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Review Entertainment in Video / Highlander: The Sea Witch
Actors & Directors
  • Alexandra Vandernoot
  • Adrian Paul
  • Stan Kirsch
Release date: 1994-02-28
Run time: 90 min.
RRP: £10.99
Price: £10.95

Review Highlander: The Sea Witch / Entertainment in Video:


Review Entertainment in Video / Highlander: Family Tree
Actors & Directors
  • Adrian Paul
  • Alexandra Vandernoot
  • Stan Kirsch
Release date: 1994-02-02
Run time: 91 min.
RRP: £10.99
Price: £4.99

Review Highlander: Family Tree / Entertainment in Video:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Buffy The Vampire Slayer - Season 2 - Episodes 1 to 4 [1998]
Actors & Directors
  • Sarah Michelle Gellar
  • Alyson Hannigan
  • James Marsters
  • Anthony Head
  • Nicholas Brendon
Release date: 2000-03-06
Run time: 173 min.
Creator: Joss Whedon
RRP: £14.99
Price: £9.50

Review Buffy The Vampire Slayer - Season 2 - Episodes 1 to 4 [1998] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek The Next Generation 47 : The Nth Degree / QPID [1991]
Actors & Directors
  • Robert Legato
  • LeVar Burton
  • Cliff Bole
  • Jonathan Frakes
  • Michael Dorn
  • Patrick Stewart
  • Gates McFadden
Run time: 87 min.
RRP: £10.99
Price: £1.25

Review Star Trek The Next Generation 47 : The Nth Degree / QPID [1991] / Paramount Home Entertainment:


Review / Spawn [1997]
Actors & Directors
  • Michael Jai White
  • Theresa Randle
  • John Leguizamo
  • Nicol Williamson
  • Martin Sheen
  • Mark A.Z. Dippé
Run time: 96 min.
Creator: Todd McFarlane

Review Spawn [1997]:

After being murdered for quitting his role as a ruthless yet moral government assassin, Al Simmons (Michael Jai White) is sent to Hell, where he makes a pact with the demon Malebolgia-if Simmons is allowed to see his lover, Wanda, again, he will agree to lead the demon's armies to storm the gates of Heaven. Transformed into a superhuman entity with shape-shifting powers and quick regeneration capabilities, Simmons (soon to be dubbed "Spawn" by Malebolgia's crony, the Violator) returns to Earth and attempts to reunite with Wanda, not knowing that five years have passed. He also seeks revenge on his former boss and killer, Jason Wynn (Martin Sheen), who has made a deal with the Violator to develop a lethal virus to take over the world, where Wynn is promised to be king. Spawn wages an inner battle between good and evil as he tries to come to terms with selling his soul and what it could mean for humankind. Despite excellent special effects and great potential, Spawn seems to come up short. While White certainly displays verve in his characterisation of the twisted hero, he cannot overcome some forced dialogue. On the flip side, the usually engaging John Leguizamo portrays the sinister Violator-an evil monster masquerading as a rotund, weird-looking clown-as an irritating lackey who spews overbearing sarcasm and incessantly banal one-liners. Admitted, many of Spawn's action sequences are fun, and the transitions effectively brisk, but more could have been done to explore how Simmons grapples with his humanity in these daunting circumstances. But if you want sizzling action sequences and digital effects, this film should keep you happy. -Bryan Reesman.

Review Paramount Home Entertainment / The Untouchables [1987]
Actors & Directors
  • Andy Garcia
  • Charles Martin Smith
  • Brian De Palma
  • Kevin Costner
  • Robert De Niro
  • Sean Connery
Release date: 1993-08-23
Run time: 114 min.
Creator: Oscar Fraley
RRP: £9.99
Price: £2.49

Review The Untouchables [1987] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

The DVD extras follow the adage that if one has lemons, make lemonade. This "special" edition has no commentary track, and no new input from stars Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, and Andy Garcia or writer David Mamet. Yet DVD director Laurent Bouzereau has an ace up his sleeve that makes the four new featurettes (about 50 minutes of content) worth listening to: candid talk. The usual, stiff promotional take is jettisoned as producer Art Linson and director Brian De Palma honestly talk about the film's origins, the tricks of shooting, and the casting of Robert De Niro. These refreshing comments (plus insight from the cinematographer Stephen H. Burum and actor Charles Martin Smith), and better-than-average vintage interviews makes for valuable watching-even if the footage is intercut too often with film clips. To top it all off, there's a new Dolby Digital 5. 1 EX soundtrack. -Doug Thomas.

