"Actor: Gerald Copeland"

• Finding Forrester | DVD | (06/03/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Sean Connery and Rob Brown star as an eccentric, reclusive novelist and a talented young scholar & athlete. As the young man gets to know his mentor he must face up to a tough decision about his dreams to write and play sport.

• Finding Forrester (Dual Format) (Blu-ray & DVD) | Blu Ray | (27/02/2017) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Finding Forrester is a very accomplished example of the sentimental melodrama that Gus Von Sant has made his own--issues like integrity and snobbery are presented with just enough simplification to the set pieces that no-one feels challenged. Brilliant baseball player Jamal gets the chance to move from a sink school in the Bronx to a private academy where his real intellectual and artistic talent will be nurtured along with his sporting skills. This is an American film about class and race, but one that makes the real issue Jamal's unsuspecting need to defend himself against accusations of plagiarism. His artistic mentor is a reclusive novelist, whose whereabouts he keeps secret even when he stands to lose everything. Rob Brown is extraordinary as the boy, conveying the sensitivity, genius, obstinacy and physicality of a character written as a paragon; Sean Connery turns in a predictably fine performance as Forrester, using his authority to make the part credible; F Murray Abrahams is, as always, an effective villain--he brings an observed creepy snobbery to the film; Anna Paquin makes a good impression in the minor part of Jamal's white schoolfellow and supporter. On the DVD: The disc includes two powerful deleted scenes of school choirs, a "making-of" documentary and a short film about the auditions process which found Rob Brown. It has fine sound--Dolby Digital 5.1--that brings out the film's jazz score perfectly. The anamorphic 2.35:1 aspect ratio, enhanced for 16:9 TVs, looks just fine. --Roz Kaveny

• Desert Storm | DVD | (09/04/2018) from £9.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Two best friends are pitted against each other when a new girl comes to town, matters are further complicated when they enlist together in the U S Army to fight in the Persian Gulf War, the men and their unit captured by Iraqi forces and must work together with other prisoners of war to escape Operation Desert Storm.

• Roseland (the Merchant Ivory Collection) | DVD | (06/09/2004) from £14.24   |  Saving you £-4.25 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Three interlocking stories set in the legendary New York City dance palace make up this charming film the third to be shot by Merchant Ivory Productions in America. In the first segment The Waltz Teresa Wright is a widow who comes to Roseland in order to sustain the memory of her late husband where she meets Stan (Lou Jacobi) a man who offers her an opportunity for happiness in the present. In The Hustle Christopher Walken stars as a gigolo with three women in his life all of whom depend on him for different degrees of romance and companionshiop. In the final segment The Peabody an older Vietnamese woman (Lilia Skala) sets out to win a dance competition despite warnings that it could imperil her health. Ruth Prawer Jhabvalas understated screenplay received accolades and delivers an uncharacteristic bit of sentiment not present in other Merchant Ivory efforts.