MOVIE MONKEYS
The Rest Of The Bunch

Forrest Gump (Cert. 12, out 09 November)

Tom Hanks, Gary Sinise, Sally Field, Robin Wright Penn, dir. Robert Zemeckis, 1994, cert. 12

The Negotiator (Cert. 15, out 09 November)

Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin Spacey, Dir. F. Gary Gray, 1998, cert. 15

The release of F. Gary Gray's tense thriller finally makes its Blu-Ray debut this week, as his Law Abiding Citizen is about to hit cinemas. The Negotiator was originally going to star Sylvester Stallone as the negotiator and Kevin Spacey as the hostage taker. When Stallone pulled out of the project Spacey decided he wanted to switch side, and Samuel L. Jackson was cast as the hostage taker. We can only praise the movie gods as it is now difficult to imagine better casting for the two leads. From an HD perspective the transfer is as good as can be expected for an 11 year old picture, no more no less, with a lighter than expected selection of bonus materials. Perhaps not an essential trade-up if you already own the DVD, but a great film that should feature in your collection one way or the other.

Night At The Museum 2 : Battle of the Smithsonian (Cert. PG, out 09 November)

Ben Stiller, Amy Adams, Owen Wilson, Robin Williams, dir. Shawn Levy, 2009, cert. PG

Review coming soon

Heat (Cert. 15, out 09 November)

Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro, Val Kilmer,  dir. Michael Mann, 1995, cert. 15

Arguably Michael Mann's best effort as a director, Heat is a classic. As far as cop&robber stories go, though, it is anything but. You expect the DeNiro and Pacino characters to be at each other's throat from start to finish, not to pop out to the local diner for a cuppa... The HD transfer doesn't bring clarity to the L.A. smog but just about everything else looks sharper than on the DVD edition, which is what you're really looking for in an upgrade. The extras on offer are quite comprehensive, from director commentary and long list of deleted scenes to featurettes, including a short talking up that famous cup of coffee. Well worth trading up if you're already a convert, and if you haven't seen it yet then what are you waiting for?