"Actor: Jeff Rawle"

• Drop The Dead Donkey - The Writer's Choice | DVD | (17/09/2001) from £5.64   |  Saving you £9.35 (165.78%)   |  RRP £14.99

  The multi-award winning 'Drop the Dead Donkey' ran for six series on Channel 4 from 1990 to 1998 becoming one of Channel 4’s best and most successful comedies. Centred on a bustling newsroom relive the staff of Globelink News’ antics in this fantastic DVD featuring six of the very best episodes chosen by the writers of the show Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkins. Features 'Sally's Viking' 'Baseball' 'Gus And The Grim Reaper' 'Helen's Fake Boyfriend' 'Damien's Virus' and 'The Final Chapter' plus fifty classic moments from the series.

• Neville's Island | DVD | (16/07/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Neville's Island is an ITV TV film which plays like The Lord of the Flies meets Three Men in a Boat. Except here there are four men, who, when their boat sinks, find themselves stranded on a small island in the middle of the Lake District's Derwent Water with a sausage and an almost defunct mobile phone. Given that our heroes are middle-aged executives on a weekend training exercise, tempers and personalities soon fray. Starting Martin-Men Behaving Badly-Clunes this is essentially a comedy, though the funniest lines go to Timothy Spall as the mercilessly sarcastic Gordon. Jeff Rawle is Neville, the capable team leader, David Bamber the organised Angus, while Clunes has the plum role as Roy, whose mental instability triggers the sometimes-surreal concluding sequences. In a scene paralleling Scream (1996) the rules of the stranded-on-an-island film genre are established, allowing writer Tim Firth to have fun twisting the clichés. He even feints that the film is about to turn into a slasher pic, or the UK's answer to Deliverance (1972). Neville's Island does get a little out of its depth when it ventures into metaphysical waters, but the performances are perfectly judged and the exceptionally sharp dialogue delivers sustained amusement and intermittent belly laughs. On the DVD: There is a basic stills gallery and a list of screen credits for each of the four stars which is misleadingly labelled "biography". Otherwise there are no special features. The sound is effective three channel Dolby Pro logic with the dialogue well presented and Barrington Pheloung's inventive score highlighted. The anamorphically enhanced 1.77:1 ratio picture is occasionally grainy but the DVD clarity does succeed in making a TV film look like a real, albeit low-budget, feature film, with some beautiful daytime cinematography and some imaginative firework shots demonstrating strong contrast and luminosity.--Gary S Dalkin

• Cool Runnings / My Favourite Martian / Snow Dogs | DVD | (04/10/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Cool Runnings (Dir. Jon Turteltaub 1993): You'll love Cool Runnings - the outrageously funny comedy hits inspired by the true story of Jamaica's first Olympic bobsled team. They were four unlikely athletes with one impossible dream. Now with the help of ex-champion as their coach (John Candy - Uncle Buck) four Jamaicans leave their sunny island home and enter the chilly winter Olympics to compete for the gold in a sport they know nothing about - bobsled racing! My Favourite Martian (Dir. Donald Petrie 1999): In the Disney tradition of fun family comedies comes the hilarious live-action film My Favourite Martian - an out-of-this-world comedy about friendship loyalty and aliens. When a harmless Martian (Christopher Lloyd Back to the Future) crashes onto earth and into the life of struggling TV reporter Tim (Jeff Daniels) he must use all his magical powers to keep his identity a secret and quickly find a way back to Mars. Tim initially wants to expose the friendly Martian whom he names Uncle Martin and his crazy animated spacesuit Zoot. Ultimately Tim helps Uncle Martin but can he send him safely home before the world discovers their secret? Snow Dogs (Dir. Brian Levant 2002): Make no bones about it Disney's Snow Dogs is a hilarious action-packed comedy your whole family will love. Eight adorable but mischievous dogs get the best of dog hater Ted Brooks (Cuba Gooding Jr.) when he leaves his successful Miami Beach dental practice for the wilds of Alaska to claim his inheritance- seven Siberian huskies and a border collie- and discover his roots. As Ted's life goes to the dogs he rises to the occasion and vows to learn to mush with his inheritance. Totally out of his element he faces challenges he's never dreamed of. There's a blizzard thin ice an intimidating crusty old mountain man named Thunder Jack (James Coburn) the Artic Challenge Sled Dog Race that's only two weeks away and a life-and-death rescue. This fish-out-of-water tail-wagging comedy is nothing but doggone good fun and a celebration of family - both human and canine!

• Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire | Blu Ray | (08/08/2016) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  The latest entry in the Harry Potter saga could be retitled Fast Times at Hogwarts, where finding a date to the winter ball is nearly as terrifying as worrying about Lord Voldemort's return. Thus, the young wizards' entry into puberty (and discovery of the opposite sex) opens up a rich mining field to balance out the dark content in the fourth movie (and the stories are only going to get darker). Mike Newell handily takes the directing reins and eases his young cast through awkward growth spurts into true young actors. Harry (Daniel Radcliffe, more sure of himself) has his first girl crush on fellow student Cho Chang, and has his first big fight with best bud Ron. Meanwhile, Ron's underlying romantic tension with Hermione comes to a head over the winter ball, and when she makes one of those girl-into-woman Cinderella entrances, the boys' reactions indicate they've all crossed a threshold. But don't worry, there's plenty of wizardry and action in Goblet of Fire. When the deadly Tri-Wizard Tournament is hosted by Hogwarts, Harry finds his name mysteriously submitted (and chosen) to compete against wizards from two neighboring academies, as well as another Hogwarts student. The competition scenes are magnificently shot, with much-improved CGI effects (particularly the underwater challenge). And the climactic confrontation with Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes, in a brilliant bit of casting) is the most thrilling yet. Goblet, the first installment to get a PG-13 rating, contains some violence as well as disturbing images for kids and some barely shrouded references at sexual awakening (Harry's bath scene in particular). The 2 1/2-hour film, lean considering it came from a 734-page book, trims out subplots about house elves (they're not missed) and gives little screen time to the standard crew of the other Potter films, but adds in more of Britain's finest actors to the cast, such as Brendan Gleeson as Mad Eye Moody and Miranda Richardson as Rita Skeeter. Michael Gambon, in his second round as Professor Dumbledore, still hasn't brought audiences around to his interpretation of the role he took over after Richard Harris died, but it's a small smudge in an otherwise spotless adaptation.--Ellen A. Kim, Amazon.com