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 Tales Of The Unexpected Series 3
01/12/2006. DVD Region 2: Network 7952546. 225 minutes 9 episodes no extras. Price: £19.99 (UK).
 Tales Of The Unexpected Series 5
01/12/2007. Region 2 DVD. pub: Network Serial 7952753 3 DVDs 450 minutes. 18 * 25 minute episodes with no extras. Price: £24.95 (UK).
 Tales Of The Unexpected - The Complete Fourth Season
01/10/2007. Region 2 DVD. pub: Network 7952679. 3 DVDs 425 minutes. 17 * 25 minute episodes and no extras. Price: £24.99 (UK).
Teknolust (Mark's Take)
01/05/2003. This SF film plays like a throwback to 1960s mod film making. It is every bit as colorful as intended, but not nearly as intelligent. It plays like a college skit but for the digital special effects that allow four Tilda Swintons on the screen at one time.
Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machine (Mark's Take)
01/08/2004. The new Terminator film has fewer ideas to slow the action. The film is in more ways than one just a machine demolition derby. The future sends back what is supposed to be the most advanced Terminator robot of the series but budget constraints and poor writing make it less intelligent and less capable than its predecessor was.
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines: Frank's Take
01/08/2004. This juiced-up futuristic fable is delightfully on maximum overdrive and Arnold S. does what he does best ... deliver his brand of robotic ribaldry with the precision of an extremely well-oiled machine.
Terminator 3: The Rise Of The Machines
01/01/2004. pub: Columbia Tristar CVR 34144. Price: £12.99 (UK) - this varies so shop around for the best deal) stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nick Stahl, Claire Danes and Kristanna Loken.
 The Abandoned: Frank's take
01/03/2007. Spanish co-writer/director Nacho Cerda has an eerily perceptive vision that some horror fans know all too well, says Frank. In Cerda's innovative and grim 1994 short film Aftermath the filmmaker proved that instilling an audacious and salacious tone to his frightening fare is certainly what the genre was desperately looking forward to well over a decade ago.
 The Abominable Dr. Phibes: original motion picture score by Basil Kirchin
01/04/2005. CD: Perseverance PRD 004. 40 minutes. Price: $24.95 or $17.00 off their website.
 The Abominable Dr. Phibes/Dr. Phibes Rises Again
02/02/2008. region 1 DVD: pub: MGM 1009636. double-sided DVD: 95mins/89mins. Price: under $ 8.00 (US) if you know where to look). The Abominable Dr. Phibes: cast: Vincent Price, Joseph Cotton and Virginia North. Dr. Phibes Rises Again: cast: Vincent Price, Robert Quarry and Valli Kemp.
The Adventures of Pluto Nash
01/10/2002. Frank puts his feet up for the space-aged spoof 'The Adventures of Pluto Nash', only to discover this film is about as funny as an asteroid stuck up one's rectum.
 The Amityville Horror: Frank's Take
01/06/2005. The real horror behind 2005's The Amityville Horror is that it had the audacity to try and mine its lukewarm absurd scares from the 26-year old original bland product. Let's face it-the 1979 blueprint and its woeful 3-D sequel wasn't exactly anything uniquely distinctive to write home about in the first place.
The Animatrix
01/07/2003. Video: Warner Home Video: S037316. Price: £ 9.99 (UK). 110 minutes.
 The Astronaut Farmer: Frank's take
04/03/2007. There's something that can be said for innocuous family fare that embraces its inspiration with notable fortitude, thinks Frank. Whimsical films about reaching impossible dreams or existing in worlds where anything imaginable can overwhelm the mind is something that cosy-minded cinema loves to convey. In writer-director Michael Polish's NASA-driven narrative The Astronaut Farmer, the mawkish sentiments are displayed on the launching pad. Unfortunately, the treacle-induced tendencies are unfocused as a high concept adventure for schmaltzy consideration.
 The Astronaut Farmer: Mark's take
01/03/2007. This film may involve rockets and exploration, finds Mark, but it should play better with a non-technical audience. If somewhat overly familiar and contrived at times this is a likable Capra-esque story of a farmer who believes he has the smarts to build his own low-cost orbital rocket. He finds he has to fight the system to achieve his dream. The view of small town life will be pleasing to some and cloyingly sweet to others. On balance this is just okay entertainment.
