"Actor: Bruce Lea"

• The X Files: Season 8 | DVD | (15/03/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £79.99

  The eighth series of The X-Files was a year of brave decisions. David Duchovny's increasing dissatisfaction with the role meant he only appeared in a few episodes. The solution: enter Agent John Doggett (Robert Patrick) who basically stole the show within his first two minutes of screen time (and watch out for several Terminator 2 in-jokes too). Scully switched roles to being the believer alongside Doggett's sceptic in a year that was more reliant on the background story arc than ever before. Her pregnancy remained at the foreground, while a more prominent Skinner joined in a hunt for the abducted Mulder that drew upon the black oil, cloning and bounty hunting aspects of the convoluted alien conspiracy story. A distinct lack of guest stars or writers indicated maturity beyond the need for ratings stunts: dedicated fans were pleased to see cameos from sinister Krycek, the reliable Lone Gunmen and the return of the show's very first abductee. The real strengths of the series came from new characters, including alternative female role model Special Agent Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish), and some terrific standalone episodes. Investigations covered a man going backwards in time, deaths aboard an oil rig, a contagion in the Boston subway tunnels and creatures resembling bats and slugs. Agent Leyla Harrison (named after an X-Files fan who died of cancer) got to ask all the petty questions regular viewers want to know themselves. This year turned out to be a remarkable achievement so late in the show's life. On the DVD: The X-Files, Series 8 is a six-disc box set with all the episodes presented in anamorphic 16:9 format with Dolby 2.0 sound. The extras are mainly confined to the final disc, though there are selected deleted scenes and "international" clips from the dubbed German, Japanese and Italian versions of the show on the other discs. Two audio commentaries for the episodes "Alone" (from director Frank Spotnitz) and "Existence" (from director Kim Manners) are supplemented by a routine 30-minute behind-the-scenes documentary, more deleted scenes (with optional commentary), character profiles and special effects clips. --Paul Tonks

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

• The X Files: Season 3 | DVD | (26/11/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  Focused lightning bolts, stigmata, possession, and ancient curses become secondary in Season 3 of The X-Files as more episodes are devoted to pursuing the increasingly complex story threads. "The Blessing Way" is an explosive start, introducing the Syndicate's well-manicured man (John Neville), while Scully's sister Melissa is shot and Mulder experiences Twin-Peaks-like prophetic visions. We learn of medical records of millions, including Scully, who have been experimented upon ("Paper Clip"): the fast-paced train-bound two-parter "Nisei" and "731" suggests the experiments are about alien hybridisation. Krycek turns out to be hosting an alien in the next double-act, "Piper Maru" and "Apocrypha", in which Skinner is shot by Melissa's killer. Two great one-offs outside the arc are "Clyde Bruckman's "Final Repose", a bittersweet tale of foreseeing death (featuring an Emmy-winning performance from Peter Boyle) and Jose Chung's " From Outer Space", a spoof of alien conspiracy theories through an author's investigations into abductees. --Paul Tonks

• The X Files: Existence | DVD | (05/11/2001) from £6.55   |  Saving you £9.44 (59.00%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The pretentiously titled Existence is another two-part X-Files yarn glued together to make a feature-length episode. Here the story concerns the birth of Scully's perhaps-alien-tinged child and proves the old maxim that you should stop watching any series when the characters start having babies. By now, newbie Robert Patrick is settled into the role of Agent Doggett, Scully's new partner on the X-Files, but David Duchovny's contract negotiations have enabled Fox Mulder, no longer in the FBI, to come back and hang about the delivery, clashing and then bonding with his replacement. The action content comes from a mild-mannered alien abductee transformed into an unstoppable killing machine, ripping through everything as he tries to prevent the upcoming nativity for reasons that (as ever) don't quite become clear. Also in the support cast are semi-regular Nicholas Lea as lurking plot-explaining conspirator Alex Krycek, and the more welcome Annabeth Gish, whose interestingly spiritual Agent Monica Reyes is being worked up as a replacement for Scully when Gillian Anderson gets out of her contract. Weirdly, The X-Files is in pretty good shape for a show that's been running this long--the performances and the direction are still strong, and outside the "continuing story" shows individual episodes hold up well. But this dreary muddle of running about (plus the odd decapitation) and agonised rumination (blathery philosophical musings about the miracle of life and childbirth) does not represent the series' strengths, suggesting that the best thing that could happen would be to get shot of the long-time stars and their played-out characters to make room for a revitalised show starring Patrick and Gish. On the DVD: The full-screen print, with the extra detail of the DVD image and Dolby Digital, allow you to pick up a lot more than from the murky telecasts. "Alex Krycek Revealed" Parts 1 and 2, a couple of character profiles, turn out to be very snippet-like Fox TV promo pieces, with some interview footage and behind-the-scenes stuff amid the usual teaser clips.--Kim Newman

