"Actor: Barry Chan"

• Rapid Fire | DVD | (30/06/2003) from £19.99   |  Saving you £-14.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Rapid Fire was the penultimate film starring Brandon Lee before his untimely death on the set of The Crow. It's a standard martial arts thriller in which Lee plays Jake Lo, a young arts student who witnesses a gangland execution and is unwittingly drawn into a pitched standoff between the mafia, a Chinese drug syndicate and Ryan, a downbeat but resolute Chicago cop (Powers Boothe) determined to nail his prey. With a plot that careens through every genre cliché, Lee's smouldering looks and showy fighting skills carry the film. The martial arts sequences (which Lee co-choreographed) are nicely staged, but given the unusual settings--the penultimate fight takes place in a Chinese laundry--could have been even more inventive. The workmanlike direction by Dwight H Little (Marked for Death, Free Willy 2) fails to inject much into the material. In particular, traumatised by seeing his Special Agent father die in the Tiananmen Square massacre, Jake Lo's attraction to both a corrupt FBI agent and Ryan as surrogate father figures could have been given more resonance given the loss of Brandon Lee's own father at an early age. With hundreds of bloodless deaths, cringe-worthy dialogue and a dated power rock soundtrack, Rapid Fire looks and feels like a TV film. And on that level, at least, it's entertaining. On the DVD: The main feature is presented in letterboxed widescreen. Sound and picture quality are very good. Subtitles are provided for ten languages (Czech, Danish, Finnish, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norweigian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish) and in English for the hard of hearing. Extra features are limited to chapter selection and a theatrical trailer. --Chris Campion

• Frenzy | DVD | (17/10/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  By the time Alfred Hitchcock's second-to-last picture came out in 1972, the censorship restrictions under which he had laboured during his long career had eased up. Now he could give full sway to his lurid fantasies, and that may explain why Frenzy is the director's most violent movie by far--outstripping even Psycho for sheer brutality. Adapted by playwright Anthony Shaffer, the story concerns a series of rape-murders committed by suave fruit-merchant Bob Rusk (Barry Foster), who gets his kicks from throttling women with a necktie. This being a Hitchcock thriller, suspicion naturally falls on the wrong man--ill-tempered publican Richard Blaney (Jon Finch). Enter Inspector Oxford from New Scotland Yard (Alex McCowan), who thrashes out the finer points of the case with his wife (Vivian Merchant), whose tireless enthusiasm for indigestible delicacies like quail with grapes supplies a classic running gag.Frenzy was the first film Hitchcock had shot entirely in his native Britain since Jamaica Inn (1939), and many contemporary critics used that fact to account for what seemed to them a glorious return to form after a string of Hollywood duds (Marnie, Torn Curtain, Topaz). Hitchcock specialists are often less wild about it, judging the detective plot mechanical and the oh-so-English tone insufferable. But at least three sequences rank among the most skin-crawling the maestro ever put on celluloid. There is an astonishing moment when the camera backs away from a room in which a murder is occurring, down the stairs, through the front door and then across the street to join the crowd milling indifferently on the pavement. There is also the killer's nerve-wracking attempt to retrieve his tiepin from a corpse stuffed into a sack of potatoes. Finally, there is one act of strangulation so prolonged and gruesome it verges on the pornographic. Was the veteran film-maker a rampant misogynist as feminist observers have frequently charged? Sit through this appalling scene if you dare and decide for yourself. --Peter Matthews

• The 25th Hour | DVD | (16/02/2004) from £6.48   |  Saving you £8.51 (131.33%)   |  RRP £14.99

  The clock is ticking on Monty Brogan's freedom: in 24 hours he goes to prison for seven long years. Once a kingpin in Manhattan Monty is about to say goodbye to the life he knew - a life that opened doors to New York's swankiest clubs but also alienated him from the people closest to him. In his last day on the outside Monty tries to reconnect with his father who's never given up on his son and gets together with his two closest friends from the old days Jacob and Slaughtery

• Boogeyman | DVD | (04/07/2005) from £5.99   |  Saving you £10.00 (166.95%)   |  RRP £15.99

  A young man must face his demons - literally - in this chilling horror.

