Resident Evil : Extinction

Resident Evil : Extinction is third in the spin off series of the popular video game. Set three years after the action of Resident Evil: Apocalypse, the world has turned to desert and survivors of the zombie-making T-virus are few and far between. Alice (Milla Jovovich), the genetically altered heroin of the series has been roaming the Earth alone attempting to stay off Umbrella’s radar. A convoy led by Claire Redfield (Ali Larter) and former U.B.C.S. agent Carlos Olivera (Oded Fehr) along with L.J. (Mike Epps) and other survivors who have not been infected, travel from small town to small town in search of other survivors and supplies. Alice and this convoy of survivors then join forces fending off the undead as they try to make their way to the promised safety of Alaska.

Resident Evil : Extinction has had mixed reviews ranging from 1/5 to 5/5 although everyone seems to agree that the third installment is better than the last. Being the third in the series as it is I find it unlikely that people would buy this if they have not seen the previous films. With that in mind i’m confident that those that do go ahead and buy Resdient Evil : Extinction will enjoy the roller coaster ride of action. I myself am a big fan of the games on which the films are based and did enjoy the first two films for what they are, unrealistic fun action films with a zombie theme.

• Actors: Milla Jovovich, Robert Kulzer, Paul Anderson, Spencer Locke, Oded Fehr, Ali Larter
• Directors: Russell Mulcahy
• Classification: 15 (UK)
• Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: 18 Feb 2008 (UK)
• Run Time: 90 minutes

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You can read more on the Toshiba situation here www.homecinemagear.co.uk

24

The new series of 24 had apparently been delayed due to the Hollywood writers strike. Normally the series is broadcast when only half of the episodes have been filmed and filming continues on the other half whilst the first half are aired. Obviously with the writers on strike this could have left a long break in between the first and second half of the series. On Tuesday 12th February the Writers Guild of America voted to end the strike. This means that 24 will now hopefully be gracing our screens again very soon.

If you don’t know what 24 is all about where have you been the last 6 years. 24 tells the story of Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland), the ultimate CTU (counter terrorist unit) field agent who will do whatever it takes to protect his country, his president and the people closest to him. Taking place in real time, each series tells the story of one day with each of the 24 episodes lasting one hour (or 45 minutes if you take out the ad breaks).

The previous six series have seen assassination attempts, Jack’s daughter Kim (Elisha Cuthbert) kidnapped, his wife killed, a nuclear threat, a deadly virus, a kidnapped Secretary of Defense, Jack going in to hiding and being kidnapped by the Chinese as well as more twists and turns than you can ever see coming.

The first six series has seen 24 nominated for a total of 57 Emmy awards, winning for Outstanding Drama Series (2006) and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for star Kiefer Sutherland (2006). Season Six garnered a sixth consecutive Emmy nomination for Sutherland and second consecutive nomination for supporting actor Jean Smart for her role as Martha Logan, the wife of president Charles Logan (Gregory Itzin).

If you haven’t yet seen any or all of this mould-breaking TV the previous series of 24 are available to buy now from Cheap DVD Store. As there are six series which are available as single series DVDs as well as various box sets being available for the U.S., UK and Canada I will just provide links to results pages rather than individual products. Trailers will follow the product links.

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24 on DVD - complete series’ starting at £12

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24 on DVD - complete series’ starting at $14.67

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24 on DVD - complete series’ starting at CDN$37.88

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Season 7

Ratatouille

In Ratatouille, Pixar’s new animated adventure the hero is Remy, a French rat (voiced by Patton Oswalt) with a cultivated palate, who dreams of becoming head chef at a Paris restaurant. Obviously there is one major problem here; Remy being a rat and restaurants being decidedly rodent-phobic. When fate places Remy in the sewers of Paris, he finds himself ideally situated beneath a restaurant made famous by his culinary hero, Auguste Gusteau. Remy’s passion for cooking soon sets into motion a hilarious and exciting rat race graced with the usual Pixar magic, that ineffable blend of headlong comedy, seamless technology, and wonder. Brad Bird (The Incredibles) directs this amazingly expressive animation. Remy’s shrugs and nods are nimbler than many flesh-and-blood actors can manage. Full of great gags, Ratatouille is a sure fire hit.