• The X Files: Season 5 | DVD | (14/10/2002) from £22.98   |  Saving you £12.01 (34.30%)   |  RRP £34.99

  The fifth season of The X-Files is the one in which the ongoing alien conspiracy arc really takes over, building towards box-office glory for the inevitable cinematic leap in The X-Files Movie (1998). The series opener "Redux" begins with Mulder having been framed for everything going. Scully finally sees a UFO ("The Red and the Black") before being presented with a potential daughter (the two-part "Christmas Carol" and "Emily"). By "The End", there's an enormous tangle of threads for the big-screen adaptation to unravel (or not, as it turned out). Cigarette Smoking Man is being hunted, playing every side against the middle, as well as chasing after information on Mulder's sister. Krycek is back, too, as is an old flame for Mulder in the shape of Agent Diana Fowley. If that wasn't enough to goad viewers into the cinema, there was the Lone Gunmen's 1989-set back story ("Unusual Suspects", with Richard Belzer playing his Homicide: Life on the Streets character), a musical number in the black and white Frankenstein homage "Post Modern Prometheus", and scripts co-written by Stephen King ("Chinga"), William Gibson ("Kill Switch"), and even Darren McGavin (who had inspired the show as Kolchak: The Night Stalker) in "Travellers". On the DVD: The X-Files, Season 5 extras include Chris Carter's commentary over "Post Modern Prometheus", which reveals the decision making behind shooting in black and white as well as the problems it caused. A second commentary is from writer/coproducer John Shiban on "Pine Bluff Variant", where he openly admits the influence of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. Across the six discs (only 20 episodes because of the movie of course) you get credits for every episode, their TV promo spots, deleted and international versions of several scenes (some with commentary from Carter), and a couple of TV featurettes. The best of these is "The Truth About Season 5", talking to an excited Dean Haglund (Langly) amongst other crew members.--Paul Tonks

• Truth Or Dare | DVD | (27/03/2006) from £7.27   |  Saving you £2.72 (27.20%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Directed by cult filmmaker Tim Ritter the film centers on a guy named Mike Strauber who finds out that his wife is cheating on him goes crazy engages in some self-mutilation and eventually dons a copper mask and goes on a killing spree! What more could you want? Future member of the Backstreet Boys A.J. Mclean makes an appearance as the young Mike Strauber!

• The X Files: Deadalive | DVD | (06/08/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  This release consists of two episodes--"This is Not Happening" and "Deadalive"--of the eighth series of The X-Files spliced together into a feature-length story. With David Duchovny contracted only to do a certain percentage of shows this year, Robert Patrick was brought in as Agent John Doggett, partnering Gillian Anderson's Agent Scully while Duchovny's Mulder is off being tortured by alien-abductors in what looks like an industrial dentist's chair. This story comes about two-thirds of the way through the arc and sets up Duchovny's return to the show--though he literally has to die and come back to get back on the case. It's an unfortunate paradox that most X-Files stand-alone releases concentrate on the dreary alien-abduction/conspiracy episodes which carry the greater storyline of the show, giving the misleading impression that the series is a drearily solemn, badly plotted, straight-faced but stupid sci-fi soap opera. Always skipped over are the far more interesting, entertaining and impressive stand-alone supernatural mysteries or strange comic exercises. Though Duchovny is mostly lying in a hospital bed with oatmeal all over his face, Anderson--whose character is pregnant this series, another dull sub-plot--still gives an amazingly committed performance and gets terrific support from Patrick, whose character has shaken up a lot of what was settled or stale about the show, and the always-underrated Mitch Pileggi as Assistant Director Skinner. The story features several wild-eyed UFO guru types (including Roy Thinnes, once star of The Invaders) and returned abductees transformed into un-killable alien zombies. It's as well made as ever, with ominous shadows and the odd smart line, but you need to have been paying very close attention for seven years to understand what's going on. With Duchovny a potential escapee and Anderson perhaps in line to follow, this episode brings on the excellent Annabeth Gish as Agent Monica Reyes, a specialist in bizarre rituals, who is being effectively set up to partner Patrick in a post-Mulder-and-Scully X-Files that might well keep the franchise going on forever Star Trek-fashion. --Kim Newman

