Actors & Directors
- Yvonne Zima
- John Plumpis
- Janel Moloney
- Christine Ebersole
- Scott Winant
- Kellen Fink
Release date: 2003-05-05 Run time: 109 min. RRP: £15.99 Price: £2.41
Review Til There Was You [1997] / Paramount Home Entertainment:
Actors & Directors
- Ann Eleonora Jørgensen
- Lone Scherfig
- Lars Kaalund
- Anette Støvelbæk
- Peter Gantzler
- Anders W. Berthelsen
Release date: 2003-03-31 Run time: 107 min. RRP: £19.99 Price: £3.26
Review Italian For Beginners [2002] / Pathe Distribution:The winner of a Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, Italian for Beginners is the first film made under the Dogme rules of austerity (no artificial lighting, no extraneous music, no imported props, etc) to be directed by a woman, Danish director Lone Scherfig. It's set in a small Danish town where half-a-dozen awkward misfits (the newly arrived pastor, a recently bereaved hairdresser, an ex-footballer turned abrasive bar manager, a put-upon baker's assistant and so on) are drawn together by the shared activity of an Italian-language evening-class and-yes, you guessed it-start coming out of their shells and finding love. This is a gentle, good-natured film, full of quirky dialogue and unforced humour. Scherfig derives a good deal of amusement from watching the gloomy, buttoned-up Danes gradually relaxing and expanding under the influence of their improved linguistic skills, and reaching out for happiness. (As usual in North European cinema, Italian equals everything that's spontaneous, life-loving and sexy. ) True, the pro-togetherness message is banal, and the whole film's altogether a little too pat, especially in the final neat pairing-off and the way a couple of obstructive parents helpfully contrive to die just when they need to. Still, the freshness of the largely improvised performances, and Scherfig's affectionate regard for her characters, make for a film that's hard to dislike. On the DVD: Italian for Beginners has no extras except the theatrical trailer. The transfer faithfully reproduces the mainly hand-held, digital video quality of the original. -Philip Kemp.
Actors & Directors
- Rya Kihlstedt
- Mira Sorvino
- Carla Gugino
- Philip Saville
- Gwen Humble
- Alison Elliott
Release date: 2006-04-18 Run time: 302 min. Price: £5.32
Review The Buccaneers [1995] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / BBC Warner:
Actors & Directors
- Wes Ramsey
- Rebekah Jordan
- Joseph Gordon-Levitt
- Steve Sandvoss
- Amber Benson
Release date: 2005-09-26 Run time: 123 min. RRP: £19.99 Price: £4.35
Review Latter Days [2003] / TLA Releasing:
Actors & Directors
- Billy Wilder
- Jack Lemmon
- Shirley MacLaine
- Lou Jacobi
- Bruce Yarnell
- Herschel Bernardi
Release date: 2001-11-26 Run time: 137 min. RRP: £15.99 Price: £4.69
Review Irma La Douce [1963] / MGM Entertainment:Irma La Douce reunited The Apartment team of Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine with director Billy Wilder in an adaptation of the stage musical of the same name which had been a hit in Paris, London and New York. The screen transfer by Wilder and his colleague-writer IAL Diamond-however, omits the show's songs, relegating them to a background score refashioned by Andre Previn with some additional themes of his own. Background here is a complimentary term, for whatever qualms one might entertain as to this move, the two sets of themes are skilfully woven together by Previn and emerge as a witty and lyrical aural delight in their own right which is given due prominence on the soundtrack. Wilder is no rush to tell prostitute Irma's story: her affair with Lemmon being the pivot of the tale as he takes on the disguise of an English Lord. Lemmon and MacLaine beautifully play their mutual attraction under Wilder's deft direction with the slapstick never allowed to get out of hand. Many will recognise Wilder's touch in his handling of the scene where Lemmon as a policeman is carted off in a van full of voracious prostitutes from the bunks-in-the-train sequence in Some Like It Hot. The handsome production, designed by Alexander Tranner-with the occasional view of the Seine thrown in for good measure-and the Panavision photography by Joseph La Shelle are further assets. On the DVD: The DVD contains a longer than usual theatrical trailer, half shot as a cartoon with characters closely resembling those Pink Panther figures who emerged at the same time from the Mirisch Brothers, a pair prominent in sustaining the unique success of United Artists, whose name was deleted, in favour of the MGM logo, in the early 1960s. It's too bad that the music on this DVD transfer sometimes strikes a coarse note particularly over the extended opening credits. -Adrian Edwards.
