Actors & Directors
- Morgan Freeman
- Richard Portnow
- Kevin Spacey
- Andrew Kevin Walker
- Brad Pitt
- David Fincher
Release date: 2001-02-26 Run time: 122 min. RRP: £19.99 Price: £15.45
Review Seven - 2 Disc Set [1995] / Entertainment in Video:The most viscerally frightening and disturbing homicidal maniac picture since The Silence of the Lambs, Seven is based on an idea that's both gruesome and ingenious. A serial killer forces each of his victims to die by acting out one of the seven deadly sins. The murder scene is then artfully arranged into a grotesque tableau, a graphic illustration of each mortal vice. From the jittery opening credits to the horrifying (and seemingly inescapable) concluding twist, director David Fincher immerses us in a murky urban twilight where everything seems to be rotting, rusting, or moulding; the air is cold and heavy with dread. Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt are the detectives who skillfully track down the killer-all the while unaware that he has been closing in on them, as well. Gwyneth Paltrow and Kevin Spacey are also featured, but it is director Fincher and the ominous, overwhelmingly oppressive atmosphere of doom that he creates that are the real stars of the film. It's a terrific date movie-for vampires. -Jim Emerson, Amazon. com.
Actors & Directors
- Michael Mann
- Al Pacino
- Robert De Niro
- Tom Sizemore
- Jon Voight
- Val Kilmer
Release date: 1999-11-01 Run time: 164 min. Creator: Pieter Jan Brugge RRP: £18.99 Price: £4.24
Review Heat [1995] / Warner Home Video:Having developed his skill as a master of contemporary crime drama, writer-director Michael Mann displayed every aspect of that mastery in Heat, an intelligent, character-driven thriller from 1995, which also marked the first onscreen pairing of Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. The two great actors had played father and son in the separate time periods of The Godfather, Part II, but this was the first film in which the pair appeared together, and although their only scene together is brief, it's the riveting fulcrum of this high-tech cops-and-robbers scenario. De Niro plays a master thief with highly skilled partners (Val Kilmer and Tom Sizemore) whose latest heist draws the attention of Pacino, playing a seasoned Los Angeles detective whose investigation reveals that cop and criminal lead similar lives. Both are so devoted to their professions that their personal lives are a disaster. Pacino's with a wife (Diane Venora) who cheats to avoid the reality of their desolate marriage; De Niro pays the price for a life with no outside connections; and Kilmer's wife (Ashley Judd) has all but given up hope that her husband will quit his criminal career. These are men obsessed, and as De Niro and Pacino know, they'll both do whatever's necessary to bring the other down. Mann's brilliant screenplay explores these personal obsessions and sacrifices with absorbing insight, and the tension mounts with some of the most riveting action sequences ever filmed-most notably a daylight siege that turns downtown Los Angeles into a virtual war zone of automatic gunfire. At nearly three hours, Heat qualifies as a kind of intimate epic, certain to leave some viewers impatiently waiting for more action, but it's all part of Mann's compelling strategy. Heat is a true rarity: a crime thriller with equal measures of intense excitement and dramatic depth, giving De Niro and Pacino a prime showcase for their finely matched talents. -Jeff Shannon.
