"Actor: Dani Thompson"

• Breaking Glass | DVD | (22/10/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  An old, old story as told circa 1980, Breaking Glass, written and directed by Brian Gibson, follows the path of Stardust not to mention A Star is Born and most other films about showbusiness, by following the rise of a talented young hopeful who learns that success comes with strings. Kate Crowley (Hazel O'Connor) begins as a bleached New Wave ranter, fly-posting on the tube and yelling songs about dehumanisation over fascist chants in rowdy pubs, but ends up a stoned glam zombie dressed as a robot, packaging her anger for the benefit of corporate music biz baddies and retreating to a sanatorium. The plot may be familiar, but the film still works, thanks to persuasive central performances from O'Connor, who wrote her own songs and shows real acting muscle that sadly didn't lead to anything like a film career, and Phil Daniels as her hustling manager/boyfriend/conscience. The fine supporting cast includes Jon Finch and Jonathan Pryce as a Bond villain-style record producer and a deaf junkie sax player, with glimpses of later perennials such as Jim Broadbent and Richard Griffiths. Made and set at the start of the 1980s, it catches its times exactly: a "Rock Against 1984" outdoor gig that turns into a riot, a routine police harrassment of a band rehearsal, a power cut that transforms a concert into a before-its-time "unplugged" session. Credits trivia: the executive producer was Dodi al Fayed. On the DVD: A nice letterboxed transfer looks a bit soft and grainy--but that's the way it's supposed to be. The only extras are cribbed-from-the-IMDB filmographies, a trailer with a wonderfully unconvincing narration and an image gallery (posters, ads and stills). --Kim Newman

• The Irish Film Collection | DVD | (24/11/2014) from £58.99   |  Saving you £-34.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Collection of five classic Irish films. In 'In the Name of the Father' (1993), Daniel Day-Lewis plays Belfast wideboy and petty crook Gerry Conlon, who, along with his father (Pete Postlethwaite) and two friends, is forced into a false confession claiming responsibility for bombing a soldiers' pub in 1974. In 'Angela's Ashes' (1999), Alan Parker directs and co-scripts this big screen adaptation of Frank McCourt's best-selling quasi-autobiographical book. Although born in Brooklyn in 1935, Fra.

• Knight Moves | DVD | (17/02/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Yet another serial killer drama, Knight Moves is perhaps a little too in love with its own ingenuity. Chess Grand Master Peter Sanderson (Christopher Lambert) finds himself, in the middle of a crucial tournament, challenged to a game whose rules he does not know, by a killer who will murder women until Sanderson stops him. The local police, headed by Sedman (Tom Skerrit), suspect this is actually a game Sanderson is playing with them; while Kathy, a woman profiler brought in on the case, finds herself falling in love with Sanderson but still suspecting him. None of the performances are more than competent and Lambert's aloof neurotic is perhaps less likable than was intended. Director Carl Schenkel is too fond of odd camera angles and garish lighting, but the end result is a moderately successful detective story for those who are fond of puzzles. On the DVD: Knight Moves is ungenerous with special features, providing a bare minimum of filmographies, photo gallery and trailer. It has a visual aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and Dolby Digital sound. --Roz Kaveney

• Marie - A True Story | DVD | (17/06/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Marie: A True Story charts the rise of Marie Ragghianti (Sissy Spacek) from her violent marriage through her struggle as a single mother putting herself through school right up to her appointment as head of the state parole board. Uncovering widespread corruption in the parole system Marie makes the life changing decision to blow the whistle on the grafters and sentence the governor and his officials to the very prisons they sought to control...Through powerful oppostition and a barr

• Call Girl | DVD | (19/07/1999) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Diandra Jensen is a talented but struggling young art photographer who longs for success.Broke and facing eviction from her apartment after failure of her first exhibition, Diandra takes a job with an `escort' agency. Her first client, patron of the arts Arthur Benton, coaxes Diandra into a dangerous world of sexual exploitation.Once under the control of Arthur, Diandra sinks deep into a world of sexual intrigue and experimentation.

• Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban | UMD | (20/03/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £23.99

• Midnight Crossing | DVD | (14/06/2004) from £6.98   |  Saving you £-0.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  With a pounding, synthesised sound track, big-haired babes in bikinis and succession of increasingly incredible fight scenes and returns from the dead, Midnight Crossing takes some beating as an eminently watchable slab of 1980s schlock. Honesty is a premium in this torrid tale of a buried fortune, hot sex, deceit on the high seas and much extended suspense. Jeff Shub (John Laughlin), a six-packed hunk in tight shorts, lives for his yacht, inherited from his father. When his wife's boss Morley (married to a blind woman and played by Daniel J Travanti) charters the yacht for a birthday celebration, the two couples head off for the Bahamas. Then, Morley reveals his real agenda--the recovery of treasure he buried on a Cuban island in the pre-Castro years--and it soon becomes clear that nothing and nobody are what they seem. Kim Cattrall, years before her emergence as a stylish television star in Sex and the City, pops up in a in a wet t-shirt. And at the film's centre is a knockout, beyond self-parody performance from Faye Dunaway. Here she plays Joan Crawford playing a blind woman who might not, in fact, be blind at all. Dunaway confirms the suspicion that she was an actress born 30 years too late for the kind of scripts that would have best served her unique brand of throbbing melodrama. The rest of the cast, particularly the usually reliable Travanti, soon follow her over the top. The result is a compulsive 90 minutes of hammy and thoroughly enjoyable action. On the DVD: Presented in letterbox widescreen (1.85:1) format for maximum effect Midnight Crossing surfaces pretty much as it did in the cinema. Picture quality is fine. The daylight scenes on board the yacht certainly benefit but the interminable night-time struggles are less convincing. Were they shot in a tank? Probably, if the dull stereo sound quality at this point is anything to go by. Extras are limited to the original cinema trailer and filmographies of the leading players.--Piers Ford

• Call Girl | DVD | (05/07/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

  When erotic photographer Diandra Jensen (Melanie Hall) has her first big exhibition art collector Arthur Benton (Jay Huguley) buys one of Diandras pictures. He is complimentary of her work but thinks her career has only begun. He points her in a new exciting direction.

• Se1 | DVD | (06/08/2012) from £6.97   |  Saving you £16.01 (402.26%)   |  RRP £19.99

  BRUTAL! VIOLENT! INSANE!Gang culture on London's streets is laid bare for all to see, in this stunning new British Film!SE1 Welcome to Hell, and the shocking truth of London's gang culture.When wannabe Gangsta Evan falls into dealing drugs all hell breaks loose. With a new baby and no way to pay. His stash is stolen and someone will die!Sex, drugs and violence take centre stage in a film that is the 'real deal' of life in SE1 - London's Hell.