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Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Angel, Series 4 Part 2 [2000]
Actors & Directors
  • David Boreanaz
  • Charisma Carpenter
Release date: 2003-09-08
Creator: Joss Whedon
RRP: £34.99
Price: £19.56

Review Angel, Series 4 Part 2 [2000] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

The second half of Angel's fourth year is a wild ride with no brakes and few stand-alone episodes. To recap, Los Angeles has fallen into perpetual night; Angel has mislaid his soul again; and something odd is going on with Cordelia, who is uncharacteristically aware of the effect of every word she utters. Wesley and Gunn are fighting over Fred; Lorne's ability to read souls is getting clouded, even when they sing karaoke; and the wounded Lilah is the only survivor of their former nemesis, the law firm of Wolfram and Hart, after a visit from the horned rock-like Beast. Things can only get worse-and, inventively and surprisingly, they do. Angel started off as an anthology show but in this season became so arc-heavy as to be almost impenetrable to the new viewer-but for the initiated it is as tense and suspenseful as 24 and even more prepared to put all of its characters in jeopardy. Things are so bad with the Beast, its hidden master and Angelus, that Faith (Eliza Dushku) breaks out of jail and back into the show to help out and Willow makes a surprise visit from Buffy. Particular praise is due to Gina Torres for her air of whimsical menace as the goddess Jasmine and to David Boreanaz for his silver-tongued devilry as Angelus and his brooding charm as Angel. -Roz Kaveney.

Review Fremantle Home Entertainment / Notorious [1946]
Actors & Directors
  • Leopoldine Konstantin
  • Louis Calhern
  • Ingrid Bergman
  • Claude Rains
  • Cary Grant
  • Alfred Hitchcock
Release date: 2000-10-30
Run time: 101 min.
Creator: John Taintor Foote
Price: £9.99

Review Notorious [1946] / Fremantle Home Entertainment:

One of Alfred Hitchcock's classics, this romantic thriller features a cast to die for: Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant and Claude Rains. Bergman plays the daughter of a disgraced father who is recruited by American agents to infiltrate a post-World War II spy ring in Brazil. Her control agent is Grant, who treats her with disdain while developing a deep romantic bond with her. Her assignment: to marry the suspected head of the ring (Rains) and get the goods on everyone involved. Danger, deceit, betrayal-and, yes, romance-all come together in a nearly perfect blend as the film builds to a terrific (and surprising) climax. Grant and Bergman rarely have been better. -Marshall Fine.

Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Sleeping With The Enemy [1991]
Actors & Directors
  • Kevin Anderson
  • Patrick Bergin
  • Joseph Ruben
  • Kyle Secor
  • Julia Roberts
  • Elizabeth Lawrence
Release date: 2003-04-07
Run time: 94 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £4.95

Review Sleeping With The Enemy [1991] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

This 1991 thriller by Joseph Ruben (True Believer) works up to a point: Julia Roberts plays an abused wife who fakes her death and starts anew under a different identity in Iowa. Her psychopathic husband (Patrick Bergin) figures it out and stalks her and her new boyfriend (Kevin Anderson). The best part of the film is the moody isolation of Roberts's life with Bergin. Ruben ingeniously stakes out the story by presenting what looks like an ideal life between the two-a nice house on the ocean, a seemingly healthy sex life, before pulling the rug out from under you feet. Vital to the plot but less interesting is everything afterward, but that's less an inherent script problem than it is obvious studio pressure to push Roberts as a cute star. There's even a sequence where the actress tries on a series of hats while Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl" plays on the soundtrack. Such insistent valentines to Roberts destroy most of Ruben's momentum and the film's credibility, and the project never quite recovers. -Tom Keogh.

Review MGM Entertainment / Moonraker [1979]
Actors & Directors
  • Roger Moore
  • Corinne Clery
  • Richard Kiel
  • Lois Chiles
  • Lewis Gilbert
  • Michael Lonsdale
Release date: 1996-05-28
Run time: 121 min.
Creator: Ian Fleming
RRP: £9.99
Price: £1.88

Review Moonraker [1979] / MGM Entertainment:

This was the first James Bond adventure produced after the success of Star Wars, so it jumped on the sci-fi bandwagon by combining the suave appeal of Agent 007 (once again played by Roger Moore) with enough high-tech hardware and special effects to make Luke Skywalker want to join Her Majesty's Secret Service. After the razzle-dazzle of The Spy Who Loved Me, this attempt to latch onto a trend proved to be a case of overkill, even though it brought back the steel-toothed villain Jaws (Richard Kiel) and scored a major hit at the box office. This time Bond is up against a criminal industrialist named Drax (Michel Lonsdale) who wants to control the world from his orbiting space station. In keeping with his well-groomed style, Bond thwarts this maniacal Neo-Hitler's scheme with the help of a beautiful, sleek-figured scientist (played by Lois Chiles with all the vitality of a department-store mannequin). There's a grand-scale climax involving space shuttles and ray guns, but despite the film's popular success, this is one Bond adventure that never quite gets off the launching pad. It's as if the caretakers of the James Bond franchise had forgotten that it's Bond-and not a barrage of gizmos and gadgets (including a land-worthy Venetian gondola)-that fuels the series' success. Despite Moore's passive performance (which Pauline Kael described as "like an office manager who is turning into dead wood but hanging on to collect his pension"), Moonraker had no problem attracting an appreciative audience, and there are even a few renegade Bond-philes who consider it one of their favourites. -Jeff Shannon.

Review Sovereign Multimedia Ltd / Survivors 1 - The Fourth Horseman / Genesis [1975]
Release date: 1998-05-11
Run time: 100 min.
Creator: Terry Nation
RRP: £10.99
Price: £7.00

Review Survivors 1 - The Fourth Horseman / Genesis [1975] / Sovereign Multimedia Ltd:


Review Pathe Distribution / Point Break [1991]
Actors & Directors
  • Kathryn Bigelow
  • Patrick Swayze
  • Lori Petty
  • John C. McGinley
  • Gary Busey
  • Keanu Reeves
Release date: 2003-06-30
Run time: 117 min.
Creator: W. Peter Iliff
RRP: £5.99
Price: £4.66

Review Point Break [1991] / Pathe Distribution:

A rash of daring bank robberies erupts, in which the bad guys all wear the masks of worse guys-former presidents (nice touch). Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves), an impossibly named former football star who blew out his knee and became a crime-busting fed instead, figures out that none of the heists occur during surfing season, and all of them occur when, so to speak, surf's down. So obviously, he reasons, we're dealing with some surfer-dude bank robbers. He goes undercover with just such a group, led by a very spiritual, very guru-type guy played by Patrick Swayze, who has some muddled philosophies when it comes to materialism. If you can buy all that, this efficiently directed (by Kathryn Bigelow) action flick has some diverting moments (credit it, for example, for anticipating the extreme-sports fad). But Reeves's intelligent-sounding lines don't make him seem remotely intelligent, and that plot makes him look positively brilliant. -David Kronke Efficiently directed by Kathryn Bigelow and featuring some diverting action scenes, 1991's Point Break can be credited with anticipating the extreme-sports fad. A rash of daring bank robberies erupt in which the bad guys all wear the masks of worse guys-former presidents (nice touch). Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves), an impossibly named former football star who blew out his knee and became a crime-busting federal agent instead, figures out that none of the heists occur during surfing season and all of them occur when, so to speak, surf's down. So obviously, he reasons, we're dealing with some surfer-dude bank robbers. [+]
He goes undercover with just such a group, led by a very spiritual guru-type Patrick Swayze, who has some muddled philosophies when it comes to materialism. Reeves' intelligent-sounding lines don't make him seem remotely intelligent, but the plot makes him look positively brilliant. -David Kronke.

Review Warner Home Video / Hamlet [1997]
Actors & Directors
  • Kate Winslet
  • Riz Abbasi
  • Kenneth Branagh
  • Julie Christie
  • Derek Jacobi
  • Kenneth Branagh
Release date: 2001-08-06
Run time: 121 min.
Creator: William Shakespeare
RRP: £6.99
Price: £11.75

Review Hamlet [1997] / Warner Home Video:

Kenneth Branagh's four-hour production of Shakespeare's full text for Hamlet is visually lush (shot in 70mm, which is rarely done) and full of fascinating story moments that normally get cut from shorter stage versions. (Your idea of what kind of fellow Polonius is may change quite a bit. ) The unexpurgated approach is truly enlightening, and Branagh intermittently succeeds at giving familiar moments in the drama an original cinematic spin, including Hamlet's spooky confrontation with his father's ghost (Brian Blessed). (Branagh also imposes some Hollywood glitter on the proceedings by casting the likes of Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, Charlton Heston and Jack Lemmon in the smaller parts. ) The pre-Titanic Kate Winslet is very good as the doomed Ophelia, and Derek Jacobi delivers a wonderfully nuanced performance as Claudius, whose character is definitely filled out by the restored material. Branagh's own performance is a little revisionist-some viewers have quibbled with it while others seem fine. -Tom Keogh.