 The Bionic Woman: The Complete Season Two
01/05/2007. region 2 DVD. pub: Universal Playback 8243291. 1052 minutes. 22 episodes with no extras. Price: £26.49 (UK) if you shop around for a good price). stars: Lindsay Wagner, Richard Anderson and Martin E. Brooks (contrary to the box label) and many guest-stars.
The Bourne Supremacy
01/09/2004. Robert Ludlum's mysterious United States government assassin again returns to the big screen from what some assumed and hoped was death. Again we have a complex plot with twists and doublecrosses. Again the infallible and deadly assassin is pitted against the agency that made him what he is.
 The Bourne Ultimatum (Mark's take)
01/09/2007. Jason Bourne, says Mark, is hot on the trail of the people who know why he was made a deadly assassin. There are a few cracks in the wall of his amnesia and he is starting to see the picture beyond. The last of Bourne trilogy of films should have been the most satisfying of the three with the loose ends tied up and the CIA closing in. Will it be Bourne Dead or Bourne Free? But this film is less interested in good plot than it is in having long, drawn-out action chases of which there are entirely too many.
 The Brothers Grimm: Mark's Take
01/01/2006. The Brothers Grimm is a funhouse of ideas and visual surprises but a story with no centre and virtually no characters, says Mark. It is more imaginative than the similar Van Helsing is, but it has many of the same faults. Terry Gilliam has to realize that there is a lot more to film than creating unexpected and amazing images. There is certainly enchantment here, but the story does not do much to hold it together.
The Champions: The Complete Series
01/07/2004. pub: DVD. pub: Carlton 37115 05843. 30 * 50minute episodes plus assorted extras. Price: varies from £50 to £30 so shop around for the best deal) stars: William Gaunt, Stuart Damon, Alexandra Bastedo and Anthony Nicholls.
 The Champions: The Complete Series Special Edition DVD boxset
01/10/2006. DVD - Region 2. pub: Network 7952408. 9 DVDs. 1595 minutes. 30 -50 minute episodes plus many extras. Price: £59.99 (UK). stars: William Gaunt, Stuart Damon, Alexandra Bastedo and Anthony Nicholls.
 The chronicles of narnia: the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe: Mark's Take
01/01/2006. Disney Studios brings the best-known chapter of C. S. Lewis's Narnia books to the screen, says Mark. Shooting in New Zealand is only one way in which this film mimics The Lord Of The Rings. But somehow one never really cares much for the four children who generally just do the obvious. Aslan is a big lion, but also just a cipher and is much less interesting than even Kong.
 The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe Special Edition Original Soundtrack composed by Harry Gregson-Williams
01/02/2006. CD: Walt Disney Records 5008 61373-7 17 tracks. 70 minutes. DVD disk (Region 1): behind the scenes extras. Price: $24.95 (US) although this can vary to $ (US) when I looked around.
The Chronicles of Riddick - Frank's Take
01/08/2004. Four years after Pitch Black, filmmaker David Twohy decides to follow up his celebrated pet project with the disjointed and bloated sequel The Chronicles of Riddick. Utterly ponderous and as clunky as a crater rock, Riddick fails to capture the spontaneous spirit of its predecessor.
 The Complete Fruit Baskets Boxset (PG)
01/05/2007. Region2 DVD: pub: Revelation Films/Funimation. FUN 72104. 4 DVDs 650 minutes 26 * 24 minute episodes plus extras. Price: £49.99 (UK). English/Japanese (English dolby Digital 5.1/2.0 Japanese Dolby digital 2.0).
The Core: Frank's Thoughts
01/05/2003. The Core definitely had the making for fascinating sci-fi stimulation. The attempt to turn the scientific discipline of electromagnetism into a robust and cheeky mainstream entertainment seemed quite challenging in concept.
