24 {4th.Season} (DVD Review) - 25/2/07

Season 4 of "24" kicks off with a total sense of disorientation as the whole pacing and setting has changed and we have a whole host of new characters introduced. Like the mother of all soaps this season seems to meander from one scene to another stringing us all along but still at a break-neck pace with no chance for a breather and then we are onto the next crazy clue to tracking down something else which will lead to the next McGuffin as we go from place to place. A word of warning though: Do not read the booklets that come with these Boxsets until after you have watched the series your watching - they seem to have the dreadful habit of giving away important plot points and revelations which really does put a dampener on your enjoyment of the episode if you know what is about to happen? (A bit like reading the last page of a book and finding out the Butler did it!)

With this season again hard choices are made amongst the emotional highs and small asides early on later come back to haunt a couple of characters in a big way. Tethered together the weave of the threads slowly comes together as antagonists and protagonists clash in a variety of ways until the edge of your seat thrills burns through and winds down to the final earth shattering denouement. The early promise from Season 1 hasn't as yet been resolved as to a bigger picture and I get the feeling it has crashed and burned with any other number of plot hole gaps - But kudos to the Producers for managing to take it this far and still keep the concept fresh and still fairly lucid. After the demise of Season 4's ending we shall see what joys Season 5 brings to the table and one can only hope that it will be a further box of delights?

SPECIAL FEATURES: As in the last two season's 7-Disc Boxset's the seventh disc is given over to Special Features which have 3 Featurettes for Season 4 and a Music Video plus 40 Deleted & Extended Scenes with optional Commentary. Several selected episodes have also got an additional Commentary with either Cast or Crew.

24 {3rd.Season} (DVD Review) - 20/2/07

A sense of palpable frenetic panic hits this third Season of "24" with the visual alternative of the book page-turner that makes you want to see the next episode immediately! So far the best of the 3 seasons this continually blurs the lines between "good guys and bad guys" with a shade of grey that is neither black or white with decisions that make you wince for all those involved. Hard choices are made that really make you think on a larger scale (Still with some gaping plot holes) but always nevertheless enjoyable entertainment of the "What if it was me?" scenario. Unfortunately after all the chaos and destruction over the 24 episodes of this season; it ends on a bit of a downer, with no sense of a way out leaving a lot of very loose threads - Hopefully to be sorted out in Season 4?

As the series has progressed so have the Special Features with an Extended Season Premiere Episode, ton's of Deleted Scenes which are extensive and Cast/Crew Commentaries on Selected Episodes and a selection of short Featurettes. A really bumper 7-disc Boxset!

24 {2nd.Season} (DVD Review) - 17/2/07

24 continues straight into Season 2 with never a let-up plowing more or less continuously into the next 24 hour period and a literal race against time with every totally impossible situation thrown at all the characters that they might as well have chucked in the kitchen sink on top! A few emotional highs tug at the heartstrings (I got the tissues out at a couple of scenes) along the way as the action gathers pace and things fall into the various slots as people fall by the wayside and burn out, the tortuous pacing chews your fingernails to the quick and the quite breathless rigmarole of intense scene after scene is enough to make you scream. Everything that can happen does and although some plot points can be guessed ahead of time nothing is all that straight forward as the twists and turns get further knotted amongst the deceptions and lies, betrayals and gainsaying. Charging into these six discs is absolutely nerve jangling and leaves the seventh disc with a selection of Special Features with Deleted Scenes, Featurettes, Documentaries and Episode Commentaries which round off the high tensile excitement of Season 2 nicely.

24 {1st.Season} (DVD Review) - 11/2/07

I had heard a lot about this series and having forked out for five seasons I have now just plowed through 24 episodes one after the other. Without the irritating advert breaks on DVD it certainly puts things in a better context and watching the episodes consecutively gives a better understanding of the overall plot instead of having to plod along weekly trying to remember what happened ten episodes back. The conceit of it all happening in one 24 hour period must put some constraint's on the Production team as it must be difficult if each programme is supposedly running in "real" time against the clock. Despite some points across this first series which does feel like you are being manipulated time and again (Which is what is in affect going on) and some gaping plot-holes (Which can't be really avoided with a concept like this) this is as a whole very enjoyable. I could not believe how fast this first 24 episodes shot by and left me clamouring for more with a massive (And irritating!) cliff-hanger of an ending setting up the pieces obviously for Season 2. No Special Features to speak of apart from an Alternate Ending and a Preview Overview For Season 2.

