Scifi and fantasy movies from 2007.

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Bee Movie (Frank's take)
01/12/2007. A spelling bee. A busy bee. A killer bee. But a Seinfeld bee? Sorry Jerry, says Frank, your hapless honey-seeking hero doesn’t create much of an animated buzz. Still, the non-judgmental kiddies will be stung by the wealthy comedian’s colorfully amiable but simplistic one-note family fare Bee Movie. Seinfeld’s cheeky collaboration with the profitable DreamWorks machine wouldn’t arouse a beehive with spraying water from a garden hose.

Martian Child (Frank's take)
01/12/2007. Droopy-faced, puppy-dog eyed John Cusack has been charming movie audiences for many years with his ability to convey a dripping sentimentality in feel-good cinema. Cusack has grown up before our very presence as a different kind of tortured teen in cinema-amiably unsure, sensitive, romantic, gently flawed, understanding and introspective. Thankfully, finds Frank, forty-something Cusack hasn't shied away from this on-screen trademark persona in adult life, either.

Fred Claus (Frank's take)
01/12/2007. In Bad Santa, Billy Bob Thornton's obnoxious antics were cleverly utilised as an undercurrent cynicism for the holiday hoopla designed to plant a plastic smile on the consumerism craze that is the festive Christmas season. Now, says Frank, the anaemically kooky coal-in-the-stocking comedy Fred Claus feebly employs the same tactics ... but with less than mediocre results.

Beowulf (Mark's take)
01/12/2007. Robert Zemekis's adaptation of the story of Beowulf is actually exciting and shows great imagination throughout, says Mark. The oldest story in the English language (dating from about AD 700) combines with state of the art graphic technology to create a fast-paced and exhilarating heroic adventure. This film does a lot that is very hard to get right and most of it, it does get it right.

Dead Like Me:The Complete Second Series
01/12/2007. DVD region 2. pub: MGM F1-ORG 3470601000. 4 DVDs 672 minutes 15 episodes plus extras. Price: £15.00 (UK - if you know where to look) stars: Ellen Muth, Laura Harris, Callum Blue, Jasmine Guy and Mandy Patinkin.

Suzuka Vol. 1
01/12/2007. DVD Region 2. pub: Revelation Films B000OIOJDM. Price: £15.99 (UK) 125 mins.

Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles
01/12/2007. region 2 DVD. Revelation Films B000QEIQ5Q. 88 minutes 1 DVD. Price: £19.99 (UK).

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 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.

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).

Tsubasa 1: Gathering Of Fates
01/12/2007. region2 DVD: pub: Revelation Films. FUN73300. 1 DVD 130 minutes 5 episodes plus extras. Price: £15.99 (UK).

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 X-Files: The Complete Second Season DVD Boxset
01/12/2007. region 2 DVD. pub: 20th Century Fox F1-0GB 19778MDVD. 7 DVDs 1100 minutes 25 episodes with extras. Price: £ 9.90 (UK) if you know where to look) stars: David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson.

Spider-Man 3: 2 Disc Special Edition
01/11/2007. region 2 DVD: pub: Sony Pictures CDR 44954. 133 minute movie packed with extras. Price: £ 9.95 (UK) if you know where to look) - stars: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco and Thomas Haden Church.

Doctor Who: New Beginnings
01/11/2007. Region 2 DVD. pub: BBC BBCDVD 1331. 3 DVDs 292 minutes plus loads of extras. Price: about £ 12.00 (UK) if you know where to look) - stars: Tom Baker, Peter Davidson, Sarah Sutton, Anthony Ainley and Matthew Waterhouse -

Dark Angel (Geoff's take)
01/11/2007. DVD Region 2. pub: MGM 10005001. 78 minutes with no extras. Price: £ 2.50 (UK) if you know where to look) - stars: Dolph Lundgren, Brian Benben and Betsy Brantley.

