Video Find the Perfect Gift    Send a Gift Certificate
Search 
Home › Science Fiction & Fantasy
Review Fremantle Home Entertainment / Blake's 7 - Season 4 [1978]
Actors & Directors
  • Douglas Camfield
  • Vivienne Cozens
  • Fiona Cumming
  • Viktors Ritelis
  • Jonathan Wright-Miller
Release date: 2004-03-29
Run time: 663 min.
RRP: £39.99
Price: £12.00

Review Blake's 7 - Season 4 [1978] / Fremantle Home Entertainment:


Review 2 Entertain Video / The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy - The Complete Series [1981]
Actors & Directors
  • Martin Benson
  • Cleo Rocos
  • Alan J.W. Bell
  • Steve Conway
  • Joe Melia
  • Andrew Mussell
Release date: 1993-09-20
Run time: 193 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £4.75

Review The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy - The Complete Series [1981] / 2 Entertain Video:

The original BBC radio adventures of Arthur Dent (an ape-descendant whose anger at the apparently inexplicable destruction of his home planet Earth, situated in an obscure corner of the outer spiral arm of the galaxy, is expressed in frequent irritation at friendly automatic doors and vending machines) and his travelling companions, Ford Prefect (an itinerant towel-carrying hitch-hiker originally from a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse), Zaphod Beeblebrox (the notorious ex-Galactic President and patron of Eccentrica Galumbits, the triple-breasted whore of Eroticon Six) and Marvin the Paranoid Android (who's still suffering from that terrible pain in all the diodes down his left side) proved to be such a success for the BBC that its transition to TV was (almost) inevitable. In 1981 several key members of the radio cast made the move to the small screen. Simon Jones' bewildered Arthur Dent remains the central character, shambling around in his dressing gown (a fact easy to forget on radio); Mark Wing-Davey's Zaphod Beeblebrox is the same as his boastful radio persona, even if the second head utterly fails to convince. Unfortunately, newcomers David Dixon (as Ford Prefect) and the irritating Sandra Dickinson (as Trillian) are no match for their radio predecessors. The problem here is not so much the low-budget look as the script itself, which is lovingly faithful to the radio series in a way that Douglas Adams' novels aren't. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was a lucid, satirical, occasionally profound, utterly unique comic invention on radio. As such, it has nothing to gain from TV. The script needs no visual elaboration-that's best left to the listener's own imagination. Only the animated renditions of the Guide itself enhance Peter Jones' wonderfully dry narration; otherwise-paradoxically, perhaps-by supplying images the concept is oddly diminished here. On the DVD: A suitably eclectic not to say eccentric collection of extra features makes this a wholly satisfying two-disc set, neatly packaged in a fold-out slipcase. [+]
On the second disc there's an hour-long "making of" documentary from 1992 featuring contributions from the cast and crew, including Douglas Adams; and then there's even more in a 20-minute section entitled "Don't Panic!". A fascinating behind-the-scenes peek at filming as the clock runs out on studio time and a look at the recording of the original radio series complete the first part. Then navigate to the "Outer Planets" to find outtakes, a deleted scene, Zaphod's animatronic second head on Tomorrow's World and Peter Jones's witty and shambolic introduction to the first episode, plus more besides. The series itself is presented in standard 4:3 ratio and Dolby stereo. -Mark Walker.

Review 2 Entertain Video / Doctor Who - The Crusade / Space Museum - Box Set [1965]
Actors & Directors
  • Douglas Camfield
  • Julian Glover
  • Maureen O'Brien
  • William Russell (II)
  • Jacqueline Hill
  • Paul Vanezis
  • William Hartnell
Release date: 1999-07-05
Run time: 128 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £26.98

Review Doctor Who - The Crusade / Space Museum - Box Set [1965] / 2 Entertain Video:


Review 4 Front Video / Godzilla Ebirah Horror Of The Deep
Actors & Directors
  • Jun Fukuda
Release date: 1998-06-15
Run time: 87 min.
Price: £5.99

Review Godzilla Ebirah Horror Of The Deep / 4 Front Video:


Review Manga Entertainment / Cyber City OEDO 808 - File 2 - Psychic Trooper [1990]
Actors & Directors
  • Bruce Martin (IX)
  • Michael M. Simpson
  • Marc Smith
  • Yoshiaki Kawajiri
  • Bob Sherman
  • Sean Barrett (II)
Release date: 1994-11-07
Run time: 45 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £2.25

Review Cyber City OEDO 808 - File 2 - Psychic Trooper [1990] / Manga Entertainment:


Review Manga Entertainment / Cyber City OEDO 808 - File 3 - Blood Lust
Actors & Directors
  • Marc Smith
  • Bruce Martin (IX)
  • Michael M. Simpson
  • Yoshiaki Kawajiri
  • Sean Barrett (II)
  • Bob Sherman
Release date: 1994-12-05
Run time: 40 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £8.99

Review Cyber City OEDO 808 - File 3 - Blood Lust / Manga Entertainment:


Actors & Directors
  • Roland Emmerich
  • Maria Pitillo
  • Jean Reno
  • Kevin Dunn
  • Matthew Broderick
  • Hank Azaria
Release date: 1998-06-29
Run time: 99 min.
Price: £5.99

Review Godzilla - The Return Of Godzilla [1984] [1998] / ITV DVD:

As "gigantic monster reptile attacks New York" movies go, you've got to admit that Godzilla delivers the goods, although its critical drubbing and box-office disappointment were arguably deserved. It's a shameless, uninspired crowd-pleaser that's content to serve up familiar action with the advantage of really fantastic special effects, and if you expect nothing more you'll be one among millions of satisfied customers. There's really no other way to approach it-you just have to accept the fact that Independence Day creators Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin are unapologetic plagiarists, incapable of anything more than mindless spectacle that can play in any cinema in the world without dubbing or subtitles. The whole movie plays out like a series of highlights stolen from previous blockbusters of the 1990s; it's little more than a rehash of the Jurassic Park movies. The derivative script is so trivial that it's unworthy of comment, apart from a few choice laughs and the casting of Michael Lerner as New York's mayor, whose name is Ebert and who closely resembles a certain well-known movie critic. Perhaps that's a clever hint that this movie's essentially critic-proof. It's stupid but it's fun, and for most audiences that's a fitting definition of mainstream Hollywood entertainment. -Jeff Shannon Zorro, a pop-fiction creation invented by Johnston McCulley in 1918, is given new blood in this fast-moving and engaging version. Director Martin Campbell wisely instils a measure of frivolity into the deftly choreographed action sequences, while letting a serious tone creep in when appropriate. This covers much ground under the banner of romantic-action-adventure and it does so most excellently. [+]
-Rochelle O'Gorman, Amazon. com Godzilla delivers the goods, although its critical drubbing and box-office disappointment were arguably deserved. It's a shameless, uninspired crowd-pleaser that's content to serve up familiar action with the advantage of really fantastic special effects, and if you expect nothing more you'll be one among millions of satisfied customers. The whole movie plays out like a series of highlights stolen from previous blockbusters of the 1990s. -Jeff Shannon, Amazon. com.

Review The X Files / The X Files : Series 9 Box Set [1994]
Release date: 2003-05-12
Run time: 860 min.
RRP: £59.99
Price: £12.42

Review The X Files : Series 9 Box Set [1994] / The X Files:

With so many promises to fulfil and questions left unanswered, the ninth and final series of The X-Files was inevitably going to short-change some of its audience. Mulder is missing, Scully is in and out with various baby concerns, Reyes frequently seems like she's only along for the ride and Doggett seems so right in the role that some fans wondered if he should have appeared sooner. Other cult cameos flitted across the screen in an attempt to keep viewers transfixed. Lucy Lawless, Cary Elwes and Robert Patrick's real-life wife were interesting diversions, but when Burt Reynolds appeared to be none other than God himself, it was apparent that nothing at all was sacred in this last year. Standalone episodes (for example, on Satanic possession and a Brady Bunch psycho) proved to be amongst the least interesting of the show's efforts. No doubt because everyone was focussing on the all-important arc story episodes. Was there more than one alien faction? Were they all in collusion? Who had control of the black oil virus? Who had been in charge of the abductions? More importantly, would Mulder and Scully finally get in bed together? Scattered through the 19 episodes (the fewest of any season), were answers to some of these points. Then as much as possible that remained was packed into the two-hour finale. After 200 episodes, it's just possible that The X-Files overstayed its welcome; nonetheless it will always be remembered for being the most influential TV product of the 1990s. And since this is science-fiction, don't assume it's completely dead either. [+]
-Paul Tonks.

