"Actor: Jo Allen"

• The Sweeney - Vol. 2 - Car Chases | DVD | (06/10/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  If you were watching TV in the mid-1970s chances are The Sweeney was one of the weekly highlights and these re-mastered collections will have you pining for a time when the only choice was brown or beige, and a monkey would buy you a lot more than a nice whistle. If, however, these episodes are your first taste of Detective Inspector Jack Regan (John Thaw) and Detective Sergeant George Carter (Dennis Waterman) of the Flying Squad, be warned that you will soon be telling friends to "Shut it!" and scouring the pages of Exchange and Mart for a mint-condition Ford Granada in "Tawny Metallic". (Ironically the choice ride for slags in the show was the Jaguar MK2 later to become so closely associated with Thaw's more cerebral take on police work, Inspector Morse.) First aired as 1974's pilot Regan, the show was produced by Thames Television subsidiary Euston Films and ran over four series and 53 episodes. Despite being given strict guidelines on speaking parts, locations and structure, writers were expected to produce scripts very quickly and individual episodes were filmed within 10 working days. Based on this frenetic schedule, the result was a choice parade of slags, blags and assorted lowlife, played out across fantastic London locations with a gritty humour that set the agenda for many of the small-screen cop shows to follow. Regan and Carter manage to fit up a few collars between pints, and even occasionally shed their nylon shirts and flares for a distinctly unromantic interlude between the sheets--brown of course. In "Stoppo Driver", when a gang of villains lose their own driver in a high-speed chase the logical replacement for their next blag is Cooney (Billy Murray), the squad's latest chauffeur who learnt everything he knew from Evel Knievel. Led by Barney ("a tough monkey, plenty of form") the thieves kidnap Cooney's bride on their honeymoon night and blackmail him to help them rob a bent card game. Colin Welland provides the hired muscle in the second episode, "Faces", as renegade ex-marine Tober, visiting the Smoke from Manchester to help a terrorist gang take down four quickfire scores to fund their operations. The Sweeney boys know a hard man when they see one ("he did Smoky Evans with a hatchet") and relish the opportunity for some fisticuffs between styrofoam cups of tea (like "liquid concrete"). Things get messy when a stuck-up intelligence officer tells them the final blag is being faked to rustle out his undercover grass and Regan is forced to stand down, despite having acted on their own pint-sized informant's tip-off: "but it was the dwarf"! --Steve Napleton

• Tonite Let's All Make Love In London | Blu Ray | (25/09/2017) from £21.29   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Featured here as a brand-new High Definition restoration, Peter Whitehead's celebrated film probes the myth and the reality of Swinging London presenting an intimate, impressionistic collage of rare concert and studio performances, interviews with key figures from the worlds of music, art and cinema, and images of Sixties counterculture. John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Mick Jagger, Vanessa Redgrave, Lee Marvin, Julie Christie, Allen Ginsberg, Edna O'Brien, David Hockney and Michael Caine are among those captured on film and in sound; bookended by a performance of Pink Floyd's Interstellar Overdrive, the soundtrack features songs by the Rolling Stones and Eric Burdon. Made when many young people saw politicised hedonism as the logical response to global uncertainty, Whitehead's Pop Concerto for Film taps into both the confidence and the confusion of an iconic moment in time.

• Cult: Dogma, Human Traffic, Shallow Grave | DVD | (08/09/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  DogmaDogma is a comic fantasia in which angels demons apostles prophets and rubber turd monsters walk among the cynics and innocents of the earth to decide the fate of mankind. Two angels cast from the Pearly Gates discover that a loophole in church dogma means that they can get back into heaven. On the downside in doing so they'll prove God to be fallible and will undo all of Creation. On the upside they'll not have to spend the rest of eternity banished to Wisconsin... Shallow GraveJuliet David and Alex find that their new reclusive roommate has not left the bedroom for days. After kicking in the door they discover this drug overdosed corpse...and a suitcase full of cash. Fatefully choosing to keep the money they know they have to get rid of the body. But the remains won't stay buried and a careless trail from the shallow grave leads the police and - two money-hungry thugs - back to the trio. Human TrafficThe weekend has well and truly landed. Human Traffic focuses on the lives and loves of five individuals who spend their week working mundane jobs waiting for the weekend so that they can immerse themselves in a whirl of pubs clubs and parties. Revolving around a single meticulously planned and titanically drug-addled night out in Cardiff Human Traffic is the first and last word in club-culture.