30 Days of Night (Frank's take)
01/11/2007. Writer-director David Slade's vaunting vampire vehicle 30 Days of Night is a darn bloody good time to count one's giddy goose bumps, says Frank. The premise about slick-minded bloodsuckers creeping in the frigid Alaskan nighttime is a refreshingly original concept. Slade's (graphic storytelling resonates properly with the right amount of thrills and chills to overcome some of the film's occasional problematic schemes.

Resident Evil: Extinction (Frank's take)
01/11/2007. Well, muses Frank, the Resident Evil movie series finally reached its trilogy status. This is not exactly something worth notifying the American Film Institute about anytime soon. No doubt the action-packed adventures of Milla Jovovich's curvaceous cutthroat zombie-zapping eliminator has its ardent following. Otherwise, there wouldn't be the existence of Russell Mulcahy's sci-fi snoozer Resident Evil: Extinction, a ludicrous and over-extended action-adventure that feasts on its boisterous banality.

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.

In The Shadow Of The Moon (Mark's take)
01/11/2007. Never-before-seen footage of the Apollo space program and interviews with nine astronauts give new life the story of how the US put men on the moon. Personal interviews with several astronauts tell much more than most of us have known about the adventure and experience of going to the moon. This, says Mark, is an enthralling documentary even if you have seen the story told before.

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).

Rumbling Hearts Vol. 3 episodes 11-14
01/10/2007. region2 DVD: pub: Revelation Films. FUN72403. 1 DVD 100 minutes 4 episodes plus extras. Price: £15.99 (UK).

Spiral 6: Notes Of Truth episodes 22-25
01/10/2007. region2 DVD: pub: Revelation Films. FUN72007. 1 DVD 120 minutes 4 episodes plus extras. Price: £15.99 (UK).

Rumbling Hearts Vol. 2 episodes 6-10
01/10/2007. region2 DVD: pub: Revelation Films. FUN72402. 1 DVD 120 minutes 5 episodes plus extras. Price: £15.99 (UK).

Halloween (Frank's take)
01/10/2007. Writer-director Rob Zombie heavy-handedly revisits filmmaker John Carpenter's 1978 classic Halloween, finds Frank, with an audacious blood-spilling banality that pretty much is business as usual given the crude content of slash-and-splash expectancy. To Zombie's credit, he doesn't want to shape the legendary lunacy that made Carpenter's entry a celebrated creepfest. Instead, Zombie's version is actually an inspired albeit uneven take on his particular visionary landscape of senseless slaughter and bouncing breasts.

Shoot 'Em Up (Frank's take)
01/10/2007. Writer/director Michael Davis is gleefully at the helm as he concocts an outrageously impish (if not unconventional) boisterous anti-gun action-thriller that embraces its preposterous presentation, says Frank. In the testosterone-driven live action "cartoon" Shoot 'Em Up, Davis swings for the frenetic fences as his convoluted comic-crime caper regarding ricocheting bullets and other manic mayhem packs a wincing wallop.

Superbad (Frank's take)
01/10/2007. There are a lot of things in this complex world that cannot be easily dismissed, muses Frank, such as taxes, cheating spouses, high mortgage payments and yes...the ubiquitous presence of the American Pie-style high school romp.

Stardust (Mark's take)
01/09/2007. With little pre-release fanfare, Neil Gaiman's Stardust, directed by Matthew Vaughn, comes to the screen as a first-class fantasy film, one - says Mark - of the best. The story is convoluted but not really confusing. A young man from our world on a quest to win his love ends up being the fulcrum in a battle for the rule of a kingdom in a magical world. Gaiman is a fresh and a different voice in fantasy writing so the film is full of surprises and some genuinely funny jokes.

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.

Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix (Mark's take)
01/09/2007. Harry Potter returns in his most complex and political story, not to mention his darkest and least cute one, opines Mark. Harry, Hermione, and Ron have to fight a two-front war against a takeover of Hogwarts and the return of Voldemort. Davis Yates directs. The films get more intelligent and more adult as Harry also does.

Ratatouille (Mark's take)
01/09/2007. Ratatouille has an engaging enough premise, finds Mark, but does not really have a good story to tell. The first third of the film is much more engaging than the remainder. The furry rat who is the main character is expressive and winning, but the human characters do not give him much support and the story pulls in too many directions.