Review 2 Entertain Video / Doctor Who - The Five Doctors [1983]
Actors & Directors
  • Pennant Roberts
  • Peter Davison
  • Patrick Troughton
  • Tom Baker
  • Jon Pertwee
  • John Nathan-Turner
  • Peter Moffatt
  • Richard Hurndall
Release date: 1990-07-02
Run time: 101 min.
Price: £10.99

Review Doctor Who - The Five Doctors [1983] / 2 Entertain Video:


Review Universal Pictures UK / Stephen King's Golden Years [1991]
Actors & Directors
  • Keith Szarabajka
  • R.D. Call
  • Stephen Tolkin
  • Ed Lauter
  • Kenneth Fink
  • Michael Gornick
  • Allen Coulter
  • Bill Raymond
  • Felicity Huffman
Release date: 1995-02-13
Run time: 236 min.
Price: £10.99

Review Stephen King's Golden Years [1991] / Universal Pictures UK:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek The Next Generation: The Best Of Both Worlds - The Full Length TV Movie [1990]
Actors & Directors
  • Whoopi Goldberg
  • Patrick Stewart
  • Jonathan Frakes
  • Cliff Bole
  • Colm Meaney
  • George Murdock
Release date: 1995-01-16
Run time: 82 min.
Price: £5.99

Review Star Trek The Next Generation: The Best Of Both Worlds - The Full Length TV Movie [1990] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

In 1987, some 20 years after the original series had ended, Star Trek: The Next Generation was launched into a decade renowned for its materialistic greed, but also for its hesitant steps towards a more unified world order. Creator Gene Roddenberry revised his vision of humanity's future accordingly, shifting the Trek timeline 80 years on and reinventing the new Starship Enterprise as an Ark-like exploration vessel full of families, schools, soothing recreational facilities and a maternally pacifying computer voice (Roddenberry's wife, Majel Barrett). The Next Generation crew were not soldiers, but scientists and diplomats. Unlike the fiercely individualistic Captain Kirk, Patrick Stewart's patrician Captain Jean-Luc Picard was a model team leader: no matter how desperate the crisis, he ensured that everyone got to sit round the Conference Room table and talk it over. And in a true late-1980s touch, a key member of the Bridge crew was psychoanalyst Counsellor Troi, always on hand to discuss everyone's feelings. Season Two saw the welcome introduction of the cybernetic horror that was the Borg. Originally a powerful symbol of technological misuse in an otherwise technologically utopian universe, ultimately their hive-like existence served to reinforce the message that everyone would be much happier as a team player. Even renegade super-entity Q (John De Lancie) relied on Picard as much as his fellow god-like playmates; Data followed Pinocchio and Spock in a quest to discard what made him an individual; and there was even an episode that rationalised why all aliens basically looked alike (we're all one big family). Even the slogan change to "Where no one has gone before" acknowledges that there's no "one" in a team. But for all its earnest political correctness and an over-reliance on "technobabble", good stories played by an appealing ensemble cast were at the heart of the show's success. [+]
After seven successful seasons, "All Good Things" finally came to an end. Until Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise, that is. -Paul Tonks.

Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / The X Files : File 1 - Unopened File [1995]
Actors & Directors
  • Rob Bowman
  • R.W. Goodwin
  • David Duchovny
  • Gillian Anderson
Release date: 1996-01-15
Run time: 127 min.
RRP: £13.99
Price: £0.49

Review The X Files : File 1 - Unopened File [1995] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:


Review Entertainment in Video / Dark City [1998]
Actors & Directors
  • Rufus Sewell
  • Richard O'Brien
  • Alex Proyas
  • Kiefer Sutherland
  • William Hurt
  • Jennifer Connelly
Release date: 1999-05-17
Run time: 96 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £6.98

Review Dark City [1998] / Entertainment in Video:

If you're a fan of brooding comic-book anti-heroes, got a nihilistic jolt from The Crow (1994) and share director Alex Proyas's highly developed preoccupation for style over substance, you might be tempted to call Dark City an instant classic of visual imagination. It's one of those films that exists in a world purely of its own making, setting its own rules and playing by them fairly, so that even its derivative elements (and there are quite a few) acquire their own specific uniqueness. Before long, however, the film becomes interesting only as a triumph of production design. And while that's certainly enough to grab your attention (Blade Runner is considered a classic, after all), it's painfully clear that Dark City has precious little heart and soul. One-dimensional characters are no match for the film's abundance of retro-futuristic style, so it's best to admire the latter on its own splendidly cinematic terms. Trivia buffs will be interested to know that the film's 50-plussets (partially inspired by German expressionism) were built at the Fox Film Studios in Sydney, Australia, home base of director Alex Proyas and producer Andrew Mason. The underground world depicted in the film required the largest indoor set ever built in Australia. -Jeff Shannon.

Actors & Directors
  • Alfred Marks
  • Tommy Trinder
  • Eddie Gray
  • Terry-Thomas
  • David Nixon
Release date: 1994-11-07
Run time: 100 min.
RRP: £10.99
Price: £8.50

Review The Avengers - Vol. 18 - Look Stop Me If You've Heard This One / My Wildest Dream [1968] / Lumiere Pictures:


Review Meridian Entertainment / Doomwatch - The Plastic Eaters / Tomorrow, The Rat
Actors & Directors
  • Paul Ciappessoni
  • Terence Dudley
  • Robert Powell
  • John Paul
  • Simon Oates
Run time: 99 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £19.99

Review Doomwatch - The Plastic Eaters / Tomorrow, The Rat / Meridian Entertainment:


Actors & Directors
  • Jon Pertwee
Release date: 1993-07-05
Run time: 167 min.
RRP: £16.99
Price: £8.50

Review Doctor Who - Doctor Who And The Silurians / 2 Entertain Video:


Review 2 Entertain Video / Doctor Who The Keys of Marinus [1964]
Actors & Directors
  • Jacqueline Hill
  • William Russell
  • George Coulouris
  • John Gorrie
  • William Hartnell
Release date: 1999-03-01
Run time: 147 min.
Price: £16.99

Review Doctor Who The Keys of Marinus [1964] / 2 Entertain Video:


Review Contender Entertainment Group / Lexx - Vol. 3.3 - 3.06 K-Town / 3.07 Tunnels [1999]
Actors & Directors
  • Stephen Manuel
  • Bruce McDonald
  • Stefan Ronowicz
Release date: 2000-10-16
RRP: £12.99
Price: £0.63

Review Lexx - Vol. 3.3 - 3.06 K-Town / 3.07 Tunnels [1999] / Contender Entertainment Group:

A "Light Universe" and a "Dark Zone" keep good and bad apart for the characters of Lexx, even though it's often hard to tell the difference between the two in this offbeat and unique sci-fi show that delights in its own nastiness. With flashes of nudity and surgical gore, and a collection of extreme hairstyles and accents, the show's overall look is often akin to a sci-fi Eurotrash. Aboard the stolen 10-kilometre-long spaceship Lexx (designed to look like a dragonfly) are the "Dirty Three-and-a-Half": insufferable coward Stanley H. Tweedle (Brian Downey), the Edward Scissorhands clone and 2,000 years-dead Kai (Michael McManus), decapitated and lovestruck robot head 790 (voiced by writer Jeffrey Hirschfield) and the skimpily wardrobed Zev (Eva Habermann), replaced for Season Two by Xev (Xenia Seeberg). A disregard both for genre conventions and good taste makes the show a constant series of surprises: by the time of the third season, the expression "anything goes" had long passed being understatementOn this tape: We've seen Xev in the shower, Stanley without his hat, and even the inside of 790's head. So seeing Kai in the nude was only a matter of time. Lost among the schizophrenic denizens of "K-Town", Stan and Xev are eventually found by the dead assassin whose biomechanical systems are malfunctioning. It takes a shock re-appearance of season 2's Universe-destroying Mantrid to make sense of his groin-located repair mechanism. Subsequently split up, Kai suffers the red tape of petty bureaucracy in Hog Town while Stan and Xev descend 39,000 steps to the planet's "Tunnels". Stan bumps into show writer Lex Gigeroff cameoing as insane surgeon Doctor Rainbow, and escape is determined by another death and resurrection from the enigmatic Prince. [+]
Halfway along, the viewer should by now be carefully questioning this season's premise. -Paul Tonks.

