Almost 80 years after its first release, Thomas Bentley’s The Old Curiosity Shop (1934) is reopening for business and is now available on DVD. For those aware that 2012 is the bicentenary of Charles Dickens’ birth, this may be a reason to celebrate. For those who are interested in the transition from silent film to talkies, this should become a treasured item in their movie collection. For everyone else, well, I'd recommend looking for something maybe not less old, but certainly less curious.
It’s been a decade since the Men In Black last saved the world from the scum of the universe and I did wonder whether time might have moved on and made the adventures of Agents K and J a little outmoded. Needn’t have worried. The crazy joie de vivre of the first two entries in the franchise is present and correct in the third, with Josh Brolin standing in very well for Tommy Lee Jones. Indeed, Jones is only in the film for ten minutes or so with the majority of the adventure set in 1969 as J finds himself cast back in time to thwart the plot of Boris, a diabolical alien who has picked up the sobriquet “Animal” thanks to his particular brand of evil.
