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Home › Drama
Actors & Directors
  • Eleanor Methven
  • Elaine Cassidy
  • Brian F. O'Byrne
  • Cillian Murphy
  • Kirsten Sheridan
  • Geraldine O'Rawe
Release date: 2002-05-20
Creator: Cillian Murphy
RRP: £5.99
Price: £2.94

Review Disco Pigs [VHS] [2001] / Eiv:


Review Vision Video Ltd. / Billy Elliot (plus Billy Elliot Boy Documentary) [2000] [VHS]
Actors & Directors
  • Stephen Daldry
  • Julie Walters
  • Jamie Bell
  • Jean Heywood
  • Jamie Draven
  • Gary Lewis
Release date: 2001-11-12
Run time: 112 min.
Creator: Lee Hall
Price: £15.99

Review Billy Elliot (plus Billy Elliot Boy Documentary) [2000] [VHS] / Vision Video Ltd.:

Foursquare in the gritty-but-hearwarming tradition of Brassed Off and The Full Monty comes Billy Elliot, the first film of noted British theatrical director Stephen Daldry. The setting is County Durham in 1984, and things 'oop North are even grimmer than usual: the miners' strike is in full rancorous swing and 11-year-old Billy's dad and older brother, miners both, are staunch on the picket lines. Billy's got problems of his own. His dad's scraped together the fees to send him to boxing lessons, but Billy's discovered a different aptitude: a genius for ballet dancing. Since admitting to such an activity is tantamount, in this fiercely macho culture, to holding up a sign reading "I AM A RAVING POOF", Billy keeps it quiet. But his teacher, Mrs Wilkinson (Julie Walters, wearily undaunted) thinks he should audition for ballet school in London. Family ructions are inevitable. Daldry's film sidesteps some of the politics, both sexual and otherwise, but scores with its laconic dialogue (credit to screenwriter Lee Hall) and a cracking performance from newcomer Jamie Bell as Billy. His powerhouse dance routines, more Gene Kelly than Nureyev, carry an irresistible sense of exhilaration and self-discovery. Among a flawless supporting cast Stuart Wells stands out as Billy's sweet gay friend Michael. [+]
And if the miners' strike serves largely as background colour, there's one brief episode, as visored and truncheoned cops rampage through neat little terraced houses, that captures one of the most spiteful episodes in recent British history. -Philip Kemp.

Review Granada Media / The Gambling Man [VHS] [1994]
Actors & Directors
  • Robson Green
  • Bernard Hill
Release date: 2000-01-24
Run time: 149 min.
Creator: Bernard Hill
RRP: £10.99
Price: £2.98

Review The Gambling Man [VHS] [1994] / Granada Media:


Review 4 Front Video / The Handmaid's Tale [VHS] [1990]
Actors & Directors
  • Victoria Tennant
  • Elizabeth McGovern
  • Faye Dunaway
  • Natasha Richardson
  • Volker Schlöndorff
  • Aidan Quinn
Release date: 1998-07-13
Run time: 104 min.
Creator: Margaret Atwood
Price: £5.99

Review The Handmaid's Tale [VHS] [1990] / 4 Front Video:


Actors & Directors
  • George Kennedy
  • John Derek
  • Andrea Occhipinti
  • Olivia d'Abo
  • Bo Derek
  • Ana Obregón
Release date: 2006-10-04
Run time: 100 min.
Creator: Yoram Globus
RRP: £10.99
Price: £1.80

Review Bolero [VHS] [1984] / Abbey Home Media:


Review Thorn EMI TVB9012742 / The Devil's Advocate [1977]
Actors & Directors
  • John Mills
  • Patrick Mower
  • Timothy West
  • Guy Green
  • Leigh Lawson
  • Daniel Massey
Run time: 105 min.