The Core: Mark's Thoughts
01/05/2003. A spectacular set of disasters and a heroic expedition to save mankind. Some real science and some nonsense mix. If the film does not quite click, it is probably because we have higher standards than we had for science fiction films in their heyday of the 1950s and 1960s.
 The Covenant (Frank's Take)
01/10/2006. Poor Renny Harlin, says Frank. What in the world happened to this filmmaker to the point of despair? If one were to do a dirty laundry list of all Harlin's unappetizing flicks, they would have to invest in a soap detergent factory just to wipe off the stench. With forgettable fizzles such as Cutthroat Island, Driven, Deep Blue Sea and Exorcist: The Beginning, you would think that the misguided moviemaker would shoot for something digestible to redeem his current curse of flaccid filmmaking.
 The Da Vinci Code (Frank's Take)
01/06/2006. So the question presents itself as this: will one of the highly controversial event motion pictures of the year stack up to its enormous expectations? After all, says Frank, The Da Vinci Code has a lot riding on its explosive reputation. Not only is it based on the sensational best-selling book penned by Dan Brown, it has also created a worldwide buzz not experienced in quite some time.
The Da Vinci Code (Mark's Take)
01/07/2006. What appears to be a ritual murder in the Louvre leads to the discovery of secrets that could change our concept of two millennia of history. For once, says Mark, we have a thriller that is 90% idea and 10% action rather than the other way around. Ron Howard directs the film adaptation of Dan Brown's international bestseller from a script by Akiva Goldsman.
The Day After Tomorrow: Frank's Take
01/07/2004. Frank reckons 'The Day After Tomorrow' will most likely be viewed as a long-winded and loopy meteorology mishap for weather forecast freaks. Justifiably so, Emmerich’s furious yet flimsy convention of cartoonish catastrophe gives a whole new meaning to the classic movie title Gone with the Wind. It’s too bad that this global gloom session couldn’t sweep away any sooner than its two-hour running time.
The Day After Tomorrow: Mark's Take
01/07/2004. In this new movie Mark finds global warming launches a quick-freeze ice age, killing billions of people. Roland Emmerich brings us a special-effects-laden look at the human race reeling under the havoc caused by the worst natural disaster in 10,000 years, a super-cold cyclonic storm that covers the face of the planet. The story is compelling and plausible enough for non-experts.
 The Deadly Spawn by Michael Perilstein
01/05/2005. CD: Perseverance PRD 005. 43 minutes. Price: $21.95 or $17.00 off their website.
 The Death Of Mr Lazarescu (Mark's Take)
01/02/2007. This, discovers Mark, is a film not so much about death as about the experience of dying in modern society. It is a realistic look at the last hours of a dying man as he goes through the wheels of the medical bureaucracy of Romania - probably not too different from our own. The film feels very real and not a little scary since the viewer knows that he is very likely to eventually likely to share Lazarescu's fate.
 The Descent (Mark's take)
01/09/2006. Seemingly expanded from some horrific images from The Hobbit, The Descent is a genuinely suspenseful adventure and horror film. Some women get lost in an unexplored cave and run into man-eating cave dwellers. But the scariest monster is the cave itself.
The Dinosaurs that just wouldn't Die: Jurassic Park III
01/09/2001. A short punchy action sequel to the two dinosaur films made by Steven Spielberg. Joe Johnston directs a straightforward story of an excursion back to the island of the dinosaurs.
 The Dukes of Hazzard (Frank's Take)
01/09/2005. If you were looking for an evening of sophistication, an annoyingly hell-raising hillbilly hoot such as The Dukes of Hazzard wouldn't necessarily be your ideal cup of tea, says Frank. But then again, if you are purposely looking for moronic moments to fill your idle time then director Jay Chandrasekhar's pointless big screen treatment of the classic cornfield 1979-85 CBS series may satisfy your need for instant dumb-down entertainment.
 The Exorcism Of Emily Rose (Mark's take)
01/05/2006. This is a courtroom drama about an alleged demonic possession and the resulting exorcism, finds Mark. The story is loosely based on real events. The Exorcism Of Emily Rose sports a very good cast, solid production values, and an intelligent script. By modern standards the gore is minimal and most of the thrills come from production craftsmanship.
