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Review Vision Video Ltd. / Pitch Black (Special Edition) [2000]
Actors & Directors
  • Vin Diesel
  • Radha Mitchell
  • Lewis Fitz-Gerald
  • David Twohy
  • Cole Hauser
  • Keith David
Release date: 2001-09-24
Run time: 104 min.
RRP: £14.99
Price: £1.94

Review Pitch Black (Special Edition) [2000] / Vision Video Ltd.:

Pitch Black is a guilty pleasure that surpasses expectations, even though it owes a major debt to Alien and its cinematic spawn. As he did with The Arrival, director David Twohy revitalises a derivative story, allowing you to forgive its flaws and submit to its visceral thrills. Under casual scrutiny, the plot's logic crumbles like a stale cookie, but it's definitely fun while it lasts. A spaceship crashes on a desert planet scorched under three suns. The mostly doomed survivors include a resourceful captain (Radha Mitchell), a drug-addled cop (Cole Hauser) and a deadly prisoner (Vin Diesel) who quickly escapes. These clashing personalities discover that the planet is plunging into the darkness of an extended eclipse, and it's populated by hordes of ravenous, razor-fanged beasties that only come out at night. The body count rises, and Pitch Black settles into familiar sci-fi territory. What sets the movie apart is Twohy's developing visual style, suggesting that this veteran of straight-to-video schlock may advance to the big leagues. Like the makers of The Blair Witch Project, Twohy understands the frightening power of suggestion; his hungry monsters are better heard than seen (although once seen, they're chillingly effective), and Pitch Black gets full value from moments of genuine panic. Best of all, Twohy's got a well-matched cast, with Mitchell (so memorable with Ally Sheedy in High Art) and Diesel (Pvt. [+]
Caparzo from Saving Private Ryan) being the standouts. The latter makes the most of his muscle-man role, and his character's development is one more reason this film works better than it should. -Jeff Shannon, Amazon. com.

Review Contender Entertainment Group / Andromeda - Season 1 - Vol. 10 [2000]
Actors & Directors
  • Philip David Segal
Release date: 2002-09-09
Run time: 82 min.
Price: £9.99

Review Andromeda - Season 1 - Vol. 10 [2000] / Contender Entertainment Group:

As sci-fi show producers realise, they have an ongoing franchise on their hands, one of the contemporary issues to inevitably crop up is drug addiction. Here it's Beka who loses control of her addiction to a substance called Flash, and all she can see is that "It Makes a Lovely Light". Behind this surface narrative is a continued search for Dylan's long-lost home. The point ultimately becomes that he'd rather safeguard his crew than his memories. Criticised in some places for its extreme violence, the season finale "Its Hour Come 'Round at Last" will stay with you one way or another. Maybe for the sight of an alternate Rommie turning uncharacteristically nasty on every one and seriously kicking butt. Or maybe the mind-blowing Magog Worldship, made up of 20 planets and their sun. Or maybe just the seemingly impossible scenario each major character is faced with as the show ends. -Paul Tonks.

Review Warner Home Video / Babylon 5 - Vol. 17 - Hunter, Prey / And Now For A Word [1994]
Actors & Directors
  • Peter Jurasik
  • Andreas Katsulas
  • Claudia Christian
  • Bruce Boxleitner
  • Mary Kay Adams
  • Menachem Binetski
Release date: 1996-11-04
Run time: 84 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £0.95

Review Babylon 5 - Vol. 17 - Hunter, Prey / And Now For A Word [1994] / Warner Home Video:


Price: £8.89

Review The Raven / Universal:


Review The Tribe / The Tribe - Vol. 2 - Episodes 5-8
Release date: 2002-03-25
RRP: £9.99
Price: £0.01

Review The Tribe - Vol. 2 - Episodes 5-8 / The Tribe:

Let's admit it right away, The Tribe may just be the best kids' TV show ever. To be precise, it's for older children and teenagers (and their parents will find it insightful, too), the very age group that occupies all the roles in this post-apocalyptic tale. Mixing the scenario of Lord of the Flies (except there are, y'know, girls in it as well) with the visual imagery of Mad Max and the angst-ridden psychodrama of Sweet Valley High, The Tribe tells of a near-future in which the world's adult population has been wiped out by a virus. Of course, society's infrastructure has gone, too, so the youthful survivors not only have to deal with all the usual trials and tribulations of childhood and adolescence but must also develop some form of functioning society of their own, without any form of adult intervention and with only the barest amount of technology. What happens, of course, is that all the social ills of the old world, from bullying to teenage pregnancy, are writ 10 times larger in the new. The ways in which the characters cope (or fail to cope) with these issues are both exasperating and deeply moving. -Roger Thomas.

Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / The X Files : Deadalive
Actors & Directors
  • Kim Manners
  • Gillian Anderson
  • Robert Patrick
  • David Duchovny
  • Tony Wharmby
Release date: 2001-08-06
Run time: 85 min.
RRP: £14.99
Price: £0.99

Review The X Files : Deadalive / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

This release consists of two episodes-"This is Not Happening" and "Dead alive"-of the eighth series of The X-Files spliced together into a feature-length story. With David Duchovny contracted only to do a certain percentage of shows this year, Robert Patrick was brought in as Agent John Doggett, partnering Gillian Anderson's Agent Scully while Duchovny's Mulder is off being tortured by alien-abductors in what looks like an industrial dentist's chair. This story comes about two-thirds of the way through the arc and sets up Duchovny's return to the show-though he literally has to die and come back to get back on the case. It's an unfortunate paradox that most X-Files standalone releases concentrate on the dreary alien-abduction/conspiracy episodes which carry the greater storyline of the show, giving the misleading impression that the series is a drearily solemn, badly plotted, straight-faced but stupid sci-fi soap opera. Always skipped over are the far more interesting, entertaining and impressive stand-alone supernatural mysteries or strange comic exercises. Though Duchovny is mostly lying in a hospital bed with oatmeal all over his face, Anderson-whose character is pregnant this series, another dull sub-plot-still gives an amazingly committed performance and gets terrific support from Patrick, whose character has shaken up a lot of what was settled or stale about the show and the always-underrated Mitch Pileggi as Assistant Director Skinner. The story features several wild-eyed UFO guru types (including Roy Thinnes, once star of The Invaders) and returned abductees transformed into un-killable alien zombies. It's as well made as ever, with ominous shadows and the odd smart line but you need to have been paying very close attention for seven years to understand what's going on. With Duchovny a potential escapee and Anderson perhaps in line to follow, this episode brings on the excellent Annabeth Gish as Agent Monica Reyes, a specialist in bizarre rituals, who is being effectively set up to partner Patrick in a post-Mulder-and-Scully X-Files that might well keep the franchise going on forever Star Trek-fashion. -Kim Newman.

Review Super Atragon / Super Atragon - Part 1 [1996]
Release date: 1996-10-31
Run time: 60 min.
Price: £12.99

Review Super Atragon - Part 1 [1996] / Super Atragon:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 6.9 - Wrongs Darker Than Death Or Night / Inquisition
Actors & Directors
  • Terry Farrell
  • Rene Auberjonois
  • Cirroc Lofton
  • Michael Dorn
  • Avery Brooks
  • Michael Dorn
  • Jonathan West
Release date: 1998-09-07
Run time: 88 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £1.40

Review Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 6.9 - Wrongs Darker Than Death Or Night / Inquisition / 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. This meant no familial camaraderie, squeaky-clean Federation diplomacy or beige décor. Instead they wanted interpersonal 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 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.

Actors & Directors
  • Godzilla
  • Jun Fukuda
Release date: 1992-05-11
Run time: 163 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £14.99

Review Godzilla vs Gigan / Godzilla vs Megalon / Universal Pictures UK:


Review Universal Pictures UK / Running Man, The / Total Recall [1990]
Actors & Directors
  • Ronny Cox
  • Arnold Schwarzenegger
  • Paul Verhoeven
  • Michael Ironside
  • Sharon Stone
  • Rachel Ticotin
Release date: 1996-08-12
Run time: 206 min.
Price: £12.99

Review Running Man, The / Total Recall [1990] / Universal Pictures UK:

A triple-bill of Schwarzenegger at his muscular monosyllabic best:The Running Man is an action thriller based on an early story by Stephen King. When Arnold is chosen as a contestant on the ultimate reality TV show, all hell breaks loose. Cheesy sets and a slimy role for game-show host Richard Dawson make this violent mess of mayhem a candidate for guilty pleasure; it is the kind of movie that truly devoted Arnold fans will want to watch more than once. Total Recall is the science-fiction blockbuster from 1990, loosely based on Philip K Dick's short story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale". Oscar-winning special effects and violent action propel the twisting plot, in which Arnold manipulates his manipulators in a world of dazzling high technology. Director Paul Verhoeven (RoboCop, Starship Troopers) indulges his usual penchant for gratuitous bloodshed, but the movie has enough cleverness to rise above its excesses. Terminator 2: Judgment Day is a legitimate sequel: there's more story to tell about a hulking, leather-clad android (Arnold Schwarzenegger) who arrives from the future to protect a rebellious teenager and future leader (Edward Furlong) from being killed by the tenacious T-1000 robot (Robert Patrick), whose liquid-metal construction makes him seemingly unstoppable. The fate of the future lies in the balance, with Linda Hamilton (who would later marry her director) reprising her role as the rugged woman whose son will change the course of history. -Jeff Shannon, Amazon. com.