Review The Devil's Advocate [1977] / Thorn EMI TVB9012742:


Review Ica Projects Ltd. / Ju Dou [VHS] [1990]
Actors & Directors
  • Yimou Zhang
  • Wei Li
  • Fengliang Yang
  • Baotian Li
  • Ma Chong
  • Li Gong
  • Zhijun Cong
Release date: 1993-04-05
Run time: 91 min.
Creator: Heng Liu
RRP: £5.99
Price: £10.00

Review Ju Dou [VHS] [1990] / Ica Projects Ltd.:

Zhang Yimou, the celebrated "fifth generation" filmmaker from China, trained as a cinematographer before he turned to directing, and it shows in every colour-drenched, exquisitely composed frame of this 1989 romantic tragedy. The ageing Yang Jin-shan (Li Wei) runs a successful textile dying factory and purchases the beautiful Ju Dou (Gong Li) to continue his line, but when his own impotence shatters all hope of progeny, he takes his anger out on his innocent young bride. Gentle Yang Tian-qing (Li Bao-Tian) is the sole employee in the lonely factory and his tender friendship with Ju Dou blossoms into love. When Yang Jin-shan becomes wheelchair-bound, the lovers take their affair out into the open, producing a child that he must claim as his own to save face. The stark drama plays out against the astounding backdrop of coloured clothes draped throughout the factory and courtyard, like a rainbow holding out promise of a rich, vibrant world just out of reach. By contrast, the subdued performances hide the inner emotions behind a mask of social control. As the masks are pulled away behind the protective walls of the factory, the fragile triangle collapses as the child grows up espousing traditional values. The film was banned in China, where leaders saw it as an unflattering metaphor for modern Chinese life, a society ruled by a coterie of ageing, controlling men. -Sean Axmaker, Amazon. com.

Actors & Directors
  • Brian Gilbert
  • Vanessa Redgrave
  • Jude Law
  • Stephen Fry
  • Jennifer Ehle
Release date: 1998-05-11
Creator: Jude Law
Price: £14.99

Review Wilde [VHS] / Universal Pictures UK:


Review Warner Home Video / Something To Believe In [VHS] [1998]
Actors & Directors
  • Maria Schneider
  • Tom Conti
  • William McNamara
  • John Hough
  • Maria Pitillo
  • Ian Bannen
Release date: 1999-08-02
Run time: 109 min.
Creator: John Goldsmith
RRP: £9.99
Price: £1.95

Review Something To Believe In [VHS] [1998] / Warner Home Video:


Review Warner Home Video / Kind Hearts And Coronets [VHS] [1949]
Actors & Directors
  • Joan Greenwood
  • Dennis Price
  • Robert Hamer
  • Alec Guinness
  • Valerie Hobson
  • Audrey Fildes
Release date: 1998-07-06
Run time: 101 min.
Creator: Roy Horniman
RRP: £10.99
Price: £0.98

Review Kind Hearts And Coronets [VHS] [1949] / Warner Home Video:

Set in Victorian England, Robert Hamer's 1949 masterpiece Kind Hearts and Coronets remains the most gracefully mordant of Ealing Comedies. Dennis Price plays Louis D'Ascoyne, the would-be Duke of Chalfont whose Mother was spurned by her noble family for marrying an Italian singer for love. Louis resolves to murder the several of his relatives ahead of him in line for the Dukedom, all of whom are played by Alec Guinness, in order to avenge his Mother-for, as Louis observes, " revenge is a dish which people of taste prefer to eat cold". He gets away with it, only to be arraigned for the one murder of which he is innocent. Guinness' virtuoso performances have been justly celebrated, ranging as they do from a youthful D'Ascoyne concealing his enthusiasm for public houses from his priggish wife ("she has views on such places") to a brace of doomed uncles and one aunt, ranging from the doddery to the peppery. Miles Malleson is a splendid doggerel-spouting hangman, while Valerie Hobson and Joan Greenwood take advantage of unusually strong female roles. But the great joy of Kind Hearts and Coronets is the way in which its appallingly black subject matter (considered beyond the pale by many critics at the time) is conveyed in such elegantly ironic turns of phrase by Dennis Price's narrator/anti-hero. Serial murder has never been conducted with such exquisite manners and discreet charm. -David Stubbs.

