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C.R.A.Z.Y.
Comedy Michel Cote Jean-Marc Vallée
I'm always buying "world cinema" that I watch and put on to my dvd rack never to be touched again, however an exception to the rule is C.R.A.Z.Y. which is an fantastic and thoroughly enjoyable coming-of-age story. I agree with the other review that many people could catagorize this with brokeback but the 'in-your-face' love story isn't what this movie is all about, its the real experiences and simply hints about the main character's sexuality apart from a small fumble.
I wasn't expecting a lot from C.R.A.Z.Y. and was pleasantly surprised by the movie. I would recommend this to pretty much anyone who enjoys movie that aren't the normal hollywood spin on things.

Cabaret
Musical Liza Minnelli, Joel Grey, Michael York, Helmut Griem, Marisa Berenson, Fritz Wepper Bob Fosse
Cabaret is an unusual sort of musical because nobody bursts into song in unlikely settings. The singing and dancing all takes place where you would naturally expect it to: mainly on the stage in a proper music hall-type venue, and once in a beer garden. The story is also darker and more realistic than most musicals. In 1930s Berlin, as the Nazis are rising to power, an ambitious young American woman, willing to do almost anything to become a famous actress, is working in the Kit Kat club as a cabaret artist. She forms a relationship with a liberal-minded but unworldly English teacher and later involves him in a trio-relationship with a rich German baron. It's a case of what she calls "divine decadence". And divine decadence sounds just lovely, but in light of what's happening all around them, with the Nazis attacking people in the streets and generating an atmosphere of fear among scape-goated minorities, the decadence doesn't seem quite so divine. It's just plain old "decadence" - the word refers to "a state of decay" and that's appropriate. The performers at the Kit Kat club certainly look worn out. They may look pleasant enough under their makeup but all, apart from Sally, the American actress (wannabe) are made up to look hideous and debauched. Even ordinary people, who seem wholesome on the surface, are showing signs of moral decay. This becomes frighteningly clear on a couple of occasions: 1) when the nice, friendly residents in the lodging house are discussing the problem of a Jewish/communist conspiracy against the German people and 2) when a handsome young man stands up in the beer garden and sings a deeply stirring and moving song about the Fatherland and most of the crowd of people enjoying their family day out, stand up and join in. The young man is wearing a Nazi uniform. Sinister forces are at work and Sally is trying to encourage everyone to think that life is a cabaret.

It's a fine film, a great musical and a story with depth and meaning.

Camp
Musical Daniel Letterle, Joanna Chilcoat, Robin de Jesus, Steven Cutts, Vince Rimoldi, Kahiry Bess, Tiffany Taylor (VII), Sasha Allen, Alana Allen, Anna Kendrick, Don Dixon (II), Robert Orosco, Stephen DiMenna, Omar Edwards, Camilla Millican Samuelson Todd Graff
i thought this film was really good especially for teens. it has quite a strange plot but is upbeat in a strange way and i really enjoyed wathing it with my friends. sometimes some of the things that happen arent very realistic but are interesting all the same. i really enjoyed this film and would recommend it to others.

Carnivale - Series 1
Science Fiction & Fantasy Nick Stahl, Clancy Brown, Michael J. Anderson, Adrienne Barbeau, Patrick Bauchau, Clea Duvall, Amy Madigan, John Fleck
Carnivale is truly a one-of-a-kind gem. Disturbing and sublime in equal measures.
The first season is a little slow, but the visual style, top-notch acting and building sense of mystery and suspense will keep you hanging in till the end. You'll be desperate to get your hands on season two.

Nick Stahl and Clancy Brown head a cast that excels from the first scene and give the kind of subtle and real performances you'd expect from a HBO show. And the look of the show, from the landscape, the costumes, the sets, and of course the carnival itself, is absolutely breath-taking.

This is one of the best and most original American programmes of recent years.
And, after all that gushing, I have to say, I think season 2 is ten times better!

