Amazon Buy Now & Save!

Amazon Buy Now & Save!

Amazon Buy Now & Save!

Amazon Buy Now & Save!

Amazon Buy Now & Save!

Amazon Buy Now & Save!

The weakest Harry Potter films are arguably the first two, but even these are really good family entertainment. Sure, they rely a little too much on the novelty factor, and they lack some of the edge of the later films, but they’re fine in their own right. The cinematic franchise only really kicked firmly into life though with Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, a far darker, visually striking film that sets a tone and course that the subsequent films wisely follow.

Harry Potter and the Goblet Of Fire thus manages to pack a tremendous amount into its running time, before handing things over to the outstanding Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. And this box set then leaves us at the eve of the ultimate showdown in the Harry Potter saga with the brooding Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Different people, clearly, have different views on which their favourite Harry Potter film is. But it’s hard to argue that this is a compelling, quality collection of family films, each of which benefits generously from high definition presentation. Expect each disc here to be spun many, many times in the years ahead… --Jon Foster

Amazon Buy Now & Save!

The definite three disc Blu-ray set. The Complete Matrix Trilogy features all three films in the trilogy together for the first time ever in stunning high definition, with a newly re-mastered picture and sound for The Matrix. Also included is the companion piece The Matrix Revisited, two new audio commentaries on each film, Enter the Matrix video game footage, deep-delving featurettes/ documentaries and much more!

The Matrix: Perception: The Everyday World is Real. Reality: That World is a hoax, an elaborate deception spun by all-powerful machines of artificial intelligence that control us.

Mind blowing stunts. Techno-slamming visuals. Megakick action. Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne lead the fight to free humankind in The Matrix, the cyber thriller that you will watch again and again. Written and Directed by the Wachowski brothers (Bound), the story sears, the special effects stake out new movie-making territory - the movie leaves you breathless.

The Matrix Reloaded: Neo and the leaders of the human resistance discover that Sentinels are burrowing their way towards Zion. Estimating they have perhaps just 72 hours until an all-out assault, Neo must return back into the Matrix and find the keymaker to gain access to the mainframe to ensure human survival...

The Matrix Revolutions: In this final explosive third installment of the Matrix trilogy, the city of Zion, last bastion of the human race, defends itself against the massive invasion of the machines as Neo attempts to fulfill his prophecy as 'The One'. As the Machine Army wages devastation on Zion, its citizens mount an aggressive defense - but can they stave off the relentless swarm of Sentinels long enough for Neo, adrift in a no man's land between the Matrix and the Machine world, to harness the full extent of his powers and end the war?

• Commentaries by: Philosophers

Amazon Buy Now & Save!

Amazon Buy Now & Save!

The film pulls together an ensemble cast led by Brad Pitt, who heads up the Basterds of the film’s title. They’re a group of commandos working behind enemy lines, who look to strike the Nazis where it hurts. Yet the film works best when it focuses elsewhere, ironically, in particular on Christoph Waltz’s stunning depiction of Nazi officer Landa. He’s at the heart of the film’s finest moments, and is rightly attracting many awards for his performance. He’s the peak of a strong movie, and Inglourious Basterds ranks as one of Tarantino’s most downright enjoyable films to date.

As for the Blu-ray? The transfer of the film is very sharp and very impressive, and rewards the high definition premium. As does the active and vibrant surround sound mix, which picks up both the subwoofer-engaging moments of mayhem along with the subtler moments with ease. It’s the finest way to watch Inglourious Basterds outside of a cinema. Now we just need Tarantino’s back catalogue to get the proper high definition upgrade treatment too… --Jon Foster

Although Quentin Tarantino has cherished Enzo G. Castellari's 1978 "macaroni" war flick The Inglorious Bastards for most of his film-geek life, his own Inglourious Basterds is no remake. Instead, as hinted by the Tarantino-esque misspelling, this is a lunatic fantasia of WWII, a brazen re-imagining of both history and the behind-enemy-lines war film subgenre. There's a Dirty Not-Quite-Dozen of mostly Jewish commandos, led by a Tennessee good ol' boy named Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) who reckons each warrior owes him one hundred Nazi scalps--and he means that literally. Even as Raine's band strikes terror into the Nazi occupiers of France, a diabolically smart and self-assured German officer named Landa (Christoph Waltz) is busy validating his own legend as "The Jew Hunter." Along the way, he wipes out the rural family of a grave young girl (Melanie Laurent) who will reappear years later in Paris, dreaming of vengeance on an epic scale.

Now, this isn't one more big-screen comic book. As the masterly opening sequence reaffirms, Tarantino is a true filmmaker, with a deep respect for the integrity of screen space and the tension that can accumulate in contemplating two men seated at a table having a polite conversation. IB reunites QT with cinematographer Robert Richardson (who shot Kill Bill), and the colours and textures they serve up can be riveting, from the eerie red-hot glow of a tabletop in Adolf Hitler's den, to the creamy swirl of a Parisian pastry in which Landa parks his cigarette. The action has been divided, Pulp Fiction-like, into five chapters, each featuring at least one spellbinding set-piece. It's testimony to the integrity we mentioned that Tarantino can lock in the ferocious suspense of a scene for minutes on end, then explode the situation almost faster than the eye and ear can register, and then take the rest of the sequence to a new, wholly unanticipated level within seconds.

Again, be warned: This is not your "Greatest Generation," Saving Private Ryan WWII. The sadism of Raine and his boys can be as unsavory as the Nazi variety; Tarantino's latest cinematic protégé, Eli (director of Hostel) Roth, is aptly cast as a self-styled "golem" fond of pulping Nazis with a baseball bat. But get past that, and the sometimes disconcerting shifts to another location and another set of characters, and the movie should gather you up like a growing floodtide. Tarantino told the Cannes Film Festival audience that he wanted to show "Adolf Hitler defeated by cinema." Cinema wins. --Richard T. Jameson

Amazon Buy Now & Save!

Across ten haunting episodes, Band Of Brothers follows the real-life story of the American army?s Easy Company, an elite paratrooper regiment, from their initial training through to the very end of the war. Along the way, not only do Easy Company take part in some of the most infamous battles and events of the War, but they also suffer many, often brutal losses. And Band Of Brothers pulls no punches in putting those moments across on screen.

But that?s not, ultimately, what Band Of Brothers is about. At it's heart, this is the tale of a group of men relying on one another to get them through unthinkable situations. And this camaraderie is brilliantly put across by the generally unknown cast of actors, many of whom turn in outstanding performances here.

The quality production values are sustained behind the camera, as Band Of Brothers? episodes are directed by the likes of Tom Hanks, Phil Alden Robinson (Field of Dreams) and David Leland (The Devil Wears Prada). The show gives all the impression that little expense was spared in depicting the right visual look, and the results are on screen to be admired.

In short, Band of Brothers remains a vital, brilliant piece of television drama, and one that will stick in your mind long after the credits have rolled on the final episode. --Jon Foster