An obvious attempt to cash in on the success of Jaws, this 1977 thriller was also based on a best-seller by Peter Benchley, and it features a memorable performance by Robert Shaw (the doomed shark hunter in Jaws) in one of the last roles of his career. Looking very tanned and healthy, Nick Nolte and Jacqueline Bisset play a young couple enjoying a tropical vacation who discover a glass ampoule while scuba diving off the coast of Bermuda. It takes a seasoned treasure hunter (Shaw) to identify the ampoule as part of a valuable shipment of World War II morphine lost at sea, coincidentally, atop the even greater treasure of a sunken Spanish galleon. Thus begins a race for drugs and treasure pitting Nolte, Bisset and Shaw against a ruthless drug lord (Louis Gossett Jr) who will do anything-even resort to Haitian voodoo-to get what he wants. It's all rather contrived and exploitative (after all, the movie's best known for Bisset's wet T-shirt scuba-dive), but as escapist entertainment goes it's got some exciting highlights including a moray eel that attacks on cue and. well, uh, Jacqueline Bisset in a wet T-shirt. -Jeff Shannon, Amazon. com.

One would think that after the aquatic horror of the previous three Jaws movies the remnants of the beleaguered Brodie family would be happily nursing their hydrophobia somewhere in Kansas. However, in Jaws-The Revenge, the fourth episode of the saga, we find that Ellen (Lorraine Gary) is still living on a tiny island, and her eldest son Michael (Lance Guest) has become, of all things, a marine biologist. Even when her younger son is slaughtered by yet another giant shark, all Ellen can do to take her mind off it is go to the Bahamas and gaze at the sea. There she embarks on a romantic affair with salty sea-pilot Hoagie (a nice turn from Michael Caine), but this peace is shattered as the shark begins to target her grandchildren and friends. Where this monster-with-a-grudge comes from, bearing in mind that the sharks in each of the previous movies got blown up or electrocuted, is something of a conundrum. But logic is clearly not a concern in a script that demands only that this film should bear some tenuous relation to its predecessors. The ghost of the far-superior original looms large here-in the form of Ellen's flashbacks (which actually use footage from the earlier films), scenes which overtly refer to moments from the series (Michael's son mimics him at the dinner table, as Michael once did to his own father) and a set littered with conspicuously large photos of Roy Scheider. There are nice touches-Michael and his Jamaican partner Jake (Mario Van Peebles) fit the shark with a heart monitor which lets off an eerie blipping sound when it approaches, it is nice to see a romance between more "mature" characters portrayed so warmly, and when the maternal Ellen forms the resolve to protect her family it even looks like she may briefly become a sort of geriatric Ripley character (a la Aliens). But with a shark that has never looked more rubbery, set pieces which lack suspense and invention and a short running time (only 86 minutes) it is hard to shake off the sensation that this is a made-for-TV film. Those wanting a dose of tongue-in-cheek killer-creature action would be better off avoiding this wet fish and taking in a Jaws rip-off with a little more bite, such as Deep Blue Sea or Deep Rising. [+]

Despite copious swearing and a corporate rock soundtrack, The Hole might, more appropriately, have begun with a title sequence of silhouettes cavorting in front of a fiery backdrop; it owes far more to Tales of the Unexpected than the slick US teen movies (I Know What You Did Last Summer, The Faculty) it tries so hard to imitate. This British horror flick displays the same cheap production values as the 1970's series, but rather than staying within the confines of a half-hour TV slot, The Hole stretches its thin, but promising, premise over 90 minutes. Based on Guy Burt's novel, the story follows three rich kids from an exclusive English boarding school who avoid their school field trip by hiding out in an underground bunker. Liz (a suitably embarrassed Thora Birch) tags along for the ride in the hope that she may consummate her crush on Mike Steel (Desmond Harrington), the school's resident American hipster. They are then left imprisoned, which should be the cue for The Breakfast Club Goes Insane but isn't, as director Nick Hamm eschews the straightforward in favour of clumsy flashbacks and contrived plot twists, robbing the film of any tension or shock and turning it into a tiresome stretch in the company of four very disagreeable stereotypes. The Hole is a witless movie, entirely lacking the self-referential humour and technical skill of its better American counterparts. If you want classic British horror, try Peeping Tom or The Wicker Man instead. The Hole is a movie that may be set deep underground, but ultimately it's a very shallow experience. On the DVD: the extras add nothing to this movie. The theatrical trailer and widescreen 2. [+]

Based on an idea by Gene Roddenberry Andromeda wears its debt to Star Trek on its sleeve, recalling the best sci-fi of Roddenberry's heyday. Kevin (ex-Hercules) Sorbo plays Captain Dylan Hunt, the sympathetically flawed idealist in command of the Andromeda Ascendant, a massive 1. 4km long starship of the now-disbanded Systems Commonwealth. The fall of civilisation has meant that although she ought to be a relic she remains the zenith of technological advancement. Episodes on this tape:Under the Night, An Affirming Flame, To Loose the Fateful Lightning "Under the Night". The pilot show for Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda presents a vaguely familiar future (to Star Trek fans anyway). The Galaxy is united under a common cause for good (The Commonwealth). Keeping the peace are enormous starships like the Andromeda Ascendant commanded by men of solid chins such as Kevin Sorbo's Captain Dylan Hunt. Unfortunately the calm only lasts about 10 minutes before the peace is shattered irrevocably in a spectacular space battle and Dylan finds himself "Under the Night" and 300 years too late too save it all. "An Affirming Flame". [+]

Star Trek: Enterprise-Vol. 1. 11 , the fifth live-action series to hail from the Star Trek universe, is without doubt the bravest concept since The Next Generation. Here we boldly go back to the future, 100 years before Captain Kirk, to the very first voyage of a starship called Enterprise. In fact, the concept-once announced at long last-caused an enormous furore among fans and critics. Would the costumes and sets be primary coloured like the 1960s original? Would the ship look like something made on Blue Peter? Would the Klingons look like Fu Manchu in boot polish? No, no and no came the official word at the same time as announcing that Scott (Quantum Leap) Bakula would be sitting in Captain Archer's squeaky new chair. He's accompanied on the new/old ship by his cute dog Porthos, antagonistic Vulcan T'Pol (Jolene Blalock filling the obligatory pin-up babe role) and an alien Doctor with indeterminate head make-up and mysterious origins. It took some time for the show to lift off. An over-familiar format (too much like Voyager) and too much involvement from previous cast and crewmembers were sources of dissatisfaction. But lurking behind the adventures was an insidiously intriguing subplot. [+]