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Home › Action & Adventure
Actors & Directors
  • Per Oscarsson
  • James Clavell
  • Michael Caine
  • Omar Sharif
  • Florinda Bolkan
  • Nigel Davenport
Release date: 2001-04-02
Price: £5.99

Review Last Valley [1970] / Cinema Club:

James Clavell's The Last Valley is a heartfelt film of paradise found and lost in the midst of the bloody Thirty Years War, a senseless religious conflict long since degenerated into a rabble of looters preying on peasants. It's also a triumph of passion over style. Michael Caine stars as the Captain, a happily tolerant leader whose army of mercenaries-a mix of Protestants and Catholics-murders, pillages and rapes side by side for whichever faction is paying more at the time. Omar Sharif is Vogel, a lone refugee whose flight from the marauding band leads them all to a beautiful village in the mountains. The Captain and Vogel make an unlikely pair: the shrewd mercenary with the dream of peace, and the philosopher-peasant hanging on to his own life in the face of certain death-and their alliance to preserve this Eden and her people stands in contrast to the soldiers who soon become splintered by greed, lust and religious zealotry. Clavell isn't exactly subtle, but his sense of irony is biting: one Christian soldier is ready to lead a mob in righteous battle after a perceived blaspheme, and in the next scene attacks and rapes an innocent Christian maiden he's sworn to protect. The film falters in clumsy battle scenes and awkward dramatic staging, but Caine's complex characterisation of the guarded Captain and Sharif's haunted performance keep the story alive, and the beautiful photography fixes the film like a jewel into its setting. -Sean Axmaker, Amazon. com.

Actors & Directors
  • Anthony Mann
  • David Weston
  • Kirk Douglas
  • Richard Harris
  • Michael Redgrave
  • Ulla Jacobsson
Run time: 124 min.
RRP: £6.99
Price: £6.98

Review The Heroes Of Telemark [1965] / 2 Entertain Video:


Review Entertainment in Video  / Men Of War [1994]
Actors & Directors
  • Charlotte Lewis
  • B.D. Wong
  • Dolph Lundgren
  • Tim Guinee
  • Perry Lang
  • Anthony John Denison
Release date: 1995-06-12
Run time: 98 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.95

Review Men Of War [1994] / Entertainment in Video:


Review Mia Video Entertainment Ltd  / Enter The Ninja [1981]
Actors & Directors
  • Franco Nero
  • Alex Courtney
  • Christopher George
  • Shô Kosugi
  • Menahem Golan
  • Susan George
Release date: 1994-05-16
Run time: 91 min.
Price: £6.99

Review Enter The Ninja [1981] / Mia Video Entertainment Ltd:


Review Warrior  / Lady Snowblood [1973]
Actors & Directors
  • Toshio Kurosawa
  • Shinichi Uchida
  • Meiko Kaji
  • Toshiya Fujita
  • Masaaki Daimon
  • Miyoko Akaza
Release date: 2001-05-21
Run time: 97 min.
RRP: £14.99
Price: £15.17

Review Lady Snowblood [1973] / Warrior:


Review Uca Catalogue  / Lawrence Of Arabia [1962]
Actors & Directors
  • Peter O'Toole
  • Omar Sharif
  • David Lean
  • Anthony Quinn
  • Alec Guinness
  • Jack Hawkins
Release date: 2003-04-07
Run time: 217 min.
RRP: £14.99
Price: £19.99

Review Lawrence Of Arabia [1962] / Uca Catalogue:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment  / Conan The Barbarian [1981]
Actors & Directors
  • Arnold Schwarzenegger
  • James Earl Jones
  • John Milius
  • Sandahl Bergman
Release date: 1999-10-04
Run time: 123 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £1.19

Review Conan The Barbarian [1981] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