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.

Rumbling Hearts: Betrayal Is A Bitch Vol. 1 episodes 1-5
01/09/2007. region2 DVD: pub: Revelation Films. FUN72401. 1 DVD 120 minutes 4 episodes plus extras. Price: £15.99 (UK)

Spiral 5: The Melody Of Logic episodes 18-21
01/09/2007. region2 DVD: pub: Revelation Films. FUN72006. 1 DVD 110 minutes 4 episodes plus extras. Price: £15.99 (UK)

Doctor Who: The Five Doctors
01/09/2007. Region 2 DVD. pub: BBC BBCDVD 1006. 1 DVD 102 minutes. Price: £ 7.20 (UK) if you know where to look) stars: Peter Davison, Jon Pertwee, Patrick Troughton, Richard Hurndall and Tom Baker.

Spiral 4: Sharpening Wit episodes 14-17
01/09/2007. region2 DVD: pub: Revelation Films. FUN72004. 1 DVD 125 minutes 4 episodes plus extras. Price: £15.99 (UK).

The X-Files: The Complete First Season DVD boxset
01/09/2007. region 2. pub: 20th Century Fox F1-SGB 16555MDVD. 7 DVDs 1056 minutes 24 episodes with extras. Price: £ 10.25 (UK) if you know where to look) stars: David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson.

M.R. James: Casting The Runes
01/09/2007. Region 2 DVD. pub: Network 7952765. Price: £ 9.99 (UK). 1 DVD 50 minute episode plus a 50 minute documentary and 25 minute play) stars: Iain Cuthbertson, Jan Francis, Bernard Gallagher and Joann Durham.

Spiral 3: Shooting Falling Stars episodes 10-13
01/09/2007. region2 DVD: pub: Revelation Films. FUN72003. 1 DVD 95 minutes 4 episodes plus extras. Price: £15.99 (UK).

Spiral 2: Disarming Fate episodes 6-9
01/09/2007. region2 DVD: pub: Revelation Films. FUN72002. 1 DVD 100 minutes 4 episodes plus extras. Price: £15.99 (UK).

Forbidden Planet: 50th Anniversary Two-Disc Special Edition
01/09/2007. Region 2 DVD. pub: MGM/Warner Bros Z1 66912. 2 DVDs 2 x 94 minute films with loads of extras. Price: £ 9.98 (UK) if you know where to look) stars: Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielson and introducing Robby, the Robot.

Stargate SG-1 Season 8 DVD Boxset
01/08/2007. region 2 DVD: pub: 20th Century Fox/MGM MDRP 2846. 6 DVDs 20 hours 33 minutes 20 episodes with loads of extras. Price: £23.89 (UK) if you shop around a bit) stars: Richard Dean Anderson, Michael Shanks, Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge and many guest stars.

Laserblast (Geoff's take)
01/08/2007. Region 2 DVD. pub: Cult Video CUV-DVD 8016. 120 minute film with minor extras. Price: £ 2.70(UK) simply if you look) stars: Kim Milford, Cheryl Smith, Gianni Russo, Roddy McDowall and Keenan Wynn.

Vacancy (Frank's take)
01/07/2007. The film's generic title may be called Vacancy but it echoes that very same sentiment as well-there's nothing worth checking in for regarding this empty, half-hearted horror flick. Woefully tedious, unoriginal and cheaply executed, Vacancy is about as scary and random as a facelift procedure performed in downtown Beverly Hills. This flimsy fright fable is trivial and trite at best.

Babylon 5: The Complete Fifth Season: The Wheel Of Fire DVD boxset
01/07/2007. Region 2 DVD. pub: Warners Home Video Z1 24275. 6 DVDs 924 minutes 22 episodes with extras. Price: £17.95 UK) if you know where to look) stars: Bruce Boxleitner, Jerry Doyle, Mira Furlan, Richard Briggs, Bill Mumy, Tracy Scoggins, Stephen Furst, Jeff Conaway, Patricia Tallman, Peter Jurasik and Andreas Katsulas.

Randall And Hopkirk (Deceased) - The Complete Series Special Edition (PG)
01/07/2007. (Region 2 DVD. pub: Network 7952437. 7 DVDs 1300 minutes 26 episodes and loads of extras. Price £59.99 (UK) stars: Mike Pratt, Kenneth Cope and Annette Andre with a multitude of guest stars.

Disturbia: Frank's take
01/06/2007. We'll just have to face certain facts that a majority of contemporary films today will always have that reminiscence factor when "borrowing" the stimulating theme from other previously proven flicks, finds Frank. For filmmaker D.J. Caruso's horror/suspense piece Disturbia, this cinematic sentiment is certainly true. Suitably giddy with its horror movie platitudes aimed at mocking the facade of suburban hysteria, Caruso's Disturbia percolates effectively within its defined raucous rhythms.

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 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.

Superman (1980, Telugu language): Mark's take
01/06/2007. A man is able to fix his family's problems when Hanuman gives him super powers. This 1980 Tollywood film is an ultra-cheesy rip-off of the DC Comics character Superman. It was a blockbuster in an India at a time when busting blocks must have been extremely easy.

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 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).

Starman (1984)
01/06/2007. region 2 DVD. pub: Columbia Tristar E-10682-UK-S. 110 minute film with extras. Price: £ 3.97(UK) if you know where to look. stars: Jeff Bridges, Karen Allen, Charles Martin Smith and Richard Jaeckel.

Airwolf Season Two DVD boxset
01/06/2007. region 2 DVD. pub: Universal Playback DVD 824-715 3-11. 1015 minutes 22 episodes and no extras. Price: £ 23.98 (UK) if you know where to look). stars: Jan-Michael Vincent, Ernest Borgnine, Jean Scott Bruce and Alex Cord.

Full Metal Alchemist 9: Pain And Lust. Episodes 33-36
01/06/2007. region2 DVD: pub: Revelation Films. FUN72211. 1 DVD 95 minutes 4 episodes plus extras. Price: £15.99 (UK).

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters (Frank's take)
01/05/2007. It's rather challenging in trying to determine the off-kilter appeal of the six-year presence of Cartoon Network's Aqua Teen Hunger Force, says Frank. Actually, it shouldn't be difficult to understand why a subversive animated series couldn't capture the twisted allure of selected audiences. After all, we're talking about an extremely wacky and contentious cartoon that owes its flippant foundation to the likes of proven stalwarts The Simpsons, Beavis and Butthead, South Park or any other unbalanced entry that dared to be unconventionally wisecracking in its seemingly innocuous skin.

Curse Of The Golden Flower (Mark's take)
01/05/2007. This is a Faberge egg of a film, finds Mark. It is exquisitely beautiful, but the story is not one of Zhang Yimou's best. It is an overwrought melodrama set on a background of impressive beauty. The story is theatrical and not especially deep so as not to distract from the visual. An emperor and empress struggle for power against each other in a story of sex, drugs, and murder, all set during the chrysanthemum festival. This is a beautiful film, but the characters are weak and disappointing from Zhang.

Meet the Robinsons (Frank's take)
01/05/2007. Walt Disney Pictures' computer-animated Meet the Robinsons is an actively spunky futuristic sci-fi showcase that doesn't necessarily break the mode when it comes to serving up digital ditties that are wildly imaginative, says Frank. In fact, one would have to question the endless contributors (among them is writer-director-voiceover actor Stephen J. Anderson) that offered their diverse input into a pithy pet project that wouldn't be considered breathtakingly unique. Routinely, Meet the Robinsons has that three-dimensional, old-fashioned Disney Chicken Little/Jimmy Neutron vibe to it that screams instant familiarity.

Meet The Robinsons (Mark's take)
01/05/2007. A foundling and aspiring young inventor travels by time machine several decades into the future and finds a world that has been transformed by a true genius inventor. Now, discovers Mark, he has to deal with the inventor's weird family. The pacing of this 3-D animation film is uneven, from slow and sad to madcap, but eventually all is explained and it turns out to be a decent time travel story.

