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Review Pathe Distribution  / The Wedding Planner [DVD] [2001]
Actors & Directors
  • Matthew McConaughey
  • Judy Greer
  • Justin Chambers
  • Jennifer Lopez
  • Bridgette Wilson
  • Adam Shankman
Release date: 2002-01-21
Run time: 99 min.
Creator: Pamela Falk
RRP: £17.99
Price: £2.99

Review The Wedding Planner [DVD] [2001] / Pathe Distribution:

The good news is, yes, Jennifer Lopez can do comedy. In The Wedding Planner Lopez is Mary, a lovable woman who believes "those who can't do, teach. Those who can't wed, plan!" Her slapstick moments are light-hearted and offer a spot-on performance as the compulsive-yet-sweet planner. The bad news is Lopez didn't get much of a vehicle in which to test drive her newfound comedic skills. The main problem with this film is that no one wants to hurt anyone else's feelings. Everyone is just so gosh-darn nice. In a subplot, Mary's father is trying to arrange her marriage to just the nicest Italian boy. Gee, he's sweet. Golly, Mary's rival in love Fran is so nice. Yet, there is a touch of old-fashioned romance to this wholesome film, which can only be described as "cute. [+]
" While things may unfold in a predictable manner, The Wedding Planner is still light-hearted fun of the sort that inspires dreamy romantic thoughts. -Jenny Brown, Amazon. com On the DVD: The Wedding Planner on disc has a soft focus to the widescreen 2. 35:1 image which is perfect for this purely entertaining romantic comedy fluff. The soundtrack is done well with both the dialogue and music coming through crisp and clear and despite the fact that this DVD doesn't set out to be a special edition there is more than enough to keep extras features fans happy. There's a good audio commentary from director Adam Shankman and writers Pamela Falk and Michael Ellism as well as a couple of rough-cut deleted scenes with commentary, and two featurettes-one on the making of the film and the second on the choreography of the tango sequence. -Kristen Bowditch.

Review Universal Pictures Video  / Bridget Jones 2: The Edge of Reason [DVD] [2004]
Actors & Directors
  • Jim Broadbent
  • Hugh Grant
  • Colin Firth
  • Beeban Kidron
  • Renée Zellweger
  • Gemma Jones
Release date: 2006-07-03
Run time: 108 min.
Creator: Richard Curtis
RRP: £24.99
Price: £1.09

Review Bridget Jones 2: The Edge of Reason [DVD] [2004] / Universal Pictures Video:

Although it's been three years since we last saw Bridget (Renée Zellweger), only a few weeks have passed in her world. She is, as you'll remember, no longer a "singleton," having snagged stuffy but gallant Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) at the end of the 2001 film. Now she's fallen deeply in love and out of her neurotic mind with paranoia: Is Mark cheating on her with that slim, bright young thing from the law office? Will the reappearance of dashing cad Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant) further spell the end of her self-confidence when they're shoved off to Thailand together for a TV travel story? If such questions also seem pressing to you, this sequel will be fairly painless, but you shouldn't expect anything fresh. Director Beeban Kidron and her screenwriters-all four of them!-are content to sink matters into slapstick, with chunky Zellweger (who's unflatteringly photographed) the literal butt of all jokes. Though the star still has her charms, and some of Bridget's social gaffes are amusing, the film is mired in low comedy-a sequence in a Thai women's prison is more offensive than outrageous-with only Grant's rakish mischief to pull it out of the swamp. -Steve Wiecking.

Review Optimum Home Entertainment  / Me And You And Everyone We Know [DVD]
Actors & Directors
  • John Hawkes
  • Miranda July
  • Miles Thompson
  • Brandon Ratcliff
  • Miranda July
Release date: 2006-01-30
Run time: 90 min.
Creator: John Hawkes
RRP: £15.99
Price: £4.16

Review Me And You And Everyone We Know [DVD] / Optimum Home Entertainment:


Review Icon Home Entertainment  / Starter For 10 [DVD] [2006]
Actors & Directors
  • Alice Eve
  • Catherine Tate
  • Mark Gatiss
  • Rebecca Hall
  • James McAvoy
Release date: 2007-04-23
Run time: 93 min.
Creator: Rebecca Hall
RRP: £17.99
Price: £1.89

Review Starter For 10 [DVD] [2006] / Icon Home Entertainment:

