"Actor: Chris Ferreira"

• Money Talks | DVD | (17/12/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  This formulaic 1997 comedy becomes needlessly complicated at points but feeds off the high energy of Chris Tucker (The Fifth Element, Rush Hour). Tucker plays a two-bit con man, Franklin Hatchett, framed for the prison breakout of a ruthless criminal. Hunted by both the police and the bad guys, Hatchett finds his only hope in a smarmy, self-serving television reporter played by the perfectly cast Charlie Sheen (Platoon), who agrees to protect the nervous, hapless patsy only to further his own career. The plot of Money Talks is at times just plain dumb, and the requisite car chases and explosions happen a bit too frequently. But Tucker's manic energy and off-the-wall humour, as he is thrown into situations of mistaken identity and mortal danger, make the movie a frenetic and entertaining romp. --Robert Lane

• Groove | DVD | (04/06/2001) from £11.58   |  Saving you £8.41 (72.63%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Parties are not always as fun as they look like they should be. Case in point: Groove. The distinction lies in the realm between watching people have fun and actually having fun. Set in San Francisco over the course of one night, this is the story of a rave, plain and simple. Preparation includes inhabiting an empty warehouse, finding the power supply and sending out coded invitations. The film kicks in as the party does, when people start arriving and the DJs start spinning. There's a nice moment early on when a cop shows up asking for the owner of the building, who is then taken on a tour of "a new Internet start-up". It becomes even funnier when the cop turns out to be smarter and more compassionate than anyone would expect. Writer-director Greg Harrison cleverly focuses the story on David, a novice who's never been to a rave before, which breaks the story out of what could have been the suffocating, insular world of rave culture. Unknowingly dosed by someone, David is adopted by Layla, an attractive but lonely East Coaster who has begun to regret her party lifestyle. Other characters include a guy who's just proposed to his girlfriend, a college teaching assistant selling his own manufactured drugs, a DJ who gets to meet his idol and a gay couple having trouble finding the party. If the characters turn out to be just character types, that's OK because the film itself floats by on its own high-octane enthusiasm. Groove is light and frothy entertainment with a beat you can dance to. --Andy Spletzer, Amazon.com