Action & Adventure > K Action & Adventure > 20 GBP to 30 GBP

Advantages: Great performences, Superb story
Disadvantages: Mix of accents, some of original story lost

...loved it and now own the DVD. My copy cost £7 from HMV; it is also available from Play and Amazon for around £6. The front of the DVD case looks like the photograph shown. The back has a short description of the plot and some credits. This film was produced in 1975, and this DVD version released in 2007. Plot The film is a made-for-TV movie adaption of the novel of the same name by Alexandre Dumas and is set in the Napoleonic era and stars ...
...to become a Captain in the Navy and is set to marry his true love, Mercedes (played by Kate Nelligan). Dantes plans are scuppered by three men who falsely accuse him of conspiring with Napoleon. Dantes is sentenced to live out his life in an isolated prison fortress, the Chateau D'If, on the island of Monte-Cristo. Dantes desire for revenge on the men who ruined his life is the only thing that can save him. It is here that he meets Abbé Faria, ... Read review

Advantages: Action packed, great extras on DVD
Disadvantages: Bit too predictable and Morgan freeman sucks.

Shooter, 2007, rating 15. I bought this film as a 3 for £20 from HMV and have only just got round to watching it. It is directed by Antoine Fuqua (Who???). Mark Wahlberg, yep, Marky Mark the rapper for all those that remember him that way, is in yet another film, he is certainly a prolific actor these days. In this film he plays Bob Lee Swagger Special Forces sniper. The opening scene sees Swagger camouflaged and waiting in some hills in Ethiopia, ...
...waiting some time, and the spotter, Donnie makes the fatal mistake of showing Swagger a photo of his girl back home, that's it, you just know he is a dead man, always happens! It's almost as predictable as the bit part college guy going into the dark room in a slasher movie. An American convey comes into view, and they are about to be ambushed by some rebel forces......Donnie starts reeling off targets, wind speeds, metres to each target, speed ... Read review

Advantages: Gripping plot
Disadvantages: None

L.A. Confidential has an impressive cast and certainly I found it to be an enjoyable crime thriller with a good storyline and some excellent performances. Set in 1940's Los Angeles and focusing on Hollywood it is a story about a number of police officers in the force charged with quelling a viscious gang war following the jailing of the head of the mafia in Los Angeles. It is a dark film with a lot of violence and some strong performances. Guy ...
...Pearce is the careerist trying to follow in Daddies foot steps who believes honesty and integrity are paramount and as such following a violent attacke he gives evidence against fellow officers in order to advance his career. Crowe character adopts a more violent approach to his work however early on there are hints that he has a good side as he tends to target wife beaters for his own personal wrath following an unhappy childhood. Kevin Spacey ... Read review

Advantages: Steve McQueen, Sam Peckinpah, Texas and big shotguns
Disadvantages: Ali McGraw (although we gradually learn to like her), Texas and Sally Struthers

...film back to back with the same director, maverick booze-meister Sam Peckinpah. The first was Junior Bonner, a wistful and poignant story about a washed-up rodeo rider, shot throughout the summer of 1971 and released the following year (to a lukewarm response); the second was a more explicit tale, The Getaway, shot in a matter of weeks on location all over Texas in the late Spring of 1972 for a relatively small budget. It would secure two things ...
...matter how rushed and chaotic the preparation. The pairing of star and director was a risky one. The two had worked reasonably well together on Junior Bonner but both were notoriously difficult characters, equally insistent on doing things their own way. On this occasion McQueen mostly got what he wanted: he got Walter Hill in to replace Jim Thompson, the original screenwriter and author of the original novel; he got Quincy Jones in to rewrite ... Read review

Advantages: Hugely enjoyable tosh with some great performances
Disadvantages: The plot is somewhat threadbare, and we've literally seen it all before

...new production designed to put the Incredible back into the superhero that everyone privately thinks is a bit of a waste of time. And of course it's being feted as a bold new adaptation, when in fact it's a standard Marvel movie - right down to the obligatory cameo by Stan Lee. So where Ang Lee turned the story of a scientist unleashing primal rage into some sort of modern Oedipal myth - complete with incredibly cool sections in comic book panels ...
...Such as it is, the story runs that mild-mannered Bruce Bannen has subjected himself to a massive dose of gamma radiation that causes him to transform into a rampaging indestructible beast every time his blood pressure rises. This is, thankfully, shown in a brief credits sequence montage rather than the normal hour spent chronicling the origin of characters everyone knows already. He's hiding in Brazil and learning to control his temper. Unfortunately ... Read review