"Actor: Christopher Harris"

• Anastasia | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £2.83   |  Saving you £3.16 (111.66%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Stomping out their usual cuteness and carbon copying Disney's grand animation style to a tee, directors Don Bluth and Gary Goldman (An American Tail) create a successful musical comedy from the story of the lost Russian princess. Adapting the story of imperialism and revolution is tricky, and subsequently the film's opening is weak. Once Anya (voiced by Meg Ryan, sung by Liz Callaway) is a teenager and on her own (suffering from some degree of amnesia), Anastasia is quite pleasing though never refreshingly new. 20th Century Fox's big-money gamble to horn in on Disney's realm is worthy. The songs, especially the recurrent "Once Upon a December" by Broadway team Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, are better than Disney's recent efforts. It's worth picking up the soundtrack. The mix of cell animation and computer work is vivid. The collection of vocal talent is also strong, from John Cusack (as Dimitri, who wants to earn the reward by bringing Anya to Paris) to Hank Azaria as an amusing albino bat. Kelsey Grammer helps turn a roly-poly sidekick into a warm and strong supporting character. The biggest drawback is Bluth/Goldman's insistence on having a typical villain. Surprisingly, the story would be strong enough without one and the undead corpse of Rasputin (Christopher Lloyd) is unneeded and unoriginal. --Doug Thomas

• Resident Evil: The Complete Collection | Blu Ray | (12/06/2017) from £34.35   |  Saving you £-4.36 (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Given that Resident Evil is a Paul Anderson movie based on a computer game which was itself highly derivative (especially of George A Romero and James Cameron films), it's probably unfair to complain that it hasn't got an original idea or moment in its entire running time. In the early 1980s, Italian schlock films such as Zombie Flesh Eaters and Zombie Creeping Flesh tried to cram in as many moments restaged from American originals as possible, strung together by silly characters wandering between monster attacks. This is a much-improved, edited, photographed and directed version of the same gambit. As amnesiac Milla Jovovich remembers amazing kung fu skills and anti-globalist Eric Mabius mutters about evil corporations, a gang of clichéd soldiers with nary a distinguishing feature between them (except for Michelle Rodriguez as a secondary tough chick) are trapped in an underground scientific compound at the mercy of a tyrannical computer--which manifests as a smug little-girl-o-gram--fending off flesh-eating zombies (though gore fans will be disappointed by the film's need to stay within the limits of the 15 certificate) and CGI mutants, not to mention the ever-popular zombie dogs. It's tolerably action-packed, but zips past its borrowings (Aliens, Cube, Deep Blue Sea) without adding anything that future schlock pictures will want to imitate. On the DVD: Resident Evil on disc has the expected trailers, both teaser and theatrical; a half-hour making-of; zombie make-up tests; featurettes on music (with Marilyn Manson), production design and costume. A lively commentary track features Anderson, Jovovich, Rodriguez and producer/zombie Jeremy Bolt--Jovovich upbraids Anderson for talking about different gradings of film stock over her nude scene and everyone else talks about how much she hurt them by punching them out during action sequences. Anderson mentions an alternate commentary track with visual effects designer Richard Yuricich, but it isn't included. --Kim Newman

