Video Find the Perfect Gift    Send a Gift Certificate
Search 
Home › Action & Adventure
Review Tartan Video / The Battle Of Algiers [1965]
Actors & Directors
  • Samia Kerbash
  • Ugo Paletti
  • Jean Martin
  • Yacef Saadi
  • Gillo Pontecorvo
  • Brahim Hadjadj
Release date: 1993-07-19
Run time: 116 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £25.00

Review The Battle Of Algiers [1965] / Tartan Video:

Director Gillo Pontecorvo's 1966 movie The Battle of Algiers concerns the violent struggle in the late 1950s for Algerian independence from France, where the film was banned on its release for fear of creating civil disturbances. Certainly, the heady, insurrectionary mood of the film, enhanced by a relentlessly pulsating Ennio Morricone soundtrack, makes for an emotionally high temperature throughout. With the advent of the "war against terror" in recent years, the film's relevance has only intensified. Shot in a gripping, quasi-documentary style, The Battle of Algiers uses a cast of untrained actors coupled with a stern voiceover. Initially, the film focuses on the conversion of young hoodlum Ali La Pointe (Brahim Haggiag) to FLN (the Algerian Liberation Front. ) However, as a sequence of outrages and violent counter-terrorist measures ensue, it becomes clear that, as in Eisenstein's October, it is the Revolution itself that is the true star of the film. Pontecorvo balances cinematic tension with grimly acute political insight. He also manages an even-handedness in depicting the adversaries. He doesn't flinch from demonstrating the civilian consequences of the FLN's bombings, while Colonel Mathieu, the French office brought in to quell the nationalists, is played by Jean Martin as determined, shrewd and, in his own way, honourable man. However, the closing scenes of the movie-a welter of smoke, teeming street demonstrations and the pealing white noise of ululations-leaves the viewer both intellectually and emotionally convinced of the rightfulness of the liberation struggle. [+]
This is surely among a fistful of the finest movies ever made. -David Stubbs.

Actors & Directors
  • Richard Norton
  • David Blackwell
  • Patrick Adamson
  • Robert Clouse
  • Keith Cooke
  • Cynthia Rothrock
Release date: 1993-04-05
Run time: 168 min.
Price: £10.99

Review China O'Brien / China O'Brien 2 / Universal Pictures UK:


Review ITV DVD / Sharpe's Mission [1996]
Actors & Directors
  • Daragh O'Malley
  • James Laurenson
  • Tom Clegg
  • Abigail Cruttenden
  • Hugh Fraser
  • Sean Bean
Release date: 1996-09-23
Run time: 101 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £1.95

Review Sharpe's Mission [1996] / ITV DVD:

Based on the novels by Bernard Cornwell, Sharpe (1993-7) ran to 14 full-length television films that follow the adventures of the titular soldier through the later years of the Napoleonic Wars. The programmes are an outstanding achievement for the small screen, dominated by Sean Bean's central performance as the heroic, troubled outsider who turns out to be a resourceful and loyal leader. Bolstered by a strong supporting cast, particularly Daragh O'Malley as Harper and (in later episodes) Abigail Cruttenden as Jane, Sharpe is often visually striking, the action tense and gripping. Consistency is maintained by all 14 episodes being directed by Tom Clegg. -Gary S Dalkin.

Review MGM Entertainment / Man From U.N.C.L.E.Vol.5 [1966]
Actors & Directors
  • Nancy Sinatra
  • Sherman Marks
  • Shari Lewis
  • Robert Vaughn
  • George Waggner
  • Leo G. Carroll
  • David McCallum
Release date: 1993-04-05
Run time: 96 min.
Price: £7.99

Review Man From U.N.C.L.E.Vol.5 [1966] / MGM Entertainment:


Review Manga Entertainment / Secret Of Mamo
Release date: 1996-07-08
Run time: 100 min.
Price: £5.99

Review Secret Of Mamo / Manga Entertainment:


Review Warrior / Musashi Miyamoto [1955]
Actors & Directors
  • Kaoru Yachigusa
  • Rentaro Mikuni
  • Hiroshi Inagaki
  • Toshirô Mifune
  • Mariko Okada
  • Kuroemon Onoe
Release date: 2000-10-23
Run time: 93 min.
RRP: £14.99
Price: £15.61

