"Actor: Daniel von Bargen"

• G.I. Jane | DVD | (26/03/2001) from £5.99   |  Saving you £7.00 (116.86%)   |  RRP £12.99

  It seemed like a pretty good career move, and for the most part it was. Demi Moore will never top any rational list of great actresses, but as her career stalled in the mid-1990s she had enough internal fire and external physicality to be just right for her title role in G.I. Jane. Her character's name isn't Jane--it's Jordan O'Neil--but the fact that she lacks a penis makes her an immediate standout in her elite training squad of Navy SEALs. She's been recruited as the first female SEAL trainee through a series of backroom political manoeuvres and must prove her military staying power against formidable odds--not the least of which is the abuse of a tyrannical master chief (Viggo Mortensen) who puts her through hell to improve her chances of success. Within the limitations of a glossy star vehicle, director Ridley Scott manages to incorporate the women-in-military issue with considerable impact, and Moore--along with her conspicuous breast enhancements and that memorable head-shaving scene--jumps into the role with everything she's got. Not a great movie by any means, but definitely a rousing crowd pleaser and it's worth watching just to hear Demi shout the words "Suck my ----!!" (rhymes with "chick"). --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

• The Kid | DVD | (10/09/2001) from £5.38   |  Saving you £10.61 (197.21%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Bruce Willis is a successful forty year old image consultant who is forced to reevaluate his life when his childhood self from the '70s confronts him in the present day!

• The Postman | DVD | (25/09/1998) from £14.98   |  Saving you £-0.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Falling from the Oscar-winning glory of Dances with Wolves to the opposite end of the critical and box-office scale, Kevin Costner must have been deeply humbled when this three-hour postapocalyptic tale--his sophomore effort as a director--was greeted with a critical thrashing and tepid audience response. One of the most conspicuous flops of its decade, the 1997 release must have seemed like a sure thing on paper: a kind of futurist Western starring Costner as a charismatic drifter-turned-hero who leads the resistance against a military tyrant (Will Patton) by reviving the long-dormant postal system to reunite isolated communities in their fight for freedom. The movie bombed, but, like many audacious failures, it's got qualities that make it at least partially endearing, and its earnestness (although bordering on corny) keeps it from being entirely silly. Faint praise, perhaps, but Costner's ode to patriotism is occasionally stirring and visually impressive. --Jeff Shannon

• The General's Daughter | DVD | (06/11/2000) from £5.50   |  Saving you £10.49 (190.73%)   |  RRP £15.99

  When John Travolta first opens his mouth during the opening credits of The General's Daughter and speaks in a terrible Southern cracker drawl, one briefly hopes the movie will turn out to be just as hilariously bad. Unfortunately, the accent is soon revealed to be part of a disguise, and the movie is just as quickly unveiled as a clumsy, run-of-the-mill potboiler, too mediocre to be truly hysterical fun. A female officer is discovered strangled and tied to the ground; she's the title character, and because of the general's political ambitions, the mystery of who did it and why has to be wrapped up in 36 hours by Travolta and fellow CID officer Madeleine Stowe (Last of the Mohicans, 12 Monkeys). Sexual violence and lurid S&M have been thrown in to shore up the incomprehensible plot, but that only adds to the queasy atmosphere. The supporting actors--an impressive collection including James Woods (Salvador), Timothy Hutton (Ordinary People), and James Cromwell (Babe, L.A. Confidential)--don't embarrass themselves, but even they can't make sense of their blustering, macho dialogue. It's amazing that, screenwriter William Goldman (who wrote such great and genuinely thrilling films as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Marathon Man, All the President's Men and Misery) left his name attached to this script; there's no sign of his usual skill and intelligence. Madeleine Stowe, a graceful presence in any film, is equally wasted. It was directed with a lot of empty flash by Simon West (Con Air). --Bret Fetzer, Amazon.com

• Super Troopers | DVD | (21/04/2003) from £5.23   |  Saving you £12.76 (243.98%)   |  RRP £17.99

  An off-the-wall comedy about the antics of a group of US highway patrolmen and their rivalry with the local cops.

• Shadows And Fog | DVD | (15/04/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  ""Rich! Deliciously eccentric! [A] brazen irrepressible original!"" -The New York Times. ""Lovely! Poignant!"" (The Wall Street Journal) and laugh-out-loud funny Shadows and Fog confirms Woody Allen's ""genius"" with its brilliant portrait of the hopeless - but hilarious - tragicomedy of human existence. Boasting a dazzling ""galaxy of stars"" (Leonard Maltin) including Woody Allen Mia Farrow John Malkovich Madonna Donald Pleasence Lily Tomlin Jodie Foster Kathy Bates John Cusack

• Company Business | DVD | (02/02/2004) from £5.38   |  Saving you £7.61 (141.45%)   |  RRP £12.99

  CIA agent Boyd is ordered to escort former U.S. State Department mole Grusenko and two million dollars to Berlin for a secret spy swap. On the way the two men realise that the CIA and KGB have secretly joined forces and plan to sacrifice them to cover up both agencies' transgressions...