• Format: PAL
• Language English
• Classification: U (UK)
• Studio: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: 11 Feb 2008 (UK)
• Run Time: 107 minutes

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LOST

With Lost season four just getting under way there is bound to be lots of new talk about plot lines and theories. If you still haven’t caught the Lost bug you may be wondering what all the fuss is about as well as not knowing what anyone is talking about. Lost is a great series following the people of Oceanic flight 815 that crash landed on a tropical island. The lives of the survivors are threatened by mysterious entities including polar bears, an unseen creature that roams the jungle, and the island’s malevolent inhabitants known as “The Others”. They also encounter a Frenchwoman who was shipwrecked on the island over 16 years earlier and find a mysterious metal hatch buried in the ground.

The pilot episode (no pun intended) was first screened in the U.S in 2004 and the first series achieved an average of 16 million viewers on ABC and won numerous industry awards including the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series in 2005, Best American Import at the British Academy Television Awards, also in 2005, the Golden Globe for Best Drama in 2006 and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Ensemble in a Drama Series.

In May 2007, it was announced that LOST would continue for its fourth, fifth, and sixth seasons, concluding with the 117th produced episode in May 2010. So, there is plenty of time to catch up on the previous Lost series on DVD.

Lost is currently available from Cheap DVD Store for the following prices -

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Lost - The Complete First Season on DVD for $26.47 saving 56%

Lost - Complete Second Season on DVD for $39.98 saving 33%

Lost - Complete Third Season on DVD for $34.95 saving 42%

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Lost - The Complete First Season on DVD from CDN$49.42 saving 43%

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Atonement

Atonement reunites Keira Knightley with her Pride & Prejudice director, Joe Wright, for the movie based on Ian McEwan’s book of the same name. The result? Once of the most widely acclaimed pictures of 2007.

Atonement tells the story of Cecilia Tallis (Knightley), and the housekeeper’s son, Robbie Turner (James McAvoy). On the hottest day of the summer of 1935, Cecilia (Kiera Knightley) strip off her clothes and plunges into the fountain in the garden of their country house. Watching Cecilia is their housekeeper’s son Robbie Turner (James McAvoy), a childhood friend who, along with Cecilia has recently graduated from Cambridge. Also watching is Cecilia’s thirteen-year-old sister Briony whose actions prove to have far-reaching repercussions changing all three of their lives forever with Robbie and Cecilia becoming victims of the younger girl’s scheming imagination.

With a terrific cast and superb direction from Wright, it’s utterly understandable that Atonement has earned itself such praise. Diligently told, with some superb photography, Wright is blessed by terrific central performances by Knightley and McAvoy, both of whom have never been better. Atonement proves itself as a top quality drama, with a real emotional punch and is one of the increasingly rare breed of films that sticks in your head for days after.

• Actors: Keira Knightley, Saoirse Ronan, James McAvoy, Romola Garai, Vanessa Redgrave
• Directors: Joe Wright
• Classification: 15 (UK)
• Studio: Universal Pictures UK
• DVD Release Date: 4 Feb 2008 (UK)
• Running Time: 118 minutes

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Death Sentence

Adapted from Brian Garfield’s novel, Death Sentence features Kevin Bacon as Nick Hume, a man who takes the law into his own hands. Nick Hume is a successful businessman with two children and a lovely wife (Kelly Preston). While driving home from his older, college-bound son’s hockey game, Nick must pull into a gas station in a tough part of town. When the boy goes into the store to buy a drink, his throat is slit during a bloody robbery attempt. Nick identifies the killer, but with him as the only witness, the case is unable to go to trial. Discovering that the murder was merely a gang initiation, Nick is pushed over the edge, taking on the deadly gang headed by the fierce Billy Darley (Garrett Hedlund). Payback becomes all-encompassing for Nick: it not only takes over his life, but it also causes a startling physical transformation.

Director James Wan (SAW) forgoes emotional impact in favour of souped-up, visceral, and occasionally thrilling set-pieces. Bacon makes Nick’s transformation from a suburban, suit-and-tie family man into a gaunt, shaved-headed angel of death startling and believable. Full of interesting contradictions, DEATH SENTENCE lets viewers have it both ways–fulfilling their bloodlust while ensuring that Nick’s targets are despicable people who deserve their fates. Ultimately, though it serves to remind us that, as a solution, violence only begets more violence.

Wan delivers a high-end exploitation film, complete with a washed-out, grainy appearance and some startling violence, but with complex, thrilling action sequences.