 The Eye (Frank's take)
01/03/2008. The cornea-deprived caper The Eye, notes Frank, definitely sports a blurry vision in the meager horror B-movie sweepstakes. Co-directors David Moreau and Xavier Palud ("Them") oversee this flaccid fright fest that is a rudimentary remake of the twin Pang Brothers' Hong Kong blistering horror show of the same name. Although the Pangs displayed a convincing eerie atmosphere in their original nail-biter about sadistic senses, the Moreau-Palud combo merely scratches the bare surface and never revisits the mouth-watering chill factor that manifests so potently in the Asian original.
The Film Without Fear - or Shame.
01/04/2003. In Daredevil, Mark R Leeper finds an uninspired comic book superhero film that borrows everything, while inventing and contributing almost nothing. An uninspiring actor plays an uninspired idea for a superhero in a familiar setting … one that feels like it was stamped out at a factory.
 The Fog: 2005 remake movie (Frank's Take)
01/11/2005. John Carpenter's 1980 original release of The Fog wasn't exactly a skilled and penetrating horror movie to behold, says our Frank. Nevertheless, Carpenter's sinister showcase had the atmospheric creepiness to at least register some legitimate jolts. So what does he think of the remake? Read on.
 The Fountain (Mark's take)
01/01/2007. Mystic pizza. This is an enigmatic story involving the Tree of Life with three story lines: one in the 1500s, one in the near future, and one in the far future, says Mark. Darren Aronofsky is less interested in coherence than in creating New Age-ish cosmic images. This is the sort of film that plays much better at midnight whether you stay up that late or not.
 The Great Yokai War (Mark's Take)
01/09/2006. A war is fought in one night with an evil lord and his robotic minions against humans and the monstrous spirits of Japanese folklore, finds Mark. Some of the scale of this film rivals that of The Lord Of The Rings. This is a wild adventure that is not always easy to follow, but it is a font of comedy and macabre imagination with a wonderful Japanese flavour.
 The Grudge 2 (Frank's Take)
01/12/2006. So what do we have here, folks, asks Frank? That's right...another belaboured and brain-dead boofest that's being served up to whet our hair-raising appetites. For those of you that wanted a frantic follow up to the 2004 hit-making scarefest The Grudge then count your giddy goose bumps because director Takashi Shimizu is back in the saddle again.
 The Hidden/The Hidden 2
02/02/2008. DVD Region 1. pub: Alliance Atlantic 20968. 2 films 98/91minutes plus extras. Price: $ 5.81 (US) if you know where to look). The Hidden stars: Kyle MacLachlan and Michael Nouri. The Hidden 2 stars: Raphael Sbarge and Kate Hodge.
 The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy: Mark's Take
01/06/2005. It is hard to be too harsh on a film with as many smiles as this one has. But for many of us the jokes will be just too familiar. Some of the visualizations are quite good and perhaps the best thing about this version of the oft-adapted stories of Douglas Adams. This film is a pleasant experience but a throwaway one.
The Hulk: Frank's Take
01/08/2004. In revered filmmaker Ang Lee’s darkly jolting action-adventure The Hulk, the perversely spry comic-book film adaptation continues on as a booming genre flick.
The Hulk: Mark's Take
01/08/2004. Ambitious but ultimately dissatisfying film version of the Marvel comic. A man periodically turns into a not-so-jolly green giant. Ang Lee does the adaptation with ill-calculated sensibility and not much sense.
 The Illusionist (Mark's Take)
01/10/2006. In this film, finds Mark, a mystical and mysterious stage magician, Eisenheim, becomes the rage of Vienna while working out his own personal love triangle. His childhood sweetheart is now engaged to the Crown Prince. The Prince has the power of his station, and Eisenheim seems to have his own mystical powers. This is a captivating and atmospheric tale that will keep the viewer wondering what is real, what illusion.
 The Impact of Rod Serling and The Twilight Zone
01/01/2006. I was this past week on a panel discussing the television show The Twilight Zone, says Mark. It brought back a lot of good memories of the late 1950s and early 1960s when my life really was divided in two pieces: watching The Twilight Zone and waiting for the next Twilight Zone. I don't think that there is any television show that had the impact on me that that series did.
