The Disappearance of Alice Creed [Blu-ray]

The Disappearance of Alice Creed [Blu-ray] [2009]
Directed by J. Blakeson

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Customer Reviews

Fine low-budget British crime thriller4
Whether you buy into its storyline of a crime that doesn't exactly go to plan or whether some of the events and twists seem a little far-fetched, The Disappearance of Alice Creed has at least one element that distinguishes it from the many modern British crime films - someone has at least taken the effort to come up with a worthwhile script that pays attention to characterisation and the mechanics of plot development.

That person is first-time writer/director J. Blakeson and careful consideration of who the characters are and how they develop over the course of the meticulously paced film ensure that The Disappearance of Alice Creed is constantly inventive and entertaining. And it needs to be - an independent production, shot on the Isle of Man on a low-budget, with only three characters seen over the length of the entire film, the action confined to only one or two locations where a young woman had been kidnapped and held for ransom by two clearly ruthless criminals - you're going to need some clever writing and plot developments to keep the viewer hooked.

You need more than a good script actually, you need good actors who can deliver it and make it work, and this is where the film's other strength lies - Gemma Arterton, Eddie Marsan and Martin Compston. These are challenging roles - not least for Arterton, who is brutally manhandled in the opening sequences of the film - but each of the characters have strengths and weaknesses that are gradually and dangerously exploited, shifting the balance of power between them on several occasions, and the actors prove to be more than capable of stretching to the dynamic that the roles demand.

There are certainly demands placed on the viewer also, both in the violent nature of the subject - mostly it's just the suggestion of violence, but no less intense for it - and in acceptance of some of the twists and revelations that don't stop until the clever placement of the final credits roll. Go with the flow however and this is a well-made film that manages to be gripping and entertaining and more than delivers on its promise.

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The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review

The Da Vinci Code: Critics and controversy aside, The Da Vinci Code is a verifiable blockbuster. Combine the film's huge worldwide box-office take with over 100 million copies of Dan Brown's book sold, and The Da Vinci Code has clearly made the leap from pop-culture hit to a certifiable franchise (games and action figures are sure to follow). The leap for any story making the move from book to big screen, however, is always more perilous. In the case of The Da Vinci Code, the story is concocted of such a preposterous formula of elements that you wouldn't envy Akiva Goldsman, the screenwriter who was handed a potentially unfilmable book and asked to make a filmable script out of it. Goldsman's solution was to have the screenplay follow the book as closely as possible, with a few needed changes, including a better ending. The result is a film that actually makes slightly better entertainment than the book. So if you're like most of the world, by now you've read the book and know that it starts out as a murder mystery. While lecturing in Paris, noted Harvard Professor of Symbology Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) is summoned to the Louvre by French police help decipher a bizarre series of clues left at the scene of the murder of the chief curator, Jacques Sauniere. Enter Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou), gifted cryptologist and Sauniere's granddaughter. Neveu and Langdon are forced to team up to solve the mystery, and from there the story is propelled across Europe as it balloons into a modern-day mini-quest for the Holy Grail, complete with alternative theories about the life of Christ, ancient secret societies headed by historical figures like Leonardo Da Vinci, secret codes, conniving bishops, daring escapes, car chases, and, of course, a murderous albino monk controlled by a secret master who calls himself "The Teacher." Taken solely as a mystery thriller, the movie almost works--despite some gaping holes--mostly just because it keeps moving forward at the breakneck pace set in the book. Brown's greatest trick might have been to have the entire story take place in a day so that the action is forced to keep going, despite some necessary pauses for exposition. Hanks and Tautou are just fine together but not exactly a memorable screen pair; meanwhile, Sir Ian McKellen's scenery-chewing as pivotal character Sir Leigh Teabing is just what the film needs to keep it from taking itself too seriously. In the end, this hit movie is just like a good roller-coaster ride: try not to think too much about it--just sit back and enjoy the trip. --Daniel Vancini, Amazon.com Angels & Demons: If the devil is in the details, there's a lot of wicked fun in Angels & Demons, the sequel (originally a prequel) to The Da Vinci Code. Director Ron Howard delivers edge-of-your-pew thrills all over the Vatican, the City of Rome, and the deepest, dankest catacombs. Tom Hanks is dependably watchable in his reprised role as Professor Robert Langdon, summoned urgently to Rome on a matter of utmost urgency--which happens to coincide with the death of the Pope, meaning the Vatican is teeming with cardinals and Rome is teeming with the faithful. A religious offshoot group, calling themselves the Illuminati, which protested the Catholic Church's prosecution of scientists 400 years ago, has resurfaced and is making extreme, and gruesome, terrorist demands. The film zooms around the city, as Langdon follows clues embedded in art, architecture, and the very bone structure of the Vatican. The cast is terrific, including Ewan McGregor, who is memorable as a young protégé of the late pontiff, and who seems to challenge the common wisdom of the Conclave just by being 40 years younger than his fellows when he lectures for church reform. Stellan Skarsgard is excellent as a gruff commander of the Swiss Guard, who may or may not have thrown in with the Illuminati. But the real star of the film is Rome, and its High Church gorgeousness, with lush cinematography by Salvatore Totino, who renders the real sky above the Vatican, in a cataclysmic event, with the detail and majesty of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. --A.T. Hurley, Amazon.com

