Box Sets
Sin City 2005 (Review)
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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The OC - The Complete Second Season (Review)
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 (Review)
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
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Jaws 30th Anniversary Special Edition (Review)
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.
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