"Actor: Jess Willard"

• Love And Basketball | DVD | (26/02/2001) from £7.49   |  Saving you £12.50 (166.89%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Director Gina Prince-Bythewood, a former college athlete, puts a spin on this one-on-one tale of, as the title says, Love and Basketball. Sanaa Lathan (The Best Man) is the fiercely driven, hot-tempered Monica, a tomboy who gives her all for basketball. Omar Epps is Quincy, an NBA player's son who has pro dreams of his own. Next-door neighbours since first grade, they start as rivals (she flabbergasts the boy by outplaying him in a game of driveway pickup) and age into best friends and lovers. The romantic complications follow a familiar game plan, but the film throws a fascinating spotlight onto the contrast between men's and women's basketball. While Quincy plays college ball on huge courts to cheering, sold-out crowds, we see Monica's sweat, tears and sheer physical dedication in front of tiny audiences in small gyms and second-rate auditoriums. The story is pointedly set in the late 1980s, years before the establishment of the WNBA, so Monica's prospects for pro ball lie exclusively in Europe, while Quincy steps into the pros at home. It's a pleasure to see a character as passionate and fully developed as Monica, and Lathan gives a fiery portrayal (she had never played ball before the film, but you'd never tell from her performance). Prince-Bythewood favours her struggle over Quincy's and opens our eyes to her unique challenges with a sharp, savvy contrast. Alfre Woodard co-stars as Monica's harping mother (always trying to get her to be more ladylike) and Dennis Haysbert is Quincy's philandering father. Hoops fan Spike Lee produced. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com

• Idle Hands | DVD | (25/08/2008) from £14.98   |  Saving you £5.01 (33.44%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Despite all the pot-smoking in Idle Hands, the message here seems to be that too many bong hits will take you on a one-way trip to the devil's playground. That's what happens to Anton (Devon Sawa), a wasted teen who's so perpetually zonked on weed that he doesn't notice his parents have been slaughtered by an evil force that then possesses Anton's right hand, taking on a wildly homicidal life of its own after Anton chops it off with a butcher knife. The first victims are Anton's pals Mick (teen-movie stalwart Seth Green), who gets a beer bottle embedded in his skull, and Pnub (Elden Henson), whose head is lopped off by a rotary saw blade, and later reattached with a barbecue fork and duct tape. (Did we mention that Mick and Pnub turn into undead jokesters? It's that kind of movie.) This unoriginal idea is little more than an excuse for gross-out effects and easy one-liners, and then Vivica A. Fox appears as the demon-buster who knows how to kill the hand once and for all. It's fun to a point, and certain to be a popular Halloween hit with its intended teenage audience, but you can't help wishing this movie had tried harder to be something more than a collection of crude and gory gags. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

• Love & Basketball (2000) (Criterion Collection) UK Only | Blu Ray | (25/10/2021) from £17.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Sparks fly both on and off the court in this groundbreaking feature debut by writer-director GINA PRINCE-BYTHEWOOD (The Old Guard), which elevated the coming-of-age romance by giving honest expression to the challenges female athletes face in a world that doesn't see them as equal. SANAA LATHAN (Alien vs. Predator) and OMAR EPPS (Higher Learning) make for one of the most iconic screen couples of the 2000s as the basketball-obsessed next-door neighbours who find love over flirtatious pickup games, fall apart under the strain of high-pressure college hoops and families, and drift in and out of each other's lives as they pursue their twin aspirations of playing professionally. Aided by stellar supporting performances and an eclectic R&B soundtrack, Love & Basketball captures the intoxicating passions, heartbreaking setbacks, and sky-high ambitions that mark a young woman's journey to the top of her game and to lasting love. Special Features: New 4K digital restoration, supervised by director Gina Prince-Bythewood, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack Audio commentary from 2000 featuring PrinceBythewood and actor Sanaa Lathan Playing for Your Heart, a new making-of documentary featuring Prince-Bythewood, Lathan, actors Omar Epps and Alfre Woodard, Reggie RockBythewood, and basketball adviser Colleen Matsuhara Editing Love & Basketball, a new program featuring Bythewood and editor Terilyn A. Shropshire New conversation on the film's impact among Prince-Bythewood, founding WNBA player Sheryl Swoopes, and writer-producer-actor Lena Waithe Audition tape excerpts and six deleted scenes Three short films by Prince-Bythewood: Stitches (1991), Progress (1997), and Bowl of Pork (1997), with a new introduction by Prince-Bythewood Trailer English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing PLUS: An essay by author Roxane Gay

• Crimes Of The Heart | DVD | (08/09/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Crimes Of The Heart tells the story of three eccentric southern sisters - Lenny (Diane Keaton) Meg (Jessica Lange)and Babe (Sissy Spacek) whose lives reunite after a long separation. Lenny the eldest has never married and cares for her ailing grandfather. Meg has had a string of boyfriends and an underwhelming singing career. Babe the youngest is fresh out of jail having shot her husband. Given the family's long history of adultery scandal and tragedy including their mothe