Actors & Directors
- Mike Malone
- Jim Robinson
- Jennifer Lopez
- George Clooney
- Steven Soderbergh
- Donna Frenzel
Release date: 2002-09-02 Run time: 118 min. Creator: Scott Frank RRP: £15.99 Price: £2.00
Review Out Of Sight [1998] / Universal Pictures UK:Out of Sight was one of the best movies of 1998 but ironically this superior crime comedy was a box-office disappointment. Fortunately the movie can enjoy a long life on home video and DVD, where it can be savoured by anyone who missed its original release. Making one of his strongest films since his 1989 debut Sex, Lies, and Videotape and his recent hit Erin Brockovich, director Steven Soderbergh pays tribute to the signature wit and intricacy of Elmore Leonard's novel, brilliantly adapted by Scott Frank, the gifted screenwriter who previously adapted Leonard's Get Shorty. The movie is primarily a showcase for the talent and chemistry of George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez, respectively playing a career bank robber who has escaped from jail and the federal agent who falls for his charms while tracking him down. Soderbergh directs with confident visual flair, shifting timelines (à la Pulp Fiction) to weave together subplots and maintain vivid focus on Leonard's splendid characters and smooth-as-silk dialogue. While the sexy repartée between Clooney and Lopez recalls the vintage interplay of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, Ving Rhames and Steve Zahn add ample comic relief as Clooney's accomplices. Dennis Farina is memorable as Lopez's father and Albert Brooks is almost unrecognisable as a Wall Street crook whose mansion-and a cache of uncut diamonds-provides the setting for the film's climactic caper. As orchestrated by Soderbergh, the film offers a feast of plot twists and surprises but it never loses track of its delightful characters and the clever wit that brings them so vividly to life. -Jeff Shannon.
Actors & Directors
- Biff McGuire
- Al Pacino
- John Randolph
- Jack Kehoe
- Barbara Eda-Young
- Sidney Lumet
Release date: 2002-12-23 Run time: 125 min. Creator: Waldo Salt RRP: £15.99 Price: £3.50
Review Serpico [1973] / Paramount Home Entertainment:
Actors & Directors
- Bruce Willis
- Samuel L. Jackson
- Spencer Treat Clark
- Charlayne Woodard
- Robin Wright Penn
- M. Night Shyamalan
Release date: 2001-10-29 Run time: 102 min. Creator: Sam Mercer RRP: £17.99 Price: £4.35
Review Unbreakable (2 Disc Collectors Edition) [2000] / Touchstone Home Video:In Unbreakable, writer-director M. Night Shyamalan reunites with Sixth Sense star Bruce Willis, comes up with another story of everyday folk baffled by the supernatural (or at least unknown-to-science) and returns to his home town, presenting Philadelphia as a wintry haunt of the bizarre yet transcendent. This time around, Willis (in earnest, agonised, frankly bald Twelve Monkeys mode) has the paranormal abilities, and a superbly un-typecast Samuel L. Jackson is the investigator who digs into someone else's strange life to prompt startling revelations about his own. David Dunn (Willis), an ex-jock security guard with a failing marriage (to Robin Wright Penn), is the stunned sole survivor of a train derailment. Approached by Elijah Price (Jackson), a dealer in comic book art who suffers from a rare brittle bone syndrome, Dunn comes to wonder whether Price's theory that he has superhuman abilities might not hold water. Dunn's young son Joseph (Spencer Treat Clark) encourages him to test his powers and the primal scene of Superman bouncing a bullet off his chest is rewritten as an amazing kitchen confrontation when Joseph pulls the family gun on Dad in a desperate attempt to convince him that he really is unbreakable (surely, "Invulnerable" would have been a more apt title). Half-convinced he is the real-world equivalent of a superhero, Dunn commences a never-ending battle against crime but learns a hard lesson about balancing forces in the universe. Throughout, the film refers to comic-book imagery-with Dunn's security guard slicker coming to look like a cape, and Price's gallery taking on elements of a Batcave-like lair-while the lectures on artwork and symbolism feed back into the plot. The last act offers a terrific suspense-thriller scene, which (like the similar family-saving at the end of The Sixth Sense) is a self-contained sub-plot that slingshots a twist ending that may have been obvious all along. [+]
Some viewers might find the stately solemnity with which Shyamalan approaches a subject usually treated with colourful silliness offputting, but Unbreakable wins points for not playing safe and proves that both Willis and Jackson, too often cast in lazy blockbusters, have the acting chops to enter the heart of darkness. -Kim Newman.
Actors & Directors
- Myra Lucretia Taylor
- Richard Gere
- Diane Lane
- Erik Per Sullivan
- Olivier Martinez
- Adrian Lyne
Release date: 2003-04-28 Run time: 118 min. Creator: William Broyles Jr. RRP: £15.99 Price: £4.00
Review Unfaithful [2002] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:Although the premise of infidelity and its devastating consequences on all involved may not be a new one, Unfaithful still manages to emerge as a stylish, involving thriller. Based on an obscure 1970s French offering, director Adrian Lynne's version is pure Hollywood, from its casting of Richard Gere and Diane Lane in the lead roles, to its graceful visual style and even its somewhat unsatisfactory denouement. It's impossible not to watch the film without thinking of Lynne's own Fatal Attraction, although here the gender roles have been reversed to focus on the affair between bored suburban housewife Connie and exotic French book dealer Paul. The obsessive relationship between the two provides the film with its only real frisson. Gere is given very little to work with as the dull cuckolded husband Edward and delivers even less. The film moves rather slowly towards its key plot twist which never really lives up to its promise. On the DVD: Unfaithful may be lacking a little as a film, but this DVD is an impressive package. The film has a rich visual element and the digital picture quality brings out the best in Adrian Lynne's unique eye for detail. The reams of extras include commentaries from director Lynne and the cast, a well put together documentary, interviews, features, deleted scenes and a (superior) alternative ending. Lynne is always good interview value, coming across as a slightly less eccentric Ken Russell, and Lane and Olivier Martinez are both engaging and charismatic. [+]
A shame, then, that the movie itself isn't quite so impressive. -Phil Udell.
Actors & Directors
- Joe Morton
- Kevin Costner
- Tom Shadyac
- Linda Hunt
- Kathy Bates
- Ron Rifkin
Release date: 2005-08-01 Run time: 99 min. RRP: £14.99 Price: £4.98
Review Dragonfly [2001] / Touchstone Home Video:"Belief gets us there", explains nun Linda Hunt to grieving widower Kevin Costner in Dragonfly. Costner plays an emergency room doctor whose ordered world is startled by "messages" from his dead wife. She's talking about the journey from life to death, but it describes the doctor's road from fact to faith equally well as he puzzles out the otherworldly events of his life. Costner's mourning comes off less lost and sad than simply emotionless and inert, but he finds good support from Kathy Bates as his sassy neighbour. Her appearances, along with a few startling horror-movie-type shocks, energise a film otherwise shrouded in loss, grief, and the hushed mood of supernatural spookiness. It's like a fusing of Ghost, The Sixth Sense, and The Mothman Prophecies, a New Age melodrama in a sentimental key that works through a rather contrived mystic mystery to a glowing climax. This is less a ghost story than a modern twist on the old-fashioned miracle. -Sean Axmaker.
Actors & Directors
- Charlize Theron
- Taylor Hackford
- Keanu Reeves
- Jeffrey Jones
- Al Pacino
- Judith Ivey
Release date: 1999-01-25 Run time: 138 min. Creator: Tony Gilroy RRP: £13.99 Price: £2.48
Review Devil's Advocate [1998] / Warner Home Video:Too old for Hamlet and too young for Lear-what's an ambitious actor to do? Play the Devil, of course. Jack Nicholson did it in The Witches of Eastwick; Robert De Niro did it in Angel Heart (as Louis Cyphre-get it?). In The Devil's Advocate Al Pacino takes his turn as the great Satan, and clearly relishes his chance to raise hell. He's a New York lawyer, of course, by the name of John Milton, who recruits a hotshot young Florida attorney (Keanu Reeves) to his firm and seduces him with tempting offers of power, sex and money. Think of the story as a twist on John Grisham's The Firm, with the corporate evil made even more explicit. Reeves is wooden, and therefore doesn't seem to have much of a soul to lose, but he's really just our excuse to meet the devil. Pacino's the main attraction, gleefully showing off his-and the Antichrist's-chops at perpetrating menace and mayhem. -Jim Emerson.
