Winner of seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Out of Africa seems to have slipped more readily from public memory than other comparably lauded films. Yet Sidney Pollack's panoramic treatment of Karen Blixen's novel has retained its atmosphere and slow-burning emotion, and deserves reassessment. Meryl Streep is in her possibly most involving starring role as Baroness Karen Blixen, Danish free spirit whose ill-fated venture at the beginning of World War One to run a coffee plantation in Kenya is overlaid by her intimate yet distant relationship with adventurer and idealist Denys Finch Hatton, unselfconsciously portrayed by Robert Redford. Klaus Maria Brandauer puts in a rare and convincing English-language appearance as the amoral but charming womaniser Baron Bror Blixen. The film is tellingly held together by Kurt Luedke's finely honed screenplay, and John Barry's sumptuously expressive score.

On the DVD: The anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen format reproduces superbly, as does the 4.1 discrete audio. 18 access points are provided, with printed and aural subtitles in English only. Pollack's feature commentary is amusing enough on a single run-through, but an on-location documentary would have been preferable. Production notes and biographies are very adequate, though the theatrical trailer reproduction is notably inferior. No matter, this is a major film, well worth the transfer to DVD.--Richard Whitehouse

Based on an Elmore Leonard story, this oscar nominated film put George Clooney on the map, and asserted J-Lo as a leading actress. He's a con, she's the cop chasing him. It was always going to end in romance.

Part of the gritty, punk-inspired wave of US independent cinema of the early 1980s, Out of the Blue is a bleak, harrowing drama. Essentially the vision of actor and director Dennis Hopper, the film finds the man behind the sepia-tinged soul searching of Easy Rider at a far lower ebb, in terms of the tone of the film and his own character, Donny. The undoubted star of the movie, however, is Linda Manz, who plays the troubled 15-year-old CB, a troubled teenage girl on the brink of adulthood. Waiting for Donny to return from a jail sentence for manslaughter, CB is living with her drug-addicted mother and seeking solace in the Sex Pistols and Elvis Presley. The events that unfold on Donny's return are often unbearably grim (the final scenes are practically unwatchable) but produce a movie that is worthy of its hallowed status. Hopper in particular is an uncomfortable sight, made all the more unsettling by the knowledge that it is hard to tell where his character ends and he begins. It's hard work, but more than worth the effort.

On the DVD: for its first release on DVD much effort has been made to give Out of the Blue the treatment it deserves. The enhanced visuals are excellent, focusing on Hopper's inspired direction. The audio soundtrack is available in Dolby Digital sound, particularly effective on the recurring use of Neil Young's fragile "Hey, Hey, My, My (Out of the Blue)", the song which gave the movie its title. Hopper's audio commentary is fascinating and reflects his dedication to the project, a film that he practically rewrote on set after stepping in to replace the original director. The movie's place in both Hopper's career and alongside works such as Repo Man and Driller Killer is also examined in an excellent 12-page booklet. --Phil Udell