Alan King

On the DVD The Anderson Tapes offers a nice anamorphic transfer, a few trailers and various foreign language options. --Kim Newman
Cool,spartan thriller, 2010-05-15
Films are apprehended like all phenomena at various ages by various generations so naturally this film is dated in the local sense...It is a vintage seventies thriller at the start of that thriller and disaster film era and on review,a surprisingly good,low-key effort,tautly edited and pacy with it,featuring some very good support players,Balsam and Cannon particularly but Walken,too...The plot background is nihilistic and the background liberal,but Anglo-Amerika can only be hoist by its own yellow petard and cameos a 'racist' mafiosa psycho Liability being framed as part of the deal by Connerys sponsors in the film...The film absorbs because of its complex evolution without longueurs whose plot is basically that of stealthy outlaw hunters stealing treasure from a set of modern cliff caves...What else is burglary of an apartment block in simple terms?The film can be read like the tale of a small siege and the silly tenants themselves get brief cameos,one,being a brief ongoing comic interlude that plays realistically incongruous.
The denouement itself seems predictable and cynically curt after Connerys character suffers several betrayals in process...The internal evolution of the narrative is so well edited the film seems longer than it is and yet operatic in its inevitability...The job seems foredoomed yet the criminal leader is a stoic loser who ends the way luckless fugitive anarchists do...The film foregrounds the growing use of surveillance technology but also human error,incompetence and indifference and somehow seems all the more realistic for that...An intriguing thriller even through the faint blur of nostalgic curiousity and perhaps a grower-Try it,it plays fast,seems longer and you need not be a Connery or crime film fan.

The ensemble cast are superb: Roger Rees as Nicholas is a bright-eyed idealist, every inch the young romantic hero whose principles are often his downfall, but ultimately his salvation; Fulton Mackay's twisted, embittered Squeers is every inch the Dickensian villain; and David Threlfall is transformed as Smike, Squeers' piteously subjugated, crippled servant and gives the most moving performances of his career.

This enthralling TV adaptation recreates the magic of the stage version for all those who were unable to catch it on its pitifully short run. It doesn't pull any punches as the humour and inspiring storyline are tempered with real dark and tragic episodes. Forget the Hollywood fluff, this is the version you should watch if you want a faithful retelling of Dickens's story. --Kristen Bowditch
GREAT!!, 2007-12-08
this is the best adaptation of one of Dickens' classics that I have ever seen. I saw it once on t.v. in the United States and have never been able to find it since then. When a production can grab & keep your interest while losing nothing, it is quite a feat. I just wish something like this was around when I had to read David Copperfield!

At its best, Rush Hour 2 compares favourably to Chan's glossiest Hong Kong hits, and when the action moves to Las Vegas (where Don Cheadle makes an unbilled cameo), the film goes into high-pitched hyper-drive, riding an easy wave of ambitious stunt-work and broad, derivative humour. However, echoes of Beverly Hills Cop are easy to see and stale ideas (including a comedic highlight for Jeremy Piven as a gay clothier) are made even more aggravating by dialogue that's almost Neanderthal in its embrace of retro-racial stereotypes. Of course, that's what makes Rush Hour 2 a palatable dish of mainstream comedy: it insults and comforts the viewer at the same time, and while some may find Tucker's relentless hamming unbearable, those who enjoyed Rush Hour are sure to appreciate another dose of Chan-Tucker lunacy. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
best film ever, 2006-03-03
this is probably the best film i have ever ecspecially some of the fight scenes

The third series sees Jonathan paired yet again with Maddy Magellian, an unauthordox, bossy investigative journalist. The pair try to unravel six baffling mysteries including a man selling his soul to the devil, an elderly woman who is predicting death, ab alien skeleton, a mysterious murder in a strange house and a gangster who seems to be killing from beyound the grave. Wonderful stuff.

Series Four sees the first appearance of Carla Borrengo, played superbly by Absolutely Fabulous' star Julia Sawalha. Creek and Carla try their hand at working out cases such as how a woman manmaged to grow back a full crop of hair after having it cut off, how a ghost hunter is communicating from the underword and how a killer can change colour in front of a band of witnesses. Baffling stuff.

Both Christmas specials are a welcome addition to the set as are some video diaries about the stars and writer. My one critism would be that the 2001 Xmas special and all the episodes from Series Four have been cut and edited.

JONATHAN CREEK IS FANTASTIC!