Amazon.co.uk Review
Ok, let’s get all the disclaimers out of the way first. Despite its colourful (if crude) animation, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut is in no way meant for kids. It is chock full of profanity that might even make Quentin Tarantino blanch and has blasphemous references to God, Satan, Saddam Hussein (who’s sleeping with Satan, literally), and Canada. It’s rife with scatological humour, suggestive sexual situations, political incorrectness and gleeful, rampant vulgarity. And it’s probably one of the most brilliant satires ever made. The plot: flatulent Canadian gross-meisters Terrance and Philip hit the big screen, and the South Park quartet of third graders–Stan, Kyle, Kenny, and Cartman–begin repeating their profane one-liners ad infinitum. The parents of South Park, led by Kyle’s overbearing mom, form “Mothers Against Canada”, blaming their neighbours to the north for their children’s corruption and taking Terrance and Philip as war prisoners. It’s up to the kids then to rescue their heroes from execution, not mention a brooding Satan, who’s planning to take over the world. To give away any more of the plot would destroy the fun, but this feature-length version of Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s Comedy Central hit is a dead-on and hilarious send-up of pop culture. And did we mention it’s a musical? From the opening production number “Mountain Town” to the cheerful anti-profanity sing-along “It’s Easy, MMMKay” to Satan’s faux-Disney ballad “Up There”, Parker (who wrote or cowrote all the songs) brilliantly shoots down every earnest musical from Beauty and the Beast to Les Misérables. And in advocating free speech and satirising well-meaning but misguided parental censorship groups, Bigger, Longer & Uncut hits home against adult paranoia and hypocrisy with a vengeance. And the jokes, while indeed vulgar and gross, are hysterical; we can’t repeat them here, especially the lyrics to Terrance and Philip’s hit song, but you’ll be rolling on the floor. Don’t worry, though–to paraphrase Cartman, this movie won’t warp your fragile little mind. –Mark Englehart

South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut

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Amazon.co.uk Review
Having proven itself as a favourite film of children around the world, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory is every bit as entertaining now as it was when originally released in 1971. There’s a timeless appeal to Roald Dahl’s classic children’s novel, which was playfully preserved in this charming musical, from the colourful carnival-like splendour of its production design to the infectious melody of the “Oompah-Loompah” songs that punctuate the story. Who can forget those diminutive Oompah-loompah workers who recite rhyming parental warnings (“Oompah-loompah, doopity do…”) whenever some mischievous child has disobeyed Willy Wonka’s orders to remain orderly?

Oh, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves … it’s really the story of the impoverished Charlie Bucket, who, along with four other kids and their parental guests, wins a coveted golden ticket to enter the fantastic realm of Wonka’s mysterious confectionery. After the other kids have proven themselves to be irresponsible brats, it’s Charlie who impresses Wonka and wins a reward beyond his wildest dreams. But before that, the tour of Wonka’s factory provides a dazzling parade of delights, and with Gene Wilder giving a brilliant performance as the eccentric candyman, Wonka gains an edge of menace and madness that nicely counterbalances the movie’s sentimental sweetness. It’s that willingness to risk a darker tone–to show that even a wonderland like Wonka’s can be a weird and dangerous place if you’re a bad kid–that makes this an enduring family classic. –Jeff Shannon Amazon.co.uk Review
Starring Gene Wilder in the title role, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory may not be the most faithful Roald Dahl adaptation to hit the big screen, but there’s a strong argument that it’s the best. Even Tim Burton and Johnny Depp, with their 2005 release Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, couldn’t come close to this 1971 musical version.

Even nearly four decades later, it’s a surprisingly dark yet ultimately utterly joyful film, as Charlie Bucket finds his golden ticket and gets to join four gruesome children on a tour of the factory of the film’s title. What’s more, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is packed with toe-tapping, memorable musical numbers, a terrific cast of young performers, and a memorable lead performance from Wilder. His Willy Wonka is a complex creation, veering unpredictably between likeable and quite sinister. And it’s a performance that sticks in the mind long, long after the credits have rolled.