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.

Grindhouse (Frank's take)
01/05/2007. The mere thought of a simmering collaboration between two of Hollywood's noted flashiest and furious filmmakers is mind-boggling, says Frank. Hence, the corrosive artistry of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez certainly doesn't disappoint as their warped worlds collide in the 3-hour thumping bloodbath Grindhouse. Enthralling and exhilarating in its explosive camp-driven excess, Grindhouse is a combustible concoction that shamelessly stimulates the senses.

Grindhouse (Mark's take)
01/05/2007. Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino set out to recreate the 1970s experience of seeing a bad double feature in fourth run theatre, says Mark. They respectively make sub-films Planet Terror And Death Proof. Planet Terror is a fairly accurate pastiche of an out-of-control grindhouse film. Death Proof is a frequently dull film with homages to road-rage flicks and non-1970s films. It is more a Tarantino film than a grindhouse one.

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.

Trancers (1985)
01/05/2007. Region 2 DVD: pub: Prism Leisure Corps/Empire Entertainment PPA1475. 75 minutes with no extras. Price: £ 2.99 (UK) which I got by looking around). stars: Tim Thomerson, Helen Hunt and Michael Stefani.

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).

Dead Of Night (The Ealing Studios Collection - 1946)
01/05/2007. region 2 DVD. pub: Canal Image/Optimum OPTD0610. 99 minute film with no extras. Price: £12.99 although it can be got for just under £ 5.00 if you know where to look (UK). stars: Michael Redgrave, Mervyn Johns, Googie Withers, Basil Radford, Nouton Wayne, Sally Ann Howes, Rowland Culver and Frederick Valk.

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.

Stargate SG-1 Season 7 DVD Boxset
01/05/2007. region 2 DVD: pub: MGM 10005026 M21. 6 DVDs 18 hours 21 episodes with loads of extras. Price: £24.97 (UK) if you shop around a bit). stars: Richard Dean Anderson, Michael Shanks, Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge and Don S. Davis and many guest stars.

Fu Manchu Double Bill DVD: Castle Of Fu Manchu And Blood Of Fu Manchu
01/05/2007. region 2 DVD. Optimum Home Entertainment OPTD0814 180 minutes 2 films 90 minutes each. Price: £12.99 (UK). stars Christopher Lee.

Spiral 1: episodes 1-5
01/04/2007. region2 DVD: pub: Revelation Films. FUN72001. 1 DVD 115 minutes 5 * 25 minutes episodes plus extras. Price: £16.99 (UK). Dual Language: English, Japanese, Japanese with English subtitles.

Saga Of A Crew
01/04/2007. Region 1 DVD. Daniel R. Christopher Productions, PO Box 1119, Lebanon ME 04022, USA. Time: 69 minutes. Price: $11.95 (US only cos of music use restrictions.

El Laberinto del Fauno (Pan's Labyrinth) DVD
01/04/2007. region 2 DVD. Optimum Releasing OPTD0756. time: 120 minutes plus extras in Spanish with English subtitles. Price: £17.99 (UK). Director/writer: Guillermo Del Toro. stars: Ariadna Gil; Ivana Baq; Sergi Lopez; Maribel Verdu; Doug Jones and Alex Angulo.

Doctor Who: Genesis Of The Daleks
01/04/2007. DVD Region 2. Pub: BBC DVD 1813. 2 DVD 6 episodes 142 minutes plus extras. Price: £19.99 although can be got for less than £ 8.00 if you know where to look (UK). stars: Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen, Ian Marter and assorted guests.

300: Frank's take
01/04/2007. Co-writer/director Zack Snyder's 300 is a starving fanboy's odyssey drenched in eye-popping, rustic opulence. Artistically triumphant in its arresting visual spectacle, Snyder's historical action-adventure oozes with technological magnificence, finds Frank.

