"Actor: Kelly Thordsen"

• The Ugly Dachshund | DVD | (29/03/2004) from £3.99   |  Saving you £11.00 (275.69%)   |  RRP £14.99

  When a Great Dane puppy is raised with a litter of Dachshunds, it naturally thinks it's a Dachshund too--even when it grows to 10 times the size. Dean Jones and Suzanne Pleshette star as the hapless couple who took in the galumphing dog, which wreaks havoc on their house and home. The Ugly Dachshund is mostly a series of spectacular disasters (the doggy demolition of Jones's art studio will delight kids and reduce adults to nervous wrecks), but it's held together by the convincing domestic banter of Jones and Pleshette (who was quite a dish in 1965); the pair went on to star in a couple of other Disney live-action flicks, Bluebeard's Ghost and The Shaggy D.A.. Despite some racial and gender stereotypes, it's a good-natured and amusing movie in the Disney mold. Also featuring classic character actor Charlie Ruggles (Bringing Up Baby, The Parent Trap). --Bret Fetzer

• The Parallax View | DVD | (02/02/2004) from £17.95   |  Saving you £-1.96 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  There is no conspiracy. Just twelve people dead. Alan J. Pakula's The Parallax View a superb conspiracy thriller about one man's paranoia that turns out to be total incredible fact ranks among the best movies of its kind. Warren Beatty is a news reporter who aong with seven others witnesses the assassination of a political candidate. When the other seven die in ""accidents"" the newsman begins to doubt the offiical position: that the lone madman was responsible for the crime. He imagines a sophisticated network of highly trained murderers. But his nightmares pale against the bizarre truth he uncovers.

• Good Times | DVD | (08/04/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  A real archaeological artefact from 1967, Good Times will be mostly of interest to anyone who wants to see a parade of fashions that Austin Powers would reject as too garish to be seen on the street in. The nothingy plot concerns then-married Sonny and Cher playing themselves as a one-note bickering sit-com couple, signing up with sinister film tycoon Mordicus (an impeccable George Sanders) to make a movie but not wanting to do the mouldy rags-to-riches hillbilly script on offer. Cher is supposed to be less interested than Sonny in making a movie--which might well have been the truth since she mostly lies around doodling outrageous fashion designs or contributing her strange sung-through-the-nose vocals as poor, goofy Sonny does all the hard work flogging life into skits that had been squeezed dry by the Monkees before being passed to him. The finale finds Sonny and Cher standing up for integrity and refusing to make a bad film even if it means they gets blacklisted all over town--a lesson it's a shame that they (especially Cher) didn't take to heart in their later careers. Astonishingly, this was the feature directorial debut of The Exorcist's William Friedkin, who fills the screen