Really the plot is a number of strands of a story weaved around various people's lives as a period of 24 hours as it gradually unravels and the parts of the puzzle fall into place. It must have taken a hell of a lot of planning and concise story writing to get this to where it was on the screen and come out as well as it did. Clues lead to further clues and the plot really does thicken as by the end of this first season what you actually thought was going on was just a drop in the ocean to what could shape up to be a much larger back-story with a much bigger canvas to what people think may be happening?

THE DEPARTED (DVD Review) - 9/2/07

Having seen a trailer for this I decided to fork out on the Region 1 (USA) 2-Disc Special Edition. Martin Scorsese directs a re-make of the Hong Kong film "Infernal Affairs" with more than a passing glance to reality that covers both the film and the Special Features background. We get sterling performances from old hands like Jack Nicholson, Ray Winstone and Martin Sheen with able back-up from new hands Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon and Mark Wahlberg. The interwoven plot threads are so tight your not sure just who is who they say they are with double-dealing duplicity, lies and deception on both sides of the criminals and the law. A long film at 151 minutes the time shoots by as the characters lay out their flaws and the desperation stretches as each group attempts to flush out the operative within each other's camp.

SPECIAL FEATURES: Unfortunately the features on the second disc seemed rather dry to me. The best of the bunch being the Deleted Scenes (Nine in all) with Commentary Introductions from Scorsese himself and the actual "The Story Of The Boston Mob" about the real-life gangster behind Jack Nicholson's character which is more than a little chilling in the telling. Plus "Scorsese On Scorsese" and "Crossing Criminal Cultures" features and the Theatrical Trailer and some thrown-in ad trailers as well.

Region 1 (USA) - Rating: R. Bonus Material Not Rated or Close-Captioned. COLOUR - NTSC. Running Time: 151 Mins. English, French, Spanish 5.1. Dolby Surround Sound. CC. Widescreen. Subtitles: English, French, Spanish (Feature Film Only). Warner 2006/2007. 113288 / ISBN # 1419847988.

HERO (Ying Xiong) (DVD Review) - 8/2/07

An astonishing palette of colours are on show in this epic production from the Director of "House Of Flying Daggers" Zhang Yimou is his film of "Hero" with a great cast featuring Jet Li, Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Zhang Ziyi, Chen Dao Ming and Donnie Yen. Initially I was going to watch it off the telly but had seen clips from it and decided to just buy it outright and I'm glad I did. Spectacle of a huge scale is covered in wondrous set pieces and this is really brought to life in the background Special Features what a massive task it all was. A tale of assassins and love, redemption and regret brought tears to my eyes as the tale unfolds in swathes of colour and swordplay. The amazing scene from the rain dripped fight in a chess game to a lake of still water as characters fly across it in reflective mirror smooth sword fighting as they soar amongst blue and white snow-capped mountains, to the ethereal windswept sands of the desert and the flights of arrows crashing into buildings against a backdrop of swirls of golden leaves in a woodland strewn with a blanket of windfalls. Surreal and almighty the tale of the First Emperor of China who unites his warring lands into a whole is unbelievable and I cannot believe that it's running time was only 95 minutes but seemed longer - but in a good way - as the characters are fully integrated into the story as different versions of the truth emerge. SPECIAL FEATURES: These cover a nice making of in "Hero: Defined" and flesh out the story and characters and the sheer scale that this film production took on in bringing it to the screen. We also get four Screen to Storyboards with the Golden Forest, Library, Ring Of Iron and the Lake. With a further background production in "Inside The Action: A Conversation With Quentin Tarantino & Jet Li".