300: Mark's take
01/04/2007. This film, says Mark, shows us why they did not let Robert E. Howard write history books and why they did not allow Frank Frazetta to illustrate them. This is a macho, violent, and very bloody re-telling of the previously true story of the Battle of Thermopylae. It is overblown with hyperbole that needed computer animation to visualize. This is actually a very bad telling of the story, but it is just the kind of thing to get some of the teenage audience interested in history.

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.

Premonition: Frank's Take
01/04/2007. Cinematically, says Frank, actress Sandra Bullock is all over the erratic map. One could take this as a positive and progressive move in her film career. She's done it all with inconsistent and uneven results: action-adventures, quirky comedies, romantic comedies, melodramas, ensemble indies, sci-fi thrillers, etc. Clearly, the fortysomething Bullock can proudly point to the fact that she's a versatile performer that can't be pigeonholed in any one particular genre.

Bridge to Terabithia: Mark's take
01/04/2007. Jess has a terrible life at home and at school, says Mark. But situations get much more bearable and better when the new girl in town moves in next door and is enrolled in his class. She opens for him a whole new world of intellect and art and fantasy. The two are outcasts, but form a rich (platonic) relationship together that strengthens Jess for some of the emotional wrenches to come. This is a film that is by turns wonderful and heart breaking. Do not expect a big special-effects fantasy. Fantasy and its power is just one theme among several well-presented themes.

TMNT: Frank's take
01/04/2007. Remember in the heyday (read: early 90's) when the pizza-swilling, butt-kicking roguish reptiles were all the rage? One couldn't even hide in their shell without being exposed to the progressive propaganda that was the Renaissance-named rascals with the nifty ninja reflexes in the likes of Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael and Donatello. The Mutant Ninja Turtles were the ultimate bomb for the kiddies and an absolute guilty pleasure for the grown-ups. So then why are the new and improved crime-fighting cretins seemingly misplaced in the revved-up animated actioner TMNT?

Flatland The Film: Mark's take
01/04/2007. Edwin Abbott's 1884 fantasy is adapted to the screen. Like the book the film seems deceptively simple. In Flatland the inhabitants are figures from plane geometry who do not believe there ever could be a third dimension. Abbott's political satire is updated for the screen, but the story loses none of its charm or its bite. This is a unique animated film that takes on race, gender, class, and political corruption while entertaining and perhaps even teaching a little mathematics.

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.

Negima Vol 1: Negima! Magister Negi Megi/Magic 101: The Basics Of Magic
01/03/2007. region2 DVD: pub: Revelation Films Ltd. 1 DVD 130 minutes 6 episodes plus extras. Price: £15.99 (UK)

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.

Hawk The Slayer Special Edition DVD (PG)
01/03/2007. DVD Region 2. pub: Network 7952602. 90 minute film plus extras. Price: £14.99 (UK). Stars: Jack Palance and John Terry.

Near Dark Special Edition DVD
01/03/2007. region 2 DVD. Optimum Classic OPTD0648. 2 DVDs 95 minute film and extras. Price: £17.99. Stars: Adrian Pasader, Jenny Wright, Bill Paxton, Jeanette Goldstein and Lance Henrikson.

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.

Dracula (2006): Mark's take
01/03/2007. This may well be the least faithful and poorest adaptation of a novel ever to appear on America's Masterpiece Theater, says Mark. There is very little of the novel in this production and what is there is twisted. Victorians who thought there was little that could be done to make this story less subtle than it already was would be amazed to find how crudely it could be adapted. Nevertheless, I realized watching it that there was a way for the viewer to make it a much more pleasurable experience.

Hannibal Rising: Frank's take
01/03/2007. Dr. Hannibal Lecter is perhaps one of the most disturbing, sophisticated iconic sociopaths that modern cinema has ever produced, says our Frank. Whether in the literary arena or on the big screen, Lecter has proven to be a calculating commodity; he's a brilliant freak of humanity that combines the off-kilter ingredients of intelligence and insanity. When audiences experienced the chilling and sensationalistic aura of Oscar-winning Sir Anthony Hopkins's literate lunatic unfolding before our very eyes in the magnificent Silence of the Lambs we didn't realize that the bounds of inhumanity could be so compellingly taunting. Hence, serving up Hannibal the cannibal in any other capacity-particularly the humble beginnings-would be a tall order of expectations to fill automatically.