The film that launched Arnold Schwarzenegger's international career, Conan the Barbarian is still regarded by many as his finest hour. Limited to a mere handful of lines and expertly directed to play up the Nietzschean strength of the character by John Milius, the Austrian Oak has never looked more suited to a role, his muscle flexing and sword twirling apparently effortless. The extraordinarily finely detailed production design ensures that the barren Spanish countryside perfectly suits the Hyborean-era backdrop envisioned by author Robert E Howard. Whether dressed in rags or riches, Schwarzenegger and companions Subotai (Gerry Lopez) and Valeria (Sandahl Bergman) look believably born to their surroundings. Backing their own very fine performances are brilliant supporting roles from James Earl Jones as serpentine baddie Thulsa Doom and Max Von Sydow as doomed King Osric. Plot-wise the film is simply the transformation of a wild barbarian into a worldly-wise king who, via a quest for revenge, finally learns the riddle of steel. The script is highly regarded for its dazzling set-pieces (the opening village raid, the orgy of body parts) and quotable dialogue ("They shall all drown in lakes of blood"), and it comes complete with an anti-peace movement reactionary subtext for anyone who cares to look close enough. One other element deserving mention is the extraordinary score by Basil Poledouris, which inspires the film with a sense of operatic grandeur. On the DVD: Conan the Barbarian appears as a suitably mythic special edition DVD. Sadly the magnificent score can only be heard in a mono mix, but the very fine picture is presented in 2. [+]
35:1. The extras package is phenomenal, too. Several deleted scenes have been re-edited into the film, but are available to view independently as well. There's a quick split-screen special effects feature showing how the ghostly spirits were added to Conan's resurrection. "The Conan Archives" is an 11-minute slide show of drawings, costumes and advertising. Best of all is the fantastic 53-minute "Conan Unchained" documentary interviewing every conceivable contributor who all reminisce with great fondness. It's slightly better seeing Schwarzenegger and Milius than hearing them talk in their commentary, which inevitably re-tells many of the same anecdotes in between puffs of Arnie's stogies. -Paul Tonks.

Review MGM Entertainment SO54015 / Attack [1956]
Actors & Directors
  • Robert Strauss
  • Eddie Albert
  • Jack Palance
  • Richard Jaeckel
  • Lee Marvin
  • Robert Aldrich
Release date: 2000-02-01
Run time: 103 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £2.35

Review Attack [1956] / MGM Entertainment SO54015:


Review Starz Home Entertainment  / Army Of Darkness [1993]
Actors & Directors
  • Bridget Fonda
  • Sam Raimi
  • Bruce Campbell
  • Embeth Davidtz
  • Ian Abercrombie
  • Marcus Gilbert
Release date: 2002-11-11
Run time: 96 min.
RRP: £10.99
Price: £9.99

Review Army Of Darkness [1993] / Starz Home Entertainment:

It's hard not to feel there's something wrong when Army of Darkness, the third entry in Sam Raimi's lively Evil Dead series, opens with a 15 certificate. And indeed, this is not quite the non-stop rollercoaster of splat we're entitled to expect. Like Evil Dead II, it opens with a digest-cum-remake of the original movie, taking geeky Ash (Bruce Campbell) back out to that cabin in the woods where he is beset by demons who do away with his girlfriend (blink and you'll miss Bridget Fonda). Blasted back in time to 12th century England, Ash finds himself still battling the Deadites and his own ineptitude in a quest to save the day and get back home. Though it starts zippily, with Campbell's grimly funny clod of a hero commanding the screen, a sort of monotony sets in as magical events pile up. Ash is attacked by Lilliputian versions of himself, one of whom incubates in his stomach and grows out of his shoulder to be his evil twin. After being dismembered and buried, Evil Ash rises from the dead to command a zombie army and at least half the film is a big battle scene in which rotted warriors (nine mouldy extras in masks for every one Harryhausen-style impressive animated skeleton) besiege a cardboard castle. There are lots of action jokes, MAD Magazine-like marginal doodles and a few funny lines, but it lacks the authentic scares of The Evil Dead and the authentic sick comedy of Evil Dead II. On the DVD: Army of Darkness may be the least of the trilogy, but Anchor Bay's super two-disc set is worthy of shelving beside their outstanding editions of the earlier films. Disc 1 contains the 81-minute US theatrical version in widescreen or fullscreen, plus the original "Planet of the Apes" ending, the trailer and a making-of featurette. [+]
Disc 2 has the 96-minute director's cut, with extra slapstick and a lively, irreverent commentary track from Raimi, Campbell and co-writer Ivan Raimi, plus yet more deleted scenes and some storyboards. The fact that the film exists in so many versions suggests that none of them satisfied everybody, but fans will want every scrap of Army in this one package. -Kim Newman.