 The Incredibles: Frank's Take
01/01/2005. One might be wondering to themselves the following thought: just what would the handlers at Pixar do for a darn encore? Let’s face it folks, we have been so spoiled by the 3-D animated gems that insist on rolling out of the Pixar universe. It seems that year after year, the Disney/Pixar assembly line serves up the generated goodies.
The Incredibles: Mark's Take
06/12/2004. Pixar does it again with a comedy/action film about a family of superheroes. Just when they thought they were out of the superhero business they get pulled back in. Of course, as a film from Pixar it is computer-animated, but that is just the gimmick. The writing is the real attraction.
 The Invasion (Mark's take)
01/09/2007. This is a film that is pretty good until it turns bad. The fourth adaptation of The Body Snatchers has some thoughtful and intelligent additions to the telling. Sadly, in the last twenty minutes the film goes terribly sour as it metamorphoses into another mindless action film with a much too Hollywood ending. Nichole Kidman stars as the psychiatrist whose patients start reporting that the people around them are turning strange. And they are right.
 The Invasion Of The Body Snatchers by Denny Zeitlin
01/05/2005. CD: Perseverance PRD 003. 70 minutes. Price: $21.95 or $17.00 off their website.
 The Invisible Man - Limited Edition (PG)
01/06/2007. Region 2 DVD: pub: Network 7952838. 4 DVDs 650 minutes 27 episodes (including unaired pilot) with extras. Price: £ 29.99(UK).
 The Jacket: Frank's Take
01/04/2005. The Jacket feels a little snug around the arms as a messy mind-bender. Although this murky psychological thriller has a challenging premise that’s undoubtedly riveting, British director John Maybury (1998’s Francis Bacon biopic Love is the Devil) never really finds the right niche to secure his hysterical head-spinning account of a lost man on the brink of a breakdown.
The Lake House (Mark's Take)
01/07/2006. In this movie, says Mark, A man from 2004 and a woman from 2006 are in mail communication through a magic mailbox outside the same house that each is living in his or her respective year. It could be a good idea, but the fantasy is leaden and refuses to play by the rules it itself set up. So it is not very good as a fantasy and it really does not work as a romance.
 The Last Mimzy (Frank's take)
01/05/2007. Critics and moviegoers alike usually have the tendency to call them as they see them, says Frank. After all, you can't blame the masses for assessing New Line Cinema executive Bob Shayne's slight family fare The Last Mimzy as an E.T. knockoff for the millennium age. The comparison is obvious and tries to match the whimsical and imaginative spectacle of Steven Spielberg's early eighties memorable, fetching fable. The distinction, of course, is that there's a vast difference between the Oscar-winning filmmaker's little alien that wanted to "phone home" and Shayne's spotty sci-fi narrative that's lucky enough to invite the "compare-and-contrast" vibes.
 The Last Mimzy: Mark's take
01/04/2007. A box of toys from the future transforms a young brother and sister into something beyond human. Only one or two ideas were taken from the Lewis Padgett story Mimsy Were the Borogroves, supposedly the source of the story, says Mark. The film becomes a sort of low-budget variation on E.T. with a lacklustre rag-doll bunny standing in for E.T. The film may work better on the small screen than in theaters.
The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Mark's Take
01/08/2004. An interesting premise from a graphic novel makes about half an hour of interesting story, mostly for the introduction of the characters. But the film needed a good plot to make it more than just a comic book origin story. This one seems to have a plot that was patched together as it went along. The film has a nice look, but the viewer is never intrigued by the villain or his machinations.
The Limb Salesman
06/12/2004. This is an ironic love story set in a future world that has been badly damaged in some strange way making uncontaminated water rare. Society is now built around the efforts to find safe water. The story drags more than a little.
 The Lone Gunmen: The Complete Series
01/06/2007. Region 2 DVD. 20th Century Fox F1-SGB 2924701012. 3 DVDs 554 minutes 14 episodes with extras. Price £17.97(UK) if you know where to look). stars: Tom Braidwood, Bruce Harwood, Dean Haglund, Stephen Snedden and Zuleikha Robinson.
