"Actor: Brandy Norwood"

• I Still Know What You Did Last Summer | DVD | (16/04/2007) from £9.99   |  Saving you £-4.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  There was so much story left to tell after I Know What You Did Last Summer that the filmmakers brought back all the beloved, surviving characters from the first film for this sequel. Ray (Freddie Prinze Jr), Julie (Jennifer Love Hewitt), and Julie's white tank top (Jennifer Love Hewitt's white tank top) return to once again face a hook-wielding maniac. Not satisfied merely to repeat a theme, director Danny Cannon and screenwriter Trey Callaway add variation by introducing Karla (Brandy) as Julie's best friend in the whole wide world. Karla and Julie have won a summer trip to the Bahamas with their current infatuations but find that they've arrived at the start of the storm season and that at their hotel "Do Not Disturb" signs should flip to say "R.I.P." One can only hope to hang just such a sign on this repetitive, tedious franchise, especially since this version is less scary than the price of beer in those little hotel room refrigerators. Definite contender for Gratuitous T&A Shot of the Year (it's of Hewitt and that's not meant as a recommendation). --Keith Simanton

• Osmosis Jones | DVD | (18/03/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  In this combined live action & animation comedy Osmosis Jones is a maverick white blood cell cop, paired with a no-nonsense partner, a cold tablet. The two must protect their human host, Frank, after he eats a potentially deadly infected egg!

• Double Platinum | DVD | (19/06/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  A soapy backstage melodrama originally produced for network broadcast, Double Platinum downplays showbiz verisimilitude to turn on the tears. With 60s soul queen Diana Ross and 90s pop princess Brandy sharing production credit as well as billing, this formulaic tearjerker focuses on its stars' dramatic chops more than their musical prowess, a choice that won't deter their respective audiences, even as it disappoints less partisan music fans who might have hoped for a stronger musical component.Olivia King (Ross) is the former St. Louis housewife who abandoned her family for pop stardom, only to return 18 years later determined to meet, and reconcile with, her daughter, Kayla (Brandy), now nurturing her own footlight fantasies. But when the prodigal mom finally does reveal herself to the bright, feisty teen, Kayla is outraged and then hard-boiled. Olivia's offer to help the undeniably talented girl make industry contacts is accepted, with the bitter caveat that the superstar should abandon any hopes of a true maternal bond with her embittered daughter. The usually imperious Olivia meekly accepts those terms, while the secretly yearning Kayla keeps up her tough-cookie cover, but the plot telegraphs its ultimate destination, even as the tears flow.Both stars acquit themselves well in the story's stormier clashes, and the emotional tug of the story is well engineered to soak hankies. Less credulous viewers will be hampered by the original songs--when Ross steps on-stage, her regal demeanour and flashy (if occasionally silly) gowns support her supposed status as a legend, but the utterly forgettable, generic songs she mouths deflate that image. That said, viewers less interested in the actual music than the glitzy idea of the two characters may well be content to wallow in the waterworks of a story that could as easily have been titled Divas: The Next Generation. --Sam Sutherland, Amazon.com