• The Pagemaster - Richies fantastische Reise | DVD | (11/12/2021) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Resident Evil: The Complete Collection | DVD | (12/06/2017) from £14.99   |  Saving you £10.00 (66.71%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Given that Resident Evil is a Paul Anderson movie based on a computer game which was itself highly derivative (especially of George A Romero and James Cameron films), it's probably unfair to complain that it hasn't got an original idea or moment in its entire running time. In the early 1980s, Italian schlock films such as Zombie Flesh Eaters and Zombie Creeping Flesh tried to cram in as many moments restaged from American originals as possible, strung together by silly characters wandering between monster attacks. This is a much-improved, edited, photographed and directed version of the same gambit. As amnesiac Milla Jovovich remembers amazing kung fu skills and anti-globalist Eric Mabius mutters about evil corporations, a gang of clichéd soldiers with nary a distinguishing feature between them (except for Michelle Rodriguez as a secondary tough chick) are trapped in an underground scientific compound at the mercy of a tyrannical computer--which manifests as a smug little-girl-o-gram--fending off flesh-eating zombies (though gore fans will be disappointed by the film's need to stay within the limits of the 15 certificate) and CGI mutants, not to mention the ever-popular zombie dogs. It's tolerably action-packed, but zips past its borrowings (Aliens, Cube, Deep Blue Sea) without adding anything that future schlock pictures will want to imitate. On the DVD: Resident Evil on disc has the expected trailers, both teaser and theatrical; a half-hour making-of; zombie make-up tests; featurettes on music (with Marilyn Manson), production design and costume. A lively commentary track features Anderson, Jovovich, Rodriguez and producer/zombie Jeremy Bolt--Jovovich upbraids Anderson for talking about different gradings of film stock over her nude scene and everyone else talks about how much she hurt them by punching them out during action sequences. Anderson mentions an alternate commentary track with visual effects designer Richard Yuricich, but it isn't included. --Kim Newman

• The Core | DVD | (13/10/2003) from £5.49   |  Saving you £10.50 (191.26%)   |  RRP £15.99

  When a geophysicist discovers that an unknown force has caused the earth's inner core to stop rotating, he must gather the world's gifted scientists to travel into the earth's core and detonate a device that will reactivate it.

• Home Alone 3 | DVD | (27/11/2000) from £7.35   |  Saving you £-0.55 (N/A%)   |  RRP £6.80

  International crooks hide a top-secret computer chip inside a toy car but an airport mix-up lands it in the hands of eight-year-old Alex Pruitt who's home alone with the chicken pox. Madness and mayhem kick into high gear as the pint-sized hero defends his house against the bumbling bad guys armed with an outrageous array of ambushes and booby traps.

• It Comes at Night (DVD) | DVD | (30/10/2017) from £5.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Secure within a desolate home as an unnatural threat terrorizes the world, a man has established a tenuous domestic order with his wife and son, but this will soon be put to test when a desperate young family arrives seeking refuge.

• Lord Of The Flies | DVD | (16/09/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  In this classic 1963 adaptation of William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies, a planeload of schoolboys are stranded on a tropical island. They've got food and water; all that's left is to govern themselves peacefully until they are rescued. "After all", says choir leader Jack, "We're English. We're the best in the world at everything!" Unfortunately, living peacefully is not as easy as it seems. Though Ralph is named chief, Jack and the choristers quickly form a clique of their own, using the ever-effective political promise of fun rather than responsibility to draw converts. Director Peter Brook draws some excellent performances out of his young cast: the moment when Ralph realises that even if he blows the conch for a meeting people might not come is an excruciating one. Well acted and faithfully executed, Lord of the Flies is as compelling today as when first released. --Ali Davis

• House Party | DVD | (18/04/2005) from £11.77   |  Saving you £3.22 (27.36%)   |  RRP £14.99

  'House Party' is a fast and fresh look at one teenager's pursuit of life liberty and happiness! Kid (Christopher Reid) has three things going for him - a tall fade a wide grin and a way with women. But three equally powerful things are against him - trio 'Full Force' as the pumped-up punks who want to put an end to Kid's fun an over-protective father (Robin Harris) and the very beautiful best friends who want Kid to choose between them. What's a Kid to do?

• The Skulls | DVD | (05/10/2009) from £6.73   |  Saving you £3.26 (32.60%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Two new students at Harvard join an elite secret fraternity, but when they begin to realise the true nature of the organisation things become dangerous for them.

• It Comes at Night (Blu-ray) | Blu Ray | (30/10/2017) from £6.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Secure within a desolate home as an unnatural threat terrorizes the world, a man has established a tenuous domestic order with his wife and son, but this will soon be put to test when a desperate young family arrives seeking refuge.

