Documentaries & Biographies > Military Documentaries Documentaries & Biographies > A > up to 5 GBP

Advantages: Stunning aerial sequences, great score, entertaining account
Disadvantages: Too many cooks

The 1969 all-star big budget extravaganza 'The Battle of Britain' is recently arrived to DVD, albeit on region 1 only for the moment. Never fear though, it's an MGM release, and region 2 releases are never too far behind. It's arrival on DVD is extremely welcome, as a buffed up widescreen print finally allows one to be totally smitten with the flying sequences. Presented as intended, and making full use of the scope process, the air battles are ...
...Hamilton (Goldfinger, The Ipcress File) brings the same effortless flow to the film that he used succesfully in his 1964 Bond outing. In recounting the heroic efforts of both the RAF and the Luftwaffe, he never lets the action overwhelm the story, while equally he never lets historical fact bog down a 133 minute production. Wilfred Greatorex and James Kennaway have assembled a mostly hit but sometimes miss screenplay, often bending the truth and ... Read review

Advantages: Masterfully edited, full of astounding footage both familiar and otherwise...a classic.
Disadvantages: None.

...rarely-seen footage and interview material, No Direction Home is, for the first half at least, as much about America in the pause-for-breath moment between the beat writers of the 1950s and the counter-culture student movements of the mid-to-late 1960s as it is about the life and work of Robert Zimmerman. It is - clichéd as it sounds - a sweeping, engrossing portrait of a time and of a place, scouring the terrain leads from the rattle-tattle zap-pow ...
...of Odetta's acoustic guitar, from the wandering shoes of Neil Cassidy to those of Woody Guthrie. Dylan features heavily throughout this section of the film, of course, but he is very much a character-in-the-making. When he does take centre-stage in time for the second half (the film is, incidentally, almost four hours long), it is via some of the most compelling footage available, some of it assumed lost or destroyed. A talking heads documentary ... Read review

Advantages: Uncompromising, thought-provoking meld of exploitation and propaganda.
Disadvantages: Morally disturbing, apparently uncertain of its audience at times.

...Executions. Like the latter, The Killing Of America parades its grotesqueries (sundry assassinations, beatings, slaughters...) in the service of a core political message - a message which, in this instance, is almost as disturbing as the carnage onscreen. The film almost seems to call for vigilante justice, and a reactionary, right-wing tone informs most every scene. It is, however, a fascinating picture in its own right, a strange, curious meld ... Read review

Advantages: big budget-good fun-good story
Disadvantages: unscary morlocks

...modern remake of the 1960s time machine. This movie is about Hg wells remake of the original "time machine" back in the 1960s. The 2002 remake stars Guy Pearce .... Alexander Hartdegen Mark Addy .... David Filby Orlando Jones .... Vox Samantha Mumba .... Mara Omero Mumba .... Kalen Jeremy Irons .... Uber-Morlock Sienna Guillory .... Emma Phyllida Law .... Mrs. Watchet this movie is about a Victorian man named Alexander who lost his loved ...
...and save her but every time he returns she always dies a painful death, he then decides to travel further into the future going from one time to another eventually he settles in 800000 ad. Alexander encounters a new species called the morlocks who have lived for many centuries, they are big and very fast and strong, they feed off the human race who now live in huts or tents attached to the side of river banks. I have never been a big fan of remakes ... Read review

Advantages: HILARIOUS to watch.
Disadvantages: Girls are sometimes a bit stuck up.

...&& NICOLE RICHIE. Two of the worlds most re-knowned socialites, heiressess and up there with the prettiest of the bunch. Both have tried there hand at a musical career, both have runway and modelling contracts under their belts and both really know how to work that flirtacious smile. Now they're trying to live it SIMPLE. A hilarious comedic watch, watching two high class girls live it normal style, mistakes after mistakes after mistakes after ...
...some even funnier statements about the two and from the two. A FARM? Paris and Nicole on a farm? It is most likely the complete opposite to what these girls are used to, from bathtubs to pig troughs, from luxury meals to chicken and rice, from limosines to tractors. It can only get better from here. The best thing about the DVD format is you can rewind so easily and skip back to your favourite place easily. ... Read review