Actors & Directors
- Judi Dench
- Richard Warwick
- Susan Penhaligon
- James Cellan Jones
- Michael Williams
Release date: 2006-01-23 Run time: 150 min. RRP: £12.99 Price: £4.49
Review A Fine Romance - The Complete First Series / Network:
Actors & Directors
- Marsha Mason
- Quinn Cummings
- Paul Benedict
- Barbara Rhoades
- Richard Dreyfuss
- Herbert Ross
Release date: 2000-01-18 Run time: 110 min. Price: £6.99
Review The Goodbye Girl [1977] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Warner Home Video:The Goodbye Girl is a bittersweet comedy about relationships and taking chances. Though it deals with the human condition, what most quickly comes to mind are those wickedly comedic scenes featuring Richard Dreyfuss in an Oscar-winning role. He plays a struggling actor with a sharp tongue who has sublet an apartment from single mom Marcia Mason, a divorcie with horrific taste in men, who are always running out on her. She is left high and dry once more, stuck sharing her apartment with Dreyfuss when he hasn't the heart to enforce his lease and toss out mother and daughter. Neil Simon's play shines under the direction of Herbert Ross as these two mismatched people find their contempt changing into mutual admiration. Quinn Cummings is more interesting than most precocious child stars; she seems brighter and her manner is prickly instead of cloying. Watch this film just for the scene in which Dreyfuss plays Richard III in an off-off-Broadway play. He lisps, he limps, he screams. It is the worst cinema you will ever see-and thoroughly hilarious. -Rochelle O'Gorman.
Actors & Directors
- Zelda Barron
- Page Hannah
- Annabeth Gish
- Bridget Fonda
- Phoebe Cates
- Scott Coffey
Release date: 2001-05-22 Run time: 99 min. Price: £4.67
Review Shag, the Movie [1988] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / MGM:
Actors & Directors
- Joel Moore
- Adam Kulbersh
- Christine Lakin
- Greg Wilson
- Paris Hilton
- Tom Putnam
Release date: 2008-07-28 Run time: 87 min. RRP: £15.99 Price: £9.95
Review The Hottie And The Nottie [2008] / Pathe Distribution:
Actors & Directors
- Jennifer Aniston
- Nicholas Hytner
- Jay Mohr
- Miguel Arteta
- Kevin Bacon
- Edward Burns
- Mike Judge
- Glenn Gordon Caron
- Paul Rudd
- Ron Livingston
Release date: 2006-09-04 RRP: £34.99 Price: £8.16
Review The Jennifer Aniston Collection: The Object Of My Affection / Picture Perfect / She's The One / Office Space / The Good Girl / 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.
Actors & Directors
- Margaret Sullavan
- Ernst Lubitsch
- Sara Haden
- James Stewart
- Frank Morgan
- Joseph Schildkraut
Release date: 2002-10-01 Run time: 99 min. Price: £7.67
Review The Shop Around the Corner [1940] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Warner Home Video:
Actors & Directors
- Matt Long (II)
- Amanda Bynes
- Jeremy Howard
- Jack Carpenter (II)
- Joe Nussbaum
- Sara Paxton
Release date: 2008-01-22 Run time: 108 min. Price: £6.48
Review Sydney White [2008] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Universal Studios:
Actors & Directors
- Michael Gordon
- Doris Day
- Fred Clark
- Polly Bergen
- James Garner
- Thelma Ritter
Release date: 2007-01-30 Run time: 103 min. Price: £7.71
Review Move Over, Darling [1963] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / 20th Century Fox:
Actors & Directors
- Oscar Homolka
- Tom Ewell
- Marilyn Monroe
- Robert Strauss
- Marguerite Chapman
- Billy Wilder
Release date: 2006-05-22 Run time: 100 min. RRP: £12.99 Price: £2.84
Review Seven Year Itch [1955] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:
Actors & Directors
- Stephen Fry
- Colin Firth
- Mike Binder
- Jack Dee
- Irene Jacobs
Release date: 2006-08-07 Run time: 83 min. RRP: £5.99 Price: £1.07
Review Fourplay / Boulevard Entertainment:
Actors & Directors
- Casper Andreas
- Jesse Archer
- Charlie David
- Cory Grant
- Virginia Bryan
- Allison Lane
Release date: 2008-08-26 Run time: 87 min. Creator: Christina Kelly Price: £8.06
Review A Four Letter Word [2007] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / TLA Releasing:
Release date: 2006-02-13 RRP: £49.99 Price: £17.98