Actors & Directors
  • Arthur Kennedy
  • Alberto De Martino
  • Mel Ferrer
  • Carla Gravina
Run time: 96 min.
Price: £8.99

Review The Tempter AKA The Antichrist / VPM Distribution Ltd/Elm Street Films:


Review MGM Entertainment  / Over The Top [1987]
Actors & Directors
  • Sylvester Stallone
  • Susan Blakely
  • Menahem Golan
  • Robert Loggia
  • Rick Zumwalt
  • David Mendenhall
Release date: 2000-10-23
Run time: 89 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £69.99

Review Over The Top [1987] / MGM Entertainment:


Review Entertainment in Video  / Knockaround Guys [2001]
Actors & Directors
  • Seth Green
  • Barry Pepper
  • Brian Koppelman
  • Vin Diesel
  • David Levien
  • Andrew Davoli
Release date: 2003-05-26
Run time: 94 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £2.25

Review Knockaround Guys [2001] / Entertainment in Video:


Review 4 Front Video  / China O'Brien 2 [1992]
Actors & Directors
  • Keith Cooke
  • Cynthia Rothrock
  • Harlow Marks
  • Robert Clouse
  • Richard Norton
  • Frank Magner
Release date: 1993-09-20
Run time: 82 min.
Price: £5.99

Review China O'Brien 2 [1992] / 4 Front Video:


Review Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm  / National Treasure [2004]
Actors & Directors
  • Jon Turteltaub
  • Nicolas Cage
  • Justin Bartha
  • Jon Voight
  • Sean Bean
  • Diane Kruger
Release date: 2005-04-25
Run time: 126 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £12.99

Review National Treasure [2004] / Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm:


Review 4 Front Video  / Johnny Guitar [1953]
Actors & Directors
  • Mercedes McCambridge
  • Scott Brady
  • Sterling Hayden
  • Ward Bond
  • Nicholas Ray
  • Joan Crawford
Release date: 1999-01-18
Run time: 105 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £5.99

Review Johnny Guitar [1953] / 4 Front Video:

"I've never seen a woman who was more like a man," a character observes of Vienna (Joan Crawford), who has just opened a saloon that hasn't exactly endeared itself to the local townspeople. Emma (Mercedes McCambridge), the local sexually repressed, lynch-happy harpy, is particularly displeased. Vienna is wooed both by the Dancin' Kid (Scott Brady) and by Johnny Guitar (Sterling Hayden), a peripatetic tough guy-turned-troubadour with whom she has a past. When the Kid's gang (which includes Ernest Borgnine) decides to knock over the bank before heading to California, Emma wants just about everyone in sight on the business end of a rope. Nicolas Ray's 1954 epic was considered one of the downright strangest Westerns of all time-the women were far tougher than the men (Johnny watches on laconically during the bank robbery, not bothering with heroics), and some saw in the film a bizarre allegory for the McCarthy Red scare. A half-century later, it's still a curious, intriguing piece of moral ambiguity from a time when such a thing ostensibly didn't exist. Hayden is an enigmatic presence, and Crawford's commanding star turn is what you'd expect. -David Kronke.

Review Contender Entertainment Group  / The Professionals - Vols. 1-4 [1977]
Actors & Directors
  • Trevor Adams
  • Christopher King (III)
  • Dennis C. Lewiston
  • Dennis Abey
  • Pennant Roberts
  • Chris Burt
Release date: 2000-06-05
Run time: 404 min.
Price: £19.99

Review The Professionals - Vols. 1-4 [1977] / Contender Entertainment Group:

Perhaps the most easily parodied action series of its era, The Professionals was the one about the gruff but fatherly counter-terrorist top cop Cowley (Gordon Jackson) and his favourite surrogate sons, the curly haired ex-copper Ray Doyle (Martin Shaw) and taciturn-but-pouting ex-mercenary William Bodie (Lewis Collins). As set out by series creator Brian Clemens (veteran of the more fantastical Avengers) their job was to stop threats to the government, visiting dignitaries or the general public "by any means necessary". What this boiled down to was dashing about, leaping out of cars, getting into thump-happy fistfights, leering at every "bird" who passed by as if they were trying to prove something, wearing eye-abusing late-70s leisure wear well beyond the sell-by date, potting baddies with guns hauled out of their smart shoulder holsters, and occasionally choking back manly tears when another of the trio was wounded. The show was at once laughably solemn and deliriously stuck on its hairy homoerotic subtext (B&D, which also stands for bondage and discipline, are essentially married), but it could also be strong drama, occasionally tackling serious issues well ahead of news shows (one episode, "In the Public Interest", is about a provincial police chief whose zero tolerance methods have turned to vigilantism-it's also the one where B&D go undercover by running a gay youth group). All three leads were professionals of another stripe-the sort of actors who could soar with a good script and do their best to sell a weak one-and they were generally set against a parade of top-flight British character acting talent along with sundry sit-com/pin-up refugee disposable girlfriends and suspects. One strange, if understandable, element of the premise is that CI5 tackle all manner of Greek, Middle Eastern, Soviet and radical nutcase groups-with the odd racist Klansman, corrupt civil servant and dubious big business tycoon thrown in to prove they aren't fascists-but almost never have anything to do with the Irish terrorist groups who were the main focus of the organisation's real-life counterparts from 1977 to 1983. -Kim Newman.

Review Warner Home Video  / Robin Hood Prince Of Thieves [1991]
Actors & Directors
  • Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
  • Kevin Reynolds
  • Alan Rickman
  • Christian Slater
  • Kevin Costner
  • Morgan Freeman
Release date: 1992-01-13
Run time: 136 min.
RRP: £6.99
Price: £2.58

Review Robin Hood Prince Of Thieves [1991] / Warner Home Video:

Kevin Costner's lousy English accent is a small obstacle in this often exciting version of the Robin Hood fable. That aside, it's refreshing to have a preface to the old story in which we meet the robber hero of Sherwood Forest as a soldier in King Richard's Crusades, coming home to find his people under siege from the cruelties of the Sheriff of Nottingham (Alan Rickman). After Robin and his community of outcasts and fighters take to the trees, director Kevin Reynolds (Fandango, 187) is on more familiar narrative ground, and he goes for the gusto with lots of original action (Robin shoots two arrows simultaneously from his bow in two directions). Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, as Marion, makes a convincing damsel in distress and Morgan Freeman brings dignity to his role as Robin's Moor friend. Alan Rickman, however, gets the most attention for his scene-chewing role as the rotten sheriff, an almost campy performance that is highly entertaining but perhaps a little out of sorts with the rest of the film. -Tom Keogh Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves reinvented the legend for contemporary cinema audiences, and in doing so far outstripped at the box office even Kevin Costner's own infinitely superior Dances with Wolves to become the biggest hit of 1991. It's an entertaining enough family adventure film, but plays like a big-budget TV movie with no distinctive flair for action or romance. (Director Kevin Reynolds would reunite with Costner four years later for the equally stodgy Waterworld). If the accents are all over the place, at least Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio makes a Maid Marion of ravishing Pre-Raphaelite beauty. Morgan Freeman is fine as Robin's Moorish sidekick, though, other than to expand the demographic, his character has no business being in the story. [+]
Realising that the whole enterprise has the credibility of a pantomime, Alan Rickman outrageously camps up his Sheriff of Nottingham, stealing the film in the process. Costner makes an acceptable hero, though he will never replace Errol Flynn in the definitive The Adventures of Robin Hood. If you can accept explosives in 13th-century England, that the approach to Sherwood Forest is a modern conifer plantation and that the 170 miles from Dover to Nottingham is a matter of a few hours ride via Northumberland, then you may find much to enjoy here. Otherwise an already overlong film has been extended to an excessive 148 minutes in this special edition, making far too much of a not very good thing. On the DVD: Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is presented as a two-disc set, with a 1. 78:1 anamorphic transfer that is generally good looking but with an occasionally soft picture and some evidence of dirt and minor print damage. The Dolby Digital 5. 1 remix of the original stereo soundtrack is atmospheric and powerful and shows off Michael Kamen's score to its best. Though presented with 12 minutes of footage not seen in the cinema version, the film still suffers most of the cuts (amounting to 28 seconds) imposed by the BBFC over the years. The main extras are a pair of commentaries: Costner and Reynolds discuss the film in frank and enthusiastic detail, while on a second track Freeman, Slater, writer/producer Pen Densham and cowriter/producer John Watson offer a great deal of insight plus a fair bit of stating the obvious, backslapping and critic bashing. Robin Hood: The Myth, the Man, the Movie (31 mins) is a cut version of a 45-minute TV special originally broadcast in America the night before the premiere, and offers an interesting if brief look at the Robin Hood story plus some routine making-of material. Finally, there is a video of Bryan Adams performing "Everything I Do, I Do It for You" live at Slane Castle and 18 minutes worth of bland electronic presskit-style archive interviews with Costner, Freeman, Mastrantonio, Slater and Alan Rickman, plus the original American trailer, a stills gallery and cast and crew list. -Gary S Dalkin.