Synopsis
This collection features the films ANGELS AND DEMONS and THE DA VINCI CODE, both of which are based on Dan Brown's bestselling novels and star Tom Hanks as Professor Robert Langdon.

Contains:
• Writing Angels & Demons
• Handling Props
• This is an Ambigram


THE DA VINCI CODE - Dr. Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks, FORREST GUMP) and cryptologist Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou, AMELIE) set out to uncover the truth about The Holy Grail, encountering a mysterious ancient society on the way. Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is on business in Paris when he is called to the Louvre, where a curator he was due to meet has been murdered. There he meets police cryptologist Sophie Neveu, the granddaughter of the murdered curator. A number of symbols and riddles have been found at the murder scene and the duo set about solving the complex mystery. However, Bezu Fache (Jean Reno, LEON)--the police officer in charge of the investigation--believes that Langdon is implicated in the killing. This leads to Langdon being chased by the French police as he attempts to solve the mystery by following secret clues found in the works of artist Leonardo Da Vinci. Langdon and Neveu escape to England to continue their search for clues in the mystery that has the possibility to upset the very foundations of Christianity, a search that brings them into conflict with Catholic organisation Opus Dei and their dangerous monk Silas (Paul Bettany, GANGSTER NO. 1). Screenwriter Akiva Goldsman (I, ROBOT) manages to transform Dan Brown's tremendously successful novel into a thrilling and fast paced script that is expertly directed by Ron Howard (APOLLO 13). The film was the target of criticism by the Roman Catholic Church but this didn't stop THE DA VINCI CODE becoming a worldwide smash hit.

ANGELS AND DEMONS re-teams director Ron Howard and star Tom Hanks for the sequel to their international blockbuster adaptation of Dan Brown's novel THE DA VINCI CODE. Although the book Angels and Demons was written before the novel THE DA VINCI CODE, the movie transpires after the events of the earlier movie. Hanks stars as Professor Robert Langdon, the most respected symbologist in the United States, who uses his knowledge in order to decode a symbol on the skin of a murder victim. The clues put him on the trail of an international conspiracy involving the Catholic Church. Ewan McGregor and Ayelet Zurer also star in the Sony Pictures production.

The Da Vinci Code & Angels and Demons [DVD] [2006] Directed by Ron Howard Price: £7.49 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Delivery. Details Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk 29 new or used available from £4.99 Average customer review:

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Mars Attacks [DVD] [1997]

Mars Attacks! [DVD] [1997]

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
It's enlightening to view Tim Burton's Mars Attacks! as his twisted satire of the blockbuster film Independence Day, which was released earlier the same year, although the movies were in production simultaneously. Burton's eye-popping, schlock tribute to 1950s UFO movies actually plays better on video than it did in cinemas. The idea of invading aliens ray-gunning the big-name movie stars in the cast is a cleverly subversive one, and the bulb-headed, funny-sounding animated Martians are pretty nifty, but it all seemed to be spread thin on the big screen. On video, however, the movie's kooky humour seems a bit more concentrated. The Earth actors (most of whom get zapped or kidnapped for alien science experiments) include Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, Danny DeVito, Martin Short, Sarah Jessica Parker, Rod Steiger, Michael J Fox, Lukas Haas, Jim Brown, Tom Jones and Pam Grier. --Jim Emerson