Review Second Sight Films Ltd. / Moonbase 3 - The Complete Series [1973]
Actors & Directors
  • Jürgen Andersen
Release date: 2002-07-22
Run time: 306 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £19.99

Review Moonbase 3 - The Complete Series [1973] / Second Sight Films Ltd.:


Review 4 Front Video / Godzilla Destroy All Monsters
Actors & Directors
  • Inoshiro Honda
Release date: 1998-06-15
Run time: 89 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £6.14

Review Godzilla Destroy All Monsters / 4 Front Video:

Set in 1999 and originally released in 1968, Destroy All Monsters, the ninth Godzilla movie in the series, is exactly how you'd like the future to be. The United Nations Science Council has established a busily humming lunar base, astronauts and scientists wear brightly coloured jump-suits, and the world's most dangerous monsters have been collected together out of harm's way on a remote Pacific island. Joining Godzilla in the peaceful seclusion of Monsterland is an impressive selection of creatures taken from Toho Studios' back catalogue of science-fantasy movies. The big names included in this all-star monster rally are Mothra, Rodan and Angilas alongside such lesser terrors as Gorosaurus from King Kong Escapes, Spiga and Minya, last seen in Son of Godzilla, and Manda from Astragon. Pretty soon, however, they're all under the control of the Kilaaks, a sinister race of aliens intent upon taking over the Earth, and smashing up real estate on a global basis. "The people of Paris are holding their breaths", a French radio announcer breathlessly exclaims as Gorosaurus demolishes the Arc de Triomphe. Meanwhile Mothra advances on Peking and Godzilla attacks New York, blowing up the UN building with a blast of radioactive breath. Directed by Ishiro Honda with special effects supervised by Eiji Tsuburaya and a crisp score from Akira Ifukube, all of whom had worked on the series since Godzilla first appeared back in 1954, Destroy All Monsters has an irresistible cartoon grandeur to it. The model-work and miniature sets are impressively detailed, the editing is energetically paced and the overall design is a dazzling display of bold, pop-culture strokes. The apocalyptic savagery of the film's final conflict, with three-headed space monster King Ghidora getting rat-packed by Godzilla and the rest of the guys at the foot of Mount Fuji, makes this the ultimate kaiju classic. [+]
Enjoy. -Ken Hollings.

Browse Science Fiction & Fantasy:

Models & Brands:
Blake's 7 - Season 4 [1978], The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy - The Complete Series [1981], Doctor Who - The Crusade / Space Museum - Box Set [1965], Godzilla Ebirah Horror Of The Deep, Cyber City OEDO 808 - File 2 - Psychic Trooper [1990], Cyber City OEDO 808 - File 3 - Blood Lust, Godzilla - The Return Of Godzilla [1984] [1998], The X Files : Series 9 Box Set [1994], Doctor Who - The Five Doctors [1983], Stephen King's Golden Years [1991], Star Trek The Next Generation: The Best Of Both Worlds - The Full Length TV Movie [1990], The X Files : File 1 - Unopened File [1995], Dark City [1998], The Avengers - Vol. 18 - Look Stop Me If You've Heard This One / My Wildest Dream [1968], Doomwatch - The Plastic Eaters / Tomorrow, The Rat, Doctor Who - Doctor Who And The Silurians, Doctor Who The Keys of Marinus [1964], Lexx - Vol. 3.3 - 3.06 K-Town / 3.07 Tunnels [1999], Moonbase 3 - The Complete Series [1973], Godzilla Destroy All Monsters

Top headlines:
Search 
DVD Rental: try it for free