Review Cinema Club  / Godzilla / Anaconda [1998]
Actors & Directors
  • Matthew Broderick
  • Kevin Dunn
  • Maria Pitillo
  • Roland Emmerich
  • Jean Reno
  • Hank Azaria
Release date: 2000-12-27
Run time: 219 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £0.44

Review Godzilla / Anaconda [1998] / Cinema Club:

As "gigantic monster reptile attacks New York" movies go, you've got to admit that Godzilla delivers the goods, although its critical drubbing and box-office disappointment were arguably deserved. It's a shameless, uninspired crowd-pleaser that's content to serve up familiar action with the advantage of really fantastic special effects, and if you expect nothing more you'll be one among millions of satisfied customers. There's really no other way to approach it-you just have to accept the fact that Independence Day creators Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin are unapologetic plagiarists, incapable of anything more than mindless spectacle that can play in any cinema in the world without dubbing or subtitles. The whole movie plays out like a series of highlights stolen from previous blockbusters of the 1990s; it's little more than a rehash of the Jurassic Park movies. The derivative script is so trivial that it's unworthy of comment, apart from a few choice laughs and the casting of Michael Lerner as New York's mayor, whose name is Ebert and who closely resembles a certain well-known movie critic. Perhaps that's a clever hint that this movie's essentially critic-proof. It's stupid but it's fun, and for most audiences that's a fitting definition of mainstream Hollywood entertainment. -Jeff Shannon Zorro, a pop-fiction creation invented by Johnston McCulley in 1918, is given new blood in this fast-moving and engaging version. Director Martin Campbell wisely instils a measure of frivolity into the deftly choreographed action sequences, while letting a serious tone creep in when appropriate. This covers much ground under the banner of romantic-action-adventure and it does so most excellently. [+]
-Rochelle O'Gorman, Amazon. com Godzilla delivers the goods, although its critical drubbing and box-office disappointment were arguably deserved. It's a shameless, uninspired crowd-pleaser that's content to serve up familiar action with the advantage of really fantastic special effects, and if you expect nothing more you'll be one among millions of satisfied customers. The whole movie plays out like a series of highlights stolen from previous blockbusters of the 1990s. -Jeff Shannon, Amazon. com.

Review Dd Home Entertainment  / Convoy [1940]
Actors & Directors
  • Clive Brook
  • Penelope Dudley-Ward
  • Judy Campbell
  • Edward Chapman
  • John Clements
  • Pen Tennyson
Release date: 2000-02-07
Run time: 85 min.
RRP: £10.99
Price: £18.50

Review Convoy [1940] / Dd Home Entertainment:


Review Clear Vision Ltd  / Due South - Victoria's Secret - Parts One And Two
Actors & Directors
  • Paul Haggis|Paul Gross|David Marciano|Gordon Pinsent
Release date: 1996-04-01
Run time: 90 min.
RRP: £10.99
Price: £9.73

Review Due South - Victoria's Secret - Parts One And Two / Clear Vision Ltd:


Browse Action & Adventure:

Models & Brands:
Last Valley [1970], The Heroes Of Telemark [1965], Men Of War [1994], Enter The Ninja [1981], Lady Snowblood [1973], Lawrence Of Arabia [1962], Conan The Barbarian [1981], Attack [1956], Army Of Darkness [1993], The Tempter AKA The Antichrist, Over The Top [1987], Knockaround Guys [2001], China O'Brien 2 [1992], National Treasure [2004], Johnny Guitar [1953], The Professionals - Vols. 1-4 [1977], Robin Hood Prince Of Thieves [1991], Godzilla / Anaconda [1998], Convoy [1940], Due South - Victoria's Secret - Parts One And Two

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