The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King (Mark's Take)
01/01/2004. Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings completes its cycle with The Return of the King, a spectacular film of complex battles and breathtaking scenery. Mark ponders whether the final part of the trilogy delivers all that it promises.
The Matrix Reloaded: Frank's Take
01/06/2003. Frank finds the whimsical Wachowski tandem are at it again with the second installment of this frothy film series in the form of the visually vigorous and devoutly exhilarating The Matrix Reloaded.
The Matrix Reloaded: Mark's Take
01/06/2003. The war to release humanity from computer-generated non-reality continues in a pretentious and violent film that nonetheless has a lot of style.
The Matrix Revolutions
01/12/2003. Franks asks: 'is The Matrix Revolutions the ideal finishing touch to an awestruck sci-fi film trilogy that captivated moviegoers since its hedonistic conception back in 1999?' The succinct answer: Hardly.
 The Monster aka I Don't Want To Be Born
01/12/2007. DVD Region 2. Pub: Network 795274. 90 minutes with audio commentary. Price: £12.99) stars: Joan Collins, Eileen Atrids, Ralph Bates and Donald Pleasence .
 The Orphanage (Mark's take)
01/01/2008. Juan Antonio Bayona's Spanish-language film The Orphanage is a very intense ghost story, says Mark, expertly filmed, but the writing lets down the rest of the film. There are bits from several successful horror films, especially Poltergeist, rehashed here. Guillermo del Toro's name is shown prominently as presenter and producer, but The Orphanage is really not in his class. The film is competently made, but it just does not have enough that will not be already familiar to the viewer.
 The Outer Limits: The Original Series Second Season
01/02/2007. DVD Region 2. pub: MGM Home Entertainment 10005401 MZI. 5 DVDs 17 episodes no extras but an informed booklet 14 hours. Price: £29.99 (UK) and its easy to get at the good price of £18.72 looking around).
 The Philadelphia Experiment
01/07/2006. region 0 :DVD. Anchor Bay Entertainment DV11234. 101 minute film with no extras. Price: $ 9.98 (US) although I got mine for $ 6.99). Stars: Michael Paré and Nancy Allen.
 The Pink Panther: Frank's Take
01/03/2006. Somehow, it would be quite repetitive to beat the same old drum about Hollywood's insistence on revisiting favourable blasts from the past, says Frank. In a way, this latest uninspired edition of Blake Edwards's classic The Pink Panther simply upholds the overwrought trend of rehashing hits from yesteryear by giving them a contemporary makeover.
 The Possession Of Joel Delaney
01/12/2007. DVD Region 2. Pub: Network B000V6AEOA. 105 minutes with extras. Price: £12.99) stars: Shirley MacLaine and Perry King.
 The Prestige (Frank's Take)
01/12/2006. Filmmaker Neil Burger's The Illusionist did get a hearty movie release head start by exploring the stylistic themes of a period piece saturated in mysticism and romanticism, says Frank. As a lavish mystery thriller, The Illusionist resonated with sparkling imagination. Still, this shouldn't disqualify writer-director Christopher Nolan's penetrating The Prestige, another solid and well-crafted costume melodrama that sinks its gritty teeth in the aura of magicians and their eye-popping tricks of the trade.
 The Prestige (Mark's Take)
01/12/2006. Toward the end of the 19th century two rival stage magicians compete and battle for dominance. This is a thriller, says Mark, an education in stage magic, a mystery, and even a bit of a science fiction film. Christopher Priest's novel is brought to the screen by co-writer and director Christopher Nolan in a wonderful screen adaptation. This is a film that may be more enjoyable on the second viewing once you know its secrets.
The Prisoner
01/09/2004. Price: varies depending where you look, I got my set for about £30 (UK). stars Patrick McGoohan, various Number 2s, a couple supervisors, a butler and Rover. Tick! Tick! Tick!
