Not One Less, Zhang Yimou's (Raise the Red Lantern) tale of a plucky adolescent substitute teacher in a rural Chinese village, cast entirely with non-actors and shot on location, is an astute example of censorship politics. Taking on touchy issues with a veneer of can-do spirit and happy-ending fantasy, his film is at once rousing and eye-opening. Wei Minzhi is a stubborn young woman who takes a substitute-teaching job in a tiny provincial town because they can't afford anyone else. When one troublemaking boy heads off to the city to help support his starving family, it's not a sense of responsibility that drives her rescue mission, but money: She won't receive her bonus if any students are missing. Her efforts to raise money for the city trip pulls the class together in a sense of purpose, and even drives the lessons. But when she finally reaches the city she's shocked to discover an urban jungle of lost and runaway kids. Yimou shoots with an easy naturalism that suggests a well-intentioned docudrama in spots, due to narrative contrivances and a few self-conscious performances, but his compromises ultimately make his shocking look at China's rural poverty, adolescent workers, urban juvenile homelessness and woefully under-funded educational system more potent. In the heat of the film's uplifting climax, the once-mischievous boy pulls the film back down to earth with his reflection on his big-city adventure: "I had to beg for food. I'll never forget that." --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com

Are you a comedy lover? Then, this definitely for you. Catch the most cherished footages of this series with none other than Peter Cook and Dudley Moore turning the audience into frenzy.

Volume One of Not the Nine O'Clock News comprises 98 minutes of early material from the sketch show that ran between 1979 and 1982. Starring Rowan Atkinson, Griff Rhys-Jones, Mel Smith and Pamela Stephenson and coscripted by Richard (Blackadder) Curtis among others, it wasn't especially ground-breaking by the standards of Monty Python or contemporary series such as The Young Ones, but it did provide some pretty blunt belly-laughs at the major social and political concerns of the era: Thatcher, Reagan, police brutality, the prospect of nuclear war. The latter makes for an excellent Question Time spoof, in which, with the four-minute warning having sounded, a panel of politicians continue bleating on their own agenda ("Three million people are going to die unemployed!").

Atkinson's stuff is among the best here, be it as a hideous young Tory, or as Gerald the Gorilla, now civilised to a fault by the captor who caught him in the wild. ("Wild? I was livid!") The much-repeated bit of him walking into a tree, however, doesn't work as he clearly anticipates the collision. While the musical elements look inevitably dated and a lengthy sketch on darts players boozing reaches the "Yeah, we get the point" mark long before it reaches its end, it's surprising how topical much of this material remains decades on--a sketch involving an agonising gay vicar springs to mind--while time hasn't eroded the quality of much of the writing.

On the DVD: Not the Nine O'Clock News on disc comes with no extra features. --David Stubbs

Tom Hanks wanted to prove his dramatic talent in the mid-1980s, and Nothing in Common gave him a ripe opportunity. Playing an emotionally immature Chicago advertising executive, Hanks offers a prototype of his later, better role in Big--the joking man-child with seemingly limitless reserves of energetic humour, perfectly suited to director Garry Marshall's trademark blend of featherweight comedy and sentiment. The movie wanders aimlessly before settling into its dramatic groove, involving Hanks caring for his ageing, diabetic father (Jackie Gleason, well cast in his final screen role) after his mother (Eva Marie Saint) files for divorce and strikes out on her own. Like Marshall's Pretty Woman, the film hits several grace notes and finds unexpected depth in its characters and their need for loving connections. Meanwhile, there's cheesy nostalgia in the 80s trappings, including songs by Carly Simon and Christopher Cross. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com