"Actor: Frank Medrano"

• Fallen | DVD | (23/10/1998) from £5.99   |  Saving you £8.00 (133.56%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Although it received mixed reactions from critics and audiences alike when released in 1998, this supernatural thriller benefits from a sustained atmosphere of anticipation and dread, and its combination of detective mystery and demonic mischief is handled with ample style and intelligence. Under the direction of Gregory Hoblit (who fared better with Primal Fear), Denzel Washington plays detective John Hobbes, who witnesses the gas-chamber execution of a serial killer (Elias Koteas). But when another series of murders begins, Hobbes suspects that the killer's evil spirit has survived and is possessing the bodies of others to do its evil bidding. Even Hobbes's trusted partner (John Goodman) thinks the detective is losing his grip on reality, but the dire warnings of a noted linguist (Embeth Davidtz) confirm Hobbes's far-out theory, and his case intensifies toward a fateful showdown. Although its idea is better than its execution, and the story's film noir ambitions are never fully accomplished, this slickly directed thriller has some genuinely effective moments in which evil forces are entwined into the fabric of everyday reality. Among the highlights is a memorable scene in which Detective Hobbes must track the killer as the evil spirit is transferred between many people via physical contact. Even if the film is ultimately less than the sum of its parts, it's an intriguing hybrid that resides in the same cinematic neighbourhood as Seven and The Silence of the Lambs with a cast that also includes Donald Sutherland and James Gandolfini. Included on the DVD is a full-length audio commentary by director Hoblit, screenwriter Nicholas Kazan and producer Charles Roven. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

• Sleepers | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £5.69   |  Saving you £10.30 (181.02%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The first thing you need to know about Sleepers is that it's based on a novel by Lorenzo Carcaterra that was allegedly based on a true story. The movie repeats this bogus claim, which was attacked and determined by a wide majority to be misleading. Knowing this, Sleepers becomes problematic because it's too neat, too clean, too manipulative in terms of legal justice and dramatic impact to be truly convincing. And yet, with its stellar cast directed by Barry Levinson, it succeeds as gripping entertainment, and its tale of complex morality--despite a dubious emphasis on homophobic revenge--is sufficiently provocative. It's about four boys in New York's Hell's Kitchen district who are sent to reform school, where they must endure routine sexual assaults by the sadistic guards. Years after their release, the opportunity for revenge proves irresistible for two of the young men, who must then rely on the other pair of friends (Brad Pitt, Jason Patric), a loyal priest (Robert De Niro), and a shabby lawyer (Dustin Hoffman) to defend them in court. Despite the compelling ambiguities of the story, there's never any doubt about how we're supposed to feel, and the screenplay glosses over the story's most difficult moral dilemmas. At its best, Sleepers grabs your attention and pulls you into its intense story of friendship and the price of loyalty under extreme conditions. The movie's New York settings are vividly authentic, and Minnie Driver makes a strong impression as a long-time friend of the loyal group of guys. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

• Fair Game | DVD | (24/01/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  She's a lawyer. He's a cop. Some former KGB-types with a wide variety of slippery accents and enough sophisticated technological surveillance gadgets to make one wonder how the Soviet Union could have possibly failed, want her dead. The cop (William Baldwin) is the only man who can save her. It helps that the high-powered attorney is played by Cindy Crawford, who gives new meaning to the phrase "habeas corpus." So the plot doesn't make any sense: first, they try to kill her, no questions asked. Then they capture her and spill their guts about all the details of their nefarious plan. Logic is not what Fair Game is about. It's about explosions, car crashes and more explosions. The only pauses in the action are for showers (one for Baldwin, two for Crawford) and a change of clothing (Crawford slips out of a tight T-shirt into an even tighter tank top). The best feature of the DVD is the addition of a Gallic track. With very little actual sex in the movie, having the main characters conversing in French definitely adds some sauciness to the dialogue scenes. --Richard Natale, Amazon.com

• Replacement Killers | DVD | (18/02/2002) from £12.71   |  Saving you £7.28 (57.28%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Chow Yun-Fat makes his Hollywood debut with Mira Sorvino in this fierce and explosive action thriller. A seamless fusion of style and Hong Kong action adventure 'Replacement Killers' will blow you away! After he betrays Mr. Wei the ruthless crime boss who hired him to avenge his son's death professional killer John Lee goes on the run. Enlisting the aid of beautiful document forger Meg Coburn Lee attempts to return to his family in China before they are targets of their impress

• Sleepers | DVD | (01/10/1999) from £15.99   |  Saving you £-3.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The first thing you need to know about Sleepers is that it's based on a novel by Lorenzo Carcaterra that was allegedly based on a true story. The movie repeats this bogus claim, which was attacked and determined by a wide majority to be misleading. Knowing this, Sleepers becomes problematic because it's too neat, too clean, too manipulative in terms of legal justice and dramatic impact to be truly convincing. And yet, with its stellar cast directed by Barry Levinson, it succeeds as gripping entertainment, and its tale of complex morality--despite a dubious emphasis on homophobic revenge--is sufficiently provocative. It's about four boys in New York's Hell's Kitchen district who are sent to reform school, where they must endure routine sexual assaults by the sadistic guards. Years after their release, the opportunity for revenge proves irresistible for two of the young men, who must then rely on the other pair of friends (Brad Pitt, Jason Patric), a loyal priest (Robert De Niro), and a shabby lawyer (Dustin Hoffman) to defend them in court. Despite the compelling ambiguities of the story, there's never any doubt about how we're supposed to feel, and the screenplay glosses over the story's most difficult moral dilemmas. At its best, Sleepers grabs your attention and pulls you into its intense story of friendship and the price of loyalty under extreme conditions. The movie's New York settings are vividly authentic, and Minnie Driver makes a strong impression as a long-time friend of the loyal group of guys. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

• Replacement Killers | DVD | (18/02/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  This didn't turn out to be quite the deserving American vehicle for Hong Kong action superstar Chow Yun-fat that it should have been. But it is an entertaining potboiler about a hired gun (Chow) who fails to carry out an assignment to kill a cop (which would leave the fellow's son without a father), and becomes a target himself when the contract is handed over to other assassins. Mira Sorvino plays a document forger who is drawn into the fray, pairing up with the hero as they fight their way out of bad spots. The whole enterprise is a little too routine, but the action is sharp and the battles are imaginative and crisp. Director Antoine Fuqua has a by-the-numbers feeling for the influence of Hong Kong on contemporary thrillers (this film was also produced by John Woo), and that's enough to make The Replacement Killers purely enjoyable if not exactly a revelation. --Tom Keogh

• Love Sucks | DVD | (26/06/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £1.99

  In the tradition of other brat pack movies such as St. Elmo's Fire The Breakfast Club and the Outsiders and featuring some of the hottest of Hollywood's young actors LOVE SUCKS highlights the humourous problems of life and love faced by the outwardly cool but inwardly troubled American teens. After leaving college last summer heart-breaker Phil Fazzulo and high school jock Dennis Nolan find their high school dreams shattered when they end up tossing pizza dough for a living. Facing a stream of familiar faces they find themselves constantly having to duck out of sight or invent a seemingly endless stream of ridiculous excuses to disguise their total lack of achievement only serving to reinforce their humiliation and the realisation that their lives have remained virtually unchanged. They need excitement and purpose in their lives but when they are left in sole charge of Sal's Pizza Palace events take a sudden change for the worse and the excitement and purpose they crave finally arrives but in a very unwanted fashion. In the tradition of all failed college students there can only be one solution? THROW A PARTY! Obviously a party will solve all their financial career and romantic problems!

• Replacement Killers | UMD | (08/05/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99