Compared to James McAvoy's previous picture, The Last King of Scotland, this comedy may seem trivial, but trivia has its pleasures. Produced by Tom Hanks and adapted by David Nicholls from his 2003 novel, Starter for Ten doesn't tackle major historical events, but it also takes place in the past. After a prologue establishing his childhood in provincial Essex, Brian (McAvoy) takes off for Bristol University in 1985 and immediately sets his sights on the campus quiz team. If he makes the cut, he'll get to compete on University Challenge, a show he used to watch the show with his late father, who encouraged his son's quest for knowledge. For all his book smarts, though, Brian is rather naïve about the ways of the world, unlike his friend Spencer (Dominic Cooper, The History Boys), who remains in town. As Brian and his teammates prepare for the competition, he falls for co-eds Alice (Alice Eve) and Rebecca (Rebecca Hall, The Prestige), struggles to repair his fraying friendship with Spencer, and confronts feelings of betrayal over his mother's new boyfriend. For the most part, Starter for Ten explores standard-issue college concerns, but with abundant wit, whimsy, and a soundtrack stuffed with Thatcher-era favorites, like the Smiths and New Order. While the resolution to Brian's romantic dilemma hardly comes as a surprise, the climactic quiz show is a nail-biter. Mostly, the film is a fine showcase for the multi-talented McAvoy, who confirms that he can handle light comedy as gracefully as dark drama. -Kathleen C. [+]
Fennessy END.

Review Sony Pictures Home Entertainment  / Maid In Manhattan [DVD] [2003]
Actors & Directors
  • Wayne Wang
  • Jennifer Lopez
  • Stanley Tucci
  • Natasha Richardson
  • Ralph Fiennes
  • Tyler Posey
Release date: 2003-09-15
Run time: 101 min.
Creator: Kevin Wade
RRP: £19.99
Price: £2.08

Review Maid In Manhattan [DVD] [2003] / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:

In the breezy Maid in Manhattan, a maid in a top-flight hotel (Jennifer Lopez) chances to dress in a guest's clothes just when a handsome political candidate (Ralph Fiennes) walks in. Naturally, he's bowled over and pursues her; he's initially drawn to her gorgeous good looks but soon comes to appreciate her honesty and common sense. Of course, she can't let him know that she's only a maid, and various high jinks ensue-it's all pretty formulaic, but lurking in the edges of this glossy, brainless romance are a wealth of sly turns by Natasha Richardson and Amy Sedaris (as callow socialites), Bob Hoskins (as a dignified butler), Stanley Tucci (as Fiennes' exasperated campaign manager), and many less familiar faces. All help to give Maid in Manhattan the life and texture that has been processed out of the main characters. -Bret Fetzer.

Review Peccadillo Pictures  / East Side Story [2006] [DVD]
Actors & Directors
  • Steve Callahan
  • Luis Accinelli
  • David Beron
  • Rene Alvarado
  • Carlos Portugal
Release date: 2008-10-20
Run time: 88 min.
Creator: Luis Accinelli
RRP: £15.99
Price: £7.49

Review East Side Story [2006] [DVD] / Peccadillo Pictures:


Review Jennifer Aniston  / The Jennifer Aniston Collection: The Object Of My Affection / Picture Perfect / She's The One / Office Space / The Good Girl [DVD]
Actors & Directors
  • Miguel Arteta
  • Jay Mohr
  • Jennifer Aniston
  • Mike Judge
  • Ron Livingston
  • Kevin Bacon
  • Glenn Gordon Caron
  • Paul Rudd
  • Nicholas Hytner
  • Edward Burns
Release date: 2006-09-04
Creator: Paul Rudd
RRP: £34.99
Price: £8.98

Review The Jennifer Aniston Collection: The Object Of My Affection / Picture Perfect / She's The One / Office Space / The Good Girl [DVD] / Jennifer Aniston:

The Object Of My Affection - In this ultra-hip, multilayered comedy, triangles and emotional imbroglios take on a new meaning. Well, at least they try. Jennifer Aniston plays a straight woman who falls in love with a gay man (Paul Rudd). She invites him to move in with her just hours after they meet. As their friendship progresses, she learns she is pregnant, and wants Rudd to act as daddy to her newborn, much to the consternation of her overbearing boyfriend (John Pankow). The film takes itself too seriously, although there is some genuine emotion buried in Wendy Wasserstein's clunky script. It is not that the relationships are unbelievable; it is that the story lurches forward from one stilted setup to another. And unfortunately, characters are motivated by unknown forces to take on major life changes without explanation. More fortunate are two very likable performances by Rudd, who wisely plays this without cute, homosexual tics, and a most perky and appealing Aniston. Supporting actor Nigel Hawthorne walks away with the film as a gay drama critic who imparts a few important life lessons as he learns one of his own. [+]
-Rochelle O'Gorman Picture Perfect - If you can get past Jennifer Aniston's form-fitting wardrobe in a movie about a woman struggling to advance in her profession, this romantic comedy is a fair match with My Best Friend's Wedding. Both films feature conniving, self-centered heroines who undergo a transformation-Aniston presents a bogus fiancé (Jerry Maguire's Jay Mohr) to impress her advertising agency boss and gradually discovers a mutual attraction with the imposter. Both movies go off in delightfully unpredictable directions. Picture Perfect falls prey to occasional sitcom fluff, but it's a fine showcase for Aniston's comedic and dramatic attributes. Critics were mixed-to-harsh in reviews for this movie, perhaps because it's a bit derivative and poses slight challenge to Aniston, who proved her skill with light comedy as a principal cast member of TV's Friends sitcom. It's clear that Aniston is a fine comedian, and she shows that talent to advantage in Picture Perfect. -Jeff Shannon She's the One is actor-writer-director Edward Burns' second film, following the widely acclaimed The Brothers McMullen. Given a slightly larger budget to play with ($3m as against his debut project's $25,000), Burns revisits much the same territory-love and sibling rivalry within a New York Irish-American family-but rather more expansively. This time, too, he can run to a few stars-in-the-making (Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Aniston, and John Mahoney from Frasier) to jazz up his cast of relative unknowns. Burns himself plays Mickey, a cab-driver in the Big Apple, with Mike McGlone as his yuppie stockbroker brother, and Maxine Bahns as Hope, the girl Mickey falls for and impulsively marries, much to the romantic delight of Francis's neglected wife Renee (Aniston). Francis, meanwhile, is having a clandestine affair with Heather (Diaz), Mike's former girlfriend-something Mike has yet to learn. Dispensing flawed wisdom and generally muddying the waters yet further is the lads' blunt-spoken father (Mahoney). Plotwise that's about it. Burns relies on his appealing cast and some amiably barbed repartee to hold our interest in what's essentially a dialogue-driven movie. He makes shrewd and sometimes unexpected use of his New York locations, too-it's a fair bet most people's mental image of Brooklyn wouldn't include a waterfront fishing community. This is a good-natured, slightly old-fashioned movie whose benevolent view of the battle of the sexes (where the women are invariably smarter than the men) never digs too deep or hits too hard. -Philip Kemp Office Space - Office Space is a movie for anyone who's ever spent eight hours in a "Productivity Bin", had to endure a smarmy, condescending boss, had worries about layoffs, or just had the urge to demolish a temperamental printer or fax machine. Peter (Ron Livingston) spends the day doing stupefyingly dull computer work in a cubicle. He goes home to an apartment sparsely furnished by IKEA and Target, then starts for a maddening commute to work again in the morning. His co-workers in the cube farm are an annoying lot, his boss is a snide, patronising jerk, and his days are consumed with tedium. In desperation, he turns to career hypnotherapy, but when his hypno-induced relaxation takes hold, there's no shutting it off. Layoffs are in the air at his corporation and with two colleagues (both of whom are slated for the chute) he devises a scheme to skim funds from company accounts. The scam soon snowballs, however, throwing the three into a panic until the unexpected happens and saves the day. A little bit like a US version of The Office before it was actually made, director Mike (King of the Hill) Judge's debut movie is a spot-on look at work in corporate America circa 1999. With well-drawn characters and situations instantly familiar to the white-collar milieu, he captures the joylessness of many a cube denizen's work life perfectly. Jennifer Aniston, a waitress at Chotchkie's, a generic beer-and-burger joint, plays Peter's love interest and Diedrich Bader has a minor but hilarious turn as Peter's moustached, long-haired, drywall-installin' neighbour. -Jerry Renshaw The Good Girl - In The Good Girl Jennifer Aniston gets a make-under that would make her Friends character weep, but she finally proves her acting mettle away from the ditzy-but-glamorous Rachel type. A low-key drama from the writer and director duo behind Chuck and Buck, The Good Girl places Aniston's bored shop-girl Justine at the centre of a soul-destroying life in a sleepy Texan town. Like a modern Madame Bovary, Justine's life is stuck in a rut-her marriage is dull and her job at the Retail Rodeo even duller-when a new colleague Holden (Jake Gyllenhaal) offers her an escape. A tortured soul who's obsessed with The Catcher in the Rye and thinks nobody understands him, Holden is a typical, angst-ridden young man. But to Justine he's intriguing and romantic and their shared sense of dejection soon leads to an affair and a short-lived liberation from their daily lives. Aniston could never pass as dowdy but she does a very convincing turn as the crestfallen Justine, using subtlety and dry humour rather than melodrama to convey her quiet desperation. John C Reilly as her permanently stoned husband and Tim Blake Nelson as his creepy chum are both superb alongside her. Even the smaller roles are furnished with some memorable moments: Justine's colleague makes outrageous tannoy announcements to zombie-like customers at the Retail Rodeo. Funny, strange and touching by turns The Good Girl, has its awkward moments but as a quirky slice of life it gets most things right. -Laura Bushell.

