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Brutal and breathtaking, Sin City is Robert Rodriguez's stunningly realized vision of Frank Miller's pulpy comic books. In the first of three separate but loosely related stories, Marv (Mickey Rourke) tries to track down the killers of a woman who ended up dead in his bed. In the second story, Dwight's (Clive Owen) attempt to defend a woman from a brutal abuser goes horribly wrong, and threatens to destroy the uneasy truce among the police, the mob, and the women of Old Town. Finally, an aging cop on his last day on the job (Bruce Willis) rescues a young girl from a kidnapper, but is himself thrown in jail. Years later, he has a chance to save her again.

Based on three of Miller's immensely popular and immensely gritty books (The Hard Goodbye, The Big Fat Kill, and That Yellow Bastard), Sin City is unquestionably the most faithful comic-book-based movie ever made. Like the books, it's almost entirely in stark black and white with some occasional bursts of color (a woman's red lips, a villain's yellow face). The backgrounds are entirely digitally generated, yet not self-consciously so, and perfectly capture Miller's gritty cityscape. And though most of Miller's copious nudity is absent, the violence is unrelentingly present. That may be the biggest obstacle to viewers who aren't already fans of the books and who may have been turned off by Kill Bill (whose director, Quentin Tarantino, helmed one scene of Sin City).

In addition, it's a bleak, desperate world in which the heroes are killers, corruption rules, and the women are almost all prostitutes or strippers. But Miller's stories are riveting, and the huge cast - which also includes Jessica Alba, Jaime King, Brittany Murphy, Rosario Dawson, Benicio Del Toro, Elijah Wood, Nick Stahl, Michael Clarke Duncan, Devin Aoki, Carla Gugino, and Josh Hartnett - is just about perfect.

In what Rodriguez hopes is the first of a series, Sin City is a spectacular achievement.

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Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds, staring Tom Cruise, is a contemporary retelling of H.G. Wells' seminal classic, sci-fi adventure thriller revealing the extraordinary battle for the future of humankind through the eyes of one family fighting to survive it.

The film centers on Ray Ferrier, a divorced father (Tom Cruise) who witnesses one giant craft destroy his New Jersey town and soon is on the road with his teen son (Justin Chatwin) and preteen daughter (Dakota Fanning) in tow, trying to keep ahead of the invasion. The film is, of course, impeccably designed and produced by Spielberg's usual crew of classy talent. The aliens are genuinely scary, even when the film, like the novel, spends a good chunk of time in a basement.

Alien-happy Spielberg with his amazing effects have recreated H.G. Wells's novel as a horror film packaged as a sci-fi thrill ride. Spielberg (along with writers Josh Friedman & David Koepp) utilises aliens hell-bent on mercilessly destroying humanity and the terrifying results that prey upon adult fears.

This new release is available from November 14 2005.

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  View further details on The War of the Worlds [original 1954 edition]

There's trouble (and plenty of fun) in paradise in this 24-episode, 7-disc Season 2 collection of the smash-hit series set in Orange County's posh Newport Beach.

Fulfil your voyeuristic desires and observe the romances of Ryan and Marissa and Seth and Summer, the marriage of Sandy and Kirsten, felon (and Ryan's brother) Trey giving Newport living a try, Julie's lurid past coming back to haunt her, and other new hunks and hotties in their rich California ghetto.

The second season begins where the first ended. This box set includes an insightful commentary on the pivotal Rainy Day Women episode, by the creator Josh Schwartz and the members of the crew.

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Little Britain Series 2 features all 6 episodes from the hilarious series 2 of the programme. All your favourite characters are back including: Vicky Pollard, Lou and Andy, Marjorie Dawes, Dafydd, Emily Howard, Anne, Dennis and some hilarious new faces like the Bubbles and Carol ("Computer says no...").

Matt Lucas and David Walliams excel themselves both as writers and performers in what has become a classic comedy series which will no doubt attain 'Pythonesque' stature in the comedy world (Lou and Andy beating Python to become the BBC's funniest comic TV moment of all time).

This DVD features the following special features in addition to the 6 episodes:
° Little Britain At The NFT
° Friday Night With Jonathan Ross Interview
° Jonathan Ross Radio Show Interview
° The Chris Moyles Show Interview
° Richard and Judy Sketch
° Little Documentary
° Comic Relief Special
° Comic Relief Outtakes
° Deleted Scenes With Commentary By Matt Lucas And David Walliams And Geoff Posner
° BBC 1 Dafydd Sketch
° Commentary On All Six Episodes With Matt Lucas And David Walliams And Geoff Posner

  View further details on Little Britain - Series 2
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It took more than 25 years for another Clive Cussler novel to come to the screen after the financial and critical disaster of Raise the Titanic.

Based on Cussler's oddly landlocked adventure, Sahara finds the author's hero, Dirk Pitt (Matthew McConaughey), a sort of all-American, high seas variation of James Bond, in Africa looking for a Confederate ironclad ship that might have impossibly ended up there.