Review Musashi Miyamoto [1955] / Warrior:


Review Delta Visual Entertainment / James Stewart Collection - Made For Each Other / Pot O' Gold / The American West Of John Ford
Actors & Directors
  • James Stewart
  • John Wayne
  • John Cromwell
  • Henry Fonda
Release date: 1999-03-15
Run time: 251 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £8.95

Review James Stewart Collection - Made For Each Other / Pot O' Gold / The American West Of John Ford / Delta Visual Entertainment:


Review Hollywood Pictures Home Video / From Dusk Till Dawn [1996]
Actors & Directors
  • George Clooney
  • Juliette Lewis
  • Harvey Keitel
  • Robert Rodriguez
  • Ernest Liu
  • Quentin Tarantino
Release date: 1997-06-09
Run time: 103 min.
RRP: £14.99
Price: £1.85

Review From Dusk Till Dawn [1996] / Hollywood Pictures Home Video:

From a match made in heaven comes a movie spawned in hell! Young hotshot director Robert Rodriquez (El Mariachi, Desperado) teamed up with Pulp Fiction auteur Quentin Tarantino (offering his services as writer and co-star) to make this outrageous, no-holds-barred hybrid of high-octane crime and gruesome horror, From Dusk Till Dawn. QT plays Richard Gecko, a borderline psychopath who breaks his career-criminal brother, Seth (George Clooney), out of prison, after which they rob a bank and leave a trail of dead and wounded in their bloody wake. Then they hijack a mobile home driven by a former Baptist minister (Harvey Keitel) who quit the church after his wife's death and hit the road with his two children (played by Juliette Lewis and Ernest Liu). Heading to Mexico with their hostages, the infamous Gecko brothers arrive at the Titty Twister bar to rendezvous for a money drop, but they don't realise that they've just entered the nocturnal lair of a bloodthirsty gang of vampires! With not-so-subtle aplomb, Rodriguez and Tarantino shift into high gear with a non-stop parade of gore, gunfire and pointy-fanged mayhem featuring Salma Hayek as a snake-charming dancer whose bite is much worse than her bark. If you're a fan of Tarantino's lyrical dialogue and pop-cultural wit, you'll have fun with the road-movie half of this supernatural horror-comedy, but if your taste runs more to exploding heads and eyeballs, sloppy entrails and morphing monsters, the second half provides a connoisseur's feast of gross-out excess. Bon appétit! -Jeff Shannon.

Review Warner Home Video / The Dambusters [1954]
Actors & Directors
  • Patrick Barr
  • Ursula Jeans
  • Basil Sidney
  • Michael Anderson
  • Michael Redgrave
  • Richard Todd
Release date: 2000-06-19
Run time: 120 min.
RRP: £10.99
Price: £2.79

Review The Dambusters [1954] / Warner Home Video:

Something of a cult item among British war movies (and brilliantly spoofed a few years back by a lager ad), The Dam Busters turns a minor World War II incident into a saga of heroic stiff-upper-lippery in the classic British style. A bombing raid is proposed on a strategically vital Ruhr dam, but its position is inaccessible. Enter eccentric inventor Dr Barnes Wallis (Michael Redgrave in best daffy professor mode) who comes up with a genius idea-a bomb that will bounce on water like a skimmed pebble. Naturally the top brass pooh-pooh it, but gallant Wing Commander Guy Gibson (Richard Todd) is persuaded, and between them flyer and boffin forge ahead. The touches of carefully understated emotion now verge on self-parody, but it's hard not to get caught up in the narrative sweep, especially when the bombers take off on their mission and Eric Coates' stirring march hits the soundtrack. The modelwork, state-of-the-art for its early 1950s period, still looks impressive, and the death of Gibson's beloved black Labrador (embarrassingly called Nigger) is a three-hanky moment to rival the shooting of Bambi's mum. -Philip Kemp.