• Singin' In The Rain / Seven Brides For Seven Brothers | DVD | (23/04/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  SINGIN'IN THE RAIN:; With fame, fortune and fans galore, silent screen idol Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) thought he had it all. But one look at aspiring actress Kathy Seldon (Debbie Reynolds), and he knew exactly what he was missing. Now he's swinging from lampposts, singing in the raindrops and ready for love. With talking pictures on the rise, Don sets out to make musicals with the woman of his dreams...but one thing stands in his way: his jealous co-star (Jean Hagen), who wants Don--and the l...

• Alien Autopsy | DVD | (10/04/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Are we alone?Did a flying saucer really crash in Roswell New Mexico in 1947?Was there an autopsy?Has the American government lied to us for nearly 50 years? As part of a comprehensive and objective investigation Alien Autopsy: Fact Or Fiction delves into the famous purported 1947 crash of a UFO in Roswell New Mexico and the alleged government cover-up. Hosted by Jonathan Frakes (Star Trek: The Next Generation) Alien Autopsy: Fact Or Fiction

• John Wayne DVD Gift Set | DVD | (20/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Boxset contains: 'True Grit' 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance' 'El Dorado' & 'The Sons Of Katie Elder'.

• Saturday Morning Pictures - The Best Of The Children's Film Foundation - Vol. 4 | DVD | (28/10/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Runaway Railway Some young railway enthusiasts repair a derelict locomotive and find themselves inadvertently involved in a mail train robbery! Junket 89 Junket always seems to be in trouble at school but his troubles really begin when the absent minded science master allows him to borrow his experimental instant transportation machine to journey to faraway places...

• Jericho Mansions | DVD | (29/03/2004) from £10.45   |  Saving you £-4.46 (-74.50%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Leonard Grey (Caan) is superintendent of Jericho Mansions. His world may be small but he cares for every inch of it. For the last thirty years the building has been his universe as beyond the front door of the apartment block lies a terrifying agoraphobic nightmare into which for as long as he can remember he has never dared to venture. Yet Leonard's sanctuary is beginning to crumble as forces conspire to kick him out including a murder in which all the clues point to him alone...

• Tonite Let's All Make Love In London | DVD | (25/09/2017) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Featured here as a brand-new digital restoration, Peter Whitehead's celebrated film probes the myth and the reality of Swinging London presenting an intimate, impressionistic collage of rare concert and studio performances, interviews with key figures from the worlds of music, art and cinema, and images of Sixties counterculture. John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Mick Jagger, Vanessa Redgrave, Lee Marvin, Julie Christie, Allen Ginsberg, Edna O'Brien, David Hockney and Michael Caine are among those captured on film and in sound; bookended by a performance of Pink Floyd's Interstellar Overdrive, the soundtrack features songs by the Rolling Stones and Eric Burdon. Made when many young people saw politicised hedonism as the logical response to global uncertainty, Whitehead's Pop Concerto for Film taps into both the confidence and the confusion of an iconic moment in time.

