastasiya Vertinskaya
  • Innokenti Smoktunovsky
  • Mikhail Nazvanov
  • Yuri Tolubeyev
  • Grigori Kozintsev
  • Elza Radzina
Release date: 2006-10-31
Run time: 140 min.
Price: £13.61

Review Grigori Kozintsev's Hamlet [1964] / Facets:


Review Image Entertainment / Edward II [1992] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Andrew Lee Bolton
  • Jill Balcon
  • Christopher Adamson
  • Daniel Bevan
  • Dinah Beamish
Release date: 2005-06-14
Run time: 90 min.
Creator: Simon Fisher Turner
Price: £3.81

Review Edward II [1992] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Image Entertainment:


Review Castaway NW [VCP] / The African Queen [1951]
Actors & Directors
  • Katharine Hepburn
  • John Huston
  • Walter Gotell
  • Theodore Bikel
  • Humphrey Bogart
  • Richard Marner
Release date: 2006-10-31
Run time: 105 min.
Creator: Allan Gray
Price: £6.80

Review The African Queen [1951] / Castaway NW [VCP]:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / The Diary Of Anne Frank [1959]
Actors & Directors
  • George Stevens
  • Shelley Winters
  • Richard Beymer
  • Gusti Huber
  • Millie Perkins
  • Joseph Schildkraut
Release date: 2004-07-19
Run time: 144 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £10.43

Review The Diary Of Anne Frank [1959] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:


Review MGM / Von Richthofen and Brown [1970] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Roger Corman
  • Karen Ericson
  • Corin Redgrave
  • Barry Primus
  • Don Stroud
  • John Phillip Law
Release date: 2007-04-24
Run time: 96 min.
Price: £6.52

Review Von Richthofen and Brown [1970] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / MGM:


Review Artificial Eye / 12:08 East Of Bucharest [2006]
Actors & Directors
  • Corneliu Porumboiu
Release date: 2007-12-03
Run time: 86 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £6.97

Review 12:08 East Of Bucharest [2006] / Artificial Eye:


Review Fox International / Young Riders Season 1 [1989]
Actors & Directors
  • Ty Miller
  • Travis Fine
  • Josh Brolin
  • Stephen Baldwin
Release date: 2007-01-15
Run time: 1014 min.
RRP: £24.99
Price: £17.97

Review Young Riders Season 1 [1989] / Fox International:


Review Warner Home Video / Forbidden Planet [1956] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Leslie Nielsen
  • Fred M. Wilcox
  • Walter Pidgeon
  • Anne Francis
  • Jack Kelly
  • Warren Stevens
Release date: 2000-04-18
Run time: 98 min.
Creator: Allen Adler
Price: £10.29

Review Forbidden Planet [1956] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Warner Home Video:

This 1956 pop adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest is one of the best, most influential science fiction movies ever made. Its space explorers are the models for the crew of Star Trek's Enterprise, and the film's robot is clearly the prototype for Robby in Lost in Space. Walter Pidgeon is the Prospero figure, presiding over a paradisiacal world with his lovely young daughter and their servile droid. When the crew of a spaceship lands on the planet, they become aware of a sinister invisible force that threatens to destroy them. Great special effects and a bizarre electronic score help make Forbidden Planet as fresh, imaginative and fun as it was when first released.

Review Optimum Home Entertainment / The First Emperor - The Man Who Made China
Actors & Directors
  • James Pax
Release date: 2007-09-03
RRP: £17.99
Price: £6.07

Review The First Emperor - The Man Who Made China / Optimum Home Entertainment:


Review Warner Home Video / Quo Vadis [Blu-ray] [1951]
Actors & Directors
  • Leo Genn
  • Deborah Kerr
  • Robert Taylor
  • Mervyn LeRoy
  • Patricia Laffan
  • Peter Ustinov
Release date: 2009-02-02
Run time: 174 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £13.98

Review Quo Vadis [Blu-ray] [1951] / Warner Home Video:


Review Universal Pictures UK / Ray (2 Disc Edition) [2004]
Actors & Directors
  • Regina King
  • Taylor Hackford
  • Michael Arata
  • Jamie Foxx
  • Curtis Armstrong
  • Kerry Washington
Release date: 2005-06-06
Run time: 146 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £12.98

Review Ray (2 Disc Edition) [2004] / Universal Pictures UK:

Jamie Foxx's uncannily accurate performance isn't the only good thing about Ray. Riding high on a wave of Oscar buzz, Foxx proved himself worthy of all the hype by portraying blind R&B legend Ray Charles in a warts-and-all performance that Charles approved shortly before his death in June 2004. Despite a few dramatic embellishments of actual incidents (such as the suggestion that the accidental drowning of Charles's younger brother caused all the inner demons that Charles would battle into adulthood), the film does a remarkable job of summarizing Charles's strengths as a musical innovator and his weaknesses as a philandering heroin addict who recorded some of his best songs while flying high as a kite. Foxx seems to be channeling Charles himself, and as he did with the life of Ritchie Valens in La Bamba, director Taylor Hackford gets most of the period details absolutely right as he chronicles Ray's rise from "chitlin circuit" performer in the early '50s to his much-deserved elevation to legendary status as one of the all-time great musicians. Foxx expertly lip-syncs to Ray Charles' classic recordings, but you could swear he's the real deal in a film that honors Ray Charles without sanitizing his once-messy life. -Jeff Shannon, Amazon. com.