Review Digital Video Distribution / Graveyard Tramps [1973]
Actors & Directors
  • Anitra Ford
  • William Smith
  • Victoria Vetri
  • Cliff Osmond
  • Wright King
  • Denis Sanders
Release date: 1995-12-27
Run time: 85 min.
Creator: Sylvia Schneble
Price: £5.99

Review Graveyard Tramps [1973] / Digital Video Distribution:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Damien - Omen II [1978]
Actors & Directors
  • Robert Foxworth
  • Jonathan Scott-Taylor
  • William Holden
  • Mike Hodges
  • Nicholas Pryor
  • Don Taylor
  • Lee Grant
Release date: 1996-06-06
Run time: 102 min.
Creator: Stanley Mann
RRP: £5.99
Price: £3.90

Review Damien - Omen II [1978] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

Several years after the mysterious events that claimed the life of the US Ambassador and his wife, the now teenaged and militarily enrolled Damien Thorne is slowly being made aware of his unholy heritage and horrific destiny. Woe is he (including anyone in Damien's adoptive family and his classmates) who suspects the truth or gets in his way. While not as unrelentingly frightening as its blockbuster predecessor, this more-than-competent sequel to The Omen raises some interesting questions about the nature of free will (can the antichrist deny his birthright?) before falling into a gory series of increasingly outlandish deaths, the best of which is a terrifyingly protracted scene beneath the ice of a frozen lake. Jerry Goldsmith (who won an Oscar for his work on the first film in the series) contributes another marvellously foreboding score. -AndrewWright.

Review 4 Front Video / Urban Legend / Urban Legends 2 [1999]
Actors & Directors
  • Michael Rosenbaum
  • Jared Leto
  • Rebecca Gayheart
  • Alicia Witt
  • Loretta Devine
  • Jamie Blanks
Release date: 2002-07-22
Run time: 193 min.
Creator: Silvio Horta
RRP: £9.99
Price: £9.99

Review Urban Legend / Urban Legends 2 [1999] / 4 Front Video:

An attractive young woman is driving her car on a dark country road and singing along to the radio. She's running out of gas and so she pulls into a gas station (run by a jittery, stuttering Brad Dourif) but then flees what seems to be an attack, only to find the real threat in her backseat: a hooded killer with an axe who takes her head off with a well-aimed swing. You've heard the story before? Not surprising, given that it's one of the more famous urban legends borrowed for Urban Legend, a post-Scream exercise in self-referential horror. The students at an ivy-covered New England college are turning up dead, the victims of a serial killer who murders in the fashion of the "apocryphal" modern myths. It's all for the benefit of good girl with a dark secret Alicia Witt, the sole witness to most of the killings. Doe-eyed Rebecca Gayheart, as her gullible best friend, and Jared Leto, the ambitious campus journalist who tracks down the secret that hangs over the school, lead a cast of pretty young women, hunky guys and campus characters, notably the suspicious professor Robert Englund, a genre legend in his own right as the star of seven Nightmare on Elm Street films. Take away the cheeky remarks and self-awareness and it's a throwback to the 1970s' rash of teen slasher movies, where sexually active teens are sliced, diced and otherwise slaughtered in elaborate and ingenious ways. The increasingly preposterous film is no Scream but the modestly stylish production has its moments. -Sean Axmaker.

Review Entertainment in Video / Highlander: Innocent Man
Actors & Directors
  • Alexandra Vandernoot
  • Stan Kirsch
  • Adrian Paul
Release date: 1994-02-02
Run time: 90 min.
RRP: £10.99
Price: £1.99

Review Highlander: Innocent Man / Entertainment in Video:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / The Vanishing [1993]
Actors & Directors
  • Nancy Travis
  • George Sluizer
  • Jeff Bridges
  • Kiefer Sutherland
  • Sandra Bullock
  • Park Overall
Release date: 1999-10-01
Run time: 105 min.
Creator: Tim Krabbé
RRP: £5.99
Price: £2.85