• Island On Fire | DVD | (22/05/2000) from £8.97   |  Saving you £-2.98 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Island on Fire is, as the trailer says, "five films in one!". Despite the packaging headlining Jackie Chan this violent modern-day prison drama is an ensemble piece with Chan, a pool-player in prison for accidentally stabbing a man to death, on screen for no more than a quarter of the 92 minutes. Anyone buying this as a Chan movie may be seriously disappointed, for apart from the brevity of his role there is no trademark Chan humour. Also in the brutal and corrupt prison is Andy Lau, an undercover cop searching for the murderer of his professor, and Sammo Hung offering comedy and pathos as an inmate who keeps escaping to visit his son. There are many more characters, together with one subplot involving a mouse which anticipates The Green Mile (1999) and another concerning an assassination conspiracy which parallels Nikita, also released in 1990. Island of Fire is an uneven, always entertaining, sometimes moving film which packs an incredible amount of incident into its running time. However, it should be noted that it is an imitation of, rather than an official entry in, Ringo Lam's Fire series, which includes Prison on Fire (1987) and City on Fire (1987). On the DVD: The anamorphically enhanced 1.77-1 picture is a very good transfer of a rather grainy print, though given the many darkly lit scenes, this grain is probably part of the original film. The mono sound is fine. The film can be watched with the original Mandarin soundtrack and English subtitles, or with a much better than average English dub. The packaging claims there are over 60 minutes of extras. In fact there are nine deleted/extended scenes of variable quality, the best of which give more emotional depth to Sammo Hung's character, together with video interviews with Sammo Hung, Jimmy Wong Yu and director Chu Yen Ping. These total around 20 minutes and are interesting but not specific to the film. Also included is the theatrical trailer, Hong Kong Legends' own "music promo" trailer and eight trailers for further releases. There is also a six-page "animated" biography of Jackie Chan. --Gary S Dalkin

• The Bee Gees - One Night Only (DTS Version) | DVD | (29/05/2000) from £14.89   |  Saving you £0.10 (0.67%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Taped as a lavish cable television special in 1997, One Night Only trades on the Bee Gees' shape-shifting career as pop survivors. Over the course of 111 minutes, this straightforward concert, produced at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and groomed for both video and CD posterity, sprints through 31 songs from their past three decades. Even after the inevitable disco jokes are expended, and the jaundiced viewer contemplates the role hats, hairspray, and comb-overs now play in dressing the once stylishly long-haired troika, the Gibb brothers' signature vocal harmonies and hook-laden song craft beg respect.Casual listeners can't be blamed for equating the Bee Gees with the dance floor bonanza they reaped through 1978's Saturday Night Fever, yet that commercial zenith was actually the culmination of a comeback for a group that had seemed washed up by the early 1970s. One Night Only thankfully takes an even-handed view of both their original late 1960s hits ("Massachusetts", "To Love Somebody", "Lonely Days"), building from a cannily Beatle-browed vocal sound, and the 1970s blue-eyed soul ("Jive Talkin'", "Nights on Broadway") that led them naturally into disco. The Fever hits are here, as are Gibb originals that clicked for other acts; the family circle also widens for a posthumous duet with their late brother, Andy Gibb, while Celine Dion gets star billing in the collaborative "Immortality". --Sam Sutherland

• Thunder Road | DVD | (04/10/2004) from £19.55   |  Saving you £-6.56 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  War veteran Luke Doolin returns home to the family business of transporting illegal moonshine through the mountains whilst dodging the local police. But soon the bootleggers are having a new threat in the shape of Kogan a businessman who is buying up the stills. If they refuse to hand over their profits to Kogan he will take them by force and starts by shooting one of the drivers. With the police taxmen and the gangsters on his trail will Luke survive? This action packed Mitch