Carnivale - Series 2
Science Fiction & Fantasy Ion Anghel, Aurel Cioranu, Alexandru Giugaru, Jana Gorea, Remus Ionascu, Ion Lucian, Ion Manu, Vasilica Tastaman, Grigore Vasiliu-Birlic, Maria Voluntaru Aurel Miheles, Gheorghe Naghi
The second season of HBO's Depression-era gothic--John Steinbeck by way of Tod Browning--picks up where the first left off. Professor Lodz (Patrick Bauchau) is dead. Ben (Nick Stahl), the show's protagonist, appears to be the culprit. Samson (Michael J. Anderson) helps him dispose of the body. Later he tells the other carnival workers that Lodz "took a powder." Lila (Debra Christofferson) doesn't buy it. Meanwhile, Sophie (Clea DuVall), who lost her mother to fire the previous year, feels unmoored without her guidance. A few states away, Brother Justin (Clancy Brown) harbors ever greater delusions of grandeur--and inappropriate thoughts about his sister, Iris (Amy Madigan). In "Alamagordo, NM," he decides to establish a temple, which he dubs Jonestown, er, Jericho. At the same time, life amongst the carnies, who are heading towards Justin's California, is becoming increasingly tense. Ruthie (Adrienne Barbeau), for instance, is starting to see dead people--like Lodz--and Stumpy (Toby Huss) is no longer able to keep his gambling in check. As with the first season, the action continues to alternate between the carnival and the congregation. What binds the two is a man named Scudder (John Savage), who has connections to Ben and Justin. Although writer/creator Dan Knauf had planned to tie things up between seasons three and six, HBO did not renew "Carnivàle" a second time. Nonetheless, a surprising number of questions are answered, like the identity of "Management" (voiced by an un-credited Linda Hunt) and whether Ben and Justin will have a final showdown. The answer to the latter question is: Yes, they will--and there'll be casualties. "--Kathleen C. Fennessy"

Children Of Dune
Science Fiction & Fantasy Alec Newman, Julie Cox, Edward Atterton, Ian McNeice, Barbora Kodetová, Steven Berkoff, Daniela Amavia, P.H. Moriarty, James McAvoy, Jessica Brooks (II), Jonathan Bruun, Rik Young, Martin McDougall, Gee Williams, Alice Krige Greg Yaitanes
"Children of Dune" is the sequel to the Sci-Fi Channel's "Frank Herbert's Dune" (2000), and surpasses that earlier mini-series in every way. The screenplay is again by John Harrison, who has combined Herbert's novels "Dune Messiah" and "Children of Dune" into three 84-minute TV movies, and continues the labyrinthine space opera with little concession to the uninitiated. Indeed, this a very rare attempt to put the complexity of printed SF on screen, and if the result is sometimes rather hermetic it is perhaps inevitable when realising Herbert's Byzantine, pseudo-Shakespearean tragedy. The same tableaux-like qualities infuse the new "Star Wars" films and the similarities between Herbert's and Lucas' worlds have never been more obvious than here.
Performances range from excellent--Julie Cox, Alice Krige, Alex Newman (much better here than in the first series) and James McAvoy--to a surprisingly wooden Susan Sarandon. The set-pieces are exceptional, with many individual images sufficiently memorable to stand comparison with the work of Ridley Scott. Production-wise this is surely the most beautiful mini-series ever made, with gorgeous lighting by cinematographer Arthur Reinhart, breathtaking set design from Ondrej Nekvasil and a ravishing score from Brian Tyler. By TV standards the CGI is first-rate and, though rarely looking real, establishes a credible science fictional universe. Even when rather baffling, the production achieves moments of dramatic grandeur and a sense of wonder not experienced in TV SF since "Babylon 5".
On the DVD: "Children of Dune" on DVD has one feature-length episode on each disc. The picture is presented at 1.77:1 anamorphically enhanced for widescreen TVs. Shot in high definition, its clarity and detail is superb with virtually no blemishes to the image at all. Colour has a painterly beauty that is remarkable. However, some shots look inaccurately framed, with what was presumably a 4:3 image being a little too closely cropped for widescreen presentation. It's a minor flaw and really only noticeable in some close-ups. Sound is a richly luxuriant Dolby Digital 5.1, which gives no ground to any modern blockbuster movie. Perfunctory extras are confined to the first disc and consist of an interesting but short look at the special effects (13 minutes), a storyboard comparison for one key scene and a photo gallery. "--Gary S Dalkin"