Review Contender Entertainment Group / Mutant X - 1.1 - The Shock Of The New / I Scream The Body Electric / Russian Roulette / Fool For Love [2001]
Actors & Directors
  • Bruce Pittman
  • Oley Sassone
  • T.J. Scott
  • Jonathan Hackett (III)
  • Alan Goluboff
Release date: 2002-09-23
Run time: 172 min.
Price: £9.99

Review Mutant X - 1.1 - The Shock Of The New / I Scream The Body Electric / Russian Roulette / Fool For Love [2001] / Contender Entertainment Group:


Review Clear Vision Ltd / Bugs - Series One - Episodes 7 And 8 [1995]
Actors & Directors
  • Brian Farnham|Ken Grieve|Craig McLachlan|Jaye Griffiths
Release date: 1999-06-07
Run time: 100 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £1.50

Review Bugs - Series One - Episodes 7 And 8 [1995] / Clear Vision Ltd:


Review Troma Inc / Space Freaks From Planet Mutoid
Actors & Directors
  • Tamela Glenn
  • Denis Adam Zervos
  • Harry Sando
  • Henry Coleman
  • Victoria Turner
  • Denis Adam Zervos
Release date: 1997-06-23
Run time: 82 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £1.95

Review Space Freaks From Planet Mutoid / Troma Inc:


Review Digital Video Distribution / Space Marines [1996]
Actors & Directors
  • Meg Foster
  • Edward Albert
  • John Weidner
  • Cady Huffman
  • Billy Wirth
  • John Pyper-Ferguson
Release date: 1999-02-22
Run time: 90 min.
RRP: £6.99
Price: £12.99

Review Space Marines [1996] / Digital Video Distribution:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek Voyager - Vol. 7.3 [1996]
Actors & Directors
  • Robert Picardo
  • Kate Mulgrew
  • Jeri Ryan
Release date: 2001-06-04
Run time: 84 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £4.99

Review Star Trek Voyager - Vol. 7.3 [1996] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

Star Trek: Voyager, the first Trek spin-off to be made without any input at all from Gene Roddenberry, made its debut in 1995 and quickly established itself both as markedly different from cosmic cousin Deep Space Nine and as the successor to The Next Generation. Despite a lack of originality in its premise (Lost in Space anyone?), Voyager has none the less often been a bigger ratings success than any of its predecessors. Catapulted unwittingly to the far-flung Delta Quadrant, the crew of the Federation vessel Voyager must try somehow to get back home. The ghost of Katherine Hepburn lives on in Kate Mulgrew's forceful Captain Janeway, who has an equivocal (does she, doesn't she fancy him?) relationship with first officer and Native American-lite Chakotay (Robert Beltran). Tim Russ gives possibly the franchises' first fully realistic (yawn) portrayal of a Vulcan, and to enhance the alien quotient there's cuddly chef Neelix (Ethan Phillips). Garret Wang must have drawn the short straw for character development, since his Harry Kim is never imbued with any of the drama of rebellious pilot chum Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill), who even gets the series' only romance with the seemingly inescapable resident half-breed B'Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson). Until the fourth season, the fan favourite was the straight-funny man role of Robert Picardo's nameless Doctor. Then, with the brave Borg storyline "Scorpion Part 2", a serious improvement in the show's behind-the-scenes thinking introduced actress Jeri Ryan as 7 of 9, who immediately upped sex appeal and viewing numbers. There have been some oddities and errors along the way, such as the disappearance of cast regular Kes, the appearance of semi-regular Naomi Wildman, and various Holodeck obssessions with Leonardo Da Vinci, a smoky bar, and an "irish" village. Flashes of brilliance still emerge, while Jerry Goldsmith's graceful theme always opens the show in style. [+]
-Paul Tonks.

Review MGM Entertainment / Stargate SG-1 Series 3 Vol. 11 - Episodes 21 and 22 [1998]
Actors & Directors
  • Don Davis
  • Martin Wood
  • Brad Turner
  • Richard Dean Anderson
  • Amanda Tapping
  • Christopher Judge
  • Michael Shanks
Release date: 2001-06-25
Run time: 84 min.
Price: £12.99

Review Stargate SG-1 Series 3 Vol. 11 - Episodes 21 and 22 [1998] / MGM Entertainment:


Review Playback / Buck Rogers In The 25th Century - Volume Two - Plot To Kill A City/Vegas In Space
Actors & Directors
  • Gil Gerard
Release date: 1999-09-20
Run time: 143 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £2.99

Review Buck Rogers In The 25th Century - Volume Two - Plot To Kill A City/Vegas In Space / Playback:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / The X Files : Providence
Actors & Directors
  • Robert Patrick
  • Kim Manners
  • Chris Carter
  • Gillian Anderson
  • Mitch Pileggi
  • Annabeth Gish
Release date: 2002-09-16
Run time: 87 min.
Price: £14.99

