"Actor: Che Ramos"

• Colors | DVD | (09/07/2001) from £8.14   |  Saving you £4.85 (59.58%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Directed by Dennis Hopper, Colors is a superior 1988 action movie set among the street gangs of LA that teams up Robert Duvall as Hodges, the elder cop, with young hothead partner Danny McGavin (Sean Penn). Investigating a murderous feud between the “Bloods” and the “Crips”, Duvall attempts to impress upon the impetuous Penn the value of a more cautious, easy-going approach in dealing with gang members, rather than trying to charge in among them. The film as a whole was one of the first to take a serious, unromantic and unstereotypical look at gang culture, at how youngsters are sucked into it, how few options are actually open to these macho hoodlums and how little they have in the way of family, community and stability other than the gangs. The partnership between Penn and Duvall by contrast, though well played, is pretty much the standard old cop/young cop set-up, right down to Duvall’s frequent, ominous remarks about how close he is to retirement. While the action is sometimes disjointed and the relationships between the gangs at times confused, it at least helps to dispel the usual Hollywood good vs. evil dynamic. Instead, there’s a more ambient sense of violence, desperation, retribution and recrimination. Penn’s doomed relationship with a “homegirl” indicates that while the LAPD may capture a few felons, they’ve little chance of capturing the hearts and minds of the criminalised poor. Later films such as John Singleton’s Boyz 'n the Hood (1991) would go further in exploring how life looks from the gangsta perspective.On the DVD: The films is presented in an anamorphic 16:9 widescreen version, with the usual chapter and language selections. The only other feature is the original, detailed but run-of-the-mill trailer. --David Stubbs

• Patient X | DVD | (29/04/2013) from £12.45   |  Saving you £-7.46 (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  After twenty years, local police capture the murderer of the older brother of a young boy. Now a doctor, he must go back to his old town and face the murderers himself. He then discovers that the murderers are vampires and they pose a deadly threat not only to him but also for the entire town.

• Follow My Voice | DVD | (17/11/2008) from £13.48   |  Saving you £-3.49 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Follow My Voice: With the Music of Hedwig is a documentary following the creation of a tribute album by a host of top indie-rock musicians. This powerful film showcases not only a series of top artists in studio sessions but also follows the story of four students as they struggle through a year at the school which the album which will be dedicated to: the Hetrick-Martin Institute home of the Harvey Milk School which is the first high school in the US to be aimed at LGBTQ youth.