Review CARLTON / The 39 Steps [1935]
Actors & Directors
  • Alfred Hitchcock
  • Godfrey Tearle
  • Peggy Ashcroft
  • Lucie Mannheim
  • Madeleine Carroll
  • Robert Donat
Release date: 2001-08-13
Run time: 106 min.
Creator: John Buchan
RRP: £10.99
Price: £8.84

Review The 39 Steps [1935] / CARLTON:

A high point of Hitchcock's pre-Hollywood career, 1935's The Thirty-Nine Steps is the first and best of three film versions of John Buchann's rather stiff novel. Robert Donat plays the rancher embroiled in a plot to steal British military secrets. He finds himself on the run; falsely accused of murder, while also pursuing the dastardly web of spies alluded to in the title. With a plot whose twists and turns match the hilly Scottish terrain in which much of the film is set, The Thirty-Nine Steps combines a breezy suavity with a palpable psychological tension. Hitchcock was already a master at conveying such tension through his cinematic methods, rather than relying just on situation or dialogue. Sometimes his ways of bringing the best out of his actors brought the worst out in himself. If the scene in which Donat is handcuffed to co-star Madeline Carroll has a certain edge, for instance, that's perhaps because the director mischievously cuffed them together in a rehearsal, then left them attached for a whole afternoon, pretending to have lost the key. The movie also introduces Hitchcock's favoured plot device, the "McGuffin" (here, the military secret), the unexplained device or "non-point" on which the movie turns. -David Stubbs A high point of Hitchcock's pre-Hollywood career, 1935's The Thirty-Nine Steps is the first and best of three film versions of John Buchan's rather stiff novel. Robert Donat plays Richard Hannay, who becomes embroiled in a plot to steal military secrets. [+]
He finds himself on the run; falsely accused of murder, while also pursuing the dastardly web of spies alluded to in the title. With a plot whose twists and turns match the hilly Scottish terrain in which much of the film is set, The Thirty-Nine Steps combines a breezy suavity with a palpable psychological tension. Hitchcock was already a master at conveying such tension through his cinematic methods, rather than relying just on situation or dialogue. Sometimes his ways of bringing the best out of his actors brought the worst out in himself. If the scene in which Donat is handcuffed to co-star Madeline Carroll has a certain edge, for instance, that's perhaps because the director mischievously cuffed them together in a rehearsal, then left them attached for a whole afternoon, pretending to have lost the key. The movie also introduces Hitchcock's favoured plot device, the "McGuffin" (here, the military secret), the unexplained device or "non-point" on which the movie turns. -David Stubbs.

Review MGM Entertainment / For Your Eyes Only [1981]
Actors & Directors
  • Julian Glover
  • Carole Bouquet
  • Topol
  • John Glen
  • Lynn-Holly Johnson
  • Roger Moore
Release date: 2003-11-03
Run time: 123 min.
Creator: Richard Maibaum
RRP: £9.99
Price: £2.98

Review For Your Eyes Only [1981] / MGM Entertainment:

After the lavish, effects-heavy splash of Moonraker, the twelfth Bond film and the seventh with Roger Moore concentrates more on core car-chase-and-crumpet values, evoking an almost retro feel that harks back to the first pressings of the Bond vintage in the 1960s. Starting to look a little wrinkly around the edges by this point, Roger Moore toughens his usually smarmy act up here with a gratuitous bit of killing, casually kicking a baddie and his car over a precipice, reviving memories of the ruthless streak with which Sean Connery made his name. Good old-fashioned Cold War politics lie at the heart of the plot, concerning a weapons system hijacked in the Mediterranean Bond must rescue. He's assisted by the exquisite Carole Bouquet, the only actress in history who can claim to have been both a 'Bond girl' and the star of a Luis Buñuel movie (That Obscure Object of Desire). Sadly, this is the first film to lack Bernard Lee's spymaster M, the actor having died beforehand, although British comedienne Janet Brown is on hand for an amusing Margaret Thatcher impersonation. -Leslie FelperinOn the DVD: The first audio commentary here is another one of those edited selections of interviews with sundry cast and crew members, tied together by an over-earnest host. Producer Michael G Wilson and others provide a somewhat more illuminating second commentary track. Once again the best extra feature is the "making of" documentary, which gives an almost scene-by-scene breakdown of the movie. The animated storyboard sequences will appeal to filmmaking aficionados. Avoid, if at all possible, the Sheena Easton video of arguably the most forgettable Bond song of all time (both song and score were perpetrated by series newcomer Bill Conti, not the estimable John Barry). [+]
-Mark Walker.

