On remote Isla Nuba entrepreneur John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) has built the ultimate theme-park, populated by genetically engineered dinosaurs painstakingly reconstructed from DNA extracted from prehistoric amber. and, of course, frogs! Adapted from Michael Crichton's novel, Steven Spielberg's classic blockbuster became a cultural and commercial phenomenon thanks in part to the enduring appeal of all things prehistoric. But the film's extraordinarily realistic digital dinosaurs also showcased the spectacular computer-generated effects which have since become ubiquitous in Hollywood filmmaking. Indeed, in the years since 1993 it is debatable whether any film has revolutionised special effects to such an extent, and this DVD release offers the perfect opportunity to relive its visual and aural splendour (the film was also the first to be released with a DTS soundtrack). Given the rather insipid team of experts (including Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum) sent to approve Hammond's site, there is no doubt that the dinosaurs are the real stars of Spielberg's film. From the benign majesty of the towering brachiosaurus to the reptilian menace of the velociraptors, the inhabitants of Jurassic Park were a radical departure from their stop-motion predecessors, and remain compellingly real in their animalistic pursuit of survival at all costs. Most memorable of all is the T-rex, displaying a spine-chilling combination of physical ferocity and child-like bewilderment in the face of its reincarnation in the modern world. It was no surprise that in The Lost World sequel the T-rex once again took centre stage, but this first appearance still retains a unique power and a seminal place in film history. [+]

Just awful enough to qualify as someone's guilty pleasure, this convoluted thriller was supposed to cash in on the supposedly sexy teaming of Sylvester Stallone and Sharon Stone (then hot from her ample exposure in Basic Instinct), but their naked groping in a shower provides one of the film's unintentionally funny highlights. Ray Quick (Stallone) is a former CIA bomb expert whose former colleague (James Woods) is now in cahoots with a Miami drug cartel led by kingpin Joe Leon (Rod Steiger), who chews the scenery while his son Tomas (Eric Roberts) proceeds with a greedy hidden agenda. May Munro (Stone) hires Quick to kill off Roberts. The Specialist, featuring lots of explosions and redeemed by a dandy role for James Woods, is best suited for ardent Stallone and Stone fans. -Jeff Shannon.

Irreversible begins with the closing credits running backwards before the film begins (or ends) with Marcus (Vincent Cassell) and Pierre (Albert Dupontel) being escorted out of a gay s/m club by the cops, Marcus with his arm broken and Pierre in handcuffs. The "story" proceeds to unwind in a series of single-take scenes that unfold Memento-style, with each scene giving more context to what we have seen previously. Each scenario depicts actions, dialogue, incident, behaviour and circumstance that the lead characters might have wished didn't happen, ranging from extreme violence through awkward social situations to mild embarrassment. The central character (and possible dreamer of this whole what-if story) emerges as Alex (Monica Bellucci), who suffers the worst in a very hard-to-watch rape sequence in an underpass. Semi-improvised, the scenes all have attack and power as themes, with later/earlier conversational sequences that suggest life isn't all sexual assaults in the dark, showing equal cinematic imagination with the horrors. Arguably, this is not a film most would subject themselves to twice, but it is something that stays in the mind for days after viewing, sparking far more ideas and emotions than most wallow-in-nastiness pictures. -Kim Newman.

Enjoyable on many levels. OK, it's enjoyable on only one level-if you're a big fan of Mike Myers's screwball idea of funny. That this script had been through a lot of hands in Hollywood before Myers agreed to star in it (using his Wayne's World clout) seems amazing as most of the truly funny bits here seem to be straight from Myers. Most memorable is his role as his own irascible Scottish father, screaming at his youngest son and talking about the Bay City Rollers. But Myers also plays Charlie, a bookshop owner/poet who falls in love with a "hardhearted harbinger of haggis", the local butcher (Nancy Travis), who may also be a serial killer. Mostly enjoyable, but there's also some weird stuff here. Try as you might, you may never rid yourself of the image of Brenda Fricker and Anthony LaPaglia making out. Also features a great soundtrack with Soul Asylum and Toad the Wet Sprocket. [+]