Actors & Directors
- David Fincher
- Jodie Foster|Forest Whitaker|Jared Leto|Kristen Stewart
Release date: 2002-10-28 Run time: 75 min. RRP: £19.99 Price: £0.99
Review Panic Room [2002] / 4 Front Video:An effective exercise in "confined cinema", Panic Room is a finely crafted thriller that ultimately transcends the thinness of its premise. David Koepp's screenplay is basically Wait Until Dark on steroids, so director David Fincher (Seven, The Game) compensates with elaborate CGI-assisted camera moves, jazzing up his visuals. A relocated New York divorcée (Jodie Foster) and her diabetic daughter (Kristen Stewart) fight for their lives against a trio of tenacious burglars (Jared Leto, Forest Whitaker, Dwight Yoakam) in their new Manhattan townhouse. They're safe in a customised, impenetrable "panic room", but the burglars want what's in the room's safe, so mother and daughter (and Koepp and Fincher) must find clever ways to turn the tables and persevere. Suspense and intelligence are admirably maintained, with Foster (who replaced the then-injured Nicole Kidman) relying on her Silence of the Lambs resourcefulness. It's not as viscerally satisfying as Fincher's previous thrillers, but Panic Room definitely holds the viewer's attention. -Jeff Shannon, Amazon. com.
Actors & Directors
- Norman Reedus
- Kris Kristofferson
- Leonor Varela
- Ron Perlman
- Guillermo del Toro
- Wesley Snipes
Release date: 2002-09-30 Run time: 117 min. Creator: Marv Wolfman RRP: £19.99 Price: £2.24
Review Blade II [2002] / Boulevard Entertaiment:Aptly described by critic Roger Ebert as "a vomitorium of viscera", Blade II takes the express route to sequel success. So if you enjoyed Blade, you'll probably drool over this monster mash, which is anything but boring. Set (and filmed) in Prague, the plot finds a new crop of "Reaper" vampires threatening to implement a viral breeding program, and they're nearly impervious to attacks by Blade (Wesley Snipes), his now-revived mentor Whistler (Kris Kristofferson), and a small army of "normal" vampires who routinely combust in a constant conflagration of spectacular special effects. It's up to Blade to conquer the über-vamps, and both Snipes and director Guillermo del Toro (Mimic) serve up a nonstop smorgasbord of intensely choreographed action, creepy makeup, and graphic ultra-violence, with the ever-imposing Ron Perlman as a vampire villain. It's sadistic, juvenile, numbing, and-for those who dig this kind of thing-undeniably impressive. -Jeff Shannon.
Actors & Directors
- Gary Fleder
- Alex McArthur
- Ashley Judd
- Morgan Freeman
- Cary Elwes
- Tony Goldwyn
Release date: 2001-11-05 Run time: 111 min. Creator: James Patterson RRP: £15.99 Price: £2.91
Review Kiss The Girls [1998] / Paramount Home Entertainment:Kiss the Girls is a thriller about a collaboration between two serial killers, and, coming after The Silence of the Lambs and Seven, it feels like a pale attempt to cash in on the success of those earlier, better films. That's a pity, because this film certainly has its strengths-particularly in the central performances of Morgan Freeman as a forensic detective and Ashley Judd as a would-be victim who escaped from one of the killers. Director Gary Fleder demonstrates visual flair and maintains an involving undercurrent of tension, but as this adaptation of James Patterson's novel approaches its climax, familiar elements combine to form a chronic case of thriller déjà vu. It's altogether competent filmmaking in the service of a moribund story of competing psychopaths, and by the time the serial killers reach the home stretch of their twisted contest, the movie's dangerously close to Freddy Kruger territory, with a finale that could've been borrowed from any one of dozens of similar thrillers. -Jeff Shannon, Amazon. com.