Review The Ultimate Romantic Comedy Collection (6 Disc Box Set) / Universal Pictures UK:
Actors & Directors
- Sabina Franklyn
- Desmond Adams
- Janet Davies
- Cyril Coke
- Emma Jacobs
- Moir Leslie
Release date: 2004-08-24 Run time: 265 min. Price: £5.50
Review Pride and Prejudice [1980] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / BBC Warner:
Actors & Directors
- Damon Santostefano
- Emily Perkins
- Andrew Seeley
- Selena Gomez
- Jessica Parker Kennedy
- Jane Lynch
Release date: 2008-10-27 Run time: 88 min. RRP: £12.99 Price: £7.98
Review Another Cinderella Story [2008] / Warner Home Video:
Actors & Directors
- Hugh Grant
- Bill Nighy
- Kirsten Dunst
- Paul Bettany
Release date: 2008-02-04 Run time: 223 min. RRP: £12.99 Price: £4.10
Review Love Actually/Wimbledon / Universal Pictures UK:Love Actually With no fewer than eight couples vying for our attention, Love Actually is like the London Marathon of romantic comedies, and everybody wins. Having mastered the genre as the writer of Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, and Bridget Jones's Diary, it appears that first-time director Richard Curtis is just like his screenplays: he just wants to be loved, and he'll go to absurdly appealing lengths to win our affection. With Love Actually, Curtis orchestrates a minor miracle of romantic choreography, guiding a brilliant cast of stars and newcomers as they careen toward love and holiday cheer in London, among them the Prime Minister (Hugh Grant) who's smitten with his caterer (Martine McCutcheon); a widower (Liam Neeson) whose young son nurses the ultimate schoolboy crush; a writer (Colin Firth) who falls for his Portuguese housekeeper; a devoted wife and mother (Emma Thompson) coping with her potentially unfaithful husband (Alan Rickman); and a lovelorn American (Laura Linney) who's desperately attracted to a colleague. There's more-too much more-as Curtis wraps his Christmas gift with enough happy endings to sweeten a dozen other movies. That he pulls it off so entertainingly is undeniably impressive; that he does it so shamelessly suggests that his writing fares better with other, less ingratiating directors. -Jeff ShannonWimbledon Professional tennis makes an unlikely but surprisingly effective backdrop for a lively romantic comedy in Wimbledon. Peter Cort (Paul Bettany, Master and Commander), once ranked 11th in the world, has slipped to 119th and is heading into his last Wimbledon tournament when he runs into Lizzie Bradbury (Kirsten Dunst, The Virgin Suicides, Spider-Man), a rising star. The two strike up a whirlwind romance that gives his game new life-but she insists it's going to be nothing but a passing fling. Their affair heats up and Cort finds himself steadily rising through the competition while Lizzie stumbles. [+]
Of course, the ending is never really in doubt-but Bettany is a unique cinematic presence, pale and lithe, doubtful of life but also hungry for it. Thanks to him and the ever-engaging Dunst, Wimbledon is funnier, more suspenseful, and more touching that anyone might expect, turning a conventional flick into a genuine charmer. -Bret Fetzer.
| Models & Brands: Til There Was You [1997], Italian For Beginners [2002], The Buccaneers [1995] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Latter Days [2003], Irma La Douce [1963], A Fine Romance - The Complete First Series, The Goodbye Girl [1977] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Shag, the Movie [1988] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The Hottie And The Nottie [2008], The Jennifer Aniston Collection: The Object Of My Affection / Picture Perfect / She's The One / Office Space / The Good Girl, The Shop Around the Corner [1940] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Sydney White [2008] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Move Over, Darling [1963] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Seven Year Itch [1955], Fourplay, A Four Letter Word [2007] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The Ultimate Romantic Comedy Collection (6 Disc Box Set), Pride and Prejudice [1980] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Another Cinderella Story [2008], Love Actually/Wimbledon |