Special Features
Wide Screen
English
Region 2
Dolby Surround 5.1 English
Dolby Surround 5.1
Interactive Menu
Production Notes
Scene Access
Arabic\Croatian\Czech\English\Greek\Hungarian\Icelandic\Polish\Turkish

Synopsis
Director Tim Burton unleashes MARS ATTACKS!, a vicious, affectionate, brightly-colored homage to 1950s alien invasion movies. When a shiny silver flying saucer lands in the Nevada desert, a group of skull-faced Martians exit the gleaming craft. Although they claim to be peaceful, they promptly "vaporize" a gathering of unfortunate Earthlings, kicking off a bizarre high-tech war with wild special effects. This studiously campy sci-fi spoof, based on a series of Topps bubble-gum cards, gleefully parodies not only schlock B-horror movies, but also overblown blockbusters such as INDEPENDENCE DAY. This subversive film is helped along by an all-star cast including Jack Nicholson in dual roles as both a clueless U.S. President (with First Lady Glenn Close) and a Las Vegas sleazebag. The film follows the wacky WAR OF THE WORLD--like proceedings from the points of view of numerous colorful characters, from the inane U.S. Press Secretary (Martin Short) to a trailer-park family (Lukas Haas and Sylvia Sidney), singer Tom Jones (as himself).

Mars Attacks! [DVD] [1997] Directed by Tim Burton Price: £3.59 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Delivery. Details Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk 54 new or used available from £1.34 Average customer review:

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North By Northwest [Blu-ray] [1959]

North By Northwest [Blu-ray] [1959]

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
A strong candidate for possibly the most entertaining and enjoyable film ever made by a Hollywood studio, North by Northwest is positioned between the much heavier and more profoundly disturbing Vertigo (1958) and the stark horror of Psycho (1960). In the corpus of Alfred Hitchcock films it shows the director at his most effervescent in a romantic comedy-thriller that also features one of the definitive Cary Grant performances. Which is not to say that this is just "Hitchcock Lite". It's a classic Hitchcock Wrong Man scenario: Grant is Roger O Thornhill (initials ROT), an advertising executive who is mistaken by enemy spies for a US undercover agent named George Kaplan. Convinced these sinister fellows (James Mason as the boss and Martin Landau as his henchman) are trying to kill him, Roger flees and meets a sexy Stranger on a Train (Eva Marie Saint), with whom he engages in one of the longest, most convolutedly choreographed kisses in screen history. And of course there are the famous set pieces: the stabbing at the United Nations, the crop-duster plane attack in the cornfield (where a pedestrian has no place to hide) and the cliffhanger finale atop the stone faces of Mount Rushmore. With its sparkling Ernest Lehman script and that pulse-quickening Bernard Herrmann score, what more could a filmgoer possibly desire? --Jim Emerson, Amazon.com

On the DVD: This wide-screen print of the movie looks remarkably fresh, preserving the vivid depth of the original's VistaVision cinematography. The main extra feature is a new and entertaining 40-minute documentary hosted by Eva Marie Saint in which most of the surviving cast and crew give their insights into the making of the picture (we learn for example that canny Cary Grant charged 15 cents per autograph). Screenwriter Ernest Lehman provides an audio commentary and on a separate audio-only track Bernard Herrmann's masterful score can be heard in its entirety. There's also a stills gallery and trailers. --Mark Walker

Synopsis
NORTH BY NORTHWEST is a suspense thriller that finds Cary Grant in the role of Roger Thornhill, a Manhattan advertising executive mistaken for a spy. Considered by many to be the prototypical pure action movie (creating the template for later James Bond and Indiana Jones films), the film is a cross-country roller-coaster ride with Alfred Hitchcock at the helm. The film is duly famous for several classic and indelible scenes, including the desert biplane encounter and the Mt. Rushmore climax. The original title was THE MAN IN LINCOLN'S NOSE, which was replaced by a reference to a line from William Shakespeare's HAMLET (in which Hamlet says, "I am but mad north-north-west."). The magical combination of Hitchcock and the debonair Grant--who made four wonderful films together--makes NORTH BY NORTHWEST a suspense-filled standout.
When Thornhill finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time, the world as he knows it comes to an end. Suddenly danger threatens as the hapless businessman is targeted as an American intelligence agent and set up as a killer. All of Thornhill's attempts to straighten things out only make matters worse--and soon the desperate man is on the run from murderous foreign operatives, the CIA, and the police. The supporting cast, including Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, and Martin Landau, is uniformly excellent.