Review Time Life Video / The Bible
Actors & Directors
  • Richard Harris
  • Oliver Reed
  • Sean Bean
  • Ben Cross
  • Lara Flynn Boyle
Release date: 2005-10-31
Run time: 805 min.
RRP: £59.99
Price: £19.98

Review The Bible / Time Life Video:


Review Warner Home Video / Alex Haley's Queen [1992] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Patricia Clarkson
  • Halle Berry
  • Tim Daly
  • Victor Garber
  • John Erman
  • Ann-Margret
Release date: 2008-01-15
Run time: 283 min.
Creator: Paul LaMastra
Price: £13.18

Review Alex Haley's Queen [1992] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Warner Home Video:


Review Warner Home Video / San Francisco [1936] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Susan F. Walker
  • Jack Holt
  • Jessie Ralph
  • Jeanette MacDonald
  • Spencer Tracy
  • W.S. Van Dyke
  • Clark Gable
  • Hugh Harman
Release date: 2006-06-20
Run time: 115 min.
Creator: Ellen Krass
Price: £9.24

Review San Francisco [1936] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Warner Home Video:


Review Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / Stoned [2005]
Actors & Directors
  • Will Adamsdale
  • James D. White
  • Ras Barker
  • Stephen Woolley
  • Monet Mazur
  • Paddy Considine
Release date: 2006-04-03
Run time: 98 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £3.60

Review Stoned [2005] / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:

Long since written off as "death by misadventure," the soggy demise of Rolling Stones founding member Brian Jones was in fact a considerably more sinister affair. At least that's what Stoned would have us believe. Director Stephen Woolley's 2005 film begins with the discovery of Jones' body at the bottom of his swimming pool in the summer of 1969, and while it jumps all over the place chronologically, it always comes back to the events leading up to that July night. As portrayed by Leo Gregory, the Jones we see in his final days is a drink-and drug-ridden wreck, utterly debauched, at once a misogynist who beats his girlfriend and a helpless child who can't bear to be alone. His contribution to the Stones now virtually nil, he barely notices when his bandmates show up to kick him out (the official line was that he quit). Enter Frank Thorogood (Paddy Considine), a local builder hired to fix up Jones' country manor (once owned by Winnie the Pooh creator A. A. Milne). Dour and dull, Frank is the perfect target for Jones' sardonic taunts ("You're fun to wind up," says Brian), and the movie posits the theory, supposedly supported by Thorogood's deathbed confession, that it all became too much for this simple country lad to take. Whether any or all of this is true seems almost inconsequential; many viewers won't even remember who Brian Jones was, and many others won't care. [+]
This unrated version is filled with sex and nudity (we see a good deal more of Jones', uh, tool than his guitar), and Woolley's style is hip and kinetic, as if he were trying to capture the swirling excitement of '60s England. Stoned is a bit muddled, sometimes cliched and often rather ridiculous (Jones in heaven, discussing his legacy? Hey, whatever), and it contains not a note of actual Rolling Stones music. But in a lurid kind of way, it's undeniably entertaining. -Sam Graham, Amazon. com.

Review ITV DVD / Kennedy [1983]
Actors & Directors
  • Martin Sheen
  • Jim Goddard
  • Vincent Gardenia
  • E.G. Marshall
  • Geraldine Fitzgerald
  • John Shea
Release date: 2003-10-20
Run time: 313 min.
Creator: Reg Gadney
RRP: £19.99
Price: £15.11

Review Kennedy [1983] / ITV DVD:

Made in 1983, the US TV mini-series Kennedy has Martin Sheen playing a president well before his stint on The West Wing. All of the momentous events of JFK's remarkable term are covered (with actual news footage used to excellent effect), but it is the portrayal of the entire Kennedy family as real, flawed people that gives Kennedy its power. The Kennedys gossip, snipe, joke and bother each other like a real family rather than rigid historical figures or threadbare caricatures. Sheen plays JFK as a man with lofty ideals who is more than willing to dirty his hands to serve his greater purpose. Blair Brown plays Jacqueline Kennedy with a shrewd understanding of politics, but also a whiff of vanity. In addition to the strong performances by both leads, Vincent Gardenia gives a brilliant performance as J Edgar Hoover: stiff, quirky and strange, prurient and moralistic at the same time and boiling with hatred. -Ali Davis.

Models & Brands:
Julius Caesar [1953] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Mesmer [1994], Shadows [1959], Victoria And Albert [2001], Grigori Kozintsev's Hamlet [1964], Edward II [1992] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The African Queen [1951], The Diary Of Anne Frank [1959], Von Richthofen and Brown [1970] (REGION 1) (NTSC), 12:08 East Of Bucharest [2006], Young Riders Season 1 [1989], Forbidden Planet [1956] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The First Emperor - The Man Who Made China, Quo Vadis [Blu-ray] [1951], Ray (2 Disc Edition) [2004], The Bible, Alex Haley's Queen [1992] (REGION 1) (NTSC), San Francisco [1936] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Stoned [2005], Kennedy [1983]

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