This zany, eye-popping, knee-slapping landmark in combining animation with live-action ingeniously makes that uneasy combination itself (and the history of Hollywood) its subject. Who Framed Roger Rabbit is based on classic Los Angeles private-eye movies (and, specifically, Chinatown), with detective Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) investigating a case involving adultery, blackmail, murder, and a fiendish plot to replace LA's once-famous Red Car public transportation system with the automobiles and freeways that would later make it the nation's smog capital. Of course, his sleuthing takes him back to the place he dreads: Toontown, the ghetto for cartoons that abuts Hollywood and that was the site of a tragic incident in Eddie's past. In addition to intermingling cartoon characters with live actors and locations, Roger Rabbit also brings together the greatest array of cartoon stars in the history of motion pictures, from a variety of studios (Disney, Warner Bros, MGM, Fleischer, Universal, and elsewhere): Betty Boop, Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse, Woody Woodpecker, Droopy Dog, and more! And, of course, there's Maroon Cartoon's greatest star, Roger Rabbit (voice by Charles Fleischer), who suspects his ultra-curvaceous wife, Jessica Rabbit (voice by Kathleen Turner: "I'm not bad; I'm just drawn that way"), of infidelity. Directed by Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future, Forrest Gump, Contact), not since the early Looney Tunes' "You Oughtta Be in Pictures" has there been anything like Roger Rabbit. -Jim Emerson The words unique and groundbreaking are often bandied around in cinema, but on its original release in 1988, Who Framed Roger Rabbit was a genuine landmark in filmmaking. It remains a movie that has lost none of its impact. While many special effects in the cinema have a tendency to date, what is most noticeable here is how vibrant and fresh the combination of real actors and animation still appears. Created long before the days of CGI and other computer-enhanced aids, the hand-drawn characters have a real frisson and life to them that stems from their cartoon heritage (Jessica Rabbit must still rank as one of the all time great screen sex symbols). The human performances are also superb, from Hoskins' downtrodden PI to Christopher Lloyd's insane villain. [+]

Having taken Shakespeare at his word on Hamlet (i. e. , not cutting a single syllable out of a very long play), Kenneth Branagh selects a more radical approach with Love's Labour's Lost. Here the prolific director-star weeds out much of the play's dialogue, and adds songs and dances of a decidedly modern bent. The King of Navarre (Alessandro Nivola, Nicolas Cage's wacko brother in Face/Off) and his three comrades (Branagh, Matthew Lillard, Adrian Lester) take a vow: no womanly distractions while they pursue their studies. Ah, but at that very moment, floating down a magical studio-built river, is the queen of France (Alicia Silverstone), accompanied by three ladies-in-waiting. You do the maths. Branagh has set the tale on the eve of the Second World War, which allows for the inclusion of vintage pop songs, including "Cheek to Cheek", "The Way You Look Tonight" and a rousing chorus of "There's No Business Like Show Business", led by-who else?-Nathan Lane. The fact that most of the cast members are not accomplished song-and-dance folk is clearly meant to charm, but the results are spotty at best. Perhaps the most dynamic performer is Natascha McElhone (memorable from Ronin), whose aristocratic bearing and bottomless eyes lend a gravity to the material that is otherwise absent from Branagh's twinkly staging. [+]

Though promoted as a "full-length holiday movie", Mickey's Magical Christmas is more of a Christmas special spin-off from Disney's House of Mouse TV series. The premise is something like an animated Muppet Show: Mickey, Goofy and Donald run a nightclub for an audience of Disney characters, with plenty of songs, skits and cartoons. There's not much story to this holiday special-Mickey whips up an impromptu party for stranded guests and instils a "Humbug" quacking Donald with the holiday spirit-but it's full of sight gags and comic bits with dozens of Disney characters, from Ludwig von Duck to Pumba and Timmon. The special begins with the short Pluto's Christmas Tree and ends with the entire 1983 short film Mickey's Christmas Carol. However, the highlight is a comic retelling of The Nutcracker with Donald as a reluctant Mouse King (complete with phony Mickey Mouse ears) and John Cleese as the exasperated narrator. The special is utterly unmemorable as a whole, but nonetheless bright, light, cute and sure to keep the attentions of young tots. -Sean Axmaker, Amazon. com.