Review The Vanishing [1993] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

It's not unusual for Hollywood to remake European hits. What is unusual is the director of the original getting the chance to helm the new version with an American cast, which is what happened with this film based on an intensely creepy Dutch film of the same name (both directed by George Sluizer). Kiefer Sutherland and Sandra Bullock are on vacation when, while stopped at a crowded rest area, she disappears. He devotes the next several years to discovering what happened to her, ruining his life in the process. When he does get a clue, it leads him to Jeff Bridges, who plays a bizarre and highly organized individual whose motives are almost as strange as he is. Bridges is spooky, but Sluizer ultimately is undone by Hollywood's demand for a happy ending, which makes this film affecting but far less unsettling than the original. -Marshall Fine Forget Hitchcock, forget Brian De Palma, The Vanishing is one of the scariest, most disturbing thrillers ever made. Yet there's not a knife, a gun, or a drop of blood in sight. The terror in George Sluizer's film is wholly psychological, insidiously uncoiling itself before our incredulous eyes. A young Dutch couple on holiday in France stop at a motorway service station, where the girl inexplicably vanishes. [+]
Desperately her boyfriend searches for her. Meanwhile, we're introduced to a dull, respectable French paterfamilias who, we gradually come to realise, is the man responsible for the girl's disappearance. But we don't know why, nor-yet more tantalisingly-what he's done with her. Neither does the boyfriend, for whom her disappearance becomes an obsession (the film's French title is L'Homme qui voulait savoir-"The Man Who Wanted to Know". ) Finally, horribly, he finds out. Operating quietly and cunningly, Sluizer keeps us constantly on edge. There's the unconventional plot structure, dropping us unexpectedly into what turns out to be an extended flashback; the twitchy disorientation of the hero, adrift in an alien language and culture (a shrewd use of the film's joint French/Dutch parentage); and above all the chillingly downbeat performance of Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu as the abductor, a living demonstration of the banality of evil. The Vanishing is one of those rare movies that insinuates itself under the skin of the mind and cannot be dislodged. Ill-advisedly, Sluizer let himself be tempted to Hollywood to direct an English-language remake that jettisoned all the subtlety of the original and tacked on an inane happy ending. Shun that version; this is the one to go for. On the DVD: The Vanishing comes to DVD with these slim pickings: the theatrical trailer, a filmography for Sluizer and a gallery of stills. But the transfer, digitally remastered in the original widescreen ratio, looks good and the sound matches it. -Philip Kemp.

Review / Tomb of the Undead
Actors & Directors
  • Susan Charney
  • John Hayes
  • Morton Dennis
  • John Dennis
  • Duncan McLeod
  • Lee Frost
Run time: 85 min.
Creator: John Jones

Review Tomb of the Undead:


Review Manga Entertainment / Crying Freeman - Chapter 3 - Retribution [1997]
Actors & Directors
  • Chiharu Kataishi
  • Wendee Lee
  • Steve Bulen
  • Kôhei Miyauchi
  • Toshio Furukawa
Release date: 1993-12-06
Run time: 50 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £1.27

Review Crying Freeman - Chapter 3 - Retribution [1997] / Manga Entertainment:


Review / Alien: Resurrection [1997]
Actors & Directors
  • Gary Dourdan
  • Ron Perlman
  • Jean-Pierre Jeunet
  • Dominique Pinon
  • Winona Ryder
  • Sigourney Weaver
Run time: 109 min.
Creator: Ronald Shusett
Price: £1.50

Review Alien: Resurrection [1997]:

Perhaps these films are like the Star Trek movies: the even-numbered episodes are the best ones. Certainly Alien Resurrection film (directed by French stylist Jean-Pierre Jeunet) is an improvement on Alien 3, with a script that breathes exciting new life into the franchise. This chapter is set even further in the future, where scientists on a space colony have cloned both the alien and Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), who died in Alien 3; in doing so, however, they've mixed alien DNA with Ripley's human chromosomes, which gives Ripley surprising power (and a bad attitude). A band of smugglers comes aboard only to discover the new race of aliens-and when the multi-mouthed melonheads get loose, no place is safe. But, on the plus side, they have Ripley as a guide to help them get out. Winona Ryder is on hand as the smugglers' most unlikely crew-member (with a secret of her own), but this one is Sigourney's all the way. -Marshall Fine Alien: Resurrection, the fourth entry in the franchise, is directed by French stylist Jean-Pierre Jeunet in a much more straightforward action-adventure manner than its predecessor, the dark and confusing Alien 3. This chapter is set even further in the future, where scientists on a space colony have cloned both the alien and Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), who died in Alien 3; in doing so, however, they've mixed alien DNA with Ripley's human chromosomes, which gives Ripley surprising power (and a bad attitude). A band of smugglers comes aboard only to discover the new race of aliens-and when the multi-mouthed melon heads get loose, no place is safe. But, on the plus side, they have Ripley as a guide to help them get out. [+]
Winona Ryder is on hand as the smugglers' most unlikely crew member (with a secret of her own), but this one is Sigourney's all the way. -Marshall Fine, Amazon. com On the DVD: Unlike the first Alien movie which has an excellent documentary and director's commentary, this DVD is light on extras (although digital picture and sound quality are excellent) with only a perfunctory "making of" featurette.