Drakula Istanbul'da (Dracula in Istanbul): Mark's take
01/03/2007. This has been a very rare film, muses Mark, but it seems to be becoming more readily available. This is not a sequel to, but a simplification of Bram Stoker's novel. It just replaces the London backdrop with Istanbul and sets the story in the year of its production, 1953. The film has some nice bits on a tight budget, but turning the Mina character into an alluring stage dancer somehow cheapens the story. Atif Kaptan makes what seems a lacklustre Dracula, but perhaps if I knew Turkish it might have been more impressive.

Ghost Rider: Frank's take
01/03/2007. Over the years the emerging genre of big-budgeted comic book adaptations has had its share of mixed reaction, says Frank. Specifically, the Marvel Comics superhero flicks are received with ambivalent forethought. For every successful or critically acclaimed Stan Lee staple ranging from the immensely popular Spider Man movie series we have to endure the duds such as Daredevil and The Fantastic Four.

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 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).

Knight Rider Season Four: The Final Season
01/02/2007. DVD Region 2. pub: Universal-Playback 824 351 2-11. 6 DVDs 21 episodes plus extras 17 hours. Price: 34.99 (UK) and its easy to get a good price at least £10 cheaper if you look around)stars: David Hasselhoff, Edward Mulhare, Patricia MacPherson and Peter Parros.

Doctor Who: Inferno
01/02/2007. DVD Region 2. Pub: BBC BBCDVD 1802. 1 DVD 7 episodes 167 minutes plus extras. Price: £19.99 although can be got for less than £10.97 if you know where to look (UK))stars: Jon Pertwee, Caroline John, Nicholas Courtney, John Levene and assorted guests.

Children Of Men (Mark's Take)
01/02/2007. How would universal infertility affect the human race? How would people react to a death sentence in sixty years or so? How exactly is society different without children? These and many other fascinating ideas are foregone in Children Of Men, says Mark, in order to give us a very prosaic action film. The film is diverting, but empty.

Pan's Labyrinth (Mark's Take)
01/02/2007. Guillermo del Toro gives us one of the masterpieces of the fantasy film, says Mark. A child's fairy tale fantasies help to shape events in a military outpost after the Spanish Civil War. This is a film that works as a fantasy film and even better as a war film. Del Toro is one of the finest fantasy filmmakers in the world and this is his finest film.

From Other Worlds
01/02/2007. This light, amiable science fiction film has a woman encounter two kinds of aliens, finds Mark: one from the Ivory Coast and one really from out there. A Brooklyn housewife and mother is sort of permanently zoned out until she is focused by being abducted by aliens, having a romantic fling, and going on a quick mission to save the Milky Way Galaxy.

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.

Apocalypto (Mark's take)
01/01/2007. This is history with more than a little Grand Guignol, notes our Mark. At times the view of the ancient Mayan civilization is engaging and unique, but it in no way should it be thought to be historically accurate, in spite of director Mel Gibson's use of the original Mayan language. Conflating two periods of Mayan history several centuries apart, it is the story of an intended human sacrifice running for his life while chased by implacable Mayans. Mel Gibson needs a much better scriptwriter than Mel Gibson.

Casino Royale (Frank's take)
01/01/2007. The movie world's greatest super agent is back and assuming a whole new attitude if not a physical makeup, finds Frank. Gone are the vintage days of Bond-era sophisticates Sean Connery and Roger Moore. Also, let's not forget the trivial pursuit reminiscences of one-time Bond wannabe George Lazenby.

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.

Goodnight Sweetheart: The Complete Series 6
01/01/2007. DVD Region 2. pub: Revelation Films PAR61280. 2 DVDs 310 minutes 10 * 30 minute episodes with extras. Price: £19.99 (UK)) stars: Nicholas Lyndhurst, Elizabeth Carling, Emma Amos, Victor McGuire and Christopher Ettridge.

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.

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