"Actor: Badja Djola"

• An Innocent Man | DVD | (23/09/2002) from £5.99   |  Saving you £9.00 (150.25%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Tom Selleck stars as Jimmie Rainwood an average citizen and hardworking honest man whose life becomes a living nightmare when he is framed by a pair of crooked cops and sent to prison for a crime he did not commit. Unable to prove his innocence he is thrown into a maximum security prison with a bunch of sadistic thugs and forced to endure dangerous subhuman conditions. During his incarceration Jimmy takes a crash course in prison survival from fellow inmate Virgil Cane (F. Murray

• Mississippi Burning | DVD | (17/09/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe star in Mississippi Burning, a well-intentioned and largely successful civil-rights-era thriller. Using the real-life 1964 disappearance of three civil rights workers as its inspiration, the film tells the story of two FBI men (Hackman and Dafoe, entertainingly called "Hoover Boys" by the locals) who come in to try to solve the crime. Hackman is a former small-town Mississippi sheriff himself, while Dafoe is a by-the-numbers young hotshot. (Yes, there is some tension between the two.) The movie has an interesting fatalism, as all the FBI's best efforts simply incite more and more violence--the film's message, perhaps inadvertently, seems to be that vigilantism is the only real way to get things done. The brilliant Frances McDormand, here early in her career, is not given enough to do but still does it well enough to have racked up an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. (Hackman also received a nomination for Best Actor, and the film won an Academy Award for Cinematography). Mississippi Burning is ultimately unsatisfying--it is, after all, the story of white men coming in to rescue poor blacks--but it is beautifully shot and very watchable, featuring a terrific cast playing at the top of their games. --Ali Davis, Amazon.com

• The Serpent and the Rainbow | DVD | (16/02/2004) from £8.10   |  Saving you £-2.11 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Wes Craven directs this terrifying story of one man's nightmarish journey into the eerie and deadly world of voodoo. A Harvard anthropologist is sent to Haiti to retrieve a strange powder that is said to have the power to bring human beings back from the dead. In his quest to find the miracle drug the cynical scientist enters the rarely seen netherworld of walking zombies blood rites and ancient curses. Based on the true life experiences of Wade Davis and filmed on location in Haiti it's a frightening excursion into black magic and the supernatural.

• Heaven's Prisoners | DVD | (19/03/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Based on James Lee Burke's bestseller, Heaven's Prisoners is a sweaty revenge thriller with a twist. On the Louisiana rivers, Dave Robicheaux (Alec Baldwin) is an ex-cop and ex-alcoholic with a boat business hiding him and his wife Annie (Kelly Lynch) away from the world. When a light airplane crashes into the water right in front of them, and Dave rescues the surviving little girl who happens to be an illegal immigrant, all the peace and quiet is dashed away. Embroiled in an underground criminal element, Dave is forced to face the demons of his past all over again. Along the way he reunites with Bubba Rock (Eric Roberts), a high school classmate who turned into the local heavy, his scheming wife Claudette (Teri Hatcher), and boozy strip dancer Robin (Mary Stuart Masterson). These three character cameos are enormous fun to watch, as are the oily New Orleans street locations. Even if the revelation of who's behind all the skulduggery isn't all that much of a shock, the movie still has plenty to say about the emotions of family loyalty that drive us. On the DVD: The DVD release includes the trailer, a five-minute featurette, a brief look behind the scenes and interviews with cast and crew. --Paul Tonks

• The Serpent And The Rainbow | DVD | (24/12/2001) from £12.96   |  Saving you £0.03 (0.20%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The Serpent And The Rainbow

• Night At The Golden Eagle | DVD | (09/02/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  In Night at the Golden Eagle, a cross-section of decrepit people live out their desperate, dead-end lives over the course of a long night at an equally decrepit LA hotel. This is the jaundiced vision of director Adam Rifkin, best known for the raucously enjoyable Detroit Rock City and the cult curiosity The Dark Backward. He's corralled some good people for this low-budget offering (Natasha Lyonne and Ann Magnuson as hookers, Vinnie Jones as a cruel pimp), but the lion's share of screen time goes to a pair of small-time crooks (Donnie Montemarano and Vinny Argiro) planning to split for Vegas in the morning. It's diverting for a while, but the bleached-sepia look and unrelenting rancidity take their toll, grinding the picture down. Even a soft-shoe shuffle for Fayard Nicholas (of the awesome Nicholas Brothers), a grace note if there ever was one, can't lift the movie out of its determined sense of gloom. --Robert Horton