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Review Warner Home Video / The Whole Nine Yards [2000]
Actors & Directors
  • Jonathan Lynn
  • Rosanna Arquette
  • Natasha Henstridge
  • Bruce Willis
  • Michael Clarke Duncan
  • Matthew Perry
Release date: 2001-05-14
Run time: 98 min.
RRP: £6.99
Price: £4.99

Review The Whole Nine Yards [2000] / Warner Home Video:

Have a little patience with The Whole Nine Yards, an agreeably convoluted caper, and in the end you'll find it a modestly entertaining yarn. But forbearance is necessary because, truthfully, the first half-hour of the movie promises a train wreck of epic proportions. Matthew Perry stars as a mild-mannered Montreal dentist, married to a French-Canadian shrew (Rosanna Arquette), whose new next-door neighbour (Bruce Willis) just happens to be a notorious mob hit-man out on parole. The wife, catching the whiff of easy money and probably just hoping to put hubby in harms way, orders her hen pecked spouse to rat out the gunman to his former employers, who have many compelling reasons to want him dead. Needless to say, complications-and plenty of them-ensue. Perry is serviceably harried as the beleaguered Everyman whom, as nice as everyone around him agrees that he is the person, just about everyone, wants to kill. Willis, much as he did in The Sixth Sense, gets better mileage out of not trying so hard; his irksome smirk is almost held in check. Amanda Peet has some funny scenes as a hit-man groupie—it's when her true role in the proceedings is revealed that the film finally kicks into comic gear. Michael Clarke Duncan is fine as yet another hit man to cross Perry's path; however, Arquette seems to be in a contest with Kevin Pollak (playing a mob boss) to see who can uncork both the most ludicrous accent and the most obvious performance. That kind of unevenness ensures that the pleasures that do exist within The Whole Nine Yards remain fairly minor. [+]
-David Kronke, Amazon. com.

Review Entertainment in Video / Much Ado About Nothing [1993]
Actors & Directors
  • Michael Keaton
  • Kenneth Branagh
  • Robert Sean Leonard
  • Kenneth Branagh
  • Keanu Reeves
  • Richard Briers
Release date: 1995-01-25
Run time: 106 min.
RRP: £14.99
Price: £10.95

Review Much Ado About Nothing [1993] / Entertainment in Video:

Kenneth Branagh's 1993 production of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing is a vigorous and imaginative work, cheerful and accessible for everyone. Largely the story of Benedick (Branagh) and Beatrice (Emma Thompson)-adversaries who come to believe each is trying to woo the other-the film veers from arched wit to ironic romps, and the two leads don't mind looking a little silly at times. But the plot is also layered with darker matters that concern the ease with which men and women fall into mutual distrust. Branagh has rounded up a mixed cast of stage vets and Hollywood stars, among the latter Denzel Washington and Michael Keaton, the latter playing a rather seedy, Beetlejuice-like version of Dogberry, king of malapropisms. -Tom Keogh.

Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / I Was A Male War Bride [1949]
Actors & Directors
  • Cary Grant
  • Bill Neff
  • Howard Hawks
  • Marion Marshall
  • Ann Sheridan
  • Randy Stuart
Release date: 1995-07-03
Run time: 101 min.
Price: £5.99

Review I Was A Male War Bride [1949] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:


Review Granada Media / Jeeves And Wooster - The Complete First Series [1990]
Actors & Directors
  • Stephen Fry
  • Robert Young
  • Hugh Laurie
Release date: 1998-09-21
Run time: 249 min.
Price: £14.99

Review Jeeves And Wooster - The Complete First Series [1990] / Granada Media:


Review Universal Pictures UK / Elaine With Attitude
Actors & Directors
  • Elaine C. Smith
Release date: 1998-11-23
Run time: 86 min.
Price: £12.99

Review Elaine With Attitude / Universal Pictures UK:


Release date: 1991-09-30
Run time: 61 min.
Price: £12.99

Review Max Boyce - Choice Boyce [1991] / Universal Pictures UK:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / White Men Can't Jump [1992]
Actors & Directors
  • Woody Harrelson
  • Wesley Snipes
  • Tyra Ferrell
  • Cylk Cozart
  • Rosie Perez
  • Ron Shelton
Run time: 111 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £3.48