Actors & Directors
- Bernard Archard
- Frances McDormand
- Mai Zetterling
- Brian Cox
- Ken Loach
- Brad Dourif
Release date: 2003-04-28 Run time: 104 min. Creator: Jim Allen RRP: £15.99 Price: £1.69
Review Hidden Agenda [1990] / MGM Entertainment:
Actors & Directors
- John Getz
- Ethan Coen
- Frances McDormand
- Joel Coen
- Samm-Art Williams
- M. Emmet Walsh
- Dan Hedaya
Release date: 2001-01-01 Run time: 95 min. Creator: Mark Silverman RRP: £9.99 Price: £4.26
Review Blood Simple [1983] / Universal Pictures UK:The debut film of director Joel Coen and his brother-producer Ethan Coen, 1983's Blood Simple is grisly comic noir that marries the feverish toughness of pulp thrillers with the ghoulishness of even pulpier horror. (Imagine the novels of Jim Thompson somehow fused with the comic tabloid Weird Tales and you get the idea. ) The story concerns a Texas bar owner (Dan Hedaya) who hires a seedy private detective (M Emmett Walsh) to follow his cheating wife (Frances McDormand in her first film appearance) and then kill her and her lover (John Getz). The gumshoe turns the tables on his client, and suddenly a bad situation gets much, much worse, with some violent goings-on that are as elemental as they are shocking. (A scene in which a character who has been buried alive suddenly emerges from his own grave instantly becomes an archetypal nightmare. ) Shot by Barry Sonnenfeld before he became an A-list director in Hollywood, Blood Simple established the hyperreal look and feel of the Coens' productions (undoubtedly inspired a bit by filmmaker Sam Raimi, whose The Evil Dead had just been coedited by Joel). Sections of the film have proved to be an endurance test for art-house movie fans, particularly an extended climax that involves one shock after another but ends with a laugh at the absurdity of criminal ambition. This is definitely one of the triumphs of the 1980s and the American independent film scene in general. -Tom Keogh The debut film of director Joel Coen and his brother-producer Ethan Coen, 1983's Blood Simple is grisly comic noir that marries the feverish toughness of pulp thrillers with the ghoulishness of even pulpier horror. (Imagine the novels of Jim Thompson somehow fused with the comic tabloid Weird Tales and you get the idea. [+]
) The story concerns a Texas bar owner (Dan Hedaya) who hires a seedy private detective (M Emmett Walsh) to follow his cheating wife (Frances McDormand in her first film appearance) and then kill her and her lover (John Getz). The gumshoe turns the tables on his client and suddenly a bad situation gets much, much worse, with some violent goings-on that are as elemental as they are shocking. (A scene in which a character who has been buried alive suddenly emerges from his own grave instantly becomes an archetypal nightmare. ) Shot by Barry Sonnenfeld before he became an A-list director in Hollywood, Blood Simple established the hyperreal look and feel of the Coens' productions (undoubtedly inspired a bit by filmmaker Sam Raimi, whose The Evil Dead had just been coedited by Joel). Sections of the film have proved to be an endurance test for art-house movie fans, particularly an extended climax that involves one shock after another but ends with a laugh at the absurdity of criminal ambition. This is definitely one of the triumphs of the 1980s and the American independent film scene in general. -Tom Keogh, Amazon. com.
Actors & Directors
- James Stewart
- Barbara Bel Geddes
- Kim Novak
- Henry Jones
- Alfred Hitchcock
- Tom Helmore
Release date: 2005-10-17 Run time: 124 min. Creator: Thomas Narcejac RRP: £9.99 Price: £3.00
Review Vertigo [1958] / Universal Pictures UK:Dreamlike and nightmarishly surreal, Vertigo is Hitchcock's most personal film because it confronts many of the convoluted psychological issues that haunted and fascinated the director. The psychological complexity and the stark truthfulness of their rampant emotions keeps these strangely obsessive characters alive on screen, and Hitchcock understood better than most their barely repressed sexual compulsions, their fascination with death and their almost overwhelming desire for transcendent love. James Stewart finds profound and disturbing new depths in his psyche as Scotty, the tortured acrophobic detective on the trail of a suicidal woman apparently possessed by the ghost of someone long dead. Kim Novak is the classical Hitchcockian blonde whose icy exterior conceals a churning, volcanic emotional core. The agonised romance of Bernard Herrmann's score accompanies the two actors as a third and vitally important character, moving the film along to its culmination in an ecstasy of Wagnerian tragedy. Of course Hitch lavished especial care on every aspect of the production, from designer Edith Head's costumes (he, like Scotty, was most insistent on the grey dress), to the specific colour scheme of each location, to the famous reverse zoom "Vertigo" effect (much imitated, never bettered). The result is Hitch's greatest work and an undisputed landmark of cinema history. On the DVD: This disc presents the superb restored print of this film in a wonderful widescreen (1. 85:1) anamorphic transfer, with remastered Dolby digital soundtrack. There's a half-hour documentary made in 1996 about the painstaking two-year restoration process, plus an informative commentary from the restorers Robert Harris and James Katz, who are joined by original producer Herbert Coleman. [+]
There are also text features on the production, cast and crew, plus a trailer for the theatrical release of the restoration. This is an undeniably essential requirement for every DVD collection. -Mark Walker.