Pierce Brosnan returns for his second stint as James Bond (after GoldenEye) and he's doing it in high style with an invigorating cast of co-stars. It's only appropriate that a Bond film from 1997 would find Agent 007 pitted against a media mogul (Jonathan Pryce) who's going to start a global war-beginning with stolen nuclear missiles aimed at China-to create attention-grabbing headlines for his latest multimedia news channel. It's the information age run amok and Bond must team up with a lovely and lethal agent from the Chinese External Security Force (played by Hong Kong action star Michelle Yeoh) to foil the madman's plot of global domination. Luckily for Bond, the villain's wife (Teri Hatcher) is one of his former lovers and, at the behest of his superior M (Judi Dench), 007 finds ample opportunity to exploit the connection. Although it bears some nagging similarities to many formulaic action films from the '90s, Tomorrow Never Dies (with a title song performed by Sheryl Crow) boasts enough grand-scale action and sufficiently intelligent plotting to suggest the Bond series has plenty of potential to survive into the next millennium. Armed with the usual array of gadgets (including a remote-controlled BMW), Brosnan settles into his role with acceptable flair and the dynamic Yeoh provides a perfect balance to the sexism that once threatened to turn Bond into a politically incorrect anachronism. He's still Bond, to be sure, but he's saving the world with a bit more sophisticated finesse. -Jeff Shannon Pierce Brosnan returns for his second stint as James Bond in Tomorrow Never Dies and he's doing it in high style with an invigorating cast of co-stars. It's only appropriate that a Bond film from 1997 would find Agent 007 pitted against a media mogul (Jonathan Pryce) who's going to start a global war-beginning with stolen nuclear missiles aimed at China-to create attention-grabbing headlines for his latest multimedia news channel. It's the information age run amok and Bond must team up with a lovely and lethal agent from the Chinese External Security Force (played by Hong Kong action star Michelle Yeoh) to foil the madman's plot of global domination. [+]

This 1998 testosterone-saturated blow-'em-up from producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Michael Bay (The Rock, Bad Boys) continued Hollywood's millennium-fuelled fascination with the destruction of our planet. There's no arguing that the successful duo understand what mainstream audiences want in their blockbuster movies-loads of loud, eye-popping special effects, rapid-fire pacing, and patriotic flag waving. Bay's protagonists-the eight crude, lewd, oversexed (but, of course, lovable) oil drillers summoned to save the world from a Texas-sized meteor hurling toward the earth-are not flawless heroes, but common men with whom all can relate. In this huge Western-in-space soap opera, they're American cowboys turned astronauts. Sci-fi buffs will appreciate Bay's fetishising of technology, even though it's apparent he doesn't understand it as anything more than flashing lights and shiny gadgets. Smartly, the duo also try to lure the art-house crowd, raiding the local indie acting stable to populate the film with guys like Steve Buscemi, Billy Bob Thornton, Owen Wilson, and Michael Duncan, all adding needed touches of humour and charisma. When Bay applies his sledgehammer aesthetics to the action portions of the film, it's mindless fun; it's only when Armageddon tackles humanity that it becomes truly offensive. Not since Mississippi Burning have racial and cultural stereotypes been substituted for characters so blatantly-African Americans, Japanese, Chinese, Scottish, Samoans, Muslims, French. [+]

Not a John F Kennedy biopic, but a film of New Orleans' attorney Jim Garrison's investigation into the President's assassination, JFK is that rarest of things, a modern Hollywood drama which credits the audience with serious intelligence and ultimately proves itself a great film. Oliver Stone's film has the archetypal story, visual scale and substance to match; not just a gripping real-life conspiracy thriller, but a fable for the fall of the American dream (a theme further explored by the director in Nixon and Any Given Sunday). JFK doesn't reveal exactly what happened in Dallas on 22 November 1963-those who knew generally took their secrets to the grave-but marshals a vast wealth of facts and plausible theories, trusting the audience to draw its own conclusions. Following less than a year after Dances With Wolves (1990), these two epics mark the high point of Kevin Costner's career and the vast supporting cast here, including Gary Oldman, Kevin Bacon, Sissy Spacek and Donald Sutherland, is superb. Quite simply the best American political film ever made. -Gary S Dalkin.

You will never find a more chillingly suspenseful, perversely funny, or viciously satirical political thriller than The Manchurian Candidate, based on the novel by Richard Condon (author of Winter Kills). The film, withheld from distribution by star Frank Sinatra for almost a quarter-century after President Kennedy's assassination, has lost none of its potency over time. Former infantryman Bennet Marco (Sinatra) is haunted by nightmares about his platoon having been captured and brainwashed in Korea. The indecipherable dreams seem to centre on Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey), a decorated war hero but a cold fish of a man whose own mother (Angela Lansbury, in one of the all-time great dragon-lady roles) describes him as looking like his head is "always about to come to a point". Mrs Bates has nothing on Lansbury's character, the manipulative queen behind her second husband, Senator John Iselin (James Gregory), a notoriously McCarthyesque demagogue. -Jim Emerson.