Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold had the task of bettering its hilarious predecessor, King Solomon's Mines. It failed. Looking back from the age of slick computer graphics, it's painfully distracting to spot obvious back-projection, shoddy miniatures and some of the worst wire-work ever. Instead one must concentrate on the easy chemistry between Richard Chamberlain and Sharon Stone reprising their roles, this time in a quest for Quatermain's lost brother. Together they traipse across Africa, encountering all the usual pitfalls (literally) as well as jungle animals, restless native tribes and fast-flowing rivers and so on. James Earl Jones takes the money and runs through his wooden dialogue, all the time backed by endless repetitions of Jerry Goldsmith's sub-Indiana Jones hero theme.

Taken on its own it's pretty atrocious viewing, but played back-to-back with the first movie The Lost City of Gold's surreal self-contained universe of hilarious adventure movie clichés is a lot of fun. Sharon Stone's hair remains perfect throughout, of course.

On the DVD: Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold, like King Solomon's Mines, is presented on disc in a surprisingly pristine print, and in 2.35:1 widescreen. Also like its predecessor, the sound is in Dolby 2.0, which again reflects the limited number of spot effects layered into the soundtrack. The original trailer is the only extra feature. --Paul Tonks

Much lighter in tone than creator, producer and writer David E Kelley's other forays into legal drama LA Law, and The Practice, the slick thirtysomething series Ally McBeal has never been out-and-out comedy but it spikes its exploration of emotional territory with sharp funny lines. Ally (Calista Flockhart) is a kookie cutie, a ditzy, skinny, single lawyer and we are privy to scenes from her overactive imagination (courtesy of CGI), surrounded by larger-than-life peripheral characters--almost grotesques--like outspoken boss Richard Fish (Greg Germann), nervy courtroom wizz John "The Biscuit" Cage (Peter MacNicol) and nosy secretary Elaine Vassal (Jane Krakowski). In later series these characters (including popular newcomers Lucy Lui and Portia de Rossi as frosty law babes Ling and Nelle) would edge towards one-dimensional caricatures as the same ground was retrodden relentlessly, but in this first series there is something compelling about the intrusive dynamics of this group of oddballs. The point is you don't have to like them to find them entertaining. Ally herself can be extremely irritating in a love-to-hate-her kind of a way. She is a curious dichotomy, a 1990s woman with a go-getting career and a penchant for her own way and yet with the romantic ideals of someone from another generation. Basically still hung up on ex-boyfriend Billy (Gil Bellows) who works for same Boston practice, alongside wife Georgia (Courtney Thorne-Smith), Ally is on the look out for her Prince Charming. The first series and its lead both garnered Golden Globes, a lot of gossip and a healthy audience for the Fox television network in America. Channel 4 snapped it up for British audiences who were intrigued, not least by the unisex toilets and sophisticated afterwork bar soirées where chanteuse Vonda Shepherd was always to be found crooning away in the corner. All in all, Ally McBeal leaves you with the conundrum of wanting more but not being able to say why. --Emma Perry