Review The X Files : Providence / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

As with earlier releases, The X-Files: Providence splices together two episodes, "Provenance" and "Providence", into a pseudo-movie. Again, the results fall way below the series average as the long-dead alien conspiracy business is flogged, with a lot of running around and ominous rumbling still not adding up to anything like an actual story. FBI agent Neal McDonaugh (of Minority Report) inexplicably survives a flaming motorcycle crash, leaving behind brass rubbings taken from an alien spaceship, then shows up and tries to murder Scully's psychokinetic baby, who is promptly kidnapped by a UFO cult. In Part 2, Scully (Gillian Anderson) and Reyes (Annabeth Gish) fend off enemies and friends within the bureau as they track down the cultists, who are having trouble with a spaceship they've dug up, and a typical pointless climax has things happen without the characters doing anything to contribute. Even at this late, post-Duchovny stage in the game, The X-Files has turned out some fine stand-alone episodes, but these dreary wallowings go a long way towards explaining why only diehards are still watching. After the child says "I made this" at the end of the credits, it's becoming very hard not to shout "well, clean it up then". On the DVD: The X-Files: Providence, as with Nothing Important Happened Today, arrives in a great-looking anamorphic widescreen transfer. There are two slight promotional "featurettes"-three-minute clips/talking heads promos focusing on the episode "Providence" and actor Cary Elwes' character. -Kim Newman.

Actors & Directors
  • Loryn Locklin
  • Lincoln Kilpatrick
  • Christopher Lambert
  • Kurtwood Smith
  • Stuart Gordon
Release date: 2002-07-01
Run time: 92 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £0.38

Review Fortress - Where the Punishment is the Ultimate Crime / Columbia Tristar:


Review 4 Front Video / Starman [1984]
Actors & Directors
  • Charles Martin Smith
  • John Carpenter
  • Richard Jaeckel
  • Karen Allen
  • Jeff Bridges
Release date: 2002-07-01
Run time: 110 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £14.99

Review Starman [1984] / 4 Front Video:

Starman is easily director John Carpenter's warmest and most beguiling film, and the only one that ever earned him an Oscar nomination. While most movie buffs are likely to call Halloween the best movie from Carpenter, die-hard romantics and anyone who cried while watching E. T. will vote in favour of the director's 1984 hit. Jeff Bridges is the alien visitor to Earth who is knocked off course and must take an interstate road trip to rendezvous with a mothership from his home planet. To complete this journey he assumes the physical form of the dead husband of a Wisconsin widow (Karen Allen) who responds first with fear, then sympathy, and finally love. Carpenter's graceful strategy is to switch the focus of this E. T. -like film from science fiction to a gentle road-movie love story, made believable by the memorable performances of Bridges and Allen. It's a bit heavy-handed with tenacious government agents who view the Starman as an alien threat (don't they always?), but Carpenter handles the action with intelligent flair, sensitivity and lighthearted humour. [+]
If you're not choked up during the final scene, well, you just might not be human. -Jeff Shannon, Amazon. com On the DVD: Starman on disc is presented in anamorphic widescreen transferred from NTSC and letterboxed at 2. 35. 1. The picture is clear and sharp with very little grain. The soundtrack is crisp, perfectly complementing the romantic nature of this film. The overriding reason to shell out on this special edition is the commentary from John Carpenter and Jeff Bridges, in which director and actor show a genuine affection for the film. Other extras are a featurette filmed around the original release in 1884, a music video starring Bridges and costar Karen Allen covering The Everly Brothers classic "All I Have to Do is Dream", and a trailer for Close Encounters of the Third Kind. -Kristen Bowditch.

Models & Brands:
Pitch Black (Special Edition) [2000], Andromeda - Season 1 - Vol. 10 [2000], Babylon 5 - Vol. 17 - Hunter, Prey / And Now For A Word [1994], The Raven, The Tribe - Vol. 2 - Episodes 5-8, The X Files : Deadalive, Super Atragon - Part 1 [1996], Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 6.9 - Wrongs Darker Than Death Or Night / Inquisition, Godzilla vs Gigan / Godzilla vs Megalon, Running Man, The / Total Recall [1990], Mutant X - 1.1 - The Shock Of The New / I Scream The Body Electric / Russian Roulette / Fool For Love [2001], Bugs - Series One - Episodes 7 And 8 [1995], Space Freaks From Planet Mutoid, Space Marines [1996], Star Trek Voyager - Vol. 7.3 [1996], Stargate SG-1 Series 3 Vol. 11 - Episodes 21 and 22 [1998], Buck Rogers In The 25th Century - Volume Two - Plot To Kill A City/Vegas In Space, The X Files : Providence, Fortress - Where the Punishment is the Ultimate Crime, Starman [1984]

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