Sir Richard Attenborough (Gandhi) directs this semi-successful drama about the relationship between South African black activist Steven Biko and a sympathetic newspaper editor (Kevin Kline). Attenborough's typical sweep of the life and times of Biko is particularly rewarding in the first half of the film, but once the leader comes to his untimely end at the hands of white police, the story shifts entirely to Kline's character and the latter's efforts to escape the country with his family. That change is a tactical error in the script that robs the film of its initial power and makes the arguably unfortunate choice of emphasizing the destiny of a white character when Biko himself deserved an entire feature for his story and causes. -Tom Keogh.

kris kristofferson,wendy hughes,james mason,tom skerritt. drama thriller about a builder who has pride in his building of a new holiday resort unaware that his partner has plans to burn it down for profit.

Edge of Darkness (1985) took the thriller serial to a new level of ambition, addressing the rising tide of environmental awareness-in parallel with John Boorman's The Emerald Forest (also 1985)-and asking such unflinching questions as what is the price of justice, and who, ultimately, rules Britain? If this sounds too worthy, the series' triumph was to address these concerns in the form of the most nerve-shredding, intense and dangerous television adventure yet screened. This tape presents the final three episodes, Craven (Bob Peck) going way beyond the point of no return as the secrets of Northmoor lead to an emotionally shattering, unforgettable conclusion. Troy Kennedy-Martin's brilliantly constructed story here confidentially exceeds the confines of any previous TV thriller, ending as an apocalyptic epic with global implications. Kennedy-Martin had previously written for The Sweeney, and here wedded that series violent cynicism to a spiralling maelstrom of a plot which echoed both The Medusa Touch and The Ipcress File. He next teamed mix-nationality investigators in the predictable but entertaining Schwarzenegger vehicle Red Heat, while Bob Peck starred in Jurassic Park and director Martin Campbell went on to Criminal Law, Goldeneye and The Mask of Zorro. -Gary S. Dalkin Groundbreaking environmental-espionage shocker Edge of Darkness (1985) begins routinely enough but then ratchets the suspense to levels that would have turned Hitchcock green with envy. Emma Craven (Joanne Whalley in her first starring role) is a young environmental activist killed in mysterious circumstances. Emma's father Ron Craven (Bob Peck in a star-making performance) will not be silenced and, as a police detective, is uniquely positioned to pursue his own unofficial investigation. He moves from grief to a determination to find the truth, all the while advised and comforted by Emma, but is she a ghost or a manifestation of his haunted psyche? Craven digs deeper, uncovering labyrinthine conspiracy in the nuclear industry and, as the body-count rises, encounters the garrulous CIA agent Darius Jedburgh (a superb Joe Don Baker) with a mysterious agenda of his own. [+]

In 1987, almost 100 years after its first production, the romantic story of Cyrano de Bergerac found new life in a winsome film written by Steve Martin. Roxanne updates the tale with a smart 80s' spin, yet writer-star Martin stays close to the old-fashioned heart of the matter. He plays a small-town fireman named CD Bales, whose otherwise unremarkable existence is crowned by an amazingly long nose. He falls for the world's most beautiful astronomer (Daryl Hannah), but he is embarrassed by the size of his proboscis and prefers to stay on the sidelines. Like Cyrano, the shy CD instead helps a handsome friend (Rick Rossovich) woo the fair lady by providing flowery sentiments and soulful poetry. Not only does the story still work, but director Fred Schepisi captures a dreamy grace in his visual design for the film (some of which will be lost without the widescreen format). Set in Washington State, but filmed in the hilly ski resort of Nelson, British Columbia, the location seems like a fairy-tale town, nearly as unreal as Steve Martin's nose. -Robert Horton, Amazon. com.

In 1987, Buster was as much an experiment in film as its subject matter was in robbery. Could audiences ignore the rock singer status of Phil Collins in the lead role? Would audiences still be interested in a 25-year-old cash grab that had been considerably devalued by a currency gone metric? By and large the answer to both was "yes", helped considerably by a high budget (for a British film) it perfectly remade the 1960s experience. Collins as Buster Edwards is only one of a gang who all seem doomed to be captured after their £2. 5 million train heist. The caper is over within 30 minutes. However, the film is really about the love story between Buster and his doting yet long-suffering wife June (an excellent Julie Walters). When the action switches to sun-drenched Mexico, you just know her loyalty is going to be tested to extremes because that's when Collins' award-winning songs kick in! "Two Hearts" and "Groovy Kind of Love" may not be 60s-styled, but the message is that love always conquers time and place. On the DVD: The transfer is rather average, as are the talent profiles of Collins, Walters, Ralph Brown (the legendary Ronnie Biggs), and director David Green. Making up for them is a 50-minute "Making of" featurette that interviews everyone involved, including the real-life Buster. There's lots of on-set tomfoolery, and some first attempts at the hit songs that hardly flatter Collins' live singing voice! -Paul Tonks.

"Time-Flight" is the four-episode serial that concluded Peter Davison's first season as the fifth Doctor. Arriving at Heathrow Airport with companions Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) and Tegan (Janet Fielding), still grieving after the death of Adric in "Earthshock" (1982), the Doctor is soon involved in solving the mystery of a Concorde that has literally vanished into thin air. Tracing the lost plane's flight-path in a second Concorde, the travellers find themselves flying through a hole in time into the prehistoric past. Here the Master (Anthony Ainley) under the rather camp persona of Kalid (which strangely he maintains even when alone) is planning to harness the power of the currently disembodied alien Xeraphin who are stranded on Earth. Echoing both the classic 1960 Twilight Zone episode "The Odyssey of Flight 33" and prefiguring Stephen King's chilling The Langoliers (1990), at heart "Time-Flight" is a reworking of the superior Tom Baker Doctor Who story "City of Death" (1979). Ending on a minor cliff-hanger, what makes the story really distinctive is that it was the first drama of any sort to be given permission to film in and around a genuine Concorde. -Gary S. Dalkin.

