"Actor: Don Shelton"

• Them | DVD | (05/07/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  An early entry in the 1950s cycle of creature-feature pictures, Them! is the one about hordes of ants mutated to a giant size by the first A-bomb test. An exciting, persuasive exercise in paranoid science fiction, it exhibits an interesting tension between cautious warning about irresponsible tampering with the atom and a Cold War vision of the authorities taking on extraordinary powers to combat a threat to the country. It begins as an eerie desert mystery, with New Mexico cop James Whitmore investigating disappearances and deaths: a mobile-home and a general store are crushed as if tanks have rolled over them, a shopkeeper is found dead of a huge injection of formic acid, quantities of sugar have been stolen (the film's sole straight-faced joke) and a catatonic little girl is shocked into shrieking "them, them!". FBI agent James Arness takes charge and a plaster-cast of a strange imprint summons a father and daughter investigative team from the Department of Agriculture, cherubic Edmond Gwenn and smart-suited Joan Taylor. Law-enforcement, military and scientific experts deduce the nature of the problem and take swift, decisive action to counteract the danger. Director Gordon Douglas stages several great monster-suspense scenes: a first encounter in a sandstorm, a venture into a poisoned nest, a glimpse of horror at sea, and a finale in the Los Angeles storm drains. On the DVD: Them! has the wonderful scarlet-lettered, shrieking title on an otherwise sharp-looking black and white print. An amusing newspaper-style menu uses original artwork from the lurid poster to showcase some interesting snippets of test or outtake footage of the big puppet ants in action, and there's a wonderfully overblown terror-trailer.--Kim Newman

• The Bachelor | DVD | (14/08/2000) from £6.98   |  Saving you £13.01 (186.39%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The Bachelor got critically slammed when it played in cinemas, probably because reviewers couldn't help comparing it with the movie on which it's based, the brilliant Buster Keaton comedy Seven Chances. But on its own terms, The Bachelor is a modest and enjoyable picture about Jimmie (Chris O'Donnell), a happily single young man who suddenly gets an ultimatum from his grandfather's will: marry by his 30th birthday or lose an inheritance of 100 million US dollars. This is revealed the day before that very birthday. Unfortunately, Jimmie had already proposed to his girlfriend Anne (Renee Zellweger) and been turned down; she can see in his eyes that he isn't ready to get married and refuses to accept him until he is. So Jimmie needs to find a bride--fast. Though the commitment-shy man is a hoary clichè, The Bachelor successfully exaggerates Jimmie's fears to comic proportions. O'Donnell is his usual affable self, but it's Zellweger who seizes every scene she's in and makes something really enjoyable out it. The movie's greatest weakness is that she's such a small part of the second half. Still, there's good supporting performances from Hal Holbrook, Ed Asner, James Cromwell and Marley Shelton (as Zellweger's sister), and Peter Ustinov and Brooke Shields both have very funny scenes. The Bachelor skirts some dangerously chauvinistic territory at times, but by and large it's a pleasant comedy with some genuine good humour. --Bret Fetzer, Amazon.com

• Agent Cody Banks | DVD | (24/11/2003) from £4.99   |  Saving you £15.00 (300.60%)   |  RRP £19.99

  To his family and friends, Cody Banks is a typical teenager - he loves to skateboard, hates maths and feels like a complete idiot around girls. But Cody's got a secret - he's actually part of a secret teen CIA programme.

• Pleasantville | DVD | (25/10/1999) from £7.25   |  Saving you £12.74 (175.72%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Fantastical writer Gary Ross (Big, Dave) makes an auspicious directorial debut with this inspired and oddly touching comedy about two 90s kids (Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon) thrust into the black-and-white TV world of Pleasantville, a Leave It to Beaver-style sitcom complete with picket fences, corner malt shop and warm chocolate chip cookies. When a somewhat unusual remote control (provided by repairman Don Knotts) transports them from the jaded real world to G-rated TV land, Maguire and Witherspoon are forced to play along as Bud and Mary Sue, the obedient children of George and Betty Parker (William H Macy and Joan Allen). Maguire, an obsessive Pleasantville devotee, understands the need for not toppling the natural balance of things; Witherspoon, on the other hand, starts shaking the town up, most notably when she takes football stud Skip (Paul Walker) up to Lover's Lane for some modern-day fun and games. Soon enough, Pleasantville's teens are discovering sex along with--gasp!--rock & roll, free thinking and soul-changing Technicolour. Filled with delightful and shrewd details about sitcom life (no toilets, no double beds, only two streets in the town), Pleasantville is a joy to watch, not only for its comedy but for the groundbreaking visual effects and astonishing production design as the town gradually transforms from crisp black and white to glorious colour. Ross does tip his hand a bit about halfway through the film, obscuring the movie's basic message of the unpredictability of life with overloaded and obvious symbolism, as the black-and-white denizens of the town gang up on the "coloureds" and impose rules of conduct to keep their strait-laced town laced up. Still, the characterizations from the phenomenal cast--especially repressed housewife Allen and soda-shop owner Jeff Daniels, doing some of their best work ever--will keep you emotionally invested in the film's outcome and waiting to see Pleasantville in all its final Technicolor glory. --Mark Englehart

• Selena | DVD | (30/06/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  The story of life of Mexican 'Tejano' style singer Selena Quintanilla and the progress of her career resulting in her tragic death at the early age of just 23.

• Ambush In Waco - In The Line Of Duty | DVD | (23/02/2004) from £14.76   |  Saving you £-12.77 (N/A%)   |  RRP £1.99

  This riveting fact-based drama concentrates on the transformation of Vernon Howell into the self-made cult leader David Koresh. Failing as a musician Howell turns back to his strictly religious upbringing and uses his predatory charm to organise churches under his own leadership. But his ministry is tainted with both his obsession with rock-and-roll and his driven sexual appetites. This corrupt prophet eventually accumulates 19 wives in a frenzy of misguided devotion and a calculatingly cruel madness that eventually results in tragedy.

• Jacknife | DVD | (24/09/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Fifteen years previously three friends were drafted into the Vietnam War and only two came home. Still traumatised by their experiences and estranged from each other for many years Dave and 'Jacknife' meet again in a confrontation which will test their friendship and shape their futures.

• Shakedown | DVD | (21/10/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  A highly trained terrorist cell led by the fanatic St. Joy (Ron Perlman) invades a high security bank seeking a stolen biological weapon of apocalyptic effect. Suddenly an immense earthquake shakes Los Angeles trapping Julie (Erika Eleniak) and the criminals inside. As aftershocks rip through the city Julie finds herself cut off from any outside aid except for a lone undercover FBI agent Alex McKay (Wolf Larsen) trapped with her. Overhead F16 jets circle the city ready to incinerate the deadly virus in a nuclear fireball awaiting the authorisation of General Wolf (Fred Dryer). Now Julie and Alex are all that stand between the terrorists and their deadly goal. A biological nightmare even worse than the earthquake tearing the city apart!

• Dragstrip Girl | DVD | (06/09/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Car crazy! Speed crazy! Boy crazy! Fay Spain is tunning in her role as a teenage femme fatal who has rich guy Fred Armstrong and poor but nice Jim Donaldson drooling over her. She plays them off against each other and as the hormones rise so does the violence. Fred is rich but not so nice and he keep slosing the fights and so decides to win the local hot rod race by fair means or foul. Thinking it would knock the very nice Jim out of the fight for the hand of Fay. This has dire consequences for all the characters involved.....