• Ripper | DVD | (03/09/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

  By the age of sixteen Molly Keller (Cook) had already lived to tell a bloodcurdling tale. The sole survivor of a massacre Molly put all of her energy into the study of serial killers a quest which led her to Berkeley university and famed author and manhunter Dr Martin Kane (Payne). However before long the evil that struck before is seemingly loose again: this time preying on Molly's fellow classmates on campus. When the modus operandi of the fearsome killer is discovered to be strikingly similar to that of Jack the Ripper London's infamous murderer of 1888 Molly is forced to face the terrifying secret behind the stalker's return realising that it's a history she doesn't want to repeat...

• The X Files - Complete DVD Collection | DVD | (30/10/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £199.99

  Now you can own the entire adventures of The X-Files in this bumper DVD box set. every episode from all 9 seasons of this multi-award award-winning show are available for the first time in this exclusive Collector's Edition. Don't miss the opportunity to see how the phenomenon all began back in 1993 and how it came to a close 9 years later!

• 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

• The Little Kidnappers | DVD | (15/08/2005) from £7.12   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  BASED ON THE CHILDREN,S FAVORITE "THE LITTLE KIDNAPPERS" TELLS THE STORY OF TWO ORPHANS WHO COME TO NOVA SCOTIA AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY TO LIVE WITH THEIR GRANDFATHER (CHARLTON HESTON). HE'S A STERN AND BITTER MAN WHO IS TORMENTED BY THE LOSS OF HIS ONLY SON. SOON, THE MISUNDERSTANDING IS RESOLVED AND THE FAMILY- AND A DIVIDED COMMUNITY- IS BOUGHT BACK TOGETHER AGAIN.

• Dragon On Fire | DVD | (25/07/2005) from £17.04   |  Saving you £-11.05 (-184.50%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Wanderer John Liu and angry young man Tino Wong are direct descendants of the Strike Rock Fist masters who began as the best of friends but ended as the worst of enemies. The legacy of hate and revenge continues into the next generation until the two feuding warriors discover that they have a mutual enemy in Philip Ko a perverse master of the dangerous art of Sun Ta. Our heroes must forget the past and unite to fight as a solid rock that will crush this evil menace....

• The Horror Stack | DVD | (25/09/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Ravage: Can one man's vengeance-driven soul survive? Criminal psychologist Gregory Burroughs is trying to catch serial killer 'Hannibal Lecterish' the man responsible for the death of his daughters and the murder of several policemen. Greg follows a trail of carnage and destruction to a violent underworld and becomes entangled in a web of brutality surrounded by an army of cold-blooded assassins. The resulting explosion of action and violence propels Gregory to the ultimate chance to attain the vengeance he so desires... (Dir. Ronnie Sortor 1997) The Bride Of Frank: Frank O' Brien formerly homeless now has a warehouse job in the outskirts of New Jersey. He may be getting old and a little rough round the edges but he's finally got a home. Now he's lonely. Things are looking up for him when a colleague places an ad in the personals on Frank's behalf. He goes on a handful of dates but the women are judgemental and obnoxious so Frank - naturally - kills them in various ways -some too horrible to imagine! Ways that you simply won't believe. Escalpo Don Bald's (Steve Ballot) notorious underground horror/comedy features disturbing scenes of violence and cruelty and is not for those who are easily offended! (Dir. Steve Ballot 1996) Ozone: A horrifying new drug is released on the streets going by the name of Ozone. Its chilling side-effects are numerous perhaps the worst being its ability to mutate addicts into hideous rotting monsters. One cop makes it his mission to battles through a hoard of horrors to get to the drug kingpin behind the mutating madness! (Dir. J.R. Bookwater 1993)

• Silver Queen (ClassicFlix Silver Series) | DVD | (28/09/2021) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A