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Review 4 Front Video / The Princess Bride [1987]
Actors & Directors
  • Chris Sarandon
  • Rob Reiner
  • Mandy Patinkin
  • Wallace Shawn
  • Christopher Guest
  • Cary Elwes
Release date: 2002-07-01
Run time: 94 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £3.95

Review The Princess Bride [1987] / 4 Front Video:

Director Rob Reiner's The Princess Bride is a gently amusing, affectionate pastiche of a medieval fairytale adventure, offering a similar blend of warm, literate humour as his Stand By Me (1985) and When Harry Met Sally (1989). Adapted from his own novel, William Goldman's script plays with the conventions of such 1980s fantasies as Ladyhawke and Legend (both 1985), and with the budget never allowing for spectacle, sensibly concentrates on creating a gallery of memorable characters. Robin Wright makes a delightful Princess Buttercup, Cary Elwes is splendid as Westley and "Dread Pirate Roberts", while Mandy Patinkin makes fine Spanish avenger. With winning support from Mel Smith, Peter Cook, Billy Crystal and Carol Kane there is sometimes a Terry Gilliam/Monty Python feel to the proceedings, and the whole film is beautifully shot, with a memorably romantic main theme by Mark Knopfler. Occasionally interrupted by Peter Falk as a grandfather reading the story to his grandson, The Princess Bride is an elegant post-modern family fable about storytelling itself; a theme found in other 1980s films The Neverending Story (1984) and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988). A modest, small-scale work that manages to be both cynically modern and genuinely romantic all at once. As charming as you wish. On the DVD: The 1. 77:1 anamorphic transfer is strong, if not quite as detailed as it might be. Colours lack just a little solidity and some scenes evidence a fair amount of grain. [+]
Released theatrically in Dolby stereo, the Dolby Digital 5. 1 remix spreads the sound effectively across the front speakers but makes very little use of the rear channels indeed. Extras are limited to filmographies of five of the leading actors, and a 4:3 presentation of the theatrical trailer, which gives far too many of the film's surprises away. -Gary S Dalkin.

Review 4 Front Video / Local Hero [1983]
Actors & Directors
  • Denis Lawson
  • Peter Riegert
  • Fulton Mackay
  • Burt Lancaster
  • Norman Chancer
  • Bill Forsyth
Release date: 1996-08-19
Run time: 107 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £8.00

Review Local Hero [1983] / 4 Front Video:

Long before The Full Monty there was this lovely fish-out-of-water comedy by deft Scots writer-director Bill Forsyth (Gregory's Girl). Set in the 1980s during a period of controversy over North Sea oil drilling, Local Hero follows a likeable, woolly American junior executive (Peter Riegert) dispatched from Texas by his blustering boss (a high-spirited Burt Lancaster) to a small fishing village on the coast of Scotland for the purpose of swindling the presumably simple-minded locals out of their drilling rights. The surprise isn't that the villagers turn the tables on the American schemers, but that they do so without displaying a hint of malice. They get a kick out of flummoxing the city slickers. Even Lancaster's greed-head Felix Happer eventually has a change of heart. In outline, this may sound more ordinary than it feels as you're watching it. The fine young British actor Denis Lawson, who had a tiny role as one of the fighter pilots in Star Wars plays Riegert's UK contact, Gordon Urquhart, a sad sack with a noble soul. -David Chute.

Review ITV DVD / Big Bad World - The Complete Series 1 [1999]
Actors & Directors
  • Sandy Johnson
  • Steve Nicolson
  • Ardal O'Hanlon
  • Udayan Prasad
  • Piers Haggard
  • Thelma Whiteley
  • Philippa Langdale
  • Emma Fielding
  • Scott Wickes
Release date: 2001-02-12
Run time: 296 min.
Price: £19.99

Review Big Bad World - The Complete Series 1 [1999] / ITV DVD:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / The Simpsons - Heaven and Hell [1990]
Actors & Directors
  • Doris Grau
  • Marcia Mitzman Gaven
Release date: 1998-08-31
Run time: 88 min.
Price: £12.99

