Twilight [Blu-ray] [2008]

TWILIGHT, based on the acclaimed novel by Stephenie Meyer, is the highly-anticipated movie of the ultimate forbidden love affair between a vampire and mortal. Boasting a whole host of bright young talent including Robert Pattinson (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), Kristen Stewart (Into The Wild, What Just Happened) and Cam Gigandet (Never Back Down, The O.C.), the screenplay is written by Melissa Rosenberg (Step Up, The O.C.) and directed by the Award-winning filmmaker Catherine Hardwicke (Lords of Dogtown, Thirteen).Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) has always been a little bit different, never caring about fitting in with the trendy girls at her Phoenix high school. When her mother remarries and sends Bella to live with her father in the rainy little town of Forks, Washington, she doesn’t expect much of anything to change. Then she meets the mysterious and dazzlingly beautiful Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), a boy unlike any she’s ever met. Intelligent and witty, he sees straight into her soul.

The Inbetweeners [DVD] [2008]

The Inbetweeners offers a comedic take on growing up in middle class suburbia. A place where there are no teen pregnancies, no drugs, no knife fights and no guns. It’s about a bunch of lads who get into real scrapes rather than real trouble.
Will’s (Simon Bird) parents have just divorced and he has unwillingly had to move area and change schools. He was previously at a private school, so has inherited some snobbish tendencies. He’s now at a comprehensive school where he has had to make a new set of friends. His newly found peers, Simon (Joe Thomas),Jay (James Buckley) and Neil (Blake Harrison) are neither that cool and or that credible.

Death Race Blu-Ray With Digital Copy [2008]

Producer Roger Corman's cult classic film Death Race 2000 gets a millennium overhaul with director Paul W.S. Anderson (Event Horizon, Resident Evil) behind the wheel. Jason Statham (The Transporter, The Bank Job) plays Jensen Ames, a prisoner who is serving a sentence for a crime that he didn't commit. But in this futuristic society, Ames can compete for his freedom with a victory in a brutal three-day race.Joan Allen (The Ice Storm, The Bourne Supremacy), Tyrese Gibson (Baby Boy, 2 Fast 2 Furious) and Ian McShane (Hot Rod, TV's Deadwood) co-star in this high octane chase film.This Blu-ray Disc comes with the following language tracks: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish and Japanese

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army [Blu-ray] [2008]

The feverish Hellboy 2: The Golden Army is a very busy sequel that might have looked unhinged in the hands of a less visionary director than Guillermo del Toro. Ron Perlman returns as Hellboy, aka "Red," the Dark Horse Comics demon-hero with roots in the mythical world but personal ties in the human realm. Still working, as he was in Hellboy, for a secret department of the federal government that deals (as in "Men In Black") with forces of the fantastic, Red and his colleagues take on a royal elf (Luke Goss) determined to smash a longtime truce between mankind and the forces of magic. Meanwhile, Red's relationship with girlfriend Liz (Selma Blair), who can burst into flames at will, is going through a rocky stage observed by Red's fishy friend Abe (Doug Jones), himself struck by love in this film. Del Toro brilliantly integrates the ordinary and extraordinary, diving into an extended scene set in a troll market barely hidden behind the façade of typical city streets. He also unleashes a forest monster that devastates an urban neighborhood, but then--interestingly--brings a luminous beauty to the same area as the creature (an "elemental") succumbs to a terrible death. Del Toro's art direction proves masterful, too, in a climactic battle set in a clockworks-like stronghold tucked away in rugged Irish landscape. But it's really the juxtaposition of visual marvels with not-so-unusual relationship issues that gives Hellboy 2 a certain jaunty appeal hard to find in other superhero movies. --Tom Keogh

I Am Legend [Blu-ray] [2007]

Will Smith stars in the third adaptation of Richard Matheson’s classic science-fiction novel about a lone human survivor in a post-apocalyptic world dominated by vampires. This new version somewhat alters Matheson’s central hook, i.e., the startling idea that an ordinary man, Robert Neville, spends his days roaming a desolated city and his nights in a house sealed off from longtime neighbours who have become bloodsucking fiends. In the new film, Smith’s Neville is a military scientist charged with finding a cure for a virus that turns people into crazed, hairless, flesh-eating zombies. Failing to complete his work in time, and after enduring a personal tragedy, Neville finds himself alone in Manhattan, his natural immunity to the virus keeping him alive. With an expressive German shepherd, his only companion, Neville is a hunter-gatherer in sunlight, hiding from the mutants at night in his Washington Square town house and methodically conducting experiments in his ceaseless quest to conquer the disease.
The film’s first half almost suggests that I Am Legend could be one of the finest movies of 2007. Director Francis Lawrence’s extraordinary, computer-generated images of a decaying New York City reveal weeds growing through the cracks of familiar streets that are also overrun by deer and prowled by lions. It’s impossible not to be fascinated by such a realistically altered cityscape, reverting to a natural environment, through which Smith moves with a weirdly enviable freedom, offset by his wariness over whatever is lurking in the dark of bank vaults and parking garages. Lawrence and screenwriters Mark Protosevich and Akiva Goldsman wisely build suspense by withholding images of the monsters until a peak scene of horror well into the story. It must be said, however, that the computer-enhanced creatures don’t look half as interesting as they might have had the filmmakers adhered more to Matheson’s vampire-nightmare vision. I Am Legend is ultimately noteworthy for Smith’s remarkable performance as a man so lonely he talks to mannequins in the shops he frequents. The film’s latter half goes too far in portraying Smith’s Neville as a pitiable man with a messianic mission, but this lapse into pathos does nothing to take away from the visual and dramatic accomplishments of its first hour. --Tom Keogh

