Film Reviews by Martin J from Portsmouth

I would recommend Star Wars IV, A New Hope to new and old fans alike, it is an excellent adventure for all ages, with a good amount of humour and a fantastic classical music score. This film is great on DVD and Blu Ray with a few extra bits added in 1997 by the director. This is explained by a directors commentary and an archive commentary featuring some audio by the magnificent cast. The special effects have not got dated, including a lot of laser action and light saber fights but with an added spiritual element, referencing the force and the importance of good sense and the rejection of overt materialism. This film changed film making and cinemas treatment of audio and special effects, a classic of British made cinema.

This is like a typical episode of the classic Baywatch with the main characters back again in the picturesque setting of Hawaii. The story has some exciting twists in the plot and has the charm of the television series along with the attractive cast. I would recommend this film, even to people new to the show.

It is worth seeing "Top Gear" in DVD or Blu-Ray with the cool soundtrack with some of the all-time best songs from the 1980's. There are over three hours on the making of, marketing and music videos. The special effects still look good today and the film is well made and has some good character development and romance. The film is feel good propaganda sometimes but does not get too heavy and shows the real problems the pilots face in training and combat. I would recommend this film even to people who have seen it a few times already, like I had.

I would recommend seeing "Top Gun" again on disk as this film has some of the coolest tunes from the era and there are plenty of extras on the disk with over three hours of making of specials. The special effects still look good today and the film has a great story that shows the problems faced by the elite academy of pilots that want to make the "Top Gun". This is set against a real human interest subtext with a romance developing for the main characters while they face crashes and air combat operation challenges. I would recommend seeing "Top Gear" for the action and romance with the sound track typical of the 1980's.

This is a classic from the Director of glamour and horror Russ Meyer. There is a good range of trip out tunes and antics in this film. That features plenty of voluptuous women and bizarre alternative scene characters. Russ Meyer was well known for pushing the social and political views of the time and casting pornographic level models including gratuitous violence but not getting too heavy. The score is well suited to this film and is underpinned by a positive life affirming message mixed with an intelligent post World War Two subtext.

"We are the Miller's" has some good funny moments that shows an interesting flip of characters from different sides of life who find a pathway to liberation through a drug deal gone wrong. The other road trip family turns out to be the influence that they needed having seemed to be too different to comprehend. Some traditional comedy on a controversial subject.

This was an interesting tour with two of the key academic proponents of rationalist scientific analysis of evolutionary biology and the nature of religious practice. This is backed up by a range of famous names with some extended interviews on the DVD with deleted scenes and a making of feature. The tour includes quite a few of the meetings and lectures that the two academics go on in an area of significant debate and controversy. The academics have good humour and patience when explaining what they regard as a matter of fact rarther than contention. I personally believe that religious can still have a role in a more diverse world and this debate can do some good in providing idears on how religions may change rather than end. A documentary worth watching.

I would recommend this film which features a bit more of a plot than others of this type. It is worth seeing a few times and has a good range of gorgeous women. It is very similar to Slave Lovers 2001 but takes the story in a different direction. The set pieces are a bit basic and some of the scenes are repetitious and you just hear what goes on and have to guess but it is thrilling all the same. The narration adds a bit to the film to set the rather silly premise that they need the local fit women for the Emerald mine and to please the female leader so it does not become too comidec. I think that fans of erotic dramas will enjoy this film.

Some of the better Big Brother episodes from a vast archive. I think fans of Big Brother from the early years and more recently will find this compilation an interesting reminder of past shows. A bit more fun than the other Big Brother DVDs which seemed a bit more sensationalist and voyeuristic from the first few years before the show was so famous. It was good to include some actual episodes from a few of the past years to show what they were like. The earliest episode's where repeated and evaluated quite a bit at the time so the more recent episodes where a better reminder of the Channel 4 version of the show.

This is an intelligent commentary a popular historiography of films of recent times and older works conterposed with a deconstruction of there hidden relationship to central ideological concepts. It also manages to be funny with some witty parts inside the films narrative and political in it's guiding polemic. It is diadatical in it's expositional narrative and fundamentally liberating in it's philosophical purpose. I would recommend this film to fans of comparative dialectical reasoning processes on the level of real liberationary thought.

This film has turned into a cult classic for fan's of 1980's youth culture and TV shows like Knight Rider and Street Hawk. The soundtrack features some well known acts from the era and a young Charlie Sheen who has a cool role in the film. There are also some interesting bad guys in this film of a more unusual variety. They seem more like alternative culture goons with some bad habits that have been mislead by the gang leader and enjoy there bent road races that they hijack cars with. The Wraith soon shows up in the film to take retribution on the gang that did him wrong with a cool ghost car that progressively causes the gangs demise. He also shows up in person to shoot up the gangs lock up but it is too late to change most of them except the nieve designer the gang have been stringing along who gets away from them just in time. I think fans of cult 1980's car chase films will like this and those who like the classic rock of the era like me.

This is a British comedy featuring a massive roll call of famous names and a Carry On type of story. I do not think that this film did as well in the cinema as they had hoped for as I do remember following the film from production to release on Facebook and they had made an effort to get it noticed including all the cameos from mostly older stars playing to type who remember when this sort of film was standard. It is worth viewing to spot everyone and the story is a gentle take on the consequences of bigamy which I am glad people can joke about including some old style slap stick. The main characters fit there roles including Daniel Dyer and Niel Morrisy and Christopher Biggin with Lional Blair. The ladies add to the fun getting more and more confused as the lad's get into more and more trouble and the stories get more elaborate to conceal there deception including from the police and local press. I would recommend this film for fans of British comedy and to spot the famous names along the way.

This recording of the Strictly Come Dancing tour from the O2 in London is as glamorous as the BBC show with the main competition elements included. The judges are back including Arlene Phillips and the dancers including Kelly Brook who had not been able to finish her year because of the death of her father when she was taking part. Kate Thornton does a good job of hosting the event and the show has the good humour of the TV version. The outfits are just as glamorous as the dance routines and it is good to catch up with some of the romances caused by the show. The line up is not just the best dancers from the series and it was good they kept a range of talent for the tour. There is also a back stage documentary showing the preparations that go on and getting some show insight before the main event. I would recommend this show to fans of Strictly Come Dancing and people who have seen the live shows as a reminder of a fun night.

This film added more to the rarther obscure reaperance of Alan Partridge on Sky TV and a Foster's beer sponsored site which had a cult appeal to fans of the original Steve Coogan created character who went from TV stardom to a job in local radio while living in a temporary house in his garden and then a hotel. As a fan of the show and local and internet based radio I enjoyed this film as an adventure featuring a comedic hijacking and comment on the corporate homogenisation of local commercial radio. The characters are back for this film and the Partridge jokes in his familiar setting. I was surprised to find this film was being made but I am glad Steve Coogan has done more with this character and this film can reach more of his audience than Sky TV and the internet specials, so fans can enjoy a feature length film like I did.

This compelation is well worth seeing for fans of Celebrity Juice with a lot of stuff they did not show on TV. They have had a lot of big names on the show and still think of funny things to do. This compelation includes Kelly Brook who fits in well and the show has genuine wit sometimes. Keith Lemon still gets away with his so bad it is funny banter and crazy games that keep the show original.