Children of Men
Crime, Thrillers & Mystery Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Michael Caine, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Charlie Hunnam, Pam Ferris, Danny Huston, Peter Mullan
Presenting a bleak, harrowing, and yet ultimately hopeful vision of humankind's not-too-distant future, "Children of Men" is a riveting cautionary tale of potential things to come. Set in the crisis-ravaged future of 2027, and based on the atypical novel by British mystery writer P.D. James, the anxiety-inducing, action-packed story is set in a dystopian England where humanity has become infertile (the last baby was born in 2009), immigration is a crime, refugees (or "fugees") are caged like animals, and the world has been torn apart by nuclear fallout, rampant terrorism, and political rebellion. In this seemingly hopeless landscape of hardscrabble survival, a jaded bureaucrat named Theo (Clive Owen) is drawn into a desperate struggle to deliver Kee (Clare-Hope Ashitey), the world's only pregnant woman, to a secret group called the Human Project that hopes to discover a cure for global infertility.
As they carefully navigate between the battling forces of military police and a pro-immigration insurgency, Theo, Kee, and their secretive allies endure a death-defying ordeal of urban warfare, and director Alfonso Cuaron (with cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki) capture the action with you-are-there intensity. There's just enough humour to balance the film's darker content (much of it coming from Michael Caine, as Theo's aging hippie cohort), and although "Children of Men" glosses over many of the specifics about its sociopolitical worst-case scenario (which includes Julianne Moore in a brief but pivotal role), it's still an immensely satisfying, pulse-pounding vision of a future that represents a frightening extrapolation of early 21st-century history. "--Jeff Shannon"

City Of God
Foreign Alexandre Rodrigues, Leandro Firmino, Phellipe Haagensen, Douglas Silva, Jonathan Haagensen, Matheus Nachtergaele, Seu Jorge, Jefechander Suplino, Alice Braga, Emerson Gomes, Edson Oliveira, Michel de Souza, Roberta Rodrigues, Luis Otávio, Maurício Marques Kátia Lund, Fernando Meirelles
Like cinematic dynamite, "City of God" lights a fuse under its squalid Brazilian ghetto, and we're a captive audience to its violent explosion. The titular "favela" is home to a seething army of impoverished children who grow, over the film's ambitious 20-year time frame, into cut-throat killers, drug lords and feral survivors. In the vortex of this maelstrom is L'il Z (Leandro Firmino da Hora--like most of the cast, a non-professional actor), self-appointed king of the dealers, determined to eliminate all competition at the expense of his corrupted soul. With enough visual vitality and provocative substance to spark heated debate (and box-office gold) in Brazil, codirectors Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund tackle their subject head on, creating a portrait of youthful anarchy so appalling--and so authentically immediate--that "City of God" prompted reforms in socioeconomic policy. It's a bracing feat of stylistic audacity, borrowing from a dozen other films to form its own unique identity. You'll flinch, but you can't look away. --"Jeff Shannon"