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl

The movie that helped breathe new life into the summer blockbuster, the success of Pirates Of The Caribbean: Curse Of The Black Pearl is remarkable for several reasons. Firstly, there’s the unlikely source material. There’s no previous history of theme park rides inspiring major hit movies, yet that’s just what’s happened here. Secondly, there’s the patchy performance of pirate-related movies over the years (does anyone remember seeing Cutthroat Island in a cinema?). And then there’s that performance from Johnny Depp, the one that had Disney executives in a flap prior to the release of the movie. His Captain Jack Sparrow is a fantastic, unlikely creation, proving to be both unpredictable yet utterly compelling. Such is his impact on the film that it’s hardly surprising Depp snared an Oscar nomination for the role.
Yet Depp’s performance shouldn’t blind anyone to the film’s many other qualities. The supporting cast, particularly the likes of Geoffrey Rush, Jack Davenport and Jonathan Pryce are all clearly having a whale of a time, while Gore Verbinski’s pacey yet controlled direction rarely lets the momentum slow. And with all their work grounded by a quality script and worthwhile story, the end result is a film that clicks in many, many different ways.
Of course, it’s now proved the inspiration for a pair of sequels, yet no matter how they turn out, Pirates Of The Caribbean: Curse Of The Black Pearl will always stand as a quite brilliant example of what happens on those rare occasions when Hollywood blockbusters get it absolutely right. And it’s a treat that can easily be enjoyed time after time. --Simon Brew

Iron Man [Blu-ray] [2008]

You know you're going to get a different kind of superhero when you cast Robert Downey Jr. in the lead role. And Iron Man is different, in welcome ways. Cleverly updated from Marvel Comics' longstanding series, Iron Man puts billionaire industrialist Tony Stark (that's Downey) in the path of some Middle Eastern terrorists; in a brilliantly paced section, Stark invents an indestructible suit that allows him to escape. If the rest of the movie never quite hits that precise rhythm again, it nevertheless offers plenty of pleasure, as the renewed Stark swears off his past as a weapons manufacturer, develops his new Iron Man suit, and puzzles both his business partner (Jeff Bridges in great form) and executive assistant (Gwyneth Paltrow). Director Jon Favreau geeks out in fun ways with the hardware, but never lets it overpower the movie, and there's always a goofy one-liner or a slapstick pratfall around to break the tension. As for Downey, he doesn't get to jitterbug around too much in his improv way, but he brings enough of his unpredictable personality to keep the thing fresh. And listen up, hardcore Marvel mavens: even if you know the Stan Lee cameo is coming, you won't be able to guess it until it's on the screen. It all builds to a splendid final scene, with a concluding line delivery by Downey that just feels absolutely right. --Robert Horton

Lewis - Series Three [DVD] [2009]

Kevin Whately stars as Oxford police's Inspector Lewis in this spin off of the hugely popular series INSPECTOR MORSE. Set five years after Morse's death, Lewis has returned from working in the British Virgin Isles to Oxford. This third series finds Lewis and his trusty sidekick D.S. Hathway (Laurence Fox) once again investigating mysterious murders in the idyllic surroundings of the University campus.

X-Men Trilogy [Blu-ray] [2000]

Contains the titles X-MEN, X-MEN 2, and X-MEN – THE LAST STAND. In X-MEN, the titular characters are a team of mutant peacekeepers led by Professor Xavier assigned the task of protecting the human race against the sinister Magneto. In X-MEN 2, the group once again return to save the world from a group of mutant creatures. In the White House, teleporting blue mutant Nightcrawler menaces the president. Meanwhile in the Canadian Rockies, Wolverine searches for answers to his mysterious past at the top-secret facility where he received his metallic skeleton and claws. In X-MEN – THE LAST STAND, Worthington Laboratories--using a powerful mutant boy--develops a serum that eliminates the 'mutant X gene' permanently. This so-called 'cure' quickly divides the mutant community; Professor Xavier and his school are willing to give the government the benefit of the doubt but Magneto and his mutant Brotherhood see the serum as a vile threat to their way of life. They form an army of mutants and march on the fortified Worthington Laboratory located on Alcatraz Island. A much more dire threat appears in the form of the resurrected super-mutant Jean Grey, who has succumbed to her cataclysmic identity known as The Phoenix

Nature's Great Events [DVD]

Nature’s Great Events takes up the mantle left by the stunning BBC series Planet Earth, and offers a closer look at some of the most fascinating and dramatic natural happenings on the planet. Narrated by David Attenborough, it digs in some detail into the impact on nature of certain events, and manages to hone in on small stories in the midst of major happenings. It’s a breathtaking cocktail.
What particularly lifts Nature’s Great Events too is the stunning photography. Those who recall Planet Earth will recall just how superb the shots within that frequently were, but if anything, Nature’s Great Events tops it. The cinematography here is world-class, and it greatly enhances the series around it as a result.
That said, there’s more than enough substance to Nature’s Great Events as it stands anyway. Diligently made and researched, and presented in an accessible, yet not condescending manner, it’s another major success for the BBC in this area, and further cements why it’s a world leader where natural history documentaries are concerned.
Credit must go too for the decision to include the making-of material. Back when the BBC broadcast The Blue Planet, these were often just as interesting as the main feature itself, and the same is true here. It’s a genuinely fascinating insight into the production of such an ambitious, and unmissable, series. --Jon Foster