"Actor: Candy Raymond"

• Cool Runnings | DVD | (22/01/2001) from £5.99   |  Saving you £9.00 (150.25%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Based on an improbable but true story, Cool Runnings concerns the Jamaican bobsled team that competed in the 1988 Winter Olympics. Director Jon Turteltaub (Phenomenon) does a fine job with both the absurdity of the situation (the athletes had never even seen snow) and the passion behind it (their desire to compete and win). John Candy, in one of his last roles, is touching as a disgraced coach who seizes the opportunity to work with the Jamaicans as a chance for redemption. The bobsled scenes look good and the races are exciting. The climax, which is entirely unexpected, takes the film to a wholly different level, even if events in the story don't quite match the facts. --Tom Keogh

• Delirious | DVD | (12/08/2002) from £13.48   |  Saving you £-0.49 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A 1991 comedy, Delirious stars John Candy as the head writer on a soap opera set in the fictional small town of Ashford Falls, whose naff power dressing and power wrangling is distinctly reminiscent of Dynasty. Candy has a crush on the somewhat imperious and Joan Collins-esque star of the show, played by Emma Samms, although waiting in the wings to be written into the show is the more wholesome and unaffected actress Mariel Hemingway. Delirious takes a turn when Candy is felled in an accident and awakes, supernaturally, to find himself in the very world of his own soap, with Ashford Falls a real town and its fictional characters, including Samms, now real people. Candy discovers, however, that in this world he has the power to "write" situations as they suit him--in this case, by casting himself as a dashing, wealthy and mysterious Wall Street hero, able to sweep Samms off her feet. The film is in some ways a precursor of Pleasantville (in which two teens are sucked into the world of a "Honey, I'm home" black and white 1950s sitcom). However, between them the star, writers and director (Tom Mankiewicz) make a ham fist of Delirious. The parody of soap mores is quite well done but quickly palls in its obviousness; Candy's performance is misjudged, as if trying too hard to make the best of a bad job; while overall, the film feels cheap, tacky and broad, once again raising the question why in the 1980s and 90s America produced such great sitcoms but such poor film comedies. On the DVD: Delirious is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. It's a decent enough edition but looks its age in places, in terms of colour definition in particular. The only extra is the original trailer. --David Stubbs

• The Plumber | DVD | (01/01/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  There is evil hidden in every shadow... everyday things are not what they seem. One morning there is an unexpected knock on the door and Jilly opens it to a wild man who says he's 'the plumber'. So begins five days of mental torment that will change her life...

• The Great Bookie Robbery (Mini Series) | DVD | (20/08/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  This is the story of one of the most daring and dazzling robberies in modern history. There are few people who like a flutter who will not be familiar with the phrase 'The Great Bookie Robbery'. In the way that the Great Train Robbery caught the imagination of the public in the UK this headline grabbing heist entered immediately into Australian crime folklore alongside Ned Kelly; this is the story of the day the bookies got fleeced! The story began in Parkhurst Prison England. Here Mike Power (John Bach) a convicted felon conceived a plan for a robbery that would take place on the other side of the world in Australia. His well organized gang stole between $6 million and $12 million from the Victorian Club. An intricately planned and perfectly executed crime that was all over in the space of just 11minutes. The men Raymond Bennett Ian Carroll Laurence Prendergast Brian and LeslieKane and Norman Lee rented an office in the same building and hid the money there while making a fake getaway in a van. The only member of the gang to be charged was Norman Lee; he was subsequently acquitted. Later Lee was killed by police while taking part in a heist at Melbourne Airport. The story came out and the true identities of those involved were exposed when Lee's lawyer revealed the details of the crime.