Clockwork Orange
Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee, Michael Bates, Warren Clarke, John Clive, Adrienne Corri, Carl Duering, Paul Farrell, Clive Francis, Michael Gover, Miriam Karlin, James Marcus (II), Aubrey Morris, Godfrey Quigley, Sheila Raynor Stanley Kubrick
The controversy that surrounded Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Anthony Burgess's dystopian novel "A Clockwork Orange" while the film was out of circulation suggested that it was like "Romper Stomper": a glamorisation of the violent, virile lifestyle of its teenage protagonist, with a hypocritical gloss of condemnation to mask delight in rape and ultra-violence. Actually, it is as fable-like and abstract as "The Pilgrim's Progress", with characters deliberately played as goonish sitcom creations. The anarchic rampage of Alex (Malcolm McDowell), a bowler-hatted juvenile delinquent of the future, is all over at the end of the first act. Apprehended by equally brutal authorities, he changes from defiant thug to cringing bootlicker, volunteering for a behaviourist experiment that removes his capacity to do evil.
It's all stylised: from Burgess' invented pidgin Russian (snarled unforgettably by McDowell) to "2001"-style slow tracks through sculpturally perfect sets (as with many Kubrick movies, the story could be told through decor alone) and exaggerated, grotesque performances on a par with those of "Dr Strangelove" (especially from Patrick Magee and Aubrey Morris). Made in 1971, based on a novel from 1962, "A Clockwork Orange" resonates across the years. Its future is now quaint, with Magee pecking out "subversive literature" on a giant IBM typewriter and "lovely, lovely Ludwig Van" on mini-cassette tapes. However, the world of "Municipal Flat Block 18A, Linear North" is very much with us: a housing estate where classical murals are obscenely vandalised, passers-by are rare and yobs loll about with nothing better to do than hurt people.
On the DVD: The extras are skimpy, with just an impressionist trailer in the style of the film used to brainwash Alex and a list of awards for which "Clockwork Orange" was nominated and awarded. The box promises soundtracks in English, French and Italian and subtitles in ten languages, but the disc just has two English soundtracks (mono and Dolby Surround 5.1) and two sets of English subtitles. The terrific-looking "digitally restored and remastered" print is letterboxed at 1.66:1 and on a widescreen TV plays best at 14:9. The film looks as good as it ever has, with rich stable colours (especially and appropriately the orangey-red of the credits and the blood) and a clarity that highlights previously unnoticed details such as Alex's gouged eyeball cufflinks and enables you to read the newspaper articles which flash by. The 5.1 soundtrack option is amazingly rich, benefiting the nuances of performance as much as the classical/electronic music score and the subtly unsettling sound effects. --"Kim Newman"

Close To Leo
Drama Yaniss Lespert, Pierre Mignard, Marie Bunel, Rodolphe Pauly, Jérémie Lippmann, Dominic Gould, Louis Gonzales (III), Joana Preiss, Harmony Lucas, Maud Pluquet, Fabrice Petit-Huguenin, Louis Gonzalez, Gaetano Weysen-Volli, Dominique Perrier, Gwen Le Gac Christophe Honoré

The Complete League Of Gentlemen
Comedy Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith Don Taylor
The bizarre yet critically acclaimed BBC television series "The League of Gentlemen" is to sitcoms like "The Good Life" or even "Friends" what David Lynch's films are to Frank Capra movies. Instead of the usual one-family-in-suburbia or group-of-pals set-up, Gentlemen centres on the whole town of Royston Vasey. A Northern village of, to say the least, eccentric characters, the weird people of Royston Vasey (actually, the real name of lewd northern comic Roy Chubby Brown) look like they've been intermarrying for too long and are suffering from a particularly demented variety of xenophobia that drives them to extremes of tetchiness and psychosis. There are the local shopkeepers Edward and Tubbs, who go to murderous lengths to ensure their shop remains for local people only; the Denton family, toad-breeders obsessed with maintaining their household rituals at all costs; inept veterinary surgeon Dr Chinnery, who's never yet saved a patient; Barbara, the local transsexual taxi driver (one of the show's more well adjusted characters); Pauline the demonic Restart Officer at the local Job Centre; and Lance, the sadistic owner of Lance's Joke Shop which sells poisonous sweets and the ever-popular finger in a matchbox (with a real finger), among many others. Most of the characters are performed by the three core members of the group, sporting a disturbing variety of prosthetic demi-masks and latex make-up, who started the concept off with a stage show and then transferred it to radio before taking it on TV, which may explain why The League of Gentlemen seems blithely oblivious to normal sitcom conventions and has a stately air of surrealism that feels like The Archers as written by playwright Eugene Ionesco. Brilliant stuff. "--Leslie Felperin"

