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The Sopranos: HBO Season 6 (Part 2 - The Final Episodes) [2007]

Childrens Toy Shop > DVD > Drama
starring: Tony Sirico, Steven R. Schirripa, Aida Turturro, Michael Imperioli, James Gandolfini
directed by: Steve Buscemi, Danny Leiner, David Nutter, Alan Taylor, Steve Shill

November 19, 2007
This is the seventh box set taking the excellent 'Sopranos' to it's inconclusive conclusion. The final nine episodes included here are of the same high standard as those before it and continues the build up of tension started in Season six part 1. Anybody who has watched the show and has got to this late stage in the saga will not be needing a review to decide on a purchase, you're going to buy it anyway!!. To those people it is an excellent buy. i'm just a little disappointed that the cost has remained substantially higher than all the series before it. You've got to buy it to complete the set and they know that! For this point alone i've reduced the score to four stars.

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Without A Trace - Complete Season 4

Childrens Toy Shop > DVD > Drama
by: Without a Trace
starring: Anthony LaPaglia, Poppy Montgomery, Marianne Jean-Baptiste

July 14, 2008
All I can say is that this programme is brilliant. I have just purchased season 4 from the UK and totally enjoyed every episode. Well acted, well written with good story lines. All I want now is season 5 to become available. How long are going to have to wait? Not too long I hope.

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The Shield - Season 5 [2005]

Childrens Toy Shop > DVD > Drama
starring: Forest Whitaker, Michael Chiklis, Laura Harring, Kenneth Johnson, Walton Goggins
directed by: Scott Brazil, Stephen Kay

January 28, 2008
I don't think I need to add anything that hasn't already been written on here.
Fantastic series, wife and I are well and truly hooked and will be lacking sleep for the nest few days!!!

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Californication - The First Season [2007]

Childrens Toy Shop > DVD > Drama
starring: David Duchovny, Natascha McElhone

June 16, 2008
I caught the pilot episode of this drama some time ago and looked forward to the DVD release (i prefer to watch series at my own pace and convenience rather that week by week on TV). I certainly wasn't disappointed, Duchovney's character is writer 'Hank', an intelligent hard drinking cynic of life with a view on everything and everybody who cannot stop himself sharing it. In the battle to get his family back, beat writers block, survive the women of LA and their upset husbands he takes you on a unique ride. If you are a fan of excellent (often strong) dialogue, dark humour, and American TV at its best then this is a must watch!

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Amazing Grace [2007]

Childrens Toy Shop > DVD > Drama
starring: Ioan Gruffudd, Rufus Sewell, Michael Gambon, Albert Finney, Youssou N'Dour
directed by: Michael Apted

August 06, 2007
An enjoyable film , but not as powerful or as moving as the film Amistad in conveying the cruelty and injustice of slavery. Despite this, an enjoyable film, especially the rousing bagpipe rendition of Amazing Grace at the end which was worth the price of the DVD alone.

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North And South : Complete BBC Series

Childrens Toy Shop > DVD > Drama
starring: Daniela Denby-Ashe, Richard Armitage, Sinead Cusack, Lesley Manville, Tim Pigott-Smith
directed by: Brian Percival

April 11, 2005
Beautiful, sensual, violent on the senses and serious. Additive, riveting and gorgeous. If you want a real period drama, this really is it. The acting is superb, the camera work beautiful and the scene when Richard Armitage stands at the window and says 'look back at me...' oh my. Viewers you are in for a real delight. A first class production. You will want to watch this all in one sitting!

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21 [2008]

Childrens Toy Shop > DVD > Drama
starring: Jim Sturgess, Laurence Fishburne, Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth
directed by: Robert Luketic

September 08, 2008
Jim Sturgess sits alongside Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth and others in an adaptation of events in the 1990's that allowed MIT students to form an elaborate scheme to beat the casinos out of millions.

The real-life events are loosely similar. The head guy WAS a guy called Mikey. There was a fall-out and the top guy, who was not American but Russian, went on to run his own team, and remains active to this day. The beat downs in the film, are to what I have seen on documentaries and read about, are a little overstated for plot purposes. One pro poker player who was a part, at some point of the MIT team is Andy Bloch.

The film itself is well-acted by Sturgress. I personally found Ben Campbells rise to the top of the team solely down to his math skills ... Read More:

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The Science Of Sleep [2006]

Childrens Toy Shop > DVD > Drama
starring: Miou Miou, Gael Garcia Bernal, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Alain Chabat
directed by: Michel Gondry

June 25, 2007
I really enjoyed this film. The whole film looks great. I love how they blend being awake with being asleep. Really good dialog, I thoroughly recommend seeing this film.

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The Sopranos: HBO Season 6 (Part 1)

Childrens Toy Shop > DVD > Drama
starring: James Gandolfini, Edie Falco, Lorraine Bracco, Michael Imperioli, Dominic Chianese
directed by: Jack Bender, Steve Buscemi, Alan Taylor, Tim Van Patten, Danny Leiner

November 27, 2006
seem to have a different opinion from so many other viewers, since I really enjoyed the first half of season six. Seeing Tony get shot, not by season one's physically and mentally vigorous Uncle Junior, as I had kept anticipating that season, but by the toothless demented Uncle Junior, believing he was shooting someone else entirely was priceless irony. I loved the part with Tony in the coma in our world, while -wherever he was - he was exactly what he had always dreaded being - a nobody. Worse, he's a traveling salesman who is "trapped" and unable to get home. When Tony comes out of his coma, he vows to change and take every day as a gift, but later he is gradually pulled back into his old ways, since his position as boss really gives him no alternative.

Lots ... Read More:

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In The Valley Of Elah [2008]

Childrens Toy Shop > DVD > Drama
starring: Charlize Theron, Tommy Lee Jones, Susan Sarandon, Josh Brolin, James Franco
directed by: Paul Haggis

May 26, 2008
Hank Deerfield (played by Tommy Lee Jones) is a retired veteran and military police officer searching for his son who has gone AWOL. Detective Emily Sanders (Charlize Theron) becomes interested in the case and starts helping Hank outside of her job. When Hank's son's body is found, the search suddenly turns into a search for the murderer.

Tommy Lee Jones gives one of his best performances as a relentless, humourless driven father, who has not been the best father, but doesn't rest until he finds the closure he desperately needs on the matter of the murder of his son.

Susan Sarandon was totally underused in the part of Hanks wife, but the little we are shown of her is riveting.

Charlize Theron plays down her beauty and gives what we've come ... Read More: