Little Secrets is a delightful cautionary tale about modern childhood. Blair Treu's film manages to be reassuring about the reality of a world in which kids are perceived to grow up too quickly, without patronising them about the scale and scope of the problems that preoccupy them. At 14, Emily (Evan Rachel Wood) has it all mapped out. Wise beyond her years, she is a musical prodigy who also runs a neat sideline keeping the secrets of the neighbourhood children for a small fee: broken china, kittens hidden in the bedroom, money stolen from dad's wallet to buy his own birthday present. These enjoyable scenes owe a huge debt to Peanuts.

But Emily has a secret of her own, and over one cataclysmic summer the burden of this and all the others she is keeping on behalf of her friends becomes insupportable. Moralising is kept to a minimum as events resolve themselves in a dramatic way and saccharine levels are modest thanks to the determinedly unsentimental performances of Wood, David Gallagher and Michael Angarano. All told this is a pleasing family film of some quality.

On the DVD: Little Secrets might be a small film, but it has a big picture feel, enhanced by the anamorphic widescreen presentation and a super-clear Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. Extras include a good director's commentary in which Treu stresses the childish truths that make the story so touching, a short making-of documentary and a not particularly funny blooper reel. --Piers Ford

The flaws are easily forgiven in this beautiful version of Louisa May Alcott's novel. A stirring look at life in New England during the Civil War, Little Women is a triumph for all involved. We follow one family as they split into the world, ending up with the most independent, the outspoken Jo (Winona Ryder). This time around, the dramatics and conclusions fall into place a little too well, instead of finding life's little accidents along the way. Everyone now looks a bit too cute and oh, so nice. As the matron, Marmee, Susan Sarandon kicks the film into a modern tone, creating a movie alive with a great feminine sprit. Kirsten Dunst (Interview with the Vampire) has another showy role. The young ensemble cast cannot be faulted, with Ryder beginning the movie in a role akin to light comedy and crescendos to a triumphant end worthy of an Oscar. --Doug Thomas

Roger Moore was introduced as James Bond in this 1973 action movie featuring secret agent 007. More self-consciously suave and formal than predecessor Sean Connery, he immediately re-established Bond as an uncomplicated and wooden fellow for the '70s. This film also marks a deviation from the more character-driven stories of the Connery years, a deliberate shift to plastic action (multiple chases, bravura stunts) that made the franchise more of a comic book or machine. If that's not depressing enough, there's even a good British director on board, Guy Hamilton (Force 10 from Navarone). The story finds Bond taking on an international drug dealer (Yaphet Kotto), and while that may be superficially relevant, it isn't exactly the same as fighting super-villains on the order of Goldfinger. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com

On the DVD: Anyone old enough to remember the old milk marketing board commercials will relish the sight of James Bond exhorting everyone to "drink a pinta milka day" in one of the TV spots included here. Elsewhere in the special features, the characteristically in-depth "making of" featurette has a mixture of both contemporary and new interviews plus behind-the-scenes footage (the alligator-jumping sequence is positively hair-raising). The first of two audio commentaries is hosted by John Quark of the Ian Fleming Foundation and features a variety of cast and crew members, notably director Guy Hamilton; the second has writer Tom Mankiewicz on his own, who in between pauses has the occasional interesting thing to say. Overall another good package of features to accompany another excellent anamorphic print. --Mark Walker