Actors & Directors
- Sean Young
- Will Patton
- Roger Donaldson
- Kevin Costner
- Howard Duff
- Gene Hackman
Release date: 2001-01-08 Run time: 119 min. Creator: Kenneth Fearing RRP: £12.99 Price: £2.20
Review No Way Out [1987] / MGM Entertainment:This implausible, but effective 1987 film stars Kevin Costner (Bull Durham, Wyatt Earp) as a naval officer and CIA agent who may not be what he seems. This sexy thriller is an espionage mystery and an enigmatic character study of two men trying to be faithful to the loyalties they hold. Costner begins a torrid love affair with the mistress (Sean Young) of the Secretary of Defense, but when she turns up dead, Costner is implicated in a web of intrigue that threatens national security and exposes personal secrets at the highest levels. The Secretary and his men try to cover up the affair while simultaneously searching for a Soviet mole in their ranks. Featuring an exciting chase sequence through the Washington, D. C. , subways, No Way Out is a standard issue thriller that nonetheless keeps the action coming. -Robert Lane.
Actors & Directors
- Jessica Tandy
- Alfred Hitchcock
- Veronica Cartwright
- Tippi Hedren
- Rod Taylor
- Suzanne Pleshette
Release date: 2005-10-17 Run time: 115 min. Creator: Evan Hunter RRP: £9.99 Price: £3.15
Review The Birds [1963] / Universal Pictures UK:Vacationing in northern California, Alfred Hitchcock was struck by a story in a Santa Cruz newspaper: "Seabird Invasion Hits Coastal Homes". From this peculiar incident, and his memory of a short story by Daphne du Maurier, the master of suspense created one of his strangest and most terrifying films. The Birds follows a chic blonde, Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren), as she travels to the coastal town of Bodega Bay to hook up with a rugged fellow (Rod Taylor) she's only just met. Before long the town is attacked by marauding birds, and Hitchcock's skill at staging action is brought to the fore. Beyond the superb effects, however, The Birds is also one of Hitchcock's most psychologically complicated scenarios, a tense study of violence, loneliness, and complacency. What really gets under your skin are not the bird skirmishes but the anxiety and the eerie quiet between attacks. The director elevated an unknown model, Tippi Hedren (mother of Melanie Griffith), to being his latest cool, blond leading lady, an experience that was not always easy on the much-pecked Ms. Hedren. Still, she returned for the next Hitchcock picture, the underrated Marnie. Treated with scant attention by serious critics in 1963, The Birds has grown into a classic and-despite the sci-fi trappings-one of Hitchcock's most serious films. [+]
-Robert Horton.
Actors & Directors
- Alfred Hitchcock
- Bernard Miles
- Ralph Truman
- Brenda De Banzie
- James Stewart
- Doris Day
Release date: 2005-10-17 Run time: 115 min. Creator: John Michael Hayes RRP: £9.99 Price: £2.12
Review The Man Who Knew Too Much [1955] / Universal Pictures UK:Alfred Hitchcock's 1956 remake of his own 1934 spy thriller is an exciting event in its own right, with several justifiably famous sequences. James Stewart and Doris Day play American tourists who discover more than they wanted to know about an assassination plot. When their son is kidnapped to keep them quiet, they are caught between concern for him and the terrible secret they hold. When asked about the difference between this version of the story and the one he made 22 years earlier, Hitchcock always said the first was the work of a talented amateur while the second was the act of a seasoned professional. Indeed, several extraordinary moments in this update represent consummate film-making, particularly a relentlessly exciting Albert Hall scene, with a blaring symphony, an assassin's gun, and Doris Day's scream. Along with Hitchcock's other films from the mid-1950s to 1960 (including Vertigo, Rear Window, and Psycho), The Man Who Knew Too Much is the work of a master in his prime. -Tom Keogh, Amazon. com.
