"Actor: Bengt Fridh"

• The Magician | DVD | (24/09/2001) from £7.99   |  Saving you £14.00 (233.72%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A sort of existential horror movie set in what often feels like a darkly imaginary 1846, The Magician is Ingmar Bergman's meditation on the restrictive nature of modern rationalism. Max Von Sydow cuts a suitably melancholy and mystical figure as Dr Vogler, the mute hypnotist who travels with a group of players to Stockholm, only to be examined and humiliated by a team of sceptical inquisitors led by Gunnar Bjornstrand's Dr Vergerus and a hog-like police chief. Dr Vogler exacts his revenge on Vergerus, however, in an extraordinary feat of illusion.With its elaborate, occasionally expressionistic sets and its feel of a scrupulously re-enacted nightmare, The Magician is reminiscent at times of Poe or even The Cabinet of Dr Caligari. However, the "below stairs" characters--including Ake Fridell's ebullient Master of Ceremonies and a host of giggling wenches--add comic energy to what is otherwise a startling and sombre reflection of the nature of art and life. It would prove a turning point in Bergman's career as he moved away from his early, "romantic" period.On the DVD: Presented in the original academy ratio, the mix of soft light and harsh shade for which credit should go to photographer Gunnar Fischer, is well-restored here. In notes from his memoirs included here, Bergman relates how his adventures and privations as part of a theatre company in Malmo provided inspiration for The Magician, while critic Ronald Bergman's notes talk of "the ability of the artist to find truth in both fact and fantasy". --David Stubbs

• War Dog | DVD | (16/02/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Charles Stewart was unable to accept that his brother Rick had died in Vietnam so he started to investigate what he believed to be a government cover up. A journalist shows Charles a captured video film of a recent attempted political assassination amongst the assailants Charles recognises his brother. He also recognises Spacek his former commanding officer in Vietnam a sadistic evil man. Spacek has been recruited for a secret government project to create prefect soldiers emoti

• Toy Soldiers / Kampuchea Express / War Dog | DVD | (06/05/2006) from £8.55   |  Saving you £4.44 (34.20%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Toy Soldiers: When Amy and seven of her college friends take her parents yacht for a vacation under the watchful eye of ex-marine veteran and skipper 'Sarge' Ford nothing could have prepared them for the trouble they were about to find themselves in. After an accident on the yacht Amy and a few of her friends decide to head inland for medical help but soon realise this is the last thing they will receive. The friends are taken hostage by a group of revolutionary guerrillas who plan to use the Americans as bargaining chips in their war against the Government. 'Sarge' launches a rescue mission but only he and Amy manage to escape leaving her friends in the hands of the terrorists. Safely back at home Amy learns that the American government is unwilling to negotiate the release of the hostages. It's up to Amy to go back in there and get her friends out... Kampuchea Express: Amidst the steaming hell-hole of a dying civilisation where the brutality of the West meets the stealth and cunning of the East a blazing battle is fought between their two nations employing men whose only desires are for death and destruction. Amongst the dying and mortally wounded a man meets a woman and this is their story their nightmare. War Dog: Charles Stewart was unable to accept that his brother Rick had died in Vietnam so he started to investigate what he believed to be a government cover up. A journalist shows Charles a captured video film of a recent attempted political assassination amongst the assailants Charles recognises his brother. He also recognises Spacek his former commanding officer in Vietnam a sadistic evil man. Spacek has been recruited for a secret government project to create prefect soldiers emotionless calculating the ultimate in killing machines. In reality the government has created a walking nightmare that's out of their control and they order Spacek to terminate the project. Charles locates his brother and attempts to rescue him from the doomed experiment. Together the two brothers try to escape but Spacek knows his security has been breached and lets his war dogs loose on their trail resulting in a bloody and final conflict.