Review Granada Media / The Dwelling Place [VHS] [1994]
Actors & Directors
  • Lucy Cohu
  • Edward Rawle-Hicks
  • Philip Voss
  • Tim Barker
  • Ray Stevenson
Release date: 1994-06-13
Run time: 154 min.
Creator: James Fox
RRP: £10.99
Price: £2.78

Review The Dwelling Place [VHS] [1994] / Granada Media:


Review ITV DVD / The Shawshank Redemption [VHS] [1995]
Actors & Directors
  • Clancy Brown
  • Tim Robbins
  • Frank Darabont
  • Bob Gunton
  • Morgan Freeman
  • William Sadler
Release date: 2003-09-01
Run time: 136 min.
Creator: Stephen King
RRP: £4.99
Price: £0.50

Review The Shawshank Redemption [VHS] [1995] / ITV DVD:

When The Shawshank Redemption was released in 1994, some critics complained that this popular prison drama was too long (142 minutes) to sustain its plot. Those complaints miss the point, because the passage of time is crucial to this story about patience, the squeaky wheels of justice and the growth of a life-long friendship. Only when the film reaches its final, emotionally satisfying scene do you fully understand why writer-director Frank Darabont (adapting a novella by Stephen King) allows the story to unfold at its necessary pace. Tim Robbins plays a banker named Andy who is sent to Shawshank Prison on a murder charge, but as he gets to know a life-term prisoner named Red (Morgan Freeman), we soon realise his claims of innocence are credible. We also realise that Andy's calm, quiet exterior hides a great reserve of patience and fortitude, and Red comes to admire this mild-mannered man who first struck him as weak and unfit for prison life. So it is that The Shawshank Redemption builds considerable impact as a prison drama that defies the conventions of the genre (violence, brutality, riots) to illustrate its theme of faith, friendship and survival. Nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture, Actor and Screenplay, it's a remarkable film (which many movie lovers count among their all-time favourites) that signalled the arrival of a promising new filmmaker. -Jeff Shannon.

Review Bfi Video / The War Game [VHS] [1965]
Actors & Directors
  • Peter Graham
  • Michael Aspel
  • Kathy Staff
  • Peter Watkins
  • Peter Watkins
Release date: 2003-01-27
Run time: 84 min.
Creator: Michael Bradsell
RRP: £12.99
Price: £95.00

Review The War Game [VHS] [1965] / Bfi Video:


Actors & Directors
  • Beth Winslet
  • Wendy Cooper
  • Peter Ferdinando
  • Hans Matheson
  • Gareth Rhys Jones
  • Charlotte Coleman
Release date: 2002-04-15
Run time: 89 min.
Creator: Simon Decker
Price: £9.99

Review Bodywork [VHS] [1999] / Guerilla Films:


Review Granada Media / Upstairs Downstairs - The Third Series - Episodes 1 To 7 [VHS] [1971]
Actors & Directors
  • Angela Baddeley
  • Bill Bain
  • Raymond Menmuir
  • Derek Bennett
  • Christopher Beeny
  • Christopher Hodson
  • Jean Marsh
  • Gordon Jackson
  • David Langton
Release date: 2000-08-07
Run time: 356 min.
Creator: Rosemary Anne Sisson
RRP: £14.99
Price: £19.98

Review Upstairs Downstairs - The Third Series - Episodes 1 To 7 [VHS] [1971] / Granada Media:

This seminal British television series is just as enjoyable now as when it first aired in the early 1970s. Richard, Lady Marjorie and their son James comprise the aristocratic Bellamy family that reside upstairs while their loyal servants maintain the household from downstairs. The series follows the upper-class family's troubles as times change and the ongoing lives of their resilient staff. Clean, clear and presented in order, the third season's 13 episodes follow the London household through the pre-war years (1912-1914). In these episodes, Hudson (Gordon Jackson) gives notice over James's (Simon Williams) luncheon with his father's typist, Miss Forrest (Meg Wynn Owen), who helps run the household after Lady Marjorie dies aboard the R. M. S. Titanic. Tensions again erupt when another family strives to hire Hudson away and Miss Forrest refuses James's marriage proposal, afraid of a past secret. Former servant Alfred reappears, taking a hostage when Hudson discovers he is wanted for murder, and a French countess is romantically interested in Richard's money until James exposes the truth. [+]
James's new wife, Hazel Forrest, resolves a stock-trading scandal, but remains uneasy with her new society position, particularly while fox hunting at Lord and Lady Newbury's country estate. A disregard for class differences nearly ends in disaster during Georgina Worsley's (Lesley-Anne Down) holiday visit, and a casual remark by the Bellamys' footman Edward erupts into a scandal that threatens Parliament's Tory constituency. Rose (Jean Marsh) almost marries an Australian sheep farmer, and James's rocky marriage must survive Hazel's miscarriage. In July 1914, when war looms, James looks to rejoin his regiment to escape his troubled marriage; Mrs Bridges (Angela Baddeley) has a suitor and two servants, Edward and Daisy, defy the downstairs rules by falling in love. -Tara Chace, Amazon. com.