Review Cinema Club / Phantasm [1978]
Actors & Directors
  • Reggie Bannister
  • Angus Scrimm
  • Don Coscarelli
  • Kathy Lester
  • Michael Baldwin
  • Bill Thornbury
Release date: 2001-07-02
Run time: 85 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £1.24

Review Phantasm [1978] / Cinema Club:

Jody is the kind of guy that every 1970s teen looked up to. He's in his early 20s, has a cool car, splendid 1970s hair, a leather jacket, plays guitar and (naturally) snags all the girls. His little brother, Mike, in particular, admires him and emulates him at every turn. Things start to go astray, however, when the two brothers and their friend Reggie attend a funeral for a friend. Mike notices a tall man working at the funeral home; in the course of his snooping, he sees the tall man put a loaded coffin into the back of a hearse as easily as if it was a shoebox. Jody doesn't believe his little brother's stories, though, until he brings home the tall man's severed finger, still wriggling in what appears to be French's mustard. From there, the film picks up a terrific momentum that doesn't let up until the sequel-ripe twist ending. Phantasm was one of the first horror movies to break the unspoken rule that victims were supposed to scream, fall down and cower until they were killed. Instead, Mike and Jody are resourceful and smart, aggressively pursuing the evil inside the funeral home with a shotgun and Colt pistol. Furthermore, the script has a great deal of character development, especially in the relationship between the two brothers. [+]
The film even has a surprisingly glossy look, despite its low-budget origins, and little outright gore (except for the infamous steel spheres that drill into victims' heads). This drive-in favourite was a big success at the time of its release, and spawned three sequels. Little wonder; it includes an inventive story, likeable characters, a runaway pace and, of course, evil dwarves cloaked in Army blankets. The end result is one of the better horror films of the late 1970s. Hot-rod fans take note: Jody drives a Plymouth Hemi 'Cuda, the pinnacle of 1960s muscle cars, rounding out his status as a Cool Guy. -Jerry Renshaw.

Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 10 - Duet / In The Hands Of The Prophets [1995]
Actors & Directors
  • Rene Auberjonois
  • Cirroc Lofton
  • Colm Meaney
  • Avery Brooks
  • Alexander Siddig
Release date: 1994-01-10
Run time: 87 min.
Creator: Rick Berman
RRP: £5.99
Price: £1.89

Review Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 10 - Duet / In The Hands Of The Prophets [1995] / Paramount Home Entertainment:


Review Tartan Video / Crush [1993]
Actors & Directors
  • Marcia Gay Harden
  • William Zappa
  • Alison Maclean
  • Donogh Rees
  • Caitlin Bossley
Release date: 1994-06-27
Run time: 92 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £3.89

Review Crush [1993] / Tartan Video:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 9 - The Forsaken / Dramatis Personae [1995]
Actors & Directors
  • Colm Meaney
  • Avery Brooks
  • Cirroc Lofton
  • Alexander Siddig
  • Rene Auberjonois
Release date: 1994-01-10
Run time: 87 min.
Creator: Rick Berman
RRP: £5.99
Price: £2.49

Review Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 9 - The Forsaken / Dramatis Personae [1995] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