Actors & Directors
- N'Bushe Wright
- Donal Logue
- Stephen Dorff
- Stephen Norrington
- Wesley Snipes
- Kris Kristofferson
Release date: 1999-07-26 Run time: 115 min. Creator: David S. Goyer RRP: £19.99 Price: £2.06
Review Blade [1998] / Entertainment in Video:The recipe for Blade is quite simple; you take one part Batman, one part horror flick, and two parts kung fu, and frost it all over with some truly camp acting. What do you get? An action flick that will reaffirm your belief that the superhero action genre will never die. Blade is the story of a ruthless and supreme vampire slayer (Wesley Snipes) who makes other contemporary slayers (Buffy et al. ) look like amateurs. Armed with a samurai sword made of silver and guns that shoot silver bullets, he lives to hunt and kill "Sucker Heads". Pitted against our hero is a cast of villains led by Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff), a crafty and charismatic vampire who believes that his people should be ruling the world, and that the human race is merely a food source. Born half-human and half-vampire after his mother had been attacked by a bloodsucker, Blade is brought to life by a very buff-looking Snipes in his best action performance to date. Apparent throughout the film is the fluid grace and admirable skill brought by Snipes to the many breathtaking action sequences that lift this movie into a league of its own. The influence of Hong Kong action cinema is clear, and you may even notice vague impressions of Japanese anime sprinkled throughout. Dorff holds his own against Snipes as the menacing nemesis Frost, and the grizzly Kris Kristofferson brings a tough, cynical edge to his role as Whistler, Blade's mentor and friend. [+]
Ample credit should also go to director Stephen Norrington and screenwriter David S. Goyer, who prove it is possible to adapt comic book characters to the big screen without making them look absurd. Indeed, quite the reverse happens here: Blade comes vividly to life from the moment you first see him, in an outstanding opening sequence that sets the tone for the action-packed film that follows. From that moment onward you are pulled into the world of Blade and his perpetual battle against the vampire race. -Jeremy Storey The recipe for Blade is quite simple: you take one part Batman, one part horror flick, and two parts kung fu and frost it all over with some truly campy acting. What do you get? An action flick that will reaffirm your belief that the superhero action genre did not die in the fluorescent hands of Joel Schumacher. Blade is the story of a ruthless and supreme vampire slayer (Wesley Snipes) who makes other contemporary slayers (Buffy et al. ) look like amateurs. Armed with a samurai sword made of silver and guns that shoot silver bullets, he lives to hunt and kill "Sucker Heads". Pitted against our hero is a cast of villains led by Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff), a crafty and charismatic vampire who believes that his people should be ruling the world, and that the human race is merely a food source. Born half-human and half-vampire after his mother had been attacked by a blood-sucker, Blade is brought to life by a very buff-looking Snipes in his best action performance to date. Apparent throughout the film is the fluid grace and admirable skill that Snipes brings to the many breathtaking action sequences that lift this movie into a league of its own. The influence of Hong Kong action cinema is clear, and you may even notice vague impressions of Japanese anime sprinkled innovatively throughout. Dorff holds his own against Snipes as the menacing nemesis Frost, and the grizzly Kris Kristofferson brings a tough, cynical edge to his role as Whistler, Blade's mentor and friend. Ample credit should also go to director Stephen Norrington and screenwriter David S. Goyer, who prove it is possible to adapt comic book characters to the big screen without making them look absurd. Indeed, quite the reverse happens here: Blade comes vividly to life from the moment you first see him, in an outstanding opening sequence that sets the tone for the action-packed film that follows. From that moment onward you are pulled into the world of Blade and his perpetual battle against the vampire race. -Jeremy Storey.