Through the 1980s and 90s the misadventures of Trotters Independent Trading Company were responsible for one of the BBC's best sitcoms, Only Fools and Horses. This "Selection Box" looks back over 15 years of the lives of Del Boy (David Jason) and Rodney (Nicholas Lyndhurst), and features some of their most memorable moments. From passing off TV remote controls as mobile phones, to Del confusing Brief Encounter with Close Encounters of the Third Kind, favourite clips are introduced by Ian Wright, Jeremy Clarkson, Sally Gunnel, Pauline Quirke, Lee Evans, Jack Dee and other celebrities. Topped and tailed by John Challis as Boycie, the tape is entertaining, but as a 29-minute TV special it has a hard time justifying its release as a stand-alone video. This would make an addition to a selection of episodes, but a tape of a complete season would probably give more lasting pleasure. -Gary S. Dalkin.

Draw-dropping version of Shakespeare's play with a cast including some of the biggest names in 30s Hollywood. The production also includes ballets by the great Nijinska and of course, Mendelssohn's wonderful score. A piece of undying Hollywood magic!.

Featuring a blousy, winningly inept size-12 heroine, Bridget Jones's Diary is a fetching adaptation of Helen Fielding's runaway bestseller, grittier than Ally McBeal but sweeter than Sex and the City. The normally sylphlike Renée Zellweger (Nurse Betty, Me, Myself and Irene) wolfed pasta to gain poundage to play "singleton" Bridget, a London-based publicist who divides her free time between binge eating in front of the TV, downing Chardonnay with her friends and updating the diary in which she records her negligible weight fluctuations and romantic misadventures of the year. Things start off badly at Christmas when her mother tries to set her up with seemingly standoffish lawyer Mark Darcy (Colin Firth), whom Bridget accidentally overhears "dissing" her. Instead she embarks on a disastrous liaison with her raffish boss, Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant, infinitely more likable when he's playing a baddie instead of his patented tongue-tied fops). Eventually, Bridget comes to wonder if she's let her pride prejudice her against the surprisingly attractive Mr Darcy. If the plot sounds familiar, that's because Fielding's novel was itself a retelling of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, whose romantic male lead is Mr Darcy. An extra ironic poke in the ribs is added by the casting of Firth, who played Austen's haughty hero in the acclaimed BBC adaptation of Austen's novel. First-time director Sharon Maguire directs with confident comic zest, while Zellweger twinkles charmingly, fearlessly baring her cellulite and pulling off a spot-on English accent. Like Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill (both of which were written by this film's co-screenwriter, Richard Curtis), Bridget Jones's stock-in-trade is a very English self-deprecating sense of humour, a mild suspicion of Americans (especially if they're thin and successful) and a subtly expressed analysis of thirtysomething fears about growing up and becoming a "smug married". The whole is, as Bridget would say, v. [+]

Funny Bones, directed by Peter Chelsom (Hear My Song), is a weird but intriguing comedy with a particularly dark edge. Oliver Platt plays a would-be comedian, the son of a major comedy star (Jerry Lewis); dad's reputation even overshadows his son's Las Vegas debut. After that flop the son tries to go back to his roots and heads across the Atlantic for his father's launch pad in Blackpool. There, he meets his previously unknown half-brother (Lee Evans), a bizarre comedy savant who teaches him a thing or two about taking risks to get laughs, and discovers a secret about how his father got started. Platt is likably lost and Lewis is perfectly overbearing, but the real find here is Evans, making his cinematic debut as the rubber-faced, protean comic with always surprising material. -Marshall Fine.