Review 4 Front Video / Timecop / Hard Target
Actors & Directors
  • Peter Hyams|John Woo|Jean-Claude Van Damme|Ron Silver
Release date: 1999-10-11
Run time: 190 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £5.46

Review Timecop / Hard Target / 4 Front Video:

Pay no attention to the fact that Timecop is an insult to intelligent science fiction, and that it gradually succumbs to an acute case of the sillies. It is a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie, after all, so check your brain at the door and enjoy this action flick set in the year 2004. Van Damme plays an officer in the Time Enforcement Police, assigned to prevent criminals from travelling to the past with the intent of altering the future. Ron Silver plays the evil politician who plots to retrieve a stockpile of gold from the Civil War to finance his latest campaign. The film is clever to a point, and entertaining if you can ignore the dumb jokes and inconsistencies. Best of all, it's an above-average vehicle for Van Damme (relatively speaking), who gets to kick some villainous butt and share a few scenes with Mia Sara, who plays the Timecop's wife. As Van Damme fans can tell you, this is one of the action star's better movies. - Jeff Shannon, Amazon. com.

Actors & Directors
  • Edward Mulhare
  • David Hasselhoff
  • Richard Basehart
  • Daniel Haller
  • Richard Anderson
  • Vince Edwards
Run time: 91 min.
Price: £10.99

Review Knight Rider - The Original TV Movie [1982] / Paramount Home Entertainment:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Johnny Mnemonic [1996]
Actors & Directors
  • Keanu Reeves
  • Robert Longo
  • Dina Meyer
  • Dennis Akayama
  • Takeshi Kitano
  • Ice-T
Release date: 1999-10-01
Run time: 93 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £0.79

Review Johnny Mnemonic [1996] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:


Review MGM Entertainment / A Fistful Of Dollars [1967]
Actors & Directors
  • Sergio Leone
  • Gian Maria Volontè
  • Wolfgang Lukschy
  • Monte Hellman
  • Clint Eastwood
  • Marianne Koch
  • Sieghardt Rupp
Release date: 2000-02-01
Run time: 97 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £5.95

Review A Fistful Of Dollars [1967] / MGM Entertainment:

This is the movie that launched the spaghetti Western and catapulted Clint Eastwood to stardom. Before director Sergio Leone picked him out, Clint had played only a few bit parts in features plus his role as Rowdy Yates in the TV Western series Rawhide. Leone cast him for his stillness and physical presence, famously remarking that when Michelangelo was asked what he had seen in a particular block of marble, he said Moses, but that what he, Leone, saw in Eastwood was just that, a block of marble. Leone also claimed that it was he who gave the character his trademark cigar and poncho, though Eastwood has said he brought his own wardrobe to Italy. Whoever takes credit, A Fistful of Dollars (Per un pugno di dollari in Italian) was an extraordinary success when launched in Italy in 1964. Eastwood had to wait longer for it to be a hit in the USA. The film was based on Kurosawa's 1961 samurai picture Yojimbo, but Leone had forgotten to clear the copyright. Eventually a deal was done, but A Fistful of Dollars was not released in the USA until 1967. It scored an equally resounding success, as did its sequels in the Dollar Trilogy, For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The advertising campaign promoted Eastwood's character, laconic, amoral, dangerous, as The Man with No Name (though in the film he's clearly referred to as Joe), and audiences loved the film's refreshing new take on the Western genre. [+]
Gone are the pieties about making the streets safe for women and children (women are virtually absent from the Trilogy). Instead it's every man for himself. Striking too was a new emphasis on violence, with stylised, almost balletic gunfights and baroque touches such as Eastwood's armoured breastplate. The popularity of the Dollars films had a marked influence on the Hollywood Western, for example Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch, but its most enduring legacy is Clint Eastwood himself, still in action at the age of 70. -Edward Buscombe.

