"Actor: Elizabeth Kenny"

• Amadeus | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £9.99   |  Saving you £4.00 (40.04%)   |  RRP £13.99

  The satirical sensibilities of writer Peter Shaffer and director Milos Forman (One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest) were ideally matched in this Oscar-winning movie adaptation of Shaffer's hit play about the rivalry between two composers in the court of Austrian Emperor Joseph II--official royal composer Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham), and the younger but superior prodigy Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce). The conceit is absolutely delicious: Salieri secretly loathes Mozart's crude and bratty personality but is astounded by the beauty of his music. That's the heart of Salieri's torment--although he's in a unique position to recognise and cultivate both Mozart's talent and career, he's also consumed with envy and insecurity in the face of such genius. That such magnificent music should come from such a vulgar little creature strikes Salieri as one of God's cruellest jokes, and it drives him insane. Amadeus creates peculiar and delightful contrasts between the impeccably re-created details of its lavish period setting and the jarring (but humorously refreshing and unstuffy) modern tone of its dialogue and performances--all of which serve to remind us that these were people before they became enshrined in historical and artistic legend. Jeffrey Jones, best-known as Ferris Bueller's principal, is particularly wonderful as the bumbling emperor (with the voice of a modern mid-level businessman). The film's eight Oscars include statuettes for Best Director Forman, Best Actor Abraham (Hulce was also nominated), Best Screenplay and Best Picture. --Jim Emerson Note: this region two DVD is a "flipper" with a break between sides A and B.

• Amadeus -- Director's Cut 2-Disc Special Edition | DVD | (14/10/2002) from £14.98   |  Saving you £-0.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  A note-perfect cinematic event whose immortality was assured from its opening night, Amadeus is an unlikely candidate for the Director's Cut treatment. Like one of Mozart's operas, the multiple Oscar-winning theatrical version seemed perfectly formed from the outset--ideal casting, costumes, sets, cinematography, lighting, screenplay, music, music, music--so the reinstatement of an extra 20 minutes simply risks adding "too many notes". Yet though this extended cut can hardly be said to improve a picture that needed no improvement, it does at least flesh out a couple of small subplots and shed new light on certain key scenes. Here we learn why Constanze Mozart bears such ill-will towards Salieri when she discovers him at her husband's deathbed: he has insulted and degraded her after she came to him for help. We also see deeper into the reasons why Mozart has no pupils: not only has Salieri poisoned the Emperor's mind against him, but the only promisingly lucrative teaching job he can find ends disastrously when he realises that the master of the house just wants music to quiet his barking dogs. In a humiliating coda to that episode, a drunk and desperate Wolfgang returns later to beg for money only to be coldly rejected. The structure of the picture is otherwise unaltered. On the DVD: Amadeus--The Director's Cut finally accords this masterful work the DVD treatment it deserves. The handsome anamorphic widescreen picture is accompanied by a choice of Dolby 5.1 or Dolby stereo sound options, and it's all contained on one side of the disc (the original single-disc DVD release was that crime against the format, a "flipper"). Director Milos Forman and writer Peter Shaffer provide a chatty though sporadic commentary, but they're obviously still too mesmerised by the movie to do much more than offer the odd anecdote. Disc 2 contains an excellent new hour-long "making of" documentary, with contributions from Forman, Shaffer, Sir Neville Marriner and all the main actors, taking in the scriptwriting, choice of music, casting and problems involved in filming in Communist Czechoslovakia with half the crew and extras working for the Secret Police. --Mark Walker

• Powerpuff Girls - The Movie | DVD | (31/03/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  The Powerpuff Girls, Cartoon Network's animated trio of butt-kicking superheroines, make their big-screen debut in a film that will please fans of the TV series and animation fans young and old. The plot begins with the girls' creation at the hands of the kindly but naive Professor Utonium, who combined "sugar, spice and all things nice" to create three perfect little girls--practical Blossom, feisty Buttercup, and wussy Bubbles. Unfortunately, his ape assistant, Jojo, broke a bottle of the mysterious Chemical X in the lab and the girls' superpowers--as well as Jojo's--were born. After wrecking Townsville during a somewhat boisterous game of Tag, the girls are treated as outcasts by their fellow citizens and determine never to use their powers in public again--until they're confronted by Jojo and the girls find themselves called upon to foil his evil schemes and "save the world before bedtime". Though it takes a while to get going, The Powerpuff Girls is exciting enough to keep younger viewers engrossed while throwing in a few--though not really enough--monkey-related in-jokes to get the adults chortling once in a while. The heavily stylised pastel colouring and frenetic pace of the animation, while distinctive, may be off-putting to people used to the more polished style of Disney, and some of the later scenes, full of screeching, sharp-toothed apes, may be upsetting to very young viewers. The film's ostensible message--"don't treat people badly just because they're different" seems to take a bit of a back seat too. Nevertheless, The Powerpuff Girls provides a solid 80 minutes of fun, despite lacking the mainstream appeal of the likes of Shrek or the Disney/Pixar movies. --Rikki Price

• Theodora - Glyndebourne Festival Opera | DVD | (05/07/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  This production of Handel's tragic and moving oratorio took Glyndebourne by storm when it was first staged in 1996. Sellars took Handel's tale of self-sacrificial love between a Christian virgin and a Roman imperial bodyguard in fourth century enemy occupied Antioch and by resetting it in modern-day America transformed it into a timeless parable of spiritual resistance to tyranny and persecution.

• Powerpuff Girls - The Mane Event | DVD | (15/05/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  When danger looms in Townsville the call goes out for Bubbles Blossom and Buttercup - The Powerpuff Girls! Under the watchful eye of their mentor Professor Utonium the girls fly into action against a colourful gallery of nefarious villains -- saving the day before bedtime! Created by cartoonist Craig McCracken the series began life as one of Cartoon Network's World Premiere Toons. Join the Powerpuff Girls for over 2 hours of crime-busting fun!

• Footloose | DVD | (31/10/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The music is on his side. Teenager Ren MacCormack sends ripples through Bomont a small Midwestern town that could stand some shaking up when he arrives from Chicago with his mother Ethel to settle with her relatives. The adults tend to view him with suspicion as a possible contaminant from the outer world. Some of his male peers eye him as a threat and most of the girls just plain eye him. It's a tough time for Ren whose father deserted him and his mother leaving them

• Amadeus - Classic Collection | DVD | (31/03/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £44.99

  Amadeus triumphs as gripping human drama sumptuous period epic glorious celebration of the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - and as the winner of eight 1984 Academy Awards including Best Picture (produced by Saul Zaentz) Actor (F. Murray Abraham) Director (Milos Forman) and Adapted Screenplay (Peter Shaffer). Now in a revitalized digital transfer and including more than 20 minutes of extra scenes not seen on its original release Amadeus remains a screen triumph! Amadeus won 8 Academy Awards including Best Picture Actor Director and Adapted Screenplay. About as close to perfection as movies get. USA Today