Actors & Directors
- Oliver Hirschbiegel
- Moritz Bleibtreu
- Christian Berkel
- Stephan Szasz
- Wotan Wilke Möhring
- Oliver Stokowski
Release date: 2006-03-27 Run time: 114 min. Creator: Mario Giordano RRP: £12.99 Price: £5.38
Review Das Experiment [2002] / Metrodome Distribution:Inspired by a famous 1971 psychological experiment, Oliver Hirschbiegel's German-language movie Das Experiment finds a group of 20 volunteers randomly divided into 12 prisoners and eight guards and asked to play out their roles for a fortnight while scientists study their reactions. A conflict arises between undercover reporter Fahd (Moritz Bleibtreu), a con with a hidden agenda and the apparently mild-mannered Berus (Justus von Dohnanyi), a guard with a megalomaniac streak. The film begins as a psychological drama as ordinary people settle into the game, with joking displays of resistance by the "prisoners" greeted with increasing brutality from the "guards", but detours into suspense and horror as Fahd, who needs the experiment to get out of hand in order to make his story more saleable, deliberately ratchets up the tension between the factions only to see the situation spiral nightmarishly out of control as various test subjects in both camps edge closer to snapping. With a terrific display of ensemble acting and unforced use of the currently popular claustrophobic semi-documentary look, Hirschbiegel's movie takes its time to get underway, with apparently irrelevant cutaways to Fahd's outside girlfriend (Maren Eggert), but works up to a powerful second half that delivers a sustained symphony of psychological and physical anguish. On the DVD: Das Experiment on disc has an excellent-looking anamorphic widescreen transfer with English subtitles. The only extra feature is the trailer. -Kim Newman.
Actors & Directors
- Ruth Gordon
- Mia Farrow
- Maurice Evans
- Sidney Blackmer
- Roman Polanski
- John Cassavetes
Release date: 2001-11-05 Run time: 131 min. Creator: Ira Levin RRP: £12.99 Price: £4.98
Review Rosemary's Baby [1968] / Paramount Home Entertainment:For Rosemary's Baby, his modern horror tale about Satanic worship and a pregnant woman's decline into madness, Roman Polanski moves from the traditional monolithic mansions of Gothic flicks to an apartment building in New York City. Based on Ira Levin's novel, the story concerns Rosemary (Mia Farrow) and Guy Woodhouse who find the apartment of their dreams in a luxurious complex in Manhattan. Soon after moving in and making friends with a group of elderly neighbours, Guy's career takes off and Rosemary discovers she is pregnant. Their happiness seems complete. But gradually Rosemary begins to sense that something is wrong with this baby, and slowly and surely her life begins to unravel. Polanski uses such subtle means to build up the sense of preternatural disquiet that initially you suspect Rosemary's prenatal paranoia to be a figment of her imagination. But the guilty parties and their demonic plan to make Rosemary the receptacle of their master's child are eventually revealed and, as Rosemary looses her grip on reality, she realises that no one can be trusted. The performances are excellent throughout; Farrow as the young wife is so fragile that you wonder how she made it unscathed to adulthood and John Cassavetes is horrifyingly duplicitous as her husband Guy. But the real star is Polanski's masterful direction. The mood is at the same time oppressive and hysterical with the mounting terror coming from the situation and gradually unravelling plot rather than any schlock horror moments. [+]
On the DVD: the Dolby 5. 1 soundtrack shows off Christopher Komeda's eerie "lullaby" score to it's haunting best. The film is presented in 1. 85:1 anamorphic widescreen and is relatively free of speckle and dust, some scenes filmed in low light are slightly grainier but this adds to the oppressive tension that Polanski is building up in the film. In terms of extras there is a 20-minute "making of" feature from 1968 and retrospective interviews with Polanski, production designer Richard Sylbert and producer Robert Evans. -Kristen Bowditch.
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