From the outset, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was about conflict. Producers Rick Berman and Michael Piller challenged the utopian ideals of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek universe to create something totally different from its predecessors. That meant no familial camaraderie, squeaky-clean Federation diplomacy, or beige décor. Instead they wanted inter-personal friction, ruthless enemies (Gamma Quadrant Imperialists-The Dominion) and rebellion at every turn. The DS9 concept was originally facilitated by introducing the Cardassian/Bajoran war during The Next Generation's final days. After a muted first reception fans gradually came to accept the new look, but no-one liked Star Trek without a starship and eventually the producers capitulated to viewers' wishes by introducing the USS Defiant (an apt name) in Season 3. Relying far less on technobabble than TNG, DS9 was unafraid to focus on matters of the spirit instead, demonstrating a gutsy independence from its parent shows. Taking up the gauntlet thrown down by Babylon 5, improved CGI space battles also became a fan favourite. Throughout the increasingly serialised story arc there were rebellious factions within the different establishments: Kira had belonged to the Shakaar resistance cell; The Maquis was Starfleet vs Cardassians; Section 31 was a secret Starfleet group; The True Way was a Bajoran group opposed to peace; the Cardassians had their Obsidian Order and the Romulans their Gestapo-like Tal Shiar. Yet for all its constant bickering and espionage (even Bashir got to be James Bond!), there was always some contemporary social commentary lurking: the Ferengi were used as a comedic foil to frown on materialistic greed; drugs were looked at via the Jem'Hadar foot soldiers' addiction to Ketracel White. [+]
Perhaps Sisko summed up the real heart of things: "Bajor doesn't need a man, it needs a legend". A future vision that retains a place for religion and spirituality turned out to be Deep Space Nine's first best destiny. -Paul Tonks.

Review Entertainment in Video / Highlander: See No Evil
Actors & Directors
  • Adrian Paul
  • Alexandra Vandernoot
  • Stan Kirsch
Release date: 1994-02-28
Run time: 90 min.
RRP: £10.99
Price: £15.95

Review Highlander: See No Evil / Entertainment in Video:


Review Uca Catalogue / The Harder They Fall [1956]
Actors & Directors
  • Mark Robson
  • Rod Steiger
  • Jan Sterling
  • Mike Lane
  • Max Baer
  • Humphrey Bogart
Release date: 2003-04-07
Run time: 105 min.
Creator: Budd Schulberg
RRP: £10.99
Price: £14.94

Review The Harder They Fall [1956] / Uca Catalogue:

A movie that proved a fine swansong for Humphrey Bogart, The Harder They Fall is a gripping drama set against a background of fixed boxing matches. Not so much about the fights as the exploitation of the sport, the film is based on a novel by Budd Schulberg, whose Oscar-winning screenplay for On the Waterfront (1954) helped turn Rod Steiger into a star. Here Steiger delivers an equally bravura performance as the chillingly corrupt manager, Nick Benko, a man who will do anything to turn a buck. Bogart meanwhile is outstanding as unemployed sports writer Eddie Willis, hired against his better judgement to promote a no-hope Argentinean boxer, Toro Moreno (Mike Lane). Powerfully written, if built around the unlikely premise of building a 10th-rate fighter into a world-class contender, the drama is essentially a battle for Willis's soul as he is torn between money and conscience. Though the scenes with Bogart and Steiger facing off are the strongest and a veritable masterclass of hardboiled characterisation, Mark Robson, who also helmed the Kirk Douglas boxing classic Champion (1949), directs with a convincingly dirty realism, the final punishing and bloody match a clear influence on Scorsese's Raging Bull (1980). On the DVD: The Harder They Fall's anamorphic 1. 77:1 transfer is excellent with only one brief scene showing any significant print damage. Burnett Guffey's noir-ish black-and-white cinematography looks sharp and fresh as the day it was shot, with only minimal grain. The mono sound is strong and clear, without a hint of distortion or compression. [+]
The only extra is a scored gallery of posters and lobby cards from other Bogart films available on Columbia. There are dubbed versions in French, German, Spanish and Italian, and a plethora of subtitle options. -Gary S Dalkin.

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Models & Brands:
Highlander: The Sea Witch, Highlander: Family Tree, Buffy The Vampire Slayer - Season 2 - Episodes 1 to 4 [1998], Star Trek The Next Generation 47 : The Nth Degree / QPID [1991], Spawn [1997], The Untouchables [1987], Graveyard Tramps [1973], Damien - Omen II [1978], Urban Legend / Urban Legends 2 [1999], Highlander: Innocent Man, The Vanishing [1993], Tomb of the Undead, Crying Freeman - Chapter 3 - Retribution [1997], Alien: Resurrection [1997], Phantasm [1978], Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 10 - Duet / In The Hands Of The Prophets [1995], Crush [1993], Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 9 - The Forsaken / Dramatis Personae [1995], Highlander: See No Evil, The Harder They Fall [1956]

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