 The Promise (Wu Ji): Mark's take
01/06/2007. This is a Chinese fairy tale told in the style of very old Chinese fairy tales but brought to the screen with very modern CGI. A little girl makes a Faustian bargain with a goddess. Huge armies march. Men out-race the wind. Assassins make devious plots. There are some spectacular scenes that we know are generated largely in computers, but they are still fabulous. Chen Kaije's film is the melodramatic and complex story of a princess who has made this bargain and now must choose between a great general and a superhero, knowing she must lose whomever she picks. China's film industry is learning to make fun films.
The Real Imposter
01/07/2002. Gary Fleder's new film 'Imposter' poses as a thriving sci-fi adventure. Its real identity? A glossy-looking, predictable and lukewarm futuristic yarn. Frank Ochieng reports.
 The Reaping (Frank's take)
01/05/2007. Two-time Academy Award winner Hilary Swank didn't receive her golden statuettes by not being pensive, says Frank. After all, Swank is an adventurous actress and often is consumed by the various interesting roles she effortlessly plays. It's admirable that Swank looks to delve into different types of projects because she's a capable performer that has the ability and luxury to do so. Granted she has had her share of hits and misses. Unfortunately, her latest stint in director Stephen Hopkins's bloated biblical supernatural thriller The Reaping is an inexplicable misstep for the normally revered Swank.
 The Reaping: Frank's take
01/06/2007. Two-time Academy Award winner Hilary Swank didn't receive her golden statuettes by not being pensive. After all, Swank is an adventurous actress and often is consumed by the various interesting roles she effortlessly plays. It's admirable that Swank looks to delve into different types of projects because she's a capable performer that has the ability and luxury to do so. Granted she has had her share of hits and misses. Unfortunately, her latest stint in director Stephen Hopkins's bloated biblical supernatural thriller The Reaping is an inexplicable misstep for the normally revered Swank.
The Return of the King (Frank's Take)
01/02/2004. Inherently grand, vibrant, inviting and whimsically overwhelming, Jackson packs an urgent sense of vitality into this third installment that will certainly amaze those who were attentive to the previous colorful two TLoTR epics.
 The Ring Two: Frank's Take
01/05/2005. So this is the second helping where fright meets might in the existence of Seattle’s favorite terrorized mother-son combo, huh? In 2002’s The Ring, says Frank, audiences were treated to the chilling accounts of an ominous videotape that claims the lives of its unsuspecting viewers. Now three years later filmmakers want to recapture the nail-biting theatrics in The Ring Two, the lackluster follow-up to the original creepy suspense thriller.
The Sandbaggers - The Complete Third Series
01/01/2007. DVD region 2. pub: Network 7952580. 350 minutes 7 * 55 minute episodes with extras. Price: £19.99 (UK)) stars: Roy Marsden, Ray Lonnen, Alan MacNoughton, Michael Cashman, Sue Holderness, Jerome Willis, Bob Sherman and many guest stars.
 The science of sleep (Mark's take)
01/11/2006. What sounded like a promising premise turns into a gratuitous exercise in not-very-interesting surrealism, says Mark. There may or may not be a complete story underneath all of this, but if there is, it is probably dull and not worth digging for. A young man returning to France after many years in Mexico finds his dreams mixing with reality until we lose interest sorting one from the other and putting together his story.
The Second Coming
01/04/2003. Rod looks at the controversial BBC TV drama that posits the question, what would the world do if the Son of God returned as a video store assistant in the North of England?
 The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising (Frank's take)
01/11/2007. Can somebody say Harry Potter Lite? Well, there's no doubt that director David L. Cunningham's (The Path to 9/11 miniseries) flimsy fantasy-actioner The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising will invite inevitable comparisons to J. K. Rowling's beloved and bespectacled Boy Wizard. Frank discovers this sparse superpower saga lacks the eye-popping definition and worldwide intrigue that made Harry Potter and his pithy pals both literary and cinematic sensations.
 The Shaggy Dog: Frank's Take
01/04/2006. Tim Allen's latest flea-bitten family fare fluff is indeed a dog-both literally and figuratively, says Frank. In Walt Disney's klutzy canine comedy The Shaggy Dog, this gimmicky retread is another Allen-oriented vehicle that's being cranked out but protected under the convenient guise of another innocuous Disney ditty.
 The Shout
01/12/2007. DVD Region 2. Pub: Network 7952763. 85 minutes with audio commentary. Price: £ 9.99) stars: Alan Bates, Susannah York and John Hurt.
 The Six Million Dollar Man: The Complete Season Two
01/03/2007. DVD Region 2. Pub: Universal Playback 824 3285-11. 6 DVDs 21 episodes 17 hours 2 minutes and no extras. Price: £34.99 (UK) but when you look around can be pulled for as little as £25.89 (UK). Stars: Lee Majors, Richard Anderson and introducing Lindsay Wagner.
 The Skeleton Key (Frank's Take)
01/09/2005. In Iain Softley's preposterous Cajun creepfest The Skeleton Key, Frank says we get another variation of a formulaic terrorizing tale that spotlights the voodoo vibrations below the Mason-Dixon Line.
 The Spiderwick Chronicles (Mark's take)
01/03/2008. A family being torn by divorce moves into an old family house--a dark mansion miles from anywhere. It seems the surrounding area is infested with invisible creatures of Celtic faerie including an ogre who has designs on ruling the world. One by one the whole family is drawn into the battle against the invisible forces that would destroy the world. The film is an adaptation of five popular children's books by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black.
The Stepford Wives - Frank's Take
01/08/2004. The writing is on the wall when a casual comedy that boasts a high-powered cast doesn’t have a single clue as to what it wants to accomplish. And that’s certainly not a vote of confidence for a dark SF movie looking to make mincemeat commentary about the awakening of feminism and the imprisoned role of domicile divas looking to grow beyond their restricted boundaries.
The Terrahawks: The Complete Series
01/09/2004. pub: Revelation. PAR 61213. 10 volume DVD set. Price: £69.99 (UK).
 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre The Beginning (Frank's take)
01/11/2006. Although perversely realized, says Frank, the gross-out genre of flesh ripping apart can be somewhat invigorating if handled with a dash of imagination and reckless precision. After all, slaughterhouse cinema relies on that age-old formula of slicing-and-dicing the hormonal kiddies in order for the audience to get its sadistic, sensational rush.
The Time Machine: Rod's Take
01/07/2002. Film: Dreamworks. 92 minutes. Rating: PG. Released May 2002. Director: Simon Wells. Stars: Guy Pearce, Samantha Mumba and Jeremy Irons.
The Tomorrow People 1:3: The Vanishing Earth
01/07/2002. Video: Revelation/Fremantle PAR 50128. 100 minutes. Price: £10.99- £ 9.99(UK) - prices vary so shop around. Stars: Sammie Winmill, Nicholas Young, Peter Vaughn-Clarke, Stephen Salmon, Michael Standing and Philip Gilbert with guest-stars Kevin Stoney, John Woodnutt and Nova Llewellyn.
The Tomorrow People 2:1 - The Blue And The Green
01/10/2002. Pub: Revelation PAR 50129. 125 minutes - 5 episodes. Price: £ 8.99-£10.99 (shop around for the best price). Starring Elizabeth Adair, Nicholas Young, Peter Vaughn-Clarke, Chris Chittel and Philip Gilbert.
The Tomorrow People 2:2 - A Rift In Time
01/12/2002. Video: Revelation PAR 50130. 100 minutes - 4 episodes. Price: £ 8.99-£10.99 (shop around for the best price). Starring Elizabeth Adair, Nicholas Young, Peter Vaughn-Clarke, Chris Chittel, Philip Gilbert, Peter Speight and Stanley Lebor.
The Tomorrow People 2:3: The Doomsday Men
01/04/2003. Video: Revelation/Freemantle Media PAR 50132. 100 minutes. Price: £10.99.) stars: Elizabeth Adare, Nicholas Young, Peter Vaughan-Clarke, Philip Gilbert and Chris Chittel.
The Tomorrow People 3: 1: Secret Weapon
01/06/2003. video: Revelation PAR 50133. 4 episodes. 100 minutes. Price: £10.99 (UK) but look around for the best deal.
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