Constantine
Action & Adventure Keanu Reeves, Rachel Weisz, Shia LaBeouf, Djimon Hounsou, Tilda Swinton, Peter Stormare
In the grand scheme of theological thrillers, "Constantine" aspires for the greatness of "The Exorcist" but ranks more closely with "The Order". Based on the popular "Hellblazer" comic book series, and directed with nary a shred of intelligence by music video veteran Francis Lawrence, it's basically "The Matrix" with swarming demons instead of swarming machines. Keanu Reeves slightly modifies his Matrix persona as John Constantine, who roams the dark-spots of Los Angeles looking for good-evil, angel-devil half-breeds to ensure that "the balance" between God and Satan is properly maintained. An ancient artifact and the detective twin of a woman who committed evil-induced suicide (Rachel Weisz) factor into the plot, which is taken so seriously that you'll want to stand up and cheer when Tilda Swinton swoops down as the cross-dressing angel Gabriel and turns this silliness into the camp-fest it really is. The digital effects are way cool (dig those hellspawn with the tops of their heads lopped off!), so if you don't mind a juvenile lesson in pseudo-Catholic salvation, "Constantine" is just the movie for you! "--Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com"

Coupling - Series 1 - The Complete Series
Comedy Martin Dennis
All of a sudden my late night TV viewing habits have shifted from Leno and Letterman to a curious never-heard-of-it-before sitcom about a sextet of "Friends", 3 female, 3 male (hmmm, sound familiar?). The show (series 1) started airing 11:30pm for 6 nights last week, on BBC America, and is about as well written and funny a program as ever there was. And I am hooked.
As a native New Yorker, grown tired years ago of "Friends" (I cringe when having to witness the show's Hollyweird depiction of a NYC street scene, replete with stereotypes that disappeared when Elvis was in knee-pants), "Coupling" is a clever, well-performed and hilariously entertaining breath of fresh air.

Coupling: Complete Series 2
Comedy Martin Dennis
Steven Moffat's second series of "Coupling", first broadcast in 2001, is a brilliant consolidation of all those neuroses, small deceits, obsessions and personality tics that struck such a resonant chord when Steve, Susan and their four friends were first unleashed on us. Comparisons with "Friends" itself are tiresome and lazy: "Coupling" is an intrinsically British comedy that picks apart the trivial and the mundane in everyday relationships and takes them on surreal journeys, leaving the participants hilariously bemused and rarely any wiser.
Its success is due to the magical combination of Moffat's very funny scripts and the talents of six extremely likable actors, including Jack Davenport (Steve) and Sarah Alexander (Susan). But it's Richard Coyle's Jeff, whose sexual fantasies and putting-your-his-in-it propensities exert a compelling fascination, who really keeps you watching through your fingers as you hold your hands to your face in disbelief.
Breasts, bottoms and pants are the basis for most of the conversational analysis when these friends get together as a group, as couples, as girlfriends or as mates, invariably becoming metaphors for the state of a relationship or situation. Individual viewpoints and terrors are explored through respective memories of the same event and what-if scenarios. Chain reactions inevitably ensue, fuelling comedy that is based almost entirely on misunderstanding.
On the DVD: "Coupling, Series 2" on disc is presented in 16:9 anamorphic video aspect ratio, together with a crisp Dolby Digital stereo soundtrack; Mari Wilson's sensuous version of "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps" for the theme tune deserves a special mention. Extras include disappointing interviews with writer Steven Moffat and Jack Davenport, which are mainly an excuse to repeat several major scenes from the series in full. The "Behind the scenes" feature is also a let-down: it's just a not very funny record of a cast photo shoot. --"Piers Ford"