Scorned by reviewers when it came out, Where Eagles Dare has acquired a cult following over the years for its unashamed and highly concentrated dose of commando death-dealing to legions of Nazi machine-gun fodder. In 1968 Clint Eastwood was just getting used to the notion that he might be a world-class movie star; Richard Burton, whose image had been shaped equally by classical theatre and his headline-making romance with Elizabeth Taylor, was eager to try his hand at the action genre. Author Alistair MacLean's novel The Guns of Navarone had inspired the film that started the 1960s vogue for World War II military capers, so he was prevailed upon to write the screenplay (his first). The central location, an impregnable Alpine stronghold locked in ice and snow, is surpassing cool, but the plot and action are ultra-mechanical, and the switcheroo gamesmanship of just who is the undercover double (triple?) agent on the mission becomes aggressively silly. -Richard T Jameson.

Fuelled by a scorchingly erotic performance from Isabelle Adjani, the ingeniously plotted One Deadly Summer spirals from provincial drama into a disturbing and complex psychological thriller, proving itself among the most under-rated of modern French films. In the hottest summer since Body Heat, Eliane (Adjani) and local mechanic Pin Pon (Alain Souchon) begin an affair then marry. From this starting point (a similar plot device to Chabrol's Le Boucher, 1969), life in a beautiful small town in Southern France begins to come apart. Under Jean Becker's direction every character is fully rounded, and the naturalistic tone adds considerably to the impact of an intense drama that offers the perfect showcase for Adjani, establishing once and for all what an extraordinarily accomplished actress she can be. Where Beatrice Dalle in Betty Blue was similarly erotically charged and mentally unstable, Eliane has a dark and obsessive agenda that anticipates the sexual psychosis of Basic Instinct. Combining an art-house love of the French countryside with more class than a dozen Hollywood erotic thrillers, One Deadly Summer is a striking vision of sex gone bad which builds to a shocking climax. It deserves to take its place as a modern classic. -Gary S Dalkin.

After the technical achievement of Babe, it was almost inevitable that "talking animal" effects would be applied to the serious themes of George Orwell's Animal Farm. A bitterly satirical indictment of Stalinist Russia and the failure of Communism, Orwell's 1945 novel is a time-honoured classic, so it's only fitting that this TNT production remains largely faithful to Orwell's potent narrative. A showcase for the impressive creations of Jim Henson's Creature Shop (where director John Stephenson was a veteran supervisor), the film employs animatronic creatures and computer animation to tell the story of uprising, unity, and tragic rebellion among the farm animals. The politics of "Animalism" are initially effective, ousting enemy humans according to rules ordained by Old Major, the barnyard pig whose death sets the stage for the corruptive influence of the pig Napoleon, who cites superior intelligence as his right to dominance. This tyrannical reign destroys the farm's stability, and the film-decidedly not for young children-preserves Orwell's dark, cynical view of absolute power corrupting absolutely. Particularly effective is a propaganda film shown to the barnyard collective, and certain scenes-while not as impressive as the Babe films-powerfully convey the force of Orwell's story through animal "performance". Animal Farm occasionally falters in its emotional impact (the fate of the horse Boxer should be heart-rending, and it isn't), but it's certainly blessed with an elite voice cast, including Peter Ustinov, Patrick Stewart, Pete Postlethwaite, Julia Ormond, Kelsey Grammer, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Paul Scofield, and Ian Holm. Not the masterpiece it might've been, this is nevertheless a worthy representation of Orwell's novel. -Jeff Shannon.

Five best friends, 48 hours and a bucket-load of ecstasy pills make for an enjoyably lightweight slice of pop-cultural ephemera from debut director Justin Kerrigan. Cardiff is the city, and hardcore partying, clubbing and pubbing is on the menu as Jip (John Simm) and his renegade band of McJobbers clock off and head out for a weekend of debauchery. Among Jip's hedonistic posse are the cheeky cockney drug-dealer Moff (Danny Dyer), the terminally jealous boyfriend Koop (Shaun Parkes), and the bad-boy magnet Lulu (Lorraine Pilkington). And that's pretty much it. Our heroes meet in a pub, get drunk, take drugs, go to a club, then to a party, then home, and then meet up in another pub, just in time for the closing credits. Along the way there's a shamefully lethargic attempt to establish character back-story: Jip is temporarily sexually impotent because his mother's a prostitute; Koop's father is institutionalised; Lulu has nasty boyfriends; and Moff has conservative parents. But generally Human Traffic is happier at the heart of the party, celebrating the intoxication of club culture-which it does in style. Kerrigan pulls out all the formal stops with an energetic melange of jump cuts, slo-mo, and speeded-up "smudge" motion camerawork. There's also direct addresses to camera, fantasy sequences and some self-conscious cameos from DJ Carl Cox and former-drug dealer Howard Marks, author of Mr Nice. Wall-to-wall music from the likes of Fatboy Slim, William Orbit and even Primal Scream help paste over the occasional cracks in the veneer, which include some particularly duff lines ("We're gonna get more spaced than Neil Armstrong ever did!") and a drawn analysis of drug references in Star Wars, a nod to the films of Kevin Smith, such as Clerks, Mallrats and Chasing Amy. [+]