Review Artificial Eye / Vanya On 42nd Street [VHS] [1995]
Actors & Directors
  • Jerry Mayer
  • George Gaynes
  • Wallace Shawn
  • Phoebe Brand
  • Louis Malle
  • Lynn Cohen
Release date: 1995-05-09
Run time: 119 min.
Creator: David Mamet
RRP: £15.99
Price: £59.99

Review Vanya On 42nd Street [VHS] [1995] / Artificial Eye:


Review Odyssey Video / My Name Is Kate [VHS][1994]
Actors & Directors
  • Ryan Reynolds
  • Donna Mills
  • Daniel J. Travanti
  • Rod Hardy
  • Deanna Milligan
  • Nia Peeples
Release date: 1994-05-23
Run time: 90 min.
Creator: George Eckstein
RRP: £10.99
Price: £19.99

Review My Name Is Kate [VHS][1994] / Odyssey Video:


Review ITV DVD / The Boys From Brazil [VHS] [1978]
Actors & Directors
  • Laurence Olivier
  • Uta Hagen
  • Gregory Peck
  • Lilli Palmer
  • Franklin J. Schaffner
  • James Mason
Release date: 2000-02-28
Run time: 118 min.
Creator: Ira Levin
RRP: £5.99
Price: £2.85

Review The Boys From Brazil [VHS] [1978] / ITV DVD:

Robustly entertaining and bracingly sinister, The Boys from Brazil stars Gregory Peck as the infamous Dr Josef Mengele, the former Nazi chief who intends to resurrect the Führer and create a Fourth Reich through genetic experiments that commence with the assassination of some 94 fathers. Elderly Nazi hunter Ezra Lieberman (Laurence Olivier, in an Oscar-nominated performance) is tipped to the plot, but his efforts to expose Peck (fiendishly cast against type) are thwarted by a set of menacing triplets played by Jeremy Black. Back in 1978, The Boys from Brazil (adapted from Ira Levin's novel) was an incalculably tense, straight-faced entertainment whose lack of irony allowed the viewer to indulge the film's outrageous premise without moral offence. But in view of the scientific advancements made since the release of the film, it's now a cautionary tale, and all the more compelling for being so. Jerry Goldsmith's richly conceived, Oscar-nominated score-replete with echoes of Mahler and Strauss-reinforces this impression. -Kevin Mulhall.

Review Warner Home Video / They Were Expendable [VHS] [1946]
Actors & Directors
  • Donna Reed
  • John Ford
  • Jack Holt
  • Robert Montgomery
  • Robert Montgomery
  • John Wayne
  • Ward Bond
Release date: 2000-06-19
Run time: 129 min.
Creator: William L. White
RRP: £9.99
Price: £1.92

Review They Were Expendable [VHS] [1946] / Warner Home Video:


Review 4 Front Video / Swing Vote [VHS]
Actors & Directors
  • Ray Walston
  • Andy Garcia
  • James Whitmore
  • Harry Belafonte
  • David Anspaugh
  • Robert Prosky
Release date: 2002-07-01
Run time: 89 min.
Creator: Harry Belafonte
RRP: £5.99
Price: £44.94

Review Swing Vote [VHS] / 4 Front Video:


Browse Drama:

Models & Brands:
Disco Pigs [VHS] [2001], Billy Elliot (plus Billy Elliot Boy Documentary) [2000] [VHS], The Gambling Man [VHS] [1994], The Handmaid's Tale [VHS] [1990], Bolero [VHS] [1984], The Devil's Advocate [1977], Ju Dou [VHS] [1990], Wilde [VHS], Something To Believe In [VHS] [1998], Kind Hearts And Coronets [VHS] [1949], The Dwelling Place [VHS] [1994], The Shawshank Redemption [VHS] [1995], The War Game [VHS] [1965], Bodywork [VHS] [1999], Upstairs Downstairs - The Third Series - Episodes 1 To 7 [VHS] [1971], Vanya On 42nd Street [VHS] [1995], My Name Is Kate [VHS][1994], The Boys From Brazil [VHS] [1978], They Were Expendable [VHS] [1946], Swing Vote [VHS]

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