• House Party 1-3 | DVD | (08/10/2007) from £69.93   |  Saving you £-49.94 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  House Party: Kid (Christopher Reid) has three things going for him - a tall fade a wide grin and a way with women. But three equally powerful things are against him - trio 'Full Force' as the pumped-up punks who want to put an end to Kid's fun an over-protective father (Robin Harris) and the very beautiful best friends who want Kid to choose between them. What's a Kid to do? House Party 2: Hip hop heroes Kid and Play are back in action with a plan to turn a college campus into the ultimate party zone - in this music-powered funk filled comedy free-for-all. Original stars Kid 'Play (Christopher Reid and Christopher Martin) Martin Lawrence and Tisha Campbell return to break it down rap it up.... and boldly party where no movie has partied before! House Party 3: Yo Yo You're invited to the 'mutha of all parties! Kid 'N Play are jammin' again! When Kid says ""I do "" to marital servi--'tude 'tude is just what he gets -- from Play who throws his high-haired friend the bachelor party of all time; from Uncle Vester (stand-up comedian Bernie Mac) the original lady killer and most of all from his fiancee Veda who accuses her groom-to-be of hanky panky with his former babe Sidney.

• Cutthroat Island | DVD | (20/05/2002) from £11.12   |  Saving you £1.87 (16.82%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Although this mega-budget action epic flopped at the box office with a resounding thud, Cutthroat Island has had a healthy shelf life on home video, where the film can be savoured in private as a spectacular guilty pleasure. Geena Davis plays Morgan, the swashbuckling daughter of an aging buccaneer who inherits one-third of a map to a secret pirate treasure. However, the map is in Latin, and she needs a lowdown thief and scoundrel (and presumably Latin scholar), played by Matthew Modine, to translate the map when they obtain the other two pieces. That's when the mayhem begins and the dashing duo race for the treasure against Morgan's scheming uncle (Frank Langella) and a hoard of greedy pirates. With wall-to-wall action ably handled by Davis' then-husband Renny Harlin, Cutthroat Island is more fun than its box-office performance would indicate. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

• Verdi: La Traviata -- Glyndebourne | DVD | (31/10/2000) from £16.28   |  Saving you £11.70 (88.04%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Performances of La Traviata stand or fall to an unusual extent on their principal soprano; the first thing that needs saying about this Glyndebourne performance is that Marie McLaughlin has all of the attributes needed for a role that is fundamentally a virtuoso one, no matter how emotionally involving it is as well. The point about Violetta is that she is, with absolute authenticity, all of the things she becomes in the course of the opera--the febrile socialite and yearning love of Act One, the quiet domesticated woman of Act Two who sacrifices her love for Alfredo to precisely the family values he has talked her into espousing, the dying penitent of Act Three. Walter McNeil is an impressive poetic Alfredo in whose successful courtship we can believe. He is also unusually good in Act Two, Scene Two where for once his public humiliation of Violetta is actually painful, which makes his repentance at her deathbed far more moving. Brent Ellis is solidly powerful as his father Germont--the duet in which he talks Violetta into renouncing his son and comes to value what he is destroying is one of the high points here, as it should be. Bernard Haitink conducts impressively. On the DVD: As (unfortunately) usual with Arthaus Musik, the DVD contains no extra features worth mentioning past the usual subtitles in German, English and French, relegating discussion of the opera's stormy history to the booklet. --Roz Kaveney

• Above The Rim/Hangin' With The Homeboys/House Party | DVD | (13/11/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Above the Rim: Kyle a talented high-school basketball player has a dream to play for the National Association. Shep a security guard at his school befriends Kyle guiding him down the road to success: a road that seems far too long when Kyle is offered a short cut by teaming up with local gangster Birdie. Blinded by his desire to get out of the ""hood"" Kyle is pulled into a web of crime and deceit... Hanging With The Homeboys: Four young friends spend a crazy night on the streets of Manhattan that quickly turns into a night they'll never forget! House Party: Kid (Christopher Reid) has three things going for him - a tall fade a wide grin and a way with women. But three equally powerful things are against him - trio 'Full Force' as the pumped-up punks who want to put an end to Kid's fun an over-protective father (Robin Harris) and the very beautiful best friends who want Kid to choose between them. What's a Kid to do?