Actors & Directors
  • David Daker
  • Pauline Moran
  • Herbert Wise
  • David Ryall
  • Bernard Hepton
  • Adrian Rawlins
Run time: 101 min.
Creator: Susan Hill
Price: £64.99

Review The Woman In Black [1989] / Central Television Enterprises:


Review 4 Front Video / An American Werewolf In London - Special 21st Anniversary Edition
Actors & Directors
  • David Naughton
  • Jenny Agutter
  • Lila Kaye
  • Griffin Dunne
  • John Landis
  • John Woodvine
Release date: 2003-09-08
Run time: 93 min.
Creator: Peter Guber
RRP: £5.99
Price: £1.00

Review An American Werewolf In London - Special 21st Anniversary Edition / 4 Front Video:

With an ingenious script, engaging characters, nerve-shredding suspense, genuinely frightening set-pieces and laugh-out-loud funny bits An American Werewolf in London is a prime candidate for the finest horror-comedy ever made. Americans David (David Naughton) and Jack (Griffin Dunne) are backpacking in northern England when Jack is killed by a wild beast and David is bitten. Back in London David finds himself falling in love with a nurse, Alex (played with winning charm by Jenny Agutter), and turning into a werewolf. Adding to his problems, an increasingly decomposed Jack keeps coming back from the dead, and he is not a happy corpse. The Oscar winning make-up and transformation scenes still look good and rather than send itself up Werewolf plays its horror seriously, the laughs coming naturally from the surreal situation. Naughton is engagingly confused and disbelieving, desperately coping with the ever more nightmarish world, while Landis delivers one absolutely stunning dream sequence, an unbearably tense hunt on the London Underground and a breathtaking finale. Gory, erotic, shocking and romantic, this unforgettable horror classic has it all. Tom Holland's Fright Night (1985) remixed the formula with vampires, as did Landis himself in Innocent Blood (1992). A disappointing sequel, An American Werewolf in Paris, followed in 1997. -Gary S Dalkin.

Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Angel - Series 5 Part 1 [2000]
Actors & Directors
  • Charisma Carpenter
  • David Boreanaz
Release date: 2004-08-23
Creator: Joss Whedon
Price: £34.99

Review Angel - Series 5 Part 1 [2000] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment / The Godfather [1972]
Actors & Directors
  • James Caan
  • Robert Duvall
  • Francis Ford Coppola
  • Marlon Brando
  • Al Pacino
  • Richard S. Castellano
Release date: 1997-09-01
Run time: 168 min.
Creator: Mario Puzo
RRP: £9.99
Price: £2.25

Review The Godfather [1972] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

Generally acknowledged as a bona fide classic, this Francis Ford Coppola film is one of those rare experiences that feels perfectly right from beginning to end-almost as if everyone involved had been born to participate in it. Based on Mario Puzo's bestselling novel about a Mafia dynasty, Coppola's Godfather extracted and enhanced the most universal themes of immigrant experience in America: the plotting-out of hopes and dreams for one's successors, the raising of children to carry on the good work, etc. In the midst of generational strife during the Vietnam years, the film somehow struck a chord with a nation fascinated by the metamorphosis of a rebellious son (Al Pacino) into the keeper of his father's dream. Marlon Brando played against Puzo's own conception of patriarch Vito Corleone, and time has certainly proven the actor correct. The rest of the cast, particularly James Caan, John Cazale, and Robert Duvall as the rest of Vito's male brood-all coping with how to take the mantle of responsibility from their father-is seamless and wonderful. -Tom Keogh.

Review 4 Front Video / The Worst Witch - Vol 2
Actors & Directors
  • Isla Graham
Release date: 2003-04-21
Run time: 49 min.
Creator: David Finley
Price: £5.99

Review The Worst Witch - Vol 2 / 4 Front Video:


Review Warner Home Video / Miss Marple - Murder Ahoy [1964]
Actors & Directors
  • George Pollock
  • Charles 'Bud' Tingwell
  • William Mervyn
  • Joan Benham
  • Lionel Jeffries
  • Margaret Rutherford
Release date: 2000-08-21
Run time: 89 min.
Creator: Jack Seddon
Price: £5.99

Review Miss Marple - Murder Ahoy [1964] / Warner Home Video:


Review 2 Entertain Video / Doctor Who Terror of the Zygons [1963]
Actors & Directors
  • Elizabeth Sladen
  • John Gorrie
  • Richard Martin (IV)
  • Ian Marter
  • Tom Baker
Release date: 1999-08-02
Run time: 91 min.
Price: £10.99