• Framed (Standard Edition) | Blu Ray | (24/10/2022) from £18.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Glenn Ford (The Big Heat, Experiment in Terror) and Barry Sullivan (Forty Guns) star in this atmospheric film noir tale of deceit and treachery in a mining town. Down-on-his-luck trucker Mike Lampert falls for small-town femme fatale Paula (Janis Carter), and soon finds himself in the middle of a criminal plot that involves fit-ups, double-crosses... and murder. Written by Ben Maddow (Murder by Contract) and photographed by the great Burnett Guffey (Decision at Sundown, The Brothers Rico), Framed is stylish and effective noir. Product Features High Definition presentation Original mono audio Audio commentary with author and critic Imogen Sara Smith (2021) The Steps of Age (1951, 25 mins): dramatised documentary written and directed by Ben Maddow, screenwriter of Framed, demonstrating the challenges of growing old as seen through of the eyes of a retired widow Up in Daisy's Penthouse (1958, 17 mins): the Three Stooges get mixed up with a murder plot, mistaken identity, a gold-digging blonde, and a great deal of money Image gallery: publicity and promotional material New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

• Island Of Fire | DVD | (02/10/2000) from £10.25   |  Saving you £11.00 (122.36%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Island on Fire is, as the trailer says, "five films in one!". Despite the packaging headlining Jackie Chan this violent modern-day prison drama is an ensemble piece with Chan, a pool-player in prison for accidentally stabbing a man to death, on screen for no more than a quarter of the 92 minutes. Anyone buying this as a Chan movie may be seriously disappointed, for apart from the brevity of his role there is no trademark Chan humour. Also in the brutal and corrupt prison is Andy Lau, an undercover cop searching for the murderer of his professor, and Sammo Hung offering comedy and pathos as an inmate who keeps escaping to visit his son. There are many more characters, together with one subplot involving a mouse which anticipates The Green Mile (1999) and another concerning an assassination conspiracy which parallels Nikita, also released in 1990. Island of Fire is an uneven, always entertaining, sometimes moving film which packs an incredible amount of incident into its running time. However, it should be noted that it is an imitation of, rather than an official entry in, Ringo Lam's Fire series, which includes Prison on Fire (1987) and City on Fire (1987). On the DVD: The anamorphically enhanced 1.77-1 picture is a very good transfer of a rather grainy print, though given the many darkly lit scenes, this grain is probably part of the original film. The mono sound is fine. The film can be watched with the original Mandarin soundtrack and English subtitles, or with a much better than average English dub. The packaging claims there are over 60 minutes of extras. In fact there are nine deleted/extended scenes of variable quality, the best of which give more emotional depth to Sammo Hung's character, together with video interviews with Sammo Hung, Jimmy Wong Yu and director Chu Yen Ping. These total around 20 minutes and are interesting but not specific to the film. Also included is the theatrical trailer, Hong Kong Legends' own "music promo" trailer and eight trailers for further releases. There is also a six-page "animated" biography of Jackie Chan. --Gary S Dalkin

• The Bee Gees - One Night Only | DVD | (09/10/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Taped as a lavish cable television special in 1997, One Night Only trades on the Bee Gees' shape-shifting career as pop survivors. Over the course of 111 minutes, this straightforward concert, produced at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and groomed for both video and CD posterity, sprints through 31 songs from their past three decades. Even after the inevitable disco jokes are expended, and the jaundiced viewer contemplates the role hats, hairspray, and comb-overs now play in dressing the once stylishly long-haired troika, the Gibb brothers' signature vocal harmonies and hook-laden song craft beg respect.Casual listeners can't be blamed for equating the Bee Gees with the dance floor bonanza they reaped through 1978's Saturday Night Fever, yet that commercial zenith was actually the culmination of a comeback for a group that had seemed washed up by the early 1970s. One Night Only thankfully takes an even-handed view of both their original late 1960s hits ("Massachusetts", "To Love Somebody", "Lonely Days"), building from a cannily Beatle-browed vocal sound, and the 1970s blue-eyed soul ("Jive Talkin'", "Nights on Broadway") that led them naturally into disco. The Fever hits are here, as are Gibb originals that clicked for other acts; the family circle also widens for a posthumous duet with their late brother, Andy Gibb, while Celine Dion gets star billing in the collaborative "Immortality". --Sam Sutherland