The Crucible
Daniel Day-Lewis, Winona Ryder, Paul Scofield, Joan Allen, Bruce Davison, Rob Campbell, Jeffrey Jones, Peter Vaughan, Karron Graves, Charlayne Woodard, Frances Conroy, Elizabeth Lawrence, George Gaynes, Mary Pat Gleason, Robert Breuler Nicholas Hytner
The Salem witch hunts are given a new and nasty perspective when a vengeful teenage girl uses superstition and repression to her advantage, creating a killing machine that becomes a force unto itself. Pulsating with seductive energy, this provocative drama is as visually arresting as it is intellectually engrossing. Arthur Miller based his classic 1953 play on the actual Salem witch trials of 1692, creating what has since become a durable fixture of school drama courses. It may look like a historical drama but Miller also meant the work as a parable for the misery created by the McCarthy anti-Communist hearings of the 1950s. This searing version of his drama delves into matters of conscience with concise accuracy and emotional honesty. Three passionate cheers for Miller, director Nicholas Hytner and costars Daniel Day-Lewis and Winona Ryder. "--Rochelle O'Gorman"

Cruel Intentions
Comedy Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, Reese Witherspoon, Selma Blair, Louise Fletcher, Joshua Jackson, Eric Mabius, Sean Patrick Thomas, Swoosie Kurtz, Christine Baranski, Alaina Reed Hall, Deborah Offner, Tara Reid, Herta Ware, Hiep Thi Le Roger Kumble
This modern-day teen update of "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" suffered at the hands of both critics and moviegoers thanks to its sumptuous ad campaign, which hyped the film as an arch, highly sexual, faux-serious drama (not unlike the successful, Oscar-nominated "Dangerous Liaisons"). In fact, "Cruel Intentions" plays like high comedy for its first two-thirds, as its two evil heroes, rich stepsiblings Kathryn (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Sebastian (Ryan Phillippe), blithely ruin lives and reputations with hearts as black as coal.
Kathryn wants revenge on a boyfriend who dumped her, so she befriends his new intended, the gawky Cecile (Selma Blair), and gets Sebastian to deflower the innocent virgin. The meat of the game, though, lies in Sebastian's seduction of good girl Annette (a down-to-earth Reese Witherspoon), who has written a nationally published essay entitled "Why I Choose to Wait." If he fails, Kathryn gets his precious vintage convertible; if he wins, he gets Kathryn--in the sack.
When the movie sticks to the merry ruination of Kathryn and Sebastian's pawns, it's highly enjoyable: Gellar in particular is a two-faced manipulator extraordinaire, and Phillippe, usually a black hole, manages some fun as a hipster Eurotrash stud. Most pleasantly surprising of all is Witherspoon, who puts a remarkably self-assured spin on a character usually considered vulnerable and tortured (see Michelle Pfeiffer in "Dangerous Liaisons"). Unfortunately, writer-director Roger Kumble undermines everything he's built up with a false ending that's true to neither the reconceived characters nor the original story--revenge is a dish best served cold, not cooked up with unnecessary plot twists. --"Mark Englehart, Amazon.com"

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - Complete Season 1
Crime William L. Petersen, Gary Dourdan, George Eads, Paul Guilfoyle, Jorja Fox, Marg Helgenberger, Eric Szmanda, Robert David Hall, David Berman, Wallace Langham
CSI is a great American TV show, now much copied.
It is mostly written to a regular formula and is always reliable, if not always plausible, entertainment.
William Petersen is great as Dr Gil Grissom ( a phD 'doctor') who leads the Las Vegas Police Crime Scene Investigation Department. Grissom and his sidekicks are not cops but you would be forgiven for thinking they are. In fact, It makes you wonder what the Las Vegas cops actually do as virtually all the major crimes in the area are solved by CSI staff.
There are some attempts to flesh out the characters but, with each episode lasting forty minutes, this has to be a plot-driven show.
The best episodes of CSI have been where they move away from the usual formula.
Sometimes it gets graphic and gory but this is still top notch American TV entertainment and the DVDs are a great opportunity to catch up.
Reccomended.