• Basic Instinct - Special Edition | DVD | (20/05/2002) from £9.21   |  Saving you £10.78 (117.05%)   |  RRP £19.99

  With more than a decade of cinema in Basic Instinct's wake it's fascinating to look back at just how influential Paul Verhoeven's "erotic thriller" has been. The director's endless fight with censorship and unwillingness to kowtow to social mores meant his movies became notorious for graphically depicting sex and violence while pushing contemporary boundaries of taste. This whodunit about a bisexual femme fatale (Sharon Stone in a career-best performance) caused an enormous furore on its release; but after years of generally inferior imitations there's not much in it that seems quite so shocking now. It's perhaps best appreciated in retrospect more for its Hitchcockian style than the steamy sex. On the DVD: one of the most welcome elements of the disc is an acknowledgement of the film's own influences--from Hitchcock's Vertigo to Verhoeven's own The Fourth Man. The print is far superior to the previous release, looking magnificent in 1:78.1. Jerry Goldsmith's Oscar-nominated score sounds terrific in either 5.1 or DTS, as does Verhoeven's thick accent on the first commentary track alongside then Director of Photography Jan De Bont (Speed), who together reminisce on locations and manipulating their actors' performances. A second commentary from feminist critic Camille Paglia is a brave way of putting paid to the gay/feminist community uproar. There are some standard inclusions (trailer, production notes, photo gallery etc) but far more interesting are two mini-documentaries; "Cleaning Up Basic Instinct" shows how and why the TV version was so dull, while "Blonde Poison" focuses on the film's making and marketing. Finally, there are three storyboard comparisons and nine minutes of screen tests for Stone and Tripplehorn. This is the definitive release of an oft-cited modern classic. --Paul Tonks

• Universal Soldier - The Return | DVD | (06/06/2005) from £6.18   |  Saving you £-0.19 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Universal Soldier Luc Deveraux is back. Jean-Claude Van Damme gallantly attempts to resurrect interest in his tepid career with this action-riddled roller-coaster ride. Set in the not-too-distant future, Deveraux has been employed by the government to oversee the new UniSol project. What is UniSol? It's a military plan to turn dead soldiers into invincible fighting machines (see the first Univeral Soldier for more details). It's also the scheme that went horribly wrong when the soldiers turned psycho, killing the scientists who created them. Not deterred by this early setback, the government replicates the project. This time they work out that they can control the soldiers through a supercomputer called SETH (kind of like HAL in 2001, but smarter). But, as we all know, machines frequently break down. Pretty soon the computer comes to the conclusion that it's superior to humans and therefore it must destroy them. Uh oh.Van Damme to the rescue. The muscles from Brussels heroically leap into action confronting the dangerous soldiers led by Bill (WCW) Goldberg and Michael Jai White (last seen in Spawn). The action is impressive and the stunts are engrossing. Goldberg is charismatic as the cartoonish villain who sneers and snouts while muttering macho things like, "I'm gonna kill that guy." Van Damme looks more at home in a production that he is not directing, and for once he lets his fists do the talking. Ironically, the movie is missing the gloss and big-budget pathos of its predecessor (created by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich), making the original decidedly better. -- Jeremy Storey, Amazon.com

• I'm Losing You | DVD | (17/02/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Based on Bruce Wagner's bestselling novel 'I'm Losing You' is a melodrama of a wealthy Los Angeles family and the journey each one begins after a death in the family.

• Universal Soldier - The Return | Blu Ray | (13/04/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Prepare to become obsolete. From the writer of 'Alien Resurrection' and 'Die Hard With A Vengeance' 'Universal Soldier - The Return' continues the story of Luc Deveraux (Jean Claude Van Damme) the unstoppable hero who was the last man standing at the end of the original film. Years later Luc - now devoting his life to fatherhood - is serving as a technical expert on a special Government project to revive and improve the Universal Soldier Training Programme. Sophisticated intelligent and agile the new breed of soldier is under the control of SETH a supercomputer who proves to be a real danger when he develops a mind of his own.. Developing a plan to destroy Luc SETH kidnaps his daughter. Racing against the clock to keep his family together Deveraux encounters obstacles that only he knowing how a Universal Soldier thinks and feels can overcome..

• Lord Of Illusions | DVD | (19/06/2000) from £6.09   |  Saving you £9.90 (162.56%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Scott Bakula stars as detective Harry D'Amour who stumbles upon a mystery involving the world-famous magician Philip Swann and his beautiful wife Dorothea. Harry is drawn into a world full of secrets deceit and unimaginable terrors. Harry eventually comes face to face with Nix the diabolical power who gave Swann his dark magic. In the climactic final battle Harry confronts Nix and learns that illusion is trickery but magic is real. Written & directed by horror master Clive Bar