Review White Men Can't Jump [1992] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

White Men Can't Jump, writer-director Ron Shelton's 1992 follow-up to the baseball comedy-drama Bull Durham, involves a different sport: basketball, as played on the neighbourhood hustler circuit. Woody Harrelson is Billy Hoyle, a good shooter using his white complexion to fool black players into thinking he can be stomped in easy bets. Billy's banter-filled matchup against Sidney Deane (Wesley Snipes) on a public court leads to a partnership in which Sidney becomes Billy's manager, taking the white outsider on a tour of the tougher sections of Los Angeles, where he plays homeboys for a few bucks. Inevitably, the two come apart over their innate competitiveness, a situation that has to be re-evaluated after Billy gets into trouble with some underworld creditors. Meanwhile, Billy's girlfriend (Rosie Perez) sits at home preparing herself for a maybe-someday appearance on Jeopardy. As with all of Shelton's sports-related films (Tin Cup, his script for The Best of Times), White Men Can't Jump is less about the fine points of the game than it is the rules by which players survive it. The script is literate and crackling with wit and satire (a scene in which a politician sponsors a black-white "solidarity" game is hilarious). The actors are entirely in sync, and the scenes under and around the hoops are a thrill to watch. -Tom Keogh, Amazon. com.

Review Fremantle Home Entertainment / Morecambe And Wise - Night Train To Murder [1984]
Actors & Directors
  • Kenneth Haigh
  • Joseph McGrath
  • Lysette Anthony
  • Ernie Wise
  • Eric Morecambe
  • Fulton Mackay
Release date: 2000-09-11
Run time: 70 min.
RRP: £10.99
Price: £6.99

Review Morecambe And Wise - Night Train To Murder [1984] / Fremantle Home Entertainment:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Family Guy - Series 1 [1999]
Actors & Directors
  • Alex Borstein
  • Seth MacFarlane
  • Seth Green
Release date: 2001-11-12
Run time: 292 min.
Price: £19.99

Review Family Guy - Series 1 [1999] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

Family Guy shouldn't work at all. Even by the witless standards of modern television, it is breathtakingly derivative: does an animated series about the travails of a boorish, suburban yob with a saintly wife, a hopeless son, a clever daughter and a baby sound familiar at all? Even the house in Family Guy looks like it was built by the same architects who sketched the residence of The Simpsons. However, Family Guy does work, transcending its (occasionally annoyingly) obvious influences with reliably crisp writing and the glorious sight gags contained in the surreal flashbacks which punctuate the episodes. Most importantly, the show's brilliance comes from two absolutely superb characters: Stewie, the baby whose extravagant dreams of tyrannising the world are perpetually thwarted by the prosaic limitations of infanthood, and the urbane family dog Brian-Snoopy after attendance at an obedience class run by Frank Sinatra. Family Guy does not possess the cultural or satirical depth of The Simpsons-very little art in any field does. But it is a genuinely funny and clever programme. -Andrew Mueller.

Review 2 Entertain Video / Only Fools And Horses - The Complete Series 5 [1981]
Actors & Directors
  • Pete Chesterfield
  • Roger Liddement
  • Mandie Fletcher
  • Patrick McManus
  • Grant Stevens
Release date: 2000-05-02
Run time: 175 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £8.96

Review Only Fools And Horses - The Complete Series 5 [1981] / 2 Entertain Video:

Voted Britain's best ever sitcom in millennium polls, Only Fools and Horses has a muddled history on video. This release should make things clearer, containing for the first time the complete fifth series on a double-video. Dating from 1986, the episodes have previously appeared on the compilations Tea for Three and Watching the Girls Go By. Like so much great comedy, pathos lies behind these cleverly scripted, deceptively straightforward tales, continuing the tradition of lovable rogues in BBC sitcoms from Steptoe and Son and Porridge. David Jason's Del Boy dreams of becoming a millionaire, "this time next year", but we know life isn't like that. In "From Prussia with Love", Del, kid-brother Rodney (Nicholas Lyndhurst) and Uncle Albert (Buster Merryfield) replay Three Men and a Baby , while "The Miracle of Peckham" raises the church roof. "The Longest Night" has our trio as prisoners of the world's most useless criminal, while Rodney has an unhappy encounter with a sunbed in "Tea For Three". The gormless one turns unlikely film-maker, resulting in a "Video Nasty", before the series ends with "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?", testing family loyalties when Del is offered the chance of a lifetime. Essentially British and very re-watchable, Only Fools and Horses deserves the description classic comedy. -Gary S. [+]
Dalkin.

Review Film Four Distributors Ltd. / With Or Without You
Actors & Directors
  • Michael Winterbottom
  • Dervla Kirwan
  • Alun Armstrong
  • Christopher Eccleston
  • Julie Graham
  • Yvan Attal
Release date: 2000-10-09
Run time: 86 min.
RRP: £14.99
Price: £5.80

Review With Or Without You / Film Four Distributors Ltd.:

With or Without You works as an above-average television drama; but that's about the height of its ambition. It's strange that Michael Winterbottom, director of the hard-edged, bitter Welcome to Sarajevo (1997) and the grandiose snowy western The Claim (2000) should have bothered with anything as routine and undemanding. Perhaps its greatest distinction is that it's set in present-day Belfast without so much as a mention of the Troubles. The plot is a bog-standard romantic triangle. Rosie and Vincent, who have been married five years or so, want a baby, but nothing's happening. It doesn't help that Rosie's older sister has sprogs burgeoning like mushrooms wherever you look. Then up pops a figure from Rosie's past-Benoît, her pen-pal from before she met Vincent. And being French, he's naturally charming, witty, romantic and everything poor old Vincent isn't. Think you can guess what's coming? Well, most likely you can-right down to the all-too-pat happy ending. Still, the actors (Christopher Ecclestone, Dervla Kirwan and Yvan Attal are the leads) are accomplished and watchable, the dialogue stays the right side of banal and it's refreshing to see Belfast shown as a civilised, cultured place to live. [+]
With or Without You passes an hour and a half pleasantly enough and may even raise the odd chuckle, but it covers well-trodden territory without much new to say. On the DVD: aptly routine stuff-the theatrical trailer, a bland "making of" featurette and some interviews with the three principal players. Widescreen (16:9 anamorphic) and Dolby Surround Sound give the material the best possible showcase. -Philip Kemp.

Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Ally McBeal - Season 4 Box Set 2 [1998]
Actors & Directors
  • Calista Flockhart
Release date: 2002-04-08
Price: £19.99

Review Ally McBeal - Season 4 Box Set 2 [1998] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

Too mainstream to be a cult, yet too odd to be totally conventional, Ally McBeal has become one of televisions curios. While its early days saw the show become something of a victim of its own self-conscious stylising, the episodes included on series 4 volume 2 are far stronger in terms of characterisation and plot and the storylines are easy to pick up. Not that the quirks have been exiled-the first programme features McBeal hallucinating about Barry Manilow-rather they have now become part of the overall feel of the show. Despite the attention lavished on both the lead character and the actress who plays her, the show is a real ensemble piece and works best when all the players are together. One of the collection's weakest moments is the episode that sends the usually excellent Richard and John off to LA on their own, an episode which lays threat to a dreaded spin off. While there are annoying moments-could they not have edited out the "previously on Ally McBeal" parts for retail release and why do they never go out with anyone other than work colleagues-with guest appearances from the likes of Sting this is a must for any fan of the series. On the DVD: Sadly, the DVD collection betrays very little thought or effort. The pace of the show is certainly brisk (especially when shorn of the adverts) and the picture quality is equally dynamic, instilling real depth to the many aerial shots of Boston itself. Given that music is such an integral part in the show, it is no surprise that the soundtrack has been given a boost by its recreation in Dolby digital stereo. The interactive menu, however, is clumsy to use and having to work back through the options at the end of each episode quickly becomes tiresome. [+]
The complete lack of any extras whatsoever is also a definite minus point. -Phil Udell.

Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Frasier--Complete Season 1 [1994]
Actors & Directors
  • David Lee
  • Kelsey Grammer
  • Jane Leeves
  • Rick Beren
  • Andy Ackerman
  • David Hyde Pierce
  • John Mahoney
  • James Burrows
Release date: 2001-07-16
Run time: 526 min.
RRP: £34.99
Price: £22.00

Review Frasier--Complete Season 1 [1994] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

Thanks to sharp writing and a pitch-perfect ensemble cast, Frasier became one of the smartest and funniest television shows of the 1990s. Following the 1993 demise of Cheers, Diane's fussy psychiatrist boyfriend Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) seemed an unlikely candidate for a spin-off series. Yet the show earned smash ratings and dozens of Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Lead Actor (Grammer) in the very first series. In an inspired bit of casting, Grammer was matched with David Hyde Pierce as his brother and fellow psychiatrist Niles, and the rest of the players included his radio-programme manager, Roz (Peri Gilpin), his father, Marty (John Mahoney), his father's physical therapist, Daphne (Jane Leeves) and the dog Eddie (Moose). In the first series, Frasier and Marty try to learn how to coexist in the same apartment, Niles and Daphne spend a stormy evening in Niles's house, Frasier acquires pushy agent Bebe (Harriet Sansom Harris) and searches for love with Amanda Donohoe among others, his ex-wife Lilith (Bebe Neuwirth) makes a guest appearance, the family takes a cross-country trip in a Winnebago and the two brothers collaborate on a book. -David Horiuchi.

Review Warner Home Video / Her Alibi [1988]
Actors & Directors
  • Paulina Porizkova
  • Bruce Beresford
  • Tom Selleck
  • William Daniels
Release date: 1993-10-04
Run time: 90 min.
Price: £6.99

Review Her Alibi [1988] / Warner Home Video:


Review Guerilla Films / Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus [1973]
Actors & Directors
  • Michael Palin
  • Terry Jones
  • Graham Chapman
  • Eric Idle
  • John Cleese
  • Ian MacNaughton
Release date: 1998-10-19
Run time: 90 min.
Price: £12.99

Review Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus [1973] / Guerilla Films:


Actors & Directors
  • Peter Orton
  • Katy Newell
  • David G. Hillier
  • Norman Pace
  • Mark Caven
  • Gareth Hale
Run time: 54 min.
Price: £5.99

Review Hale And Pace - Volume 2 [1988] / Entertainment UK Ltd.:


Review 4 Front Video / The Young Poisoner's Handbook [1995]
Actors & Directors
  • Roger Lloyd Pack
  • Benjamin Ross
  • Ruth Sheen
  • Antony Sher
  • Charlotte Coleman
  • Hugh O'Conor
Release date: 1999-04-12
Run time: 95 min.
Price: £5.99

Review The Young Poisoner's Handbook [1995] / 4 Front Video:


Review Dd Home Entertainment / Let George Do It [1940]
Actors & Directors
  • George Formby
  • Bernard Lee
  • Garry Marsh
  • Marcel Varnel
  • Phyllis Calvert
  • Romney Brent
Release date: 2000-09-25
Run time: 78 min.
RRP: £10.99
Price: £6.75

Review Let George Do It [1940] / Dd Home Entertainment:


Review Cinema Club / My Girl 2 [1994]
Actors & Directors
  • Richard Masur
  • Anna Chlumsky
  • Dan Aykroyd
  • Jamie Lee Curtis
  • Howard Zieff
  • Austin O'Brien
Release date: 1998-05-04
Run time: 95 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £6.00

Review My Girl 2 [1994] / Cinema Club:


Review Vision Video Ltd. / Lily Savage - Live And Outrageous [1995]
Actors & Directors
  • Lily Savage
Release date: 1995-11-13
Run time: 80 min.
RRP: £14.99
Price: £4.24

Review Lily Savage - Live And Outrageous [1995] / Vision Video Ltd.:


Models & Brands:
The Whole Nine Yards [2000], Much Ado About Nothing [1993], I Was A Male War Bride [1949], Jeeves And Wooster - The Complete First Series [1990], Elaine With Attitude, Max Boyce - Choice Boyce [1991], White Men Can't Jump [1992], Morecambe And Wise - Night Train To Murder [1984], Family Guy - Series 1 [1999], Only Fools And Horses - The Complete Series 5 [1981], With Or Without You, Ally McBeal - Season 4 Box Set 2 [1998], Frasier--Complete Season 1 [1994], Her Alibi [1988], Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus [1973], Hale And Pace - Volume 2 [1988], The Young Poisoner's Handbook [1995], Let George Do It [1940], My Girl 2 [1994], Lily Savage - Live And Outrageous [1995]

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