Review The Simpsons - Heaven and Hell [1990] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:


Review MGM Entertainment / Truly, Madly, Deeply [1992]
Actors & Directors
  • Anthony Minghella
  • Jenny Howe
  • Christopher Rozycki
  • Carolyn Choa
  • Juliet Stevenson
  • Bill Paterson
Release date: 2000-08-07
Run time: 102 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £7.95

Review Truly, Madly, Deeply [1992] / MGM Entertainment:

Truly Madly Deeply is an intelligent, moving, and deeply funny story about love and death. Nina (Juliet Stevenson), a scatterbrained professional translator, has lost the love of her life, Jamie (Alan Rickman). As her life (and her flat) slowly falls to pieces, she is inundated with an endless stream of repairmen and eligible suitors. But rather than go on with life, Nina dwells on her dead love, slumped at her piano, endlessly playing half of a Bach duet. Then, in a truly magical sequence, his cello suddenly joins her melody. and Jamie's back from the dead. At first it's bliss-think of the superficially similar blockbuster Ghost, only with real people instead of pretty faces Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze. But Nina gradually realises it's a thoroughly real Jamie who's back; complete with every annoying, argumentative fault she'd conveniently forgotten. [+]
(He might be dead, he explains, but he still attends political meetings. ) Moreover, he has to hide whenever any of the living are around. And he's constantly ice-cold. And he invites his dead pals to her place at all hours. What's a living woman to do? Director Anthony Minghella went on to create the melodramatic period piece The English Patient-but in this film, he shows a far more sensitive, subtle touch. The photography is brilliant, capturing the simple beauties of suburban London. And the wonderfully acted characters, quirky and all too real, will keep you laughing-and always guessing what will happen next. -Grant Balfour, Amazon. com.

Actors & Directors
  • Millicent Martin
  • Harry Andrews
  • Denholm Elliott
  • Clive Donner
  • Alan Bates
  • Pauline Delaney
Release date: 1996-02-26
Run time: 110 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £64.99

Review Nothing But The Best [1964] / Lumiere Pictures:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Dunston Checks In [1996]
Actors & Directors
  • Faye Dunaway
  • Eric Lloyd
  • Ken Kwapis
  • Jason Alexander
  • Rupert Everett
  • Graham Sack
Release date: 1996-09-23
Run time: 84 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £1.94

Review Dunston Checks In [1996] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:


Review Warner Home Video / Ready To Rumble [2000]
Actors & Directors
  • Bill Goldberg
  • David Arquette
  • Brian Robbins
  • Scott Caan
  • Oliver Platt
  • Rose McGowan
Release date: 2001-05-28
Run time: 102 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £10.00

Review Ready To Rumble [2000] / Warner Home Video:


Review / The Chain [1984] [1985]
Actors & Directors
  • Leo McKern
  • Bernard Hill
  • Jack Gold
  • Warren Mitchell
  • Tony Westrope
  • Gary Waldhorn
Release date: 2000-01-26
Run time: 92 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £4.69

Review The Chain [1984] [1985]:


Review 2 Entertain Video / The Office - The Christmas Specials
Actors & Directors
  • Ricky Gervais
Release date: 2004-10-25
Run time: 90 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £1.61

Review The Office - The Christmas Specials / 2 Entertain Video:


Review Mia Video Entertainment Ltd / Love At First Bite [1979]
Actors & Directors
  • Dick Shawn
  • George Hamilton
  • Arte Johnson
  • Susan Saint James
  • Stan Dragoti
  • Richard Benjamin
Release date: 1991-04-15
Run time: 91 min.
RRP: £10.99
Price: £22.90

Review Love At First Bite [1979] / Mia Video Entertainment Ltd:


Review 2 Entertain Video / Gary Larson's Tales From The Far Side
Actors & Directors
  • Kathleen Barr
  • Doug Parker
  • Lee Tockar
  • Marv Newland
  • Dale Wilson
Release date: 1999-11-01
Run time: 60 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £6.99