Review Momentum Pictures  / I Capture The Castle [DVD] [2003]
Actors & Directors
  • Marc Blucas
  • Rose Byrne
  • Tim Fywell
  • Bill Nighy
  • Sinéad Cusack
  • Romola Garai
Release date: 2004-01-26
Run time: 108 min.
Creator: Heidi Thomas
RRP: £17.99
Price: £3.65

Review I Capture The Castle [DVD] [2003] / Momentum Pictures:

Based on Dodie Smith's much-loved novel, I Capture the Castle turns out to be an equally lovely film, delightful and surprisingly wise. When her family moves into a glamorous castle in the countryside, Cassandra (Ramola Garai) imagines great things will happen. But the decaying castle loses its appeal as her novelist father (Bill Nighy) develops writer's block and her mother dies of cancer. From this sad beginning, I Capture the Castle becomes an utterly engaging coming-of-age story as 17-year-old Cassandra and her older sister Rose (Rose Byrne) struggle to win the attentions of their new American landlord (Henry Thomas)-but when everything goes the way Cassandra wishes, her hopes fall apart. Garai's wonderful performance carries the audience through bittersweet discoveries about life and adulthood with hope and yearning. The entire cast-also featuring Tara Fitzgerald and Marc Blucas-is superb. -Bret Fetzer.

Review Universal Pictures UK  / Bridget Jones's Diary / The Edge Of Reason [DVD]
Actors & Directors
  • Gemma Jones
  • Jim Broadbent
  • Beeban Kidron
  • Sharon Maguire
  • Hugh Grant
  • Renee Zellweger
  • Colin Firth
Release date: 2005-11-14
Run time: 202 min.
Creator: Colin Firth
RRP: £19.99
Price: £6.68

Review Bridget Jones's Diary / The Edge Of Reason [DVD] / Universal Pictures UK:

Bridget Jones's Diary Featuring a blowzy, winningly inept size-12 heroine, Bridget Jones's Diary is a fetching adaptation of Helen Fielding's runaway bestseller, grittier than Ally McBeal but sweeter than Sex and the City. The normally sylphlike Renée Zellweger (Nurse Betty, Me, Myself and Irene) wolfed pasta to gain poundage to play "singleton" Bridget, a London-based publicist who divides her free time between binge eating in front of the TV, downing Chardonnay with her friends, and updating the diary in which she records her negligible weight fluctuations and romantic misadventures of the year. Things start off badly at Christmas when her mother tries to set her up with seemingly standoffish lawyer Mark Darcy (Colin Firth), whom Bridget accidentally overhears dissing her. Instead she embarks on a disastrous liaison with her raffish boss, Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant, infinitely more likeable when he's playing a baddie instead of his patented tongue-tied fops). Eventually, Bridget comes to wonder if she's let her pride prejudice her against the surprisingly attractive Mr. Darcy. If the plot sounds familiar, that's because Fielding's novel was itself a retelling of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, whose romantic male lead is also named Mr. Darcy. An extra ironic poke in the ribs is added by the casting of Firth, who played Austen's haughty hero in the acclaimed BBC adaptation of Austen's novel. First-time director Sharon Maguire directs with confident comic zest, while Zellweger twinkles charmingly, fearlessly baring her cellulite and pulling off a spot-on English accent. [+]
Like Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill (both of which were written by this film's coscreenwriter, Richard Curtis), Bridget Jones's stock-in-trade is a very English self-deprecating sense of humour, a mild suspicion of Americans (especially if they're thin and successful), and a subtly expressed analysis of thirtysomething fears about growing up and becoming a "smug married. " The whole is, as Bridget would say, v. good. -Leslie Felperin Bridget Jones 2: The Edge Of Reason Although it's been three years since we last saw Bridget (Renée Zellweger), only a few weeks have passed in her world. She is, as you'll remember, no longer a "singleton," having snagged stuffy but gallant Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) at the end of the 2001 film. Now she's fallen deeply in love and out of her neurotic mind with paranoia: Is Mark cheating on her with that slim, bright young thing from the law office? Will the reappearance of dashing cad Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant) further spell the end of her self-confidence when they're shoved off to Thailand together for a TV travel story? If such questions also seem pressing to you, this sequel will be fairly painless, but you shouldn't expect anything fresh. Director Beeban Kidron and her screenwriters-all four of them!-are content to sink matters into slapstick, with chunky Zellweger (who's unflatteringly photographed) the literal butt of all jokes. Though the star still has her charms, and some of Bridget's social gaffes are amusing, the film is mired in low comedy-a sequence in a Thai women's prison is more offensive than outrageous-with only Grant's rakish mischief to pull it out of the swamp. -Steve Wiecking.

Review Tla Releasing  / A Four Letter Word [DVD] [2007]
Actors & Directors
  • Charlie David
  • Jesse Archer
  • Casper Andreas
Release date: 2009-04-20
Run time: 87 min.
Creator: Charlie David
RRP: £15.99
Price: £8.79

Review A Four Letter Word [DVD] [2007] / Tla Releasing:


Review Verve Pictures  / Nina's Heavenly Delights [DVD] [2006]
Actors & Directors
  • Ronny Jhutti
  • Pratibha Parmar
  • Shelley Conn
  • Raji James
  • Laura Fraser
  • Art Malik
Release date: 2007-01-22
Run time: 91 min.
Creator: Andrea Gibb
RRP: £19.99
Price: £4.75

Review Nina's Heavenly Delights [DVD] [2006] / Verve Pictures:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment  / Marley & Me [Blu-ray] [2008]
Actors & Directors
  • David Frankel
  • Kathleen Turner
  • Jennifer Aniston
  • Eric Dane
  • Alan Arkin
  • Owen Wilson
Release date: 2009-07-06
Run time: 115 min.
Creator: Jennifer Aniston
RRP: £28.99
Price: £17.99

Review Marley & Me [Blu-ray] [2008] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:


Review Sony Pictures Home Entertainment  / Jerry Maguire [Blu-ray] [1996]
Actors & Directors
  • Kelly Preston
  • Cuba Gooding Jr.
  • Tom Cruise
  • Renee Zellweger
  • Cameron Crowe
  • Jerry O'Connell
Release date: 2008-09-01
Run time: 139 min.
Creator: Cuba Gooding Jr.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £8.52

Review Jerry Maguire [Blu-ray] [1996] / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:


Review MGM Entertainment  / Moonstruck [DVD] [1987]
Actors & Directors
  • Norman Jewison
  • Vincent Gardenia
  • Danny Aiello
  • Cher
  • Olympia Dukakis
  • Nicolas Cage
Release date: 2000-04-24
Run time: 162 min.
Creator: John Patrick Shanley
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.24

Review Moonstruck [DVD] [1987] / MGM Entertainment:

Remember the outfit Cher wore to the Oscars when she won an Academy Award for her performance in this 1987 film? Ay-yi-yi. The actress' more retiring character in this infectious comedy leaps several psychological hurdles just giving her hair a permanent. But then the original screenplay of Moonstruck, by John Patrick Shanley (Joe Versus the Volcano), is a wonderful, gently satirical tale of an Italian-American family dealing with repression and dissatisfaction against a backdrop of cultural expectations. Cher is focused and funny as a widow who feels she should marry an older fellow (Danny Aiello), but then falls for his black-sheep brother (Nicolas Cage). Olympia Dukakis and Vincent Gardenia are perfect as her parents, and John Mahoney (of TV's Frasier) has a memorable, small role as a middle-aged man on the make who gets a lecture from Dukakis's character. Shanley's dialogue is comically stylised in a way that makes one appreciate how much words can inform an actor's performance. Taking its cues from him and director Norman Jewison (And Justice for All), the cast immerse themselves in a pool of hilariously operatic emotion. -Tom Keogh.

Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment  / What Happens In Vegas [Blu-ray] [2008]
Actors & Directors
  • Dennis Farina
  • Ashton Kutcher
  • Queen Latifah
  • Rob Corddry
  • Cameron Diaz
  • Tom Vaughan
Release date: 2008-09-08
Run time: 99 min.
Creator: Ashton Kutcher
RRP: £28.99
Price: £5.00

Review What Happens In Vegas [Blu-ray] [2008] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

Cameron Diaz, Ashton Kutcher, Dennis Farina, Queen Latifah, Rob Corddry Director: Tom Vaughan

Review Warner Home Video  / Singles [DVD] [1993]
Actors & Directors
  • Jim True-Frost
  • Kyra Sedgwick
  • Sheila Kelley
  • Bridget Fonda
  • Campbell Scott
  • Cameron Crowe
Release date: 2003-01-20
Run time: 95 min.
Creator: Richard Hashimoto
RRP: £13.99
Price: £2.00

Review Singles [DVD] [1993] / Warner Home Video:

Writer/Director Cameron Crowe's affable twentysomething romantic comedy is less a tale of tortured love than a prescient portrait of a culture on the cusp of Generation X-that is Seattle, circa 1991. One-time Rolling Stone journalist Crowe, ever aware of pop trends, lovingly details a society newly beguiled by slackers, answerphones, self-analysis, the coffee-house fetish, post-AIDS safe sex and, most importantly, grunge music-Smashing Pumpkins, Mudhoney and Jane's Addiction pepper the soundtrack, while various Pearl Jam players cameo as members of the film's fictional grunge wannabes Citizen Dick. In the midst of all this sits a cosy residential apartment block, a perfect setting for the emotional crises of on-again, off-again, on-again couples Steve and Linda (Campbell Scott and Kyra Sedgwick) and Cliff and Janet (Matt Dillon and Bridget Fonda). Steve is a sensitive transport engineer whose game-playing backfires when he meets Linda, an environmental activist with a fear of rejection. Cliff is a feckless rock musician, and front man for Citizen Dick, whose inability to commit to Janet is forcing her to take desperate measures. Will the couples split? Will they reunite? And will they learn a little something about life, maturity and commitment along the way? As you'd expect from the man behind the cutesy teen classic Say Anything (his directorial debut), Crowe's relationship resolutions are often simplistic and sentimental ("You rock my world!" and "You belong to me!" are two such vocal denouements). And this, combined with a rambling narrative often makes the movie feel longer than its 95 minutes (an inter-title announcing "The Theory of Eternal Dating" sums it up). Nonetheless, there's enough wit, comic digression and tap-along gaiety elsewhere to make Singles an enjoyably slight romantic placebo. -Kevin Maher.

Review Entertainment in Video  / Blast From The Past [DVD] [1999]
Actors & Directors
  • Alicia Silverstone
  • Sissy Spacek
  • Hugh Wilson
  • Christopher Walken
  • Dave Foley
  • Brendan Fraser
Release date: 2000-02-21
Run time: 98 min.
Creator: Bill Kelly
RRP: £19.99
Price: £4.24

Review Blast From The Past [DVD] [1999] / Entertainment in Video:

Coasting on the successes of Gods and Monsters and George of the Jungle, Brendan Fraser turns in yet another winning performance in this fish-out-of-water comedy in which Pleasantville meets modern-day Los Angeles, with predictably funny results. Fraser stars as Adam, who was born in the bomb shelter of his paranoid inventor dad (a less-manic-than-usual Christopher Walken), who spirited his pregnant wife (Sissy Spacek, in fine comic form) underground when he thought the Communists dropped the bomb (actually, it was a plane crash). Armed with enough supplies to last 35 years, the parents bring up Adam in Leave It to Beaver style with nary any exposure to the outside world. When the supplies run out, and dad suffers a heart attack, Fraser goes up to modern-day LA for some shopping and long-awaited culture shock. More of a cute premise with lots of clever ideas attached than a fully fleshed out story, Blast from the Past is also supposed to be part romantic comedy, as the hunky Adam hooks up with his jaded Eve (Alicia Silverstone) and tries to convince her to marry him and go underground. The sparks don't fly, though, because Silverstone is saddled with the triple whammy of being miscast, playing an underwritten character, and suffering a very bad hairdo. Fraser, however, carries the film lightly and easily on his broad, goofy shoulders, mixing Adam's gee-whiz innocence with genuine emotion and curiosity; only Fraser could pull off Adam's first glimpse of a sunrise or the ocean with both humour and pathos. Also winning is Dave Foley as Silverstone's gay best friend, who manages to make the most innocuous statements sound like comic gems. - Mark Englehart, Amazon. com.

Review Entertainment in Video  / Because I Said So [DVD] [2007]
Actors & Directors
  • Tom Everett Scott
  • Mandy Moore
  • Diane Keaton
  • Michael Lehmann
  • Piper Perabo
Release date: 2007-06-04
Run time: 97 min.
Creator: Mandy Moore
RRP: £19.99
Price: £1.67

Review Because I Said So [DVD] [2007] / Entertainment in Video:


Review Sony Pictures Home Entertainment  / Catch And Release [DVD] [2007]
Actors & Directors
  • Susannah Grant
  • Joshua Friesen
  • Timothy Olyphant
  • Juliette Lewis
  • Darren Daurie
  • Jennifer Garner
Release date: 2007-07-23
Run time: 107 min.
Creator: Juliette Lewis
RRP: £19.99
Price: £1.51

Review Catch And Release [DVD] [2007] / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:

Jennifer Garner's lips grow more Angelina-esque every year. In the romantic comedy Catch and Release, Garner (Alias,13 Going On 30) plays Gray Wheeler, a young woman whose fiance dies unexpectedly before the wedding, leaving Gray unable to afford her home-so she moves in with her fiance's best friends, Sam (Kevin Smith, director of Clerks and Dogma) and Dennis (Sam Jaeger, Lucky Number Slevin). But the presence of another old friend named Fritz (Timothy Olyphant, Deadwood) leads to the unveiling of a secret: Gray's fiance had a child with another woman. Catch and Release lacks the clear story structure that most romantic comedies are built on, but trades it for a richer sense of the ambiguities of human relationships. Garner, though lovely and personable, is a bit bland-fortunately, she's surrounded by actors with all kinds of edges, including Smith (who shows an unexpected and uncloying earnest side), Fiona Shaw (from the Harry Potter movies) as the fiance's grieving mother, and Juliette Lewis (Cape Fear), who demonstrates once again her powers as a fearless and surprising actress. Catch and Release is an uneven movie with a remarkably elegant visual style that sometimes clashes with the workman-like dialogue, but it can't be written off as the same old Hollywood claptrap. Though a happy ending is inevitable, the path it takes has some surprising turns and flashes of unexpected emotional depth. - Bret Fetzer.

Review Uca  / Along Came Polly [DVD] [2004]
Actors & Directors
  • John Hamburg
  • Debra Messing
  • Philip Seymour Hoffman
  • Alec Baldwin
  • Ben Stiller
  • Jennifer Aniston
Release date: 2008-08-04
Run time: 86 min.
Creator: Stacey Sher
RRP: £9.99
Price: £0.98

Review Along Came Polly [DVD] [2004] / Uca:

Opposites are forced to attract in Along Came Polly. Ben Stiller is a newlywed insurance risk-assessment analyst whose wife (Debra Messing, in a throwaway role) betrays him on their honeymoon. His uptight, play-it-safe lifestyle (which includes acute aversion to germs and irritable bowel syndrome) makes him seemingly incompatible with the spontaneous, free-spirited Polly (Jennifer Aniston), but writer-director John Hamburg (whose writing credits include the previous Stiller hits Meet the Parents and Zoolander) is determined to give them at least the appearance of romantic potential. No such luck. You will, however, get a few laughs from supporting players Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bryan Brown, and Alec Baldwin. The film is a dose of featherweight fluff that could've been better and could've been worse-surely no pairing of Stiller and Aniston can be a complete waste of time, right? Faint praise, perhaps, but fans of these mainstream funny-folk will enjoy this movie as a lazy weekend distraction. -Jeff Shannon.

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