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - Complete Season 2
Crime William L. Petersen, Gary Dourdan, George Eads, Paul Guilfoyle, Jorja Fox, Marg Helgenberger, Eric Szmanda, Robert David Hall, David Berman, Wallace Langham
Exclusively available at Amazon.co.uk, this box set contains the complete second series of "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation".
The second series consolidates the show's well-deserved popular appeal, while beginning to explore (gently at first) beneath the slickly professional surface of the investigators themselves. Gradually we learn more about what makes Grissom and his astonishingly gifted forensics team tick, beyond merely that they are workaholics who seem to require no sleep at all. The show's trademark reveals of vital evidence--be it on the autopsy slab or under the microscope--add a fresh spin to what is, at heart, a good old-fashioned whodunit series. And just when "CSI" starts to seem a little too pat, just when the trail of clues seems too neat, the show always seems able to throw a surprise or two at us: perhaps there has been no crime after all; perhaps the evidence concerns a completely different crime altogether; or perhaps, as in one brave episode concerning brothers implicated in multiple murders, the evidence simply isn't good enough to convict the right man, even when Grissom knows which one really is guilty.
Thanks to its focus on more single-case episodes, the latter episodes provide an even more highly concentrated dose of forensic puzzle-solving. With the whole team working together on one puzzle crime (or series of crime puzzles), the group dynamic is elaborated and the audience drawn deeper into each investigation. "Identity Crisis" sees the return of Grissom's nemesis, serial killer Paul Millander; in "The Finger", Catherine is caught up in an elaborate kidnap plot; in "Burden of Proof", a stray body in a "body farm" leads to a difficult case of child abuse; while "Chasing the Bus" brings the team together to unravel the mystery of a bus crash in the desert. "Stalker" is possibly the show's most terrifying episode to date, with a woman found murdered behind the safely locked doors of her apartment. The season concludes with "Cross Jurisdictions", a rather unsubtle way of introducing the spin-off show "CSI: Miami" and, finally, "The Hunger Artist", a somewhat strained attempt to comment on our society's obsession with glamour and self-image. --"Mark Walker"

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - Season 3 - Part 1
Crime William L. Petersen, Marg Helgenberger, Gary Dourdan, George Eads, Jorja Fox, Robert David Hall, Paul Guilfoyle, Eric Szmanda, Jodi Regts, Jason Nicoloff
Now firmly established as the top-rated US drama, by its third year "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" is a show positively glowing with confidence. Even when individual cases seem either too contrived or too easily resolved, the indefatigable night shift at the Las Vegas PD crime lab always look the part, solving conundrums and discovering microscopic damning evidence while, apparently, never shedding their own loose hair or skin cells all over the supposedly quarantined crime scenes. In reality, Catherine Willows' flowing blonde locks would contaminate any evidence she collected, but in the world of "CSI" only the bad guys leave body parts behind--the CSIs themselves are so good they're positively pristine.
The first 12 episodes of season 3 on this three-disc set present more deliciously bizarre situations for the problem-solving sleuths: cannibalism, snuff movies, dwarfs, death while drag racing, bodies falling from the sky, and various dismemberments all tax the team's acumen. These are all double or multiple-case episodes, though in a characteristic trick of the writing sometimes apparently unrelated murders turn out to be connected (or vice versa, as in "Blood Lust", where a road accident victim is not what he seems, and the death of the driver at the hands of an angry mob is made all the more tragic.) The mix of genuine forensic science with the glossiest Jerry Bruckheimer production values, plus the virtues of a good ensemble cast headed by William Peterson's modern-day Sherlock Holmes, remains as compelling as ever. --"Mark Walker"