• The Bourne Identity/The Bourne Supremacy/The Interpreter | DVD | (02/10/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The Bourne Identity: A man who may or may not be Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) is found floating in the Mediterranean Sea and is hauled onto a fishing boat. When the ship's doctor examines the unconscious castaway he discovers two bullet wounds and an implanted device that displays a Swiss bank account number. With nothing but this code the amnesiac Bourne travels to Zurich and gains access to a safe-deposit box containing a gun thousands of dollars in various currencies and valid passports from numerous countries - each listing a different identity. Within minutes Bourne is on the run from a seemingly ever-present agency relying on language and fighting skills he didn't even know he possessed! Offering $20 000 for a ride to Paris Bourne gains the reluctant help of the nomadic Marie (Franka Potente). Meanwhile the shadowy organization headed by a tough-talking bureaucrat (Chris Cooper) sends numerous assassins (including the Professor played by Clive Owen) after Bourne and Marie. As their situation grows more perilous the two strangers struggle to find out who Bourne really is and why they are being hunted... (Dir. Doug Liman 2002) The Bourne Supremacy: They should have left him alone! The Bourne Supremacy re-enters the shadowy world of expert assassin Jason Bourne (Damon) who continues to find himself plagued by the splintered nightmares from his former life. The stakes are now even higher for the agent as he coolly maneuvers through the dangerous waters of international espionage - replete with CIA plots turncoat agents and constantly shifting covert alliances - all the while hoping to find the truth behind his haunted memories and answers to his own fragmented past... (Dir. Paul Greengrass 2004) Interpreter: The truth needs no translation... Director Sidney Pollack's diverse career sees him returning to familiar ground with The Interpreter Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn starring in a film riddled with subterfuge recriminations and deadly secrets. Kidman plays Silvia Broome an interpreter who works at the UN in New York City. One night while collecting a bag she has left behind in the building Silvia overhears a whispered conversation in which an assassination attempt on redoubtable African leader Zuwanie (Earl Cameron) is planned during his future visit to the UN. Secret service agent Tobin Keller (Penn) is assigned to provide security for Zuwanie on the forthcoming trip and conducts an investigation when Silvia explains what she has heard. He quickly discovers that Silvia has a lengthy troubled past as a citizen from the same country as Zuwanie and immediately begins to doubt her story... This is the first film to be shot inside the United Nations Headquarters. Locations include the General Assembly and the Security Council as well as corridors and hallways of the complex. The cast and crew filmed on weekends in order not to disrupt the working week of the Organization. (Dir. Sidney Pollack 2004)

• Whatever Happened To Aunt Alice? | DVD | (02/07/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice? sees a change of direction for Robert Aldrich's unofficial trilogy which all involve "ageing actresses" in macabre thrillers (What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and Hush ... Hush, Sweet Charlotte). The busy Aldrich only produced What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice?, calling in TV director Lee H Katzin (a Mission: Impossible regular) to handle the megaphone. Aldrich also opted to shoot the film in pastel colours appropriate to the unusual Arizona desert setting rather than the gothic black and white of the earlier films. The film cast the less iconic Geraldine Page as the genteelly unpleasant Mrs Clare Marrable. Left apparently penniless by her departed husband, Mrs M opts to keep up appearances by hiring a succession of timid elderly housekeepers, bossing them around with well-spoken nastiness, duping them out of their life savings and, on the pretence of getting help with a midnight tree-planting program, lures them into their own graves, batters them to death and plants lovely pines over them. Page gets her own way with the meek likes of Mildred Dunnock, until the feistier, red-wigged R!uth Gordon applies for the job and gets down to amateur sleuthing. While Bette Davis and her partners went wildly over the top in previous films, Page and Gordon play more subtly, finding odd pathetic moments in between the monstrous, irony-laced horror stuff. The supporting cast of pretty or handsome young things, mostly putty in the hands of the manipulative Page, contribute striking little cameos (Rosemary Forsyth sports a pleasing 1969 hairdo as the kindly but intimidated neighbour), but the film belongs to its leading ladies, delivering a fine line in twist-packed cat-and-mouse theatrics. The video is handsomely letterboxed, as befits a film made before widescreen films were shot with all the action in the middle of the frame to facilitate television sales. --Kim Newman

• Happy Gilmore/ Billy Madison/Anger Management | DVD | (02/10/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Billy Madison: He's heir to the Madison Hotel millions but the only subjects Billy has studied lately are babes and booze. For him life has been a ten-year party since he left high school: drinking bottomless daiquiris catching rays by the pool pulling moronic pranks and chasing anything in (or out of!) a skirt. (Dir. Tamra Davis 1995): But when Brian Madison informs his goofball son that he plans to turn over his Fortune 500 company to vice president and corporate weasel Eric Gordon Billy makes the bet of his life. He's going back to school - grades 1 through 12 in 24 weeks! - with hilarious results. And this time Mr Madison's cheque book won't be the source of Billy's academic advancement. Can bona fide blockhead Billy clean up his act to win his father's respect the family fortune and the love of his beautiful teacher Veronica? Hey it's worth a shot! Happy Gilmore: Adam Sandler stars in this hilarious comedy that scores a hole in one for gut-busting wit and outrageous slapstick. Happy a raucous hockey player turned golfer sends the sedate sport into overdrive after he becomes a media sensation with his outlandish antics on the links. It's par for the course entertainment co-starring Christopher McDonald Carl Weathers and Kevin Nealon. (Dir. Dennis Dugan 1996) Anger Management: Dave Buznik (Adam Sandler) is usually a mild-mannered non-confrontational guy. But after an altercation aboard an airplane he is remanded to the care of anger management therapist Dr. Buddy Rydell (Jack Nicholson) who could probably use some anger management himself. Now Dave is really mad! (Dir. Peter Segal 2003)

• Big Daddy/Spanglish/Mr. Deeds | DVD | (02/10/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Mr Deeds (Dir. Steven Brill 2002): Small town guy Longfellow Deeds (Adam Sandler) inherits a $40 billion fortune from his deceased uncle. He promptly moves to the big city where he meets Babe Bennett (Winona Ryder) a tabloid reporter who poses as a small town girl to uncover an expos on Mr Deeds. Conniving opportunists attempt to get their hands on his money while Deeds' sincere naivet has Babe falling in love with him. Ultimately Deeds comes to find that money truly has the power to change things but it doesn't necessarily need to change him... Big Daddy (Dir. Dennis Dugan 1999): Thirty-two-year old Sonny Koufax (Adam Sandler) has spent his whole life avoiding responsibility. But when his girlfriend dumps him for an older man he's got to find a way to prove he's ready to grow up. In a desperate last-ditch effort Sonny adopts five-year-old Julian to impress her. She's not impressed...and he can't return the kid. Uh-oh for Sonny! Spanglish (Dir. James L. Brooks 2004): A comedy with a language all its own! A woman and her daughter emigrate from Mexico for a new life in America; they end up working for John Clasky (Sandler) who's trying to come to terms with sudden success as a celebrity chef an overly sensitive wife (Tea Leoni) emotional children and an increasing attraction to his new nanny...

• Mr Deeds / Big Daddy / Anger Management | DVD | (03/10/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Mr Deeds (Dir. Steven Brill 2002): Small town guy Longfellow Deeds (Adam Sandler) inherits a billion fortune from his deceased uncle. He promptly moves to the big city where he meets Babe Bennett (Winona Ryder) a tabloid reporter who poses as a small town girl to uncover an expos'' on Mr Deeds. Conniving opportunists attempt to get their hands on his money while Deeds' sincere naivet'' has Babe falling in love with him. Ultimately Deeds comes to find that money truly has the power to change things but it doesn't necessarily need to change him... Big Daddy (Dir. Dennis Dugan 1999): Thirty-two-year old Sonny Koufax (Adam Sandler) has spent his whole life avoiding responsibility. But when his girlfriend dumps him for an older man he's got to find a way to prove he's ready to grow up. In a desperate last-ditch effort Sonny adopts five-year-old Julian to impress her. She's not impressed...and he can't return the kid. Uh-oh for Sonny! Anger Management (Dir. Peter Segal 2003): Dave Buznik (Adam Sandler) is usually a mild-mannered non-confrontational guy. But after an altercation aboard an airplane he is remanded to the care of anger management therapist Dr. Buddy Rydell (Jack Nicholson) who could probably use some anger management himself. Now Dave is really mad!

• It's The Rage | DVD | (07/02/2005) from £6.92   |  Saving you £-0.93 (-15.50%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Mixing a superb cast with a serious salting of dark humour "gun culture" comedy It's The Rage is that rare thing, a genuinely outstanding film which went straight-to-video. Like Magnolia (1999) it makes coincidence a virtue in telling the stories of a group of disparate characters, and how their lives are entwined and sometimes ended because of America's obsession with firearms. When Jeff Daniels shoots his business partner, his wife, Joan Allen, leaves for a job with a software billionaire, Gary Sinise, and the film expands to encompass brother and sister punks (Giovanni Ribisi and Anna Paquin), a video store assistant, a pair of detectives and a gay couple. Adapted from his own play, Keith Reddin ensures the script remains pointed, while Sinise delivers a wonderful performance of supreme eccentricity recalling Peter Seller's Dr Strangelove. Indeed, there is much akin to Kubrick's tense, pitch-black humour in this anti-gun parable, while in various ways, from the central Daniels/Allen couple to the sardonic detachment of the music to Paquin's "almost-relationship" with an older man It's the Rage parallels the contemporaneous American Beauty (1999). It's actually the more powerful film, and though made for cable deserved all the praise it received on its festival screenings. On the DVD: The trailer doesn't capture the spirit of the film at all, while the 13-minute making-of documentary is routine promotional material. The commentary by first time film director (but veteran stage director) James D. Stern is exceptionally good, both enthusiastic and packed with information; the fact that It's The Rage really bites can almost certainly be attributed to Stern's college roommate being shot dead. The sound is Dolby Digital 5.1 and while this isn't the sort of film to show-off a sound system,it's atmospheric and the diverse music score becomes almost a character in itself. The anamorphically enhanced 1.77-1 image is good but a little grainy and shows occasional compression artifacting. --Gary S Dalkin

• Blue Steel | DVD | (24/09/2001) from £8.76   |  Saving you £11.22 (194.45%)   |  RRP £16.99

  A band of ruthless outlaws try to force out the townsfolk in a small community after gold is discovered there. But one brave man stands in their way in this tense film one of John Wayne's best early works...

• The Perfect Storm | DVD | (25/11/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £20.99

  In October 1991 the fishing community of Gloucester Massachusetts experienced the full wrath of Mother Nature when a freak meteorological event produced the fiercest storm in modern history. Director Wolfgang Petersen has fashioned this heroic true story (as chronicled in Sebastian Junger's bestseller) into a star-laden blockbuster employing computer power to whip up the terrifying titular storm. George Clooney plays Billy Tyne captain of the Andrea Gail who has been plagued by bad luck at sea and is on a poor run of catches. Frustrated by the huge hauls of the Hannah Boden captained by Linda Greenlaw (Mary Ann Mastrantonio) Tyne decides to head back out to sea for the Flemish Cap a remote area renowned for its rich fishing prospects. He is joined by a number of his regular crew including Billy Shatford (Mark Wahlberg) Dale Murphy (John C Reilly) David Sullivan (William Fichtner) Alfred Pierre (Allen Payne) and Michael Moran (John Hawkes). Sure enough Tyne's luck changes for the better at the Flemish Cap and the Andrea Gail catches a full haul. Buoyed by the money that awaits them back home the crew sets off back to Gloucester but disturbing weather patterns hamper their progress and they soon find themselves battling against 100ft waves and 120mph winds that threaten to tear the boat apart. Includes the Novel and the HBO 20 minute documentary 'Creating the Storm' highlighting the groundbreaking special effects and story behind the movie.

• Paradise Canyon | DVD | (23/02/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  An undercover federal agent is on the trail of a gang of counterfeiters. John Wyatt (Wayne) is sent under cover to follow Doc Carter's medicine show to expose a counterfeiting gang. When the main suspect is kidnapped with his daughter by the real villain Wyatt realises he has been chasing the wrong man and switches his attentions to the notorious Curly Joe...

• The Old Fashioned Way | Blu Ray | (09/11/2021) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• The Tribe - Vols. 1 And 2 | DVD | (25/03/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Let’s admit it right away, The Tribe may just be the best kids’ TV show ever. To be precise, it’s for older children and teenagers (and their parents will find it insightful, too), the very age group that occupies all the roles in this post-apocalyptic tale. Mixing the scenario of Lord of the Flies (except there are, y’know, girls in it as well) with the visual imagery of Mad Max and the angst-ridden psychodrama of Sweet Valley High, The Tribe tells of a near-future in which the world’s adult population has been wiped out by a virus. Of course, society’s infrastructure has gone, too, so the youthful survivors not only have to deal with all the usual trials and tribulations of childhood and adolescence but must also develop some form of functioning society of their own, without any form of adult intervention and with only the barest amount of technology. What happens, of course, is that all the social ills of the old world, from bullying to teenage pregnancy, are writ 10 times larger in the new. The ways in which the characters cope (or fail to cope) with these issues are both exasperating and deeply moving. --Roger Thomas