Review MGM Entertainment / Man From U.N.C.L.E.Vol.2 [1965]
Actors & Directors
  • George Sanders
  • David McCallum
  • Alf Kjellin
  • Robert Vaughn
  • Tianne Gabrielle
Release date: 1992-06-15
Run time: 96 min.
Price: £7.99

Review Man From U.N.C.L.E.Vol.2 [1965] / MGM Entertainment:


Review Mia Video Entertainment Ltd / Police Story 3 [1993]
Actors & Directors
  • Kenneth Tsang
  • Jackie Chan
  • Stanley Tong
  • Maggie Cheung
  • Wah Yuen
  • Michelle Yeoh
Release date: 1995-09-24
Run time: 91 min.
RRP: £10.99
Price: £10.99

Review Police Story 3 [1993] / Mia Video Entertainment Ltd:


Review MGM Entertainment / Man From U.N.C.L.E.Vol.3 [1965]
Actors & Directors
  • Barry Shear
  • Robert Vaughn
  • Theo Marcuse
  • Eve Arden
  • John Brahm
  • David McCallum
  • Sharon Farrell
Release date: 1992-07-27
Run time: 96 min.
Price: £7.99

Review Man From U.N.C.L.E.Vol.3 [1965] / MGM Entertainment:


RRP: £5.99
Price: £19.98

Review No Retreat.No Surrender:


Review Connoisseur Video / Throne Of Blood [1957]
Actors & Directors
  • Takashi Shimura
  • Isuzu Yamada
  • Akira Kurosawa
  • Akira Kubo
  • Hiroshi Tachikawa
  • Toshirô Mifune
Release date: 1998-11-09
Run time: 105 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £12.95

Review Throne Of Blood [1957] / Connoisseur Video:

A champion of illumination and experimental shading, Kurosawa brings his unerring eye for indelible images to Shakespeare in this 1957 adaptation of Macbeth. By changing the locale from Birnam Wood to 16th-century Japan, Kurosawa makes an oddball argument for the trans-historicity of Shakespeare's narrative; and indeed, stripped to the bare mechanics of the plot, the tale of cut-throat ambition rewarded (and thwarted) feels infinitely adaptable. What's lost in the translation, of course, is the force and beauty of the language-much of the script of Throne of Blood is maddeningly repetitive or superfluous-but striking visual images (including the surreal Cobweb Forest and some extremely artful gore) replace the sublime poetry. Toshiro Mifune is theatrically intense as Washizu, the samurai fated to betray his friend and master in exchange for the prestige of nobility; he portrays the ill-fated warrior with a passion bordering on violence, and a barely concealed conviviality. Somewhat less successful is Isuzu Yamada as Washizu's scheming wife; her poise and creepy impassivity, chilling at first, soon grows tedious. Kurosawa himself is the star of the show, though, and his masterful use of black-and-white contrast-not to mention his steady, dramatic hand with a battle scene-keeps the proceedings thrilling. A must-see for fans of Japanese cinema, as well as all you devotees of samurai weapons and armour. -Miles Bethany.

Actors & Directors
  • Werner Herzog
  • Peter Berling
  • José Lewgoy
  • Klaus Kinski
  • King Ampaw
  • Salvatore Basile
Run time: 100 min.
Price: £15.99

Review Cobra Verde [1987] / Palace Video (Defunct):


Review The Video Collection VC3323 / High Road To China
Actors & Directors
  • Bess Armstrong
  • Robert Morley
  • Tom Selleck
  • Brian G. Hutton
Run time: 100 min.
Creator: Fred Weintraub

Review High Road To China / The Video Collection VC3323:

A biplane pilot is saddled with a spoiled industrialist's daughter on a search for her missing father through Asia that eventually involves them in a struggle against a Chinese warlord.

Browse Action & Adventure:

Models & Brands:
The Battle Of Algiers [1965], China O'Brien / China O'Brien 2, Sharpe's Mission [1996], Man From U.N.C.L.E.Vol.5 [1966], Secret Of Mamo, Musashi Miyamoto [1955], James Stewart Collection - Made For Each Other / Pot O' Gold / The American West Of John Ford, From Dusk Till Dawn [1996], The Dambusters [1954], Timecop / Hard Target, Knight Rider - The Original TV Movie [1982], Johnny Mnemonic [1996], A Fistful Of Dollars [1967], Man From U.N.C.L.E.Vol.2 [1965], Police Story 3 [1993], Man From U.N.C.L.E.Vol.3 [1965], No Retreat.No Surrender, Throne Of Blood [1957], Cobra Verde [1987], High Road To China

Top headlines:
Search 
DVD Rental: try it for free