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - Season 3 - Part 2
Crime William L. Petersen, Marg Helgenberger, Gary Dourdan, George Eads, Jorja Fox, Robert David Hall, Paul Guilfoyle, Eric Szmanda, Jodi Regts, Jason Nicoloff
The second half of "CSI"'s third season serves up generous amounts of the bizarre and depraved for our voyeuristic viewing pleasure: a man driving with a wooden spike in his head, ultra-violent Robot Wars, decomposing bodies in toxic waste drums and violent death during foam-soaked debauchery all add up to a typical night's work for the Las Vegas crime lab. Standout episodes include the 90-minute special, "Lady Heather's Box", in which Grissom renews his acquaintance with the sultry bordello madam and her world of S&M. But is the delightful dominatrix the murderer? In "Night at the Movies" the plot hinges on a reworking of a Hitchcock classic and in "Play with Fire" an explosion in the lab has disastrous consequences for the team.
Personal concerns come to the fore in these 12 episodes more prominently than ever before (a contrast to the show's original single-minded focus on the cases). Here, Sara Sidle's paramedic boyfriend unwittingly reveals a guilty secret when he is involved in a devastating car accident ("Crash & Burn"); Warwick witnesses his boyhood mentor falling apart when the older man's daughter is killed in a drive-by shooting ("Random Acts of Violence"); Catherine Willows' daughter and ex-husband are caught up in more violence and mayhem; and Grissom finally has to admit that his hearing problem can no longer be ignored. A welcome development is the expansion of the CSI unit and the introduction of some new, albeit secondary, team members. Guest stars include Elizabeth Berkely ("Lady Heather's Box") and Bobcat Goldthwait ("Last Laugh"). The show remains unrivalled for slick, fast-paced entertainment.
On the DVD: "CSI, Series 3 Part 2" is a three-disc set with a handful of minor extra features. It has two frankly rather uninspiring episode commentaries featuring the directors, scriptwriters and other crew. Better are the two small featurettes--"Making It Real" and "The Writer's Room"--that shed more light on the making of the show. --"Mark Walker"

Cube
World Cinema Nicole de Boer, Nicky Guadagni, David Hewlett, Andrew Miller, Julian Richings, Wayne Robson, Maurice Dean Wint Vincenzo Natali
If Clive Barker had written an episode of "The Twilight Zone", it might have looked something like "Cube". A handful of strangers wake up inside a bizarre maze, having been spirited there during the night. They quickly learn that they have to navigate their way through a series of chambers if they have any hope of escape but the problem is that there are lethal traps awaiting if they choose their route unwisely. Having established some imaginative and grisly punishments in store for the hostages, cowriter and director Vincenzo Natali turns his attention to the characters, for whom being trapped amplifies their best and worst qualities. The film is, in fact, similar to a famous episode of Rod Serling's old television series, though Natali's explanation for why these poor people are being put through hell is a lot closer to the spirit of "The X-Files". "Cube" has some solid moments of suspense and drama and the sets are appropriately striking: one is tempted to believe at first the characters are lost inside a computer chip. "--Tom Keogh"

Cypher
World Cinema Jeremy Northam, Lucy Liu, Nigel Bennett, Timothy Webber, David Hewlett, Kari Matchett, Kristina Nicoll, Joseph Scoren, Stephen Brown (XIV), Arnold Pinnock, Jocelyn Snowdon, Boyd Banks, Steve Jackson (VII), Dan Duran, Valerie Buhagiar Vincenzo Natali
Wow what a joy to see a film that did not get hyped out of all proportion and yet is a real gem to watch. The film never pretends to be something that is going to be easy to watch from the word go but the amazing plot and the twists are incredible. The action is great and you never really know what is going to happen next. The film involves one average everyday software computer spy who gets heavier and heavier into stealing secrets from the opposing companies, Norton is perfect in the role as is Lucy Liu, just an all round marvellous film.



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