• The Grudge / Gothika / Boogeyman | DVD | (03/10/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The Grudge (Dir. Takashi Shimizu 2004): American nurse Karen Davis (Sarah Michelle Gellar) living and working in Tokyo is drawn to an odd house and exposed to a mysterious supernatural curse one that locks a person in a powerful rage before claiming their life and spreading to another victim... Produced by Sam Raimi The Grudge sees Sarah Michelle Gellar changing tack from her 'Buffy' guise in this superior chiller directed by Takashi Shimizu adapted from his

• Silver City | Blu Ray | (29/05/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Boogeyman | Blu Ray | (02/07/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Every culture has one - the horrible monster fuelling young children's nightmares, but for Tim the Boogeyman still lives in his memories as the creature that devoured his father 16 years earlier. Is the Boogeyman real? Or did Tim make him up to explain why his father abandoned his family? The answer lies hidden behind every dark corner and half-opened closet of his childhood home - a place he must return to and face the chilling unanswered question - does the Boogeyman really exist?

• Mr Imperium | DVD | (01/09/2003) from £6.98   |  Saving you £-2.99 (-74.90%)   |  RRP £3.99

• Iron Fists | DVD | (21/02/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £7.99

  Chen (Kong Ban) returns home from abroad only to find that his brother has become a collaborator to the occupying Japanese Imperial Forces. He is responsible for funnelling mining resources out of their town and into weapons factories. His brothers treachery causes the town to shun Chen until they realise he is not like his evil brother. The Japanese controlled East Asia Company sends a Samurai (Kurata) and many assassins to kill Chens whole family and kidnap his fianc. Soon Chen finds himself uncovering a conspiracy and defending himself from hard thugs in street brawls that are nothing short of murderous. All this ends in a marathon fight fest in which Chen must fight his way through the enemy and even his own family members to save his girl and keep weapons out of Japanese hands.

• 10 Days In A Madhouse | DVD | (26/09/2016) from £21.58   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• The Bee Gees - One Night Only / The Official Story Of The Bee Gees | DVD | (26/09/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Taped as a lavish cable television special in 1997, One Night Only trades on the Bee Gees' shape-shifting career as pop survivors. Over the course of 111 minutes, this straightforward concert, produced at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and groomed for both video and CD posterity, sprints through 31 songs from their past three decades. Even after the inevitable disco jokes are expended, and the jaundiced viewer contemplates the role hats, hairspray, and comb-overs now play in dressing the once stylishly long-haired troika, the Gibb brothers' signature vocal harmonies and hook-laden song craft beg respect.Casual listeners can't be blamed for equating the Bee Gees with the dance floor bonanza they reaped through 1978's Saturday Night Fever, yet that commercial zenith was actually the culmination of a comeback for a group that had seemed washed up by the early 1970s. One Night Only thankfully takes an even-handed view of both their original late 1960s hits ("Massachusetts", "To Love Somebody", "Lonely Days"), building from a cannily Beatle-browed vocal sound, and the 1970s blue-eyed soul ("Jive Talkin'", "Nights on Broadway") that led them naturally into disco. The Fever hits are here, as are Gibb originals that clicked for other acts; the family circle also widens for a posthumous duet with their late brother, Andy Gibb, while Celine Dion gets star billing in the collaborative "Immortality". --Sam Sutherland