Review Gary Larson's Tales From The Far Side / 2 Entertain Video:


Review Warner Home Video / Gremlins 2 - The New Batch [1990]
Actors & Directors
  • Zach Galligan
  • Phoebe Cates
  • Robert Picardo
  • John Glover
  • Joe Dante
  • Haviland Morris
Release date: 1995-08-14
Run time: 102 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £1.54

Review Gremlins 2 - The New Batch [1990] / Warner Home Video:


Review 2 Entertain Video / Wallace And Gromit - A Close Shave [1995]
Actors & Directors
  • Anne Reid
  • Peter Sallis
  • Nick Park
Release date: 1995-12-27
Run time: 30 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £9.54

Review Wallace And Gromit - A Close Shave [1995] / 2 Entertain Video:

Hot from the international triumph of The Wrong Trousers, clay animator Nick Park knew that his third Wallace & Gromit film was going to have to be the biggest and best adventure yet for the mild-mannered inventor Wallace and his perceptive pooch Gromit. With the ambitiously zany plot of A Close Shave, Park and his fellow animators rose to the occasion and their film won the 1995 Academy Award (Park's second Oscar) for Best Animated Short. This time out, Wallace & Gromit have teamed up to provide a window-washing service, and that's how Wallace meets the lovely Wendolene Ramsbottom, a wool-shop owner whose malevolent dog Preston turns out to be the mastermind of a sheep-napping scheme! Of course, no Wallace & Gromit adventure can be without a grandiose gadget, so Wallace's latest invention is the Knit-O-Matic, a yarn-making machine capable of shearing a whole flock of sheep just a bit too efficiently! When the villainous Preston gains control of the mechanical knitting marvel, Gromit must race to the rescue, and A Close Shave reaches new heights of clay-animation mastery. Every shot is a testament to Nick Park's patience, his clever ingenuity, and his filmmaking flair. The movie's so technically impressive, in fact, that the whole world wondered where Park could go next. It was clear that Wallace & Gromit would eventually star in an animated feature-length movie, since this marvellous 30-minute film represents its own kind of short-form perfection. -Jeff Shannon, Amazon. com.

Review Playback / Open All Hours - Series 1 And 2
Actors & Directors
  • Lynda Baron
  • Ronnie Barker
  • David Jason
Release date: 2002-08-19
Run time: 390 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £9.25

Review Open All Hours - Series 1 And 2 / Playback:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Home Alone 2 - Lost In New York [1992]
Actors & Directors
  • Brenda Fricker
  • Tim Curry
  • Chris Columbus
  • Catherine O'Hara
  • John Heard
  • Macaulay Culkin
Release date: 2003-10-20
Run time: 115 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £0.49

Review Home Alone 2 - Lost In New York [1992] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

This somewhat unpleasant 1992 sequel to the blockbuster Home Alone revisits the first film's gimmick by stranding Macaulay Culkin's character in New York City while his family ends up somewhere else. Again, the little guy meets up with colourful people on the margins of society (including a pigeon woman played by Brenda Fricker) and again he gets into a prop-heavy battle with Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern. The latter sequence is even worse than the first film in terms of violence inflicted on the two villains (director Chris Columbus, who also made the first film, can't seem to emphasise the slapstick over the graphic effects of the fight). The best running joke finds a concierge (Tim Curry) at the swank hotel where Culkin is staying trying and failing to prove that the boy is on his own. -Tom Keogh.

Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Eddie Murphy - The Best Of Saturday Night live [1988]
Actors & Directors
  • Stevie Wonder
  • Joe Piscopo
  • Eddie Murphy
Release date: 1990-11-05
Run time: 78 min.
Price: £10.99

Review Eddie Murphy - The Best Of Saturday Night live [1988] / Paramount Home Entertainment:


Actors & Directors
  • Mario Zampi
  • Frank Launder
  • Guy Middleton
  • Bill Travers
  • George Cole
  • Alastair Sim
  • A.E. Matthews
Release date: 1994-06-27
Run time: 184 min.
RRP: £10.99
Price: £32.25

Review Geordie / Laughter In Paradise [1955] / Lumiere Pictures:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment / The First Wives Club [1996]
Actors & Directors
  • Goldie Hawn
  • Hugh Wilson
  • Bette Midler
  • Diane Keaton
Release date: 2000-10-02
Run time: 98 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £1.98

Review The First Wives Club [1996] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler and Diane Keaton prove revenge is a dish best served cold. Former college buddies, they reunite at the funeral of a dear friend who took a swan dive onto Fifth Avenue. All three discover they share the same unhappy history of husbands who dove into middle-age by dumping them for trophy wives. Forming a warring triumvirate, they decide to get even, and along the way remind themselves of long-forgotten capabilities. The action gets a little too "wacky" at times, but the gals are great. Portraying an ageing actress, Hawn is sometimes a little too flamboyant, but there is much fun to be had in her flashiness, especially when she pokes fun at Tinseltown and her persona. Instead of her usual brashness, Midler stretches herself and shows us a woman who is not just unhappy, but also deeply sorrowful. Not that she isn't quick with a wisecrack, but her expressive face alone tells the story of her marriage. As the repressed and guilt-ridden spouse of a self-involved ad executive, Keaton finds her anger, and her voice, when her psychiatrist (Marcia Gay Harden) oversteps ethical boundaries. Watching Keaton grow from an ineffectual homemaker into a powerful businessperson reminds us that it has been far too long since she has done a comedy. [+]
Director Hugh Wilson smartly chose supporting players who each brought something unique to the film. However, he does not maintain the first hour's effervescent humour throughout the film, as the ending is weakened by a softening of the wives' resolve. -Rochelle O'Gorman.

Review Lions Gate Home Entertainment / Bend It Like Beckham [2002]
Actors & Directors
  • Parminder K. Nagra|Keira Knightley
  • Gurinder Chadha
Release date: 2002-11-18
Run time: 113 min.
RRP: £16.99
Price: £0.39

Review Bend It Like Beckham [2002] / Lions Gate Home Entertainment:

For all its light-hearted comic interludes, Bend it like Beckham tackles contemporary issues of cultural clashes, female independence and the importance of family. Director Gurinder Chaddha tells the story of Jess Bhamra (Parminder K Nagra), a young girl brought up within the traditional boundaries of a Sikh family who manages to live out her fantasies in an uproarious way. Despite her parent's grounded roots the anglicised Jess joins the Hounslow Harriers and, with the help of her friend Jules (Keira Knightley), sneaks out of the house to follow her dream of playing alongside all-time hero David Beckham. The film draws interesting parallels between the two girls, one British and one Asian, highlighting that although their colour may be different many of their ideals are the same. Jules' British mother is no less horrified by her daughter's natural talent in soccer than Mrs Bhamra, and even mistakes one embrace between the girls as a lesbian relationship. Refreshingly, though, for once the parents are not portrayed as unreasonable: their disapproval of Jess' chosen path is a result of their concern for her, and in the end they can't help but to give in to her dreams. All in all, this is a film that shows the meaning of being British Asian today-and how it is possible for Asian girls to make round chapattis as well as to bend it like Beckham. -Anika Puri.

Models & Brands:
The Princess Bride [1987], Local Hero [1983], Big Bad World - The Complete Series 1 [1999], The Simpsons - Heaven and Hell [1990], Truly, Madly, Deeply [1992], Nothing But The Best [1964], Dunston Checks In [1996], Ready To Rumble [2000], The Chain [1984] [1985], The Office - The Christmas Specials, Love At First Bite [1979], Gary Larson's Tales From The Far Side, Gremlins 2 - The New Batch [1990], Wallace And Gromit - A Close Shave [1995], Open All Hours - Series 1 And 2, Home Alone 2 - Lost In New York [1992], Eddie Murphy - The Best Of Saturday Night live [1988], Geordie / Laughter In Paradise [1955], The First Wives Club [1996], Bend It Like Beckham [2002]

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