Review Doctor Who Terror of the Zygons [1963] / 2 Entertain Video:

Loch Ness is the setting of this very traditional 1975 Doctor Who monster story, even though it was actually filmed in southern England with local atmosphere provided by Scottish character actor Angus Lennie (The Great Escape). The Doctor (Tom Baker) is called in to investigate a mystery involving the destruction of several oil rigs and it's not too long before the Loch Ness Monster is revealed as the culprit. But it's actually just a biomechanical weapon being manipulated by the evil Zygons who have been living at the bottom of the Loch plotting world domination. The organically designed sets and monsters are very striking, as are the visual effects with one notable exception: Really Big Creatures have always been a bane for the series with its limited budget to pull off and this story's reliance on an obvious puppet monster, especially during the climax, diminishes its impact. But there is still much to relish, particularly the dialogue of writer Robert Banks Stewart (who would go on to create the long-running BBC series Bergerac) that provides a number of gems including the Doctor admonishing the Zygons that if they succeed in their plans, "you'll have to come out on the balcony sometimes and wave a tentacle". With much derring-do, the Doctor saves the day as usual but not before four exciting episodes of fun and action. -Ryan K. Johnson.

Review Warner Home Video / The Rookie [1990]
Actors & Directors
  • Sonia Braga
  • Tom Skerritt
  • Raul Julia
  • Clint Eastwood
  • Charlie Sheen
  • Clint Eastwood
Release date: 1997-06-23
Run time: 116 min.
Creator: Scott Spiegel
Price: £5.99

Review The Rookie [1990] / Warner Home Video:


Review 2 Entertain Video / Doctor Who - The Androids Of Tara
Actors & Directors
  • Michael Hayes
  • Tom Baker
Release date: 1995-05-01
Run time: 98 min.
RRP: £11.99
Price: £9.99

Review Doctor Who - The Androids Of Tara / 2 Entertain Video:


Review Warner Home Video / The Fearless Vampire Killers [1967]aka dance of the vampires
Actors & Directors
  • Roman Polanski
  • Sharon Tate
  • dance of the vampires
  • Ferdy Mayne
  • Alfie Bass
  • Jack McGowran
Release date: 1995-10-30
Run time: 103 min.
Price: £5.99

Review The Fearless Vampire Killers [1967]aka dance of the vampires / Warner Home Video:


Review 4 Front Video / Day Of The Jackal [1973]
Actors & Directors
  • Edward Fox
  • Alan Badel
  • Fred Zinnemann
  • Michel Auclair
  • Terence Alexander
  • Tony Britton
Release date: 1999-07-01
Run time: 137 min.
Creator: Kenneth Ross
RRP: £5.99
Price: £4.30

Review Day Of The Jackal [1973] / 4 Front Video:

With its high-intensity plot about an attempt to assassinate French President Charles de Gaulle, the bestselling novel by Frederick Forsyth was a prime candidate for screen adaptation. Director Fred Zinnemann brought his veteran skills to bear on what has become a timeless classic of screen suspense. Not to be confused with the later remake The Jackal starring Bruce Willis (which shamelessly embraced all the bombast that Zinnemann so wisely avoided), this 1973 thriller opts for lethal elegance and low-key tenacity in the form of the Jackal, the suave assassin played with consummate British coolness by Edward Fox. He's a killer of the highest order, a master of disguise and international elusiveness, and this riveting film follows his path to de Gaulle with an intense, straightforward documentary style. Perhaps one of the last great films from a bygone age of pure, down-to-basics suspense (and a kind of debonair European alternative to the American grittiness of The French Connection), The Day of the Jackal is a cat-and-mouse thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat until its brilliantly executed final scene (pardon the pun), by which time Fox has achieved cinematic immortality as one of the screen's most memorable killers. -Jeff Shannon.

Browse Horror & Suspense:

Models & Brands:
Angel, Series 4 Part 2 [2000], Notorious [1946], Sleeping With The Enemy [1991], Moonraker [1979], Survivors 1 - The Fourth Horseman / Genesis [1975], Point Break [1991], Hamlet [1997], The 39 Steps [1935], For Your Eyes Only [1981], The Woman In Black [1989], An American Werewolf In London - Special 21st Anniversary Edition, Angel - Series 5 Part 1 [2000], The Godfather [1972], The Worst Witch - Vol 2, Miss Marple - Murder Ahoy [1964], Doctor Who Terror of the Zygons [1963], The Rookie [1990], Doctor Who - The Androids Of Tara, The Fearless Vampire Killers [1967]aka dance of the vampires, Day Of The Jackal [1973]

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