The Blu-ray release sadly doesn’t present the copious extra material in high definition, but the main feature has benefited from a solid improvement. It’s a bright, colourful and imaginative film for long periods, and the transfer work is up to the job. There are moments where the material shows its age a little, but this is a good upgrade from the DVD edition, and the picture and audio both show genuine improvements. It’s also the finest way to own what’s undoubtedly the best version of the book to make it to the big screen to date. As fine an actor as Johnny Depp is, his Willy Wonka simply doesn’t hold a candle to Mr Wilder’s…. –Jon Foster

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory

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Amazon.co.uk Review
Tremors didn’t actually break any new ground (even though its tunnelling worm monsters certainly did), but it revved up the classic monster-movie formulas of the 1950s with such energetic enthusiasm and humour that it made everything old seem new again. It’s also got a cast full of enjoyable actors who clearly had a lot of fun making the film, and director Ron Underwood strikes just the right balance of comedy and terror as a band of small-town rednecks battles a lot of really nasty-looking giant worms. The special effects are great, the one-liners fly fast and furious between heroes Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward (and yes, that’s country star Reba McEntire packin’ awesome firepower), and it’s all done with the kind of flair one rarely associates with goofy monster flicks like this. –Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

Tremors

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Amazon.co.uk Review
Invasion of the Body Snatchers is considered one of the best science fiction films of the 1950s and 1960s. The classic paranoid thriller was widely interpreted as a criticism of the McCarthy era, which was characterised by anti-Communist witch-hunts and fear of the dreaded blacklist. Some hailed it as an attack on the oppressive power of government as Big Brother. However viewers interpret it, this original 1956 version of Invaders of the Body Snatchers (based on Jack Finney’s serialised novel The Body Snatchers) remains a milestone movie in its genre, directed by Don Siegel with an inventive intensity that continues to pack an entertaining wallop.

Dr. Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) is unconcerned when the townsfolk accuse their loved ones of acting like emotionless impostors. But soon the evidence is overwhelming–Santa Mira has been invaded by alien “pods”, which are capable of replicating humans and taking possession of their identities. It’s up to McCarthy to spread the word of warning, battling the alien invasion at the risk of his own life. Look closely and you’ll find future director Sam Peckinpah (an uncredited cowriter of this film) making a cameo appearance as a meter reader! –Jeff Shannon

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

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Product Description
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Amazon.co.uk Review
Written by Karen Walton and directed by John Fawcett, Ginger Snaps combines horror and pubescent angst in a thoughtful portrayal of female teenage development both socially and physically. The Fitzgerald sisters are alienated to the point of discussing honouring the suicide pact they made when they were eight, and producing disturbing mock-up photographs of their violent deaths. Then the slightly older Ginger is bitten by a werewolf and starts developing hair in odd places and feeling more alive than she has ever felt–but it’s not entirely clear whether this is sexual maturity or monstrosity creeping up on her until she starts developing canines and a tail. The look and feel of the movie is a cross between Grimms’s Fairytales and Neil Jordan’s A Company of Wolves, while the influence of Buffy the Vampire Slayer runs through both script and cinematography–which means it occasionally looks like an extended episode of Buffy, minus the Vampire slayer herself. The performances of Emily Perkins as the nervy Goth Brigitte and of Katherine Isabelle as the extrovert charismatic Ginger are more or less faultless; we are taken to the heart of this claustrophobic relationship just as it starts to implode. Mimi Rogers as their ditzy mother and Kris Lemke as the stoner who tries to help Brigitte are almost equally excellent.

On the DVD: The DVD includes as special features some impressive screen tests by Perkins and Isabelle in which we see them evolving their final takes on the characters; we also get a mildly interesting documentary on the construction of the werewolf Ginger becomes and a featurette that has some snappy one-liners from the cast, as well as production notes and cast notes. The Dolby sound catches the nervy grungy world of the film, which is presented in 16:9 ratio.–Rox Kaveney

Ginger Snaps

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Amazon.co.uk Review
Director-producer Perry Henzel’s all-Jamaican 1973 classic The Harder They Come–one of the most beloved of all international cult favourites–fiercely expresses the live-wire Jamaican spirit when an impoverished Africa tuned to American radio. Ivan, a country boy who dreams of fame as a singer, rides into Kingston on a rickety country bus in the opening scenes, only to meet with disaster heaped on disaster at the hands of those masked as friends. In a breathless defining climax, Ivan finally breaks from his passivity and begins to wreak his revenge. Soon Kingston’s music Mafia and the equally corrupt authorities are after him, but like the real-life people’s hero (a man named Rhygin) on whom this character is partially based, Ivan leads them on a maddening chase eluding capture until the movie’s shocking final moments. ,p.

The film incorporates an archetypal passion for “outlaw” justice common to American Westerns, which were a staple of the Caribbean theatre circuit at the time. Released just 12 years after Jamaica achieved independence, The Harder They Come also reflects the disenchantment that soon followed a massive post-independence exodus from the island’s country hamlets to the tropical ghettos of Kingston, where a more grinding urban poverty awaited. Brilliantly shot, directed, written, and acted; singer Jimmy Cliff excels in the leading role and Carl Bradshaw shines as his arch-enemy, the film tells an anthemic Jamaican story to seductive rhythms of a soundtrack that became a reggae bestseller.–Elena Oumano

The Harder They Come

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Amazon.co.uk Review
Given that Resident Evil is a Paul Anderson movie based on a computer game which was itself highly derivative (especially of George A Romero and James Cameron films), it’s probably unfair to complain that it hasn’t got an original idea or moment in its entire running time. In the early 1980s, Italian schlock films such as Zombie Flesh Eaters and Zombie Creeping Flesh tried to cram in as many moments restaged from American originals as possible, strung together by silly characters wandering between monster attacks. This is a much-improved, edited, photographed and directed version of the same gambit.

As amnesiac Milla Jovovich remembers amazing kung fu skills and anti-globalist Eric Mabius mutters about evil corporations, a gang of clichéd soldiers without a distinguishing feature between them (except for Michelle Rodriguez as a secondary tough chick) are trapped in an underground scientific compound at the mercy of a tyrannical computer–which manifests as a smug little-girl-o-gram–fending off flesh-eating zombies (though gore fans will be disappointed by the film’s need to stay within the limits of the 15 certificate) and CGI mutants, not to mention the ever-popular zombie dogs. It’s tolerably action-packed, but zips past its borrowings (Aliens, Cube, Deep Blue Sea) without adding anything that future schlock pictures will want to imitate. — Kim Newman

Resident Evil

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Amazon.co.uk Review
The comedic genius of This Is Spinal Tap is confirmed by the fact that a majority of studio executives were utterly clueless about its brilliance. As a first-time director and cowriter, Rob Reiner must have felt simultaneously frustrated and elated, knowing that the obtuseness of movie executives was a clue to his debut project’s potential greatness. Now, of course, the clarity of hindsight and the rarity of superior satire have turned This Is Spinal Tap into one of the funniest documentary spoofs of all time. Reiner and the members of “Tap” (Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer) couldn’t have picked a better target for their satire, because heavy metal music in the early 1980s was already a borderline case of self-parody. From the bizarre, premature deaths of the band’s drummers to the backstage squabbles over sexist cover art and meddling groupies, this movie scores about a hundred comedic bull’s-eyes for lampooning every possible aspect of rock pomposity in the age of Kiss. It’s a virtual bible of rock & roll irreverence, so accurate in its observations that it’s become a tour-bus classic for real bands around the world. On the one-to-ten scale of satirical inspiration, This Is Spinal Tap is like the modified amplifiers that Christopher Guest so hilariously demonstrates: this one goes to 11. –Jeff Shannon

This Is Spinal Tap

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Amazon.co.uk Review
It’s silly, it’s superficial, it’s so desperately earnest about its tale of time-spanning love that you almost wish for a cheap flatulence gag just to break the solemn mood. But there is something so unabashedly gushy and entertaining about Somewhere in Time that you can’t begrudge its enduring popularity. The film has become a staple of romantic-movie lovers since its release in 1980, and endless showings on cable TV have turned it into a dubious classic of sorts–a three-hanky weepy that anyone can enjoy as a guilty pleasure or a beloved favourite, with no apologies necessary. In his first film after the star-making success of Superman, Christopher Reeve stars as a contemporary playwright who visits a posh hotel and sees the portrait of an actress (Jane Seymour) who had performed there in 1912. He becomes obsessed with this beautiful woman and learns all he can about her, and then discovers a method of hypnotically transporting himself backward in time to meet her. “Is it … you?” she says upon seeing the lovestruck playwright, and it’s clearly a mutual attraction. But even the slightest reminder of the playwright’s modern time can jar him from his seemingly real existence in the past, so his wonderful love affair is constantly just a step from being stolen away. Based on Richard Matheson’s novel Bid Time Return, this flaky film may strain one’s tolerance for plot holes and corny romance, but it’s hard to deny its lasting appeal–and let’s face it, guys, it’ll make wives and girlfriends swoon if they are in a tearjerker mood. –Jeff Shannon

Somewhere in Time

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