From the Back Cover

Audio:

Dolby TrueHD English 5.1, Dolby Digital English 5.1, Mono Brazilian Portuguese, Castilian Spanish 1.0

Subtitles:

English, Brazilian Portuguese, Castilian Spanish, Danish, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Latin Spanish, Norwegian, Swedish

North By Northwest [Blu-ray] [1959] Directed by Alfred Hitchcock Price: £8.99 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Delivery. Details Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk 19 new or used available from £7.50 Average customer review:

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Film Noir Collection [DVD]

Film Noir Collection [DVD]

Synopsis
Features the film noir titles The Killers (1946), Double Indemnity, The Big Steal, Crossfire, Out of the Past, The Blue Dahlia, The Glass Key, This Gun For Hire, and Farewell My Lovely.

Synopsis
This 9 disc film noir collection includes legendary titles: The Killers; Double Indemnity; The Big Steal; Crossfire; Out of the Past; The Blue Dahlia; The Glass Key; This Gun For Hire; and Murder, My Sweet. A truly memorable box set.

An unbeatable collection of classic Film Noir
Inside the big black cigarette box (a fair indication of the dangerously addictive quality of its contents), each film comes in its own case; and there isn't much apart from the films on the disks. Fortunately, special features and other such padding are not required to make these films great value for money and excellent entertainment. There is no filler in this set. All the films included are superb, and make an ideal introduction to the genre, at an ideal price.

With top writers like Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Grahame Greene and Ernest Hemingway, directors like Billy Wilder, Edward Dmytryk, and Don Siegel, and featuring early starring roles for Robert Mitchum, Burt Lancaster, Alan Ladd and top-notch femme-fatale turns by Veronica Lake, Ava Gardner, Barbara Stanwyck, and Gloria Grahame (among others), you will not be disappointed.

Film Noir Collection [DVD] Film Noir Price: £14.95 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Delivery. Details Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk 24 new or used available from £14.75 Average customer review:

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The Time Traveler's Wife [Blu-ray]

The Time Traveler's Wife [Blu-ray] [2009]

Ron Livingston, Michelle Nolden, Maggie Castle, Tatum McCann, Eric BanaDirector: Robert Schwentke

Film of the Year
I read the book a year or so ago and it was such a good read, my favourite book of last year. I have generally been very dissapointed in film versions of books so I approached this with caution but it was probably the best film of a book I have seen. First I should say there is loads missing. There is bound to be, it just can't all be fitted into a film. The film had a different feel to the book but that was okay it was a good feel. I thought the pace was rather quick, the book was much slower and deeper but my wife (who had not read the book) thought the pace was fine. The portrayals in the film are very close to how I imagined Henry and Claire - how did they do that?!! That never happens when I see film versions! I will definitely be getting the DVD I want to see it again.

If you have seen the film, please read the book - you wont regret it. If you have read the book, go see the film and then read the book again. There is no way to get this wrong. I read the book first and my wife saw the film film first. She said the film helped her get her head around the concept of what was happeining and set her up for the book which she loved. The film made me want to read to book again.

Either way enjoy this imaginative and beautifully crafted tale.

The Time Travelers Wife
I had my reservations about seeing this film, as I haven't read the book and thought that this wouldn't help my overall understanding of a potentially complicated storyline. But don't let this hold you back!!

The Time Traveler's Wife [Blu-ray] [2009] Directed by Robert Schwentke Price: £7.99 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Delivery. Details Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk 40 new or used available from £5.63 Average customer review:

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Skin

Skin [DVD] [2008] review

SKIN is one of the most extraordinary stories to emerge from apartheid South Africa: Sandra Laing (Sophie Okonedo) is a black child born in the 1950s to white Afrikaners (Sam Neill and Alice Krige), unaware of their black ancestry, who raise their child as a "white girl". But from the age of ten Sandra is shunned by white society, thus begins Sandra's thirty-year struggle to reconcile her heritage and find acceptance in a society torn by race and politics.

Skin [DVD] [2008] Directed by Anthony Fabian Price: £7.66 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Delivery. Details Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk 20 new or used available from £6.38 Average customer review:

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