• Actors: Kevin Bacon, Garrett Hedlund, Kelly Preston, John Goodman, Leigh Whannell
• Directors: James Wan
• Classification: 18 (UK)
• Studio: Entertainment in Video / 20th Century Fox
• DVD Release Date: 21 Jan 2008 (UK)
• Running Time: 105 minutes

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Shoot ‘Em Up

Paul Giamatti, Clive Owen, and Monica Belluci star in this fast-paced thriller. Owen plays Mr. Smith; a mysterious loner who teams up with an unlikely ally (Monica Belluci) in order to protect a newborn baby from a determined hitman (Paul Giamatti) who hunts them throughout the bowels of the city.

The plot is thrown out of the window at every opportunity in favour of more action, upping the body count and – heck, why not? – a bit more action. And you know what? Shoot Em Up works, and it does so because everyone is in on it. This is no postmodern pretentious reworking: this is a fun, stylish action movie, and proud of it. It boasts a trimmed-to-the-wire running time, some outrageous sequences, a few bum notes but a whole lot of energy. And while it is, all considered, an excitable action movie and nothing more, Shoot Em Up is also uproarious entertainment. Relax, switch your brain off, stick your tongue in cheek and settle down. If you can do all of these things, then Shoot Em Up is one of the most downright fun movies you’re likely to have seen in some time. and the kind of film that Friday night was invented for.

• Actors: Clive Owen, Paul Giamatti, Monica Bellucci
• Directors: Michael Davis
• Classification: 18 (UK), R (U.S.),
• Studio: Entertainment in Video / New Line Home Video
• DVD Release Date: 21 Jan 2008 (UK)
• Running Time: 83 minutes

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No Reservations

Master chef Kate Armstrong (Academy Award winner Catherine Zeta-Jones) lives her life like she runs her kitchen at a trendy Manhattan eatery with a no-nonsense intensity that both captivates and intimidates everyone around her. Kate’s perfectionist nature is put to the test when she “inherits” her nine-year-old niece Zoe (Abigail Breslin), while contending with a brash new sous-chef who joins her staff. High-spirited and freewheeling, Nick Palmer (Aaron Eckhart) couldn’t be more different from Kate, yet the chemistry between them is undeniable. Rivalry becomes romance, but Kate will have to learn to express herself beyond the realm of her kitchen if she wants to connect with Zoe and find true happiness with Nick.

• Actors: Catherine Zeta-Jones, Aaron Eckhart, Abigail Breslin, Patricia Clarkson, Jenny Wade
• Directors: Scott Hicks
• Classification: PG
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• DVD Release Date: 28 Jan 2008 (UK)
• Run Time: 100 minutes

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3:10 To Yuma

James Mangold (WALK THE LINE) directs this remake of the classic Western film. Christian Bale stars as a sheriff who vows to bring a killer (Academy Award winner Russell Crowe) to justice, but it won’t be easy to put the criminal on the train to Yuma

Set in Arizona in the late 1800’s, infamous outlaw Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) and his vicious gang of thieves and murderers plagued the Southern Railroad. When Wade is captured, Civil War veteran Dan Evans (Christian Bale), struggling to survive on his drought-plagued ranch, volunteers to deliver him alive to the 3:10 to Yuma, a train that will take the killer to trial.

3:10 To Yuma brings together two of the most magnetic male leads in modern day cinema. On the one hand, there’s Christian Bale as the law-enforcing Sheriff, and he’s facing off against Russell Crowe’s killer. Unsurprisingly, it’s the conflict and sparks between these two that ignite the film, and turn it into a film well worth seeking out.

For what director Mangold realises is that the trick with 3:10 To Yuma (named after the prison train that Bale’s character seeks to put Crowe’s on) is to give his two stars room to work, and injecting plenty of action and excitement into the mix. The end result, while not a top-notch Western, turns out to be a real cut above most of the current multiplex fodder. Even if Westerns aren’t usually your thing, it’s well worth giving this DVD a try.

• Actors: Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, Peter Fonda, Gretchen Mol, Dallas Roberts
• Directors: James Mangold
• Classification: 15
• Studio: Lions Gate Home Entertainment / Maple Pictures
• DVD Release Date: 28 Jan 2008 (UK)
• Run Time: 117 minutes

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