"Actor: Andreas Wisniewski"

• Die Hard | DVD | (10/01/2000) from £3.98   |  Saving you £16.01 (402.26%)   |  RRP £19.99

  This seminal 1988 thriller made Bruce Willis a star and established a new template for action stories: "Terrorists take over a (blank), and a lone hero, unknown to the villains, is trapped with them." In Die Hard, those bad guys, led by the velvet-voiced Alan Rickman, assume control of a Los Angeles high-rise with Willis's visiting New York cop inside. The attraction of the film has as much to do with the sight of a barefoot mortal running around the guts of a modern office tower as it has to do with the plentiful fight sequences and the bond the hero establishes with an LA beat cop. Bonnie Bedelia plays Willis's wife, Hart Bochner is good as a brash hostage who tries negotiating his way to freedom, Alexander Godunov makes for a believable killer with lethal feet, and William Atherton is slimy as a busybody reporter. This film is exceptionally well directed by John McTiernan. --Tom Keogh

• The Living Daylights | DVD | (03/11/2003) from £5.95   |  Saving you £14.04 (235.97%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The Living Daylights, new boy Timothy Dalton's first Bond outing, gets off to a rocking start with a pre-credits sequence on Gibraltar, and culminates in a witty final showdown with Joe Don Baker's arms dealer, set on a model battlefield full of toy soldiers. While the Aston Martin model whizzing through the car chase has been updated for the late 1980s--including lethal lasers and other deadly gizmos--the plot is pretty standard issue, maybe a little more cluttered and unfocused than usual, involving arms, drugs and diamond smuggling. Nevertheless, the action-formula firmly in place, this one rehearses the moves with ease and throws in some fine acting. Maryam d'Abo, playing a cellist-cum-spy, is the classy main squeeze for 007 (uncharacteristically chaste for once). Dalton, with his wolfish, intelligent features, was a perfectly serviceable secret agent, but never caught on with the viewers, perhaps because everyone was hoping for a presence as charismatic as Sean Connery's in the franchise's glory days.--Leslie Felperin On the DVD: Casting the new Bond takes up much of the "making-of" documentary: first Sam Neill was in the running, but vetoed by Cubby Broccoli, who wanted Timothy Dalton and had considered him as far back as On Her Majesty's Secret Service (but Dalton felt he was just too young at the time). When Dalton proved unavailable, Pierce Brosnan was hired. Then, at the last minute, Brosnan's Remington Steele contract was renewed and he had to drop out. Dalton came back in, on the proviso that he could give Bond a harder, more realistic edge after the action-lite of the Roger Moore years. The second documentary attempts to profile the enigmatic Ian Fleming, who was apparently as mysterious and chameleon-like as his alter ego. The commentary is a miscellaneous selection of edited interviews from various members of the cast and crew. There's also Ah-Ha's "Living Daylights" video, and a "making-of" featurette about it. A brief deleted scene (comic relief--wisely dropped) and trailers complete another strong package. --Mark Walker

• Death Machine | DVD | (25/10/2004) from £6.75   |  Saving you £8.24 (122.07%)   |  RRP £14.99

  2003: BattleTech Weapons Corporation the ruthless world leader in near-future weaponry has a new Chief Executive Hayden Cale (Ely Pouget) when her predecessor is horribly killed in suspicious circumstances. The board want to stop Cale firing their primary asset Jack Dante (Brad Dourif) but Cale indeed has a point: Dante is a child-like psychotic with a dark genius for exotic weapon design and he has created the ultimate security system. It protects. It destroys. It lives. Deep b

• Die Hard (Two Disc Special Edition) | DVD | (31/03/2003) from £4.94   |  Saving you £18.05 (365.38%)   |  RRP £22.99

• Urban Ghost Story | DVD | (12/04/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  After an ecstatsy induced car accident 12 year old Lizzie lies dead on the roadside - slowly she is taken into the light - but is pulled back to earth when she is revived by the doctors. Lizzie feels sure that during the 184 seconds that she lay dead something latched on to her and came back into her world. The nightmares and visions that follow only crystalise her belief that she should have died in the crash... Then the disturbances start at first merely tappings and bad smells - but soon the activity escalates. Lizzie seems to be the focus but according to others she's just playing games for attention. Only when Kate her mother is confronted with inexplicable events does she face the possibility that they may be the victims of a poltergeist infestation.

• Die Hard / Die Hard 2: Die Harder | DVD | (04/02/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £39.99

  Exceptionally well directed by John McTiernan, Die Hard made Bruce Willis a star back in 1988 and established a new template for action stories. Here the bad guys, led by the velvet-voiced Alan Rickman, assume control of a Los Angeles high-rise with Willis' visiting New York cop inside. The attraction of the film has as much to do with the sight of a barefoot mortal running around the guts of a modern office tower as it has to do with the plentiful fight sequences and the bond the hero establishes with an LA beat cop. Bonnie Bedelia plays Willis' wife, Hart Bochner is good as a brash hostage who tries negotiating his way to freedom, Alexander Godunov makes for a believable killer with lethal feet and William Atherton is slimy as a busybody reporter. Director Renny Harlin took the reins for the 1990 sequel, Die Harder, which places Bruce Willis in harm's way again with a gaggle of terrorists. This time, Willis awaits his wife's arrival at Dulles Airport in Washington DC when he gets wind of a plot to blow up the facility. Noisy, overbearing and forgettable, the film has none of the purity of its predecessor's simple story; and it makes a huge miscalculation in allowing a terrible tragedy to occur rather than stretch out the tension. Where Die Hard sets new precedents in action movies, Die Hard 2 is just an anything-goes spectacle. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com

• Die Hard (Two Disc Special Edition) | DVD | (04/02/2002) from £10.95   |  Saving you £12.04 (109.95%)   |  RRP £22.99

  This seminal 1988 thriller made Bruce Willis a star and established a new template for action stories: "Terrorists take over a (blank) and a lone hero, unknown to the villains, is trapped with them." In Die Hard, those bad guys, led by the velvet-voiced Alan Rickman, assume control of a Los Angeles high-rise with Willis's visiting New York cop inside. The attraction of the film has as much to do with the sight of a barefoot mortal running around the guts of a modern office tower as it has to do with the plentiful fight sequences and the bond the hero establishes with an LA beat cop. Bonnie Bedelia plays Willis's wife, Hart Bochner is good as a brash hostage who tries negotiating his way to freedom, Alexander Godunov makes for a believable killer with lethal feet and William Atherton is slimy as a busybody reporter. Exceptionally well-directed by John McTiernan. --Tom Keogh