Soon he and his faithful sidekick Al Giordino (Steve Zahn) are lost in another adventure, discovering a deadly contaminate being tracked by a beautiful doctor (Penelope Cruz). The action is enjoyably varied, while the thrills are mild yet not ostentatious or gratuitous.

Zahn in particular steals the show and sparkles in his role; McConaughey, who also produced Sahara, knows he might be starting a franchise character and plays it safe. He's never as dangerous as Cussler's hero is on the page and in fact, the whole movie plays towards comedy, infused by a soundtrack of 70s FM radio monsters. Action-wise, this film is great fun.

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"The Mighty Boosh has to be one of the most truly bizarre and crazy comedy series ever made." claims one of our reviewers. And let's face it, it's a spot on description.

Howard and Vince, two workers in a run-down zoo, are often called upon to put their jobs before their pride. That means dressing up as animals and sitting in cages because their boss, American entrepreneur Bob Fossil, can't afford any real animals. Vince accepts the situation happily, quite in contrast to his grandiose, tweed-wearing colleague.

But their jobs involve much more than just dressing up. From battling mutant animals engineered in a secret laboratory underneath the zoo, to fighting a kangaroo to raise money for their dilapidated workplace, Howard and Vince always find themselves at the centre of some very strange events

This DVD also includes a behind the scenes documentary.

Quirky, bizarre, land-of-the-odd, surreal, unique and very funny.

  View further details on The Mighty Boosh - Series 1

Bullet Boy is a hard-hitting British film about urban gun crime and social deprivation on the streets of Hackney, London. This topic is familiar to countless American films, but more overdue from a British perspective.

In short, Ricky the protagonist (played by Ashley Walters, aka So Solid Crew's Asher D), comes to the rescue of a friend during a street clash with a rival gang. He soon finds that his efforts to go straight, after spending time in a young offender's institution, are tested to the full when the gang situation escalates.

Director, Saul Dibb attempts to break down stereotypes by steering clear of gangsters and sensationalism, instead focusing on Ricky's involvement in a self-perpetuating chain of events.

A behind-the-scenes documentary reveals the personal experiences many of the actors brought to their roles in this excellent DVD.

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The Chaplin Revue contains the last seven "shorts" that Charlie Chaplin ever made. They range between 20 and 50 minutes each and clearly demonstrate Chaplin's genius backed up by the innovative pacing, framing and editing of these films.

The comedies include:
- The Idle Class (1921) where a tramp is mistaken for a rich, drunken husband - both played by Chaplin
- Pay Day (1922) where Chaplin works on a building site and gets drunk wreaking painfully comic havoc
- A Day's Pleasure (1919) where Chaplin takes the family on a day's river cruise
- A Dog's Life (1918) where tramp befriends mongrel
- Shoulder Arms (1918) where Charlie goes to the Western Front
- The Pilgrim (1923) where an escaped convict disguises himself as a church minister (as you do)
- Sunnyside (1919) taking an excusion into a rural setting

There are also deleted scenes and footage of famous visitors to the studios. Well worth buying for more than a glimse of the comic legend.

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As most of us know, Jaws tells the story of a Long Island town whose summer tourist business is suddenly threatened by great-white-shark attacks on humans; the gripping plot goes straight for the jugular with beautifully crafted, crowd-pleasing sequences of action and suspense supported by a trio of terrific performances by Roy Scheider (as the local sheriff), Richard Dreyfuss (as a shark specialist), and particularly Robert Shaw (as the old fisherman who offers to hunt the shark down). The sequences on Shaw's boat, as the three of them realise that in fact the shark is hunting them, are what gripping film making is all about.

It's interesting that the cornerstone of the new anniversay edition is a 10-year-old documentary. The 2-hour "The Making of Jaws" is an excellent telling of how this film was made and became the top grossing film (and launched the career of extras filmmaker Laurent Bouzereau). A 1-hour long edited version appeared on the 25th anniversary DVD. In addition to that, the 30th Anniversary DVD includes: an interesting a 9-minute vintage featurette shot for British TV that has never been seen in the States; a few additions to the extensive "Jaws Archives" (production stills, storyboards and the like), and a few new fragments in the deleted scene roll.

The image is the same excellent transfer as before but this time you can get the DTS and Dolby sound on the same disc plus a nice 60-page photo journal.

  View further details on Jaws 30th Anniversary Special Edition

Polish-born director Pawel Pawlikowski brings us the story of two teenage girls and their swooning relationship. Set within the rolling hills of the Yorkshire Dales, the tale is told as a fresh, erotic and sometimes funny exploration of faith and manipulation.

Tamsin (Emily Blunt) has returned from boarding school for the summer and is rattling around her parent's mansion while Mona (Nathalie Press) is a local girl without parents or prospects for that matter; furthermore Mona roams the street to avoid her brother Phil (Paddy Considine) who is a reformed violent criminal and born-again Christian now pouring away the drink in the pub owned by their late parents.

My Summer of Love follows Tamsin and Mona's dream yet gritty relationship engulfed with sexual obsession, claustrophobia and despair which are elegantly resolved with a clever twist in the narrative tail.

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