Languages: Dolby Digital 5.1: Mandarin/English & Dolby Surround 2.0: English Described English. Subtitles: English/HOH. Bonus materials may not contain subtitles. COLOUR - PAL. Running Time: Approx 95 Mins. Widescreen Format: 2.35:1 Rating: 12. Region 2 (UK). Miramax. D881414/ISBN # 5017188814140>

PERFUME: THE STORY OF A MURDERER Film Review - 7/2/07

The sort of film you will either loathe or love - I fall somewhere between the two? Having seen a Trailer for this I was fairly intrigued and it's a film that suddenly flies off kilter very fast indeed. Directed by Tom Tykwer ("Run Lola Run") and Writing Credits by Bernd Eichinger (Currently "The Resident Evil" series and some other very impressive credits) and Andrew Birkin (Of "The Cement Garden" fame and also impressive credits) you can see all three of these people's work clearly in this film from the film-stylisation, set-pieces and story material. Boy is given birth to in the slums of 18th. Century Paris in the muck and dredge in the street in a graphic scene from the offset with the Narrator's voice (A sly John Hurt) filling in the plot as we go along. Later we get film stalwarts Dustin Hoffman and Alan Rickman chewing the scenery as the film is laid out step by step. It is a bizarre subject matter and really gets brought to life as the boy from the slums has a talent no-one else has in the shape of a sense of smell that far surpasses anyone else. Unfortunately it all gets rather twisted as the lad screws things up in a fixation on capturing the scent of various women to combine and produce the greatest fragrance and hence murder ensues. Quite rapidly it strays from interesting to stupid; in such an unbelievable way that you pity that it has run off the rails so soon, by the end you'll think it preposterous and just let it go. Interesting idea - Just badly executed. Good poster for the film though!

SAW 3 (DVD Review) - 5/2/07

I won't go into the whys or wherefores for some of the scenes in "Saw 3" which I found gratuitous as it seems unnecessary (Much like the added gore content) to the actual versatility of this film series. This installment jumps back and forth with flashes from the first two films - filling in some much needed detail to the saga as a whole. The American Region 1 (USA) DVD is a marvellous Unrated Edition with a nice tight selection of Special Features. Interesting that already having churned this film out work has begun on "Saw 4" which should feature Tobin Bell (Jigsaw) presumably in flashback status or on video footage having already set off another game at the end of film three. The style of the case covers continues with a plastic printed outer sleeve looking through a blank case onto a saw blade placed on the DVD. The Special Features cover "The Traps Of Saw 3" & "The Props Of Saw 3" with small featurettes on both backstage. We get a further behind-the-scenes look with the Director's on set thoughts in "Darren's Diary". Two Commentaries and Deleted Scenes plus Theatrical Trailers and Coming Soon Adverts.

USA (Unrated Uncut)/Canada 18A. 16x9 Widescreen 1.78:1 DVD Screen Format. Region 1 (USA). Feature Runtime: 113 Mins. Dolby 5.1. & 2.0. COLOUR NTSC. English & Spanish Subtitles - Close Captioned. Special Features also NOT RATED. Lionsgate/Maple Pictures 2007 - ISBN # 057373173336.

WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE - TV Film Review 5/2/07

"Welcome To The Jungle" as it is known in the UK & Australia has one of those perverse executive decisions where the suits called the film "The Rundown" everywhere else? Don't ask me why? The people who make these decisions are loonies changing a perfectly good title for something else? It causes a lot of confusion over posters, advertising material and DVD covers. If you need a couple of hours brainless entertainment then you have it here. With an amusing cameo from a certain "Terminator" at the beginning of the film The Rock stretches his muscles literally in laying out a load of henchmen and then we go onto Christopher Walken doing his bad-guy shtick with other assorted bad-ass goons in tow. Chuck in a treasure hunt and some political worries, a few explosions and there's your Sunday night viewing sorted.

ANTI-BODIES (Antikörper) - Cable TV Film Review 4/2/07

This German serial-killer with a twist movie was on this Saturday night on FilmFour as a Premiere showing and what is even stranger is that it is available to buy now as it has just been released on DVD by Tartan on Region 2 - So what is going on with this then? This twisted take with many nods towards "Silence Of The Lambs" fashions it's own little imaginative pieces with the possibility that everything isn't as happy in his idyllic country village; as a small town copper soon finds out, plagued by his Catholic conscience with the murder of a young girl. The capture of a renowned killer may just answer his questions or maybe not - as he gets dragged into a vacuous case of cat and mouse with not everything (as usual) being what it seems? Fairly derivative it's entertaining fare for a watch-once scenario but can get very slow in places.