• The Fantasist | DVD | (18/09/2006) from £8.98   |  Saving you £3.00 (42.92%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Based on the novel 'Goosefoot' by Patrick McGinley which tells of a fresh naive and idealistic Irish woman who moves to Dublin yearning for a more exciting life. On her arrival she is plunged into a world of fear when a multiple killer starts to call her.

• The Annihilators | DVD | (05/07/2005) from £7.06   |  Saving you £-0.08 (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

  In 1972 it was the jungles of 'Nam. In 1985 it's the streets of America. Different places same job. Upon his return from Vietnam an ex-soldier finds his neighborhood in Atlanta has deteriorated badly and is being terrorized by a vicious street gang. He calls some of his GI buddies and together they hatch a plan to get rid of the gang.

• Anastasia / Fern Gully - The Last Rainforest | DVD | (09/09/2002) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-5.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Anastasia The lost Russian Princess Anastasia and her incredible quest to find her true identity. When the shadow of revolution falls across Russia Anastasia the royal family's youngest daughter barely escapes with her life. Years later joined by a band of heroic companions Anastasia must battle the evil Rasputin his sidekick Bartok the bat and a host of ghostly minions in a headlong race to reach Paris reclaim her rightful destiny and solve the greatest mystery of the 20th century! Fern Gully - The Last Rainforest An animated musical fantasy that takes a journey deep into the Australian rainforest where humans exist only in fairy tales...

• Sucker The Vampire | DVD | (29/01/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  One hundred years after Bram Stoker's Dracula comes a new kind of vampire story. Anthony (Yan Birch) is a modern bloodsucker who uses his popular rock band as a front to lure beautiful young groupies to his lair. His assistant Reed (Alex Erkiletian) disposes of the bodies of these nubile unsuspecting victims after Anthony seduces and kills them. As a result of his bloody lifestyle Anthony soon contracts a deadly virus. Reed must try to save his master from a fate worse that death. Part dark satire part horror-comedy Sucker is truly a rock 'n roll vampire tale for the 90's.

• Stargate S.G -1: Season 4 (Vol. 19) | DVD | (28/01/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  The 1994 movie Stargate was originally intended as the start of a franchise, but creators Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin were distracted celebrating their Independence Day. Episodic TV treatment was the natural next step. In the roles of Colonel Jack O'Neill and Dr Daniel Jackson respectively are Richard Dean Anderson and Michael Shanks. They're joined by Captain Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping) and guilt-stricken former alien baddie Teal'c (Christopher Judge) to form the teacher's-pet primary unit SG-1. With a seemingly endless network of Stargates found to exist on planets all across the known universe, their mission is to make first contact with as many friendly races as possible. Chasing their heels at almost every turn are the "overlord" Goa'uld--the ancient Egyptian Gods who are none too chummy after the events of the original film. There's something of The Time Tunnel to the show's premise, but Stargate has held its own with stories that put the science fiction back into TV sci-fi. On the DVD: Episodes: Double Jeopardy and Exodus. In "Double Jeopardy", SG-1 experiences a bogus journey when they're reunited with their robot doppelgangers (from "Tin Man"). Some welcome resolution is given to their separate story line, since they'd basically been left to fend for themselves. The split-screen effects are excellent allowing the actors to interact with themselves. This was the directorial debut of Michael Shanks (Dr Jackson). The big Season Four finale had a lot of continuity to pull together before allowing our heroes their "Exodus". Sam gets to spend more time with her Tokra father than has been possible while everything disintegrates around them. While Teal'c goes out of his way to avenge the death of an old lover (how many wives has he had?), the unveiling of Earth's most recently acquired piece of technology seems to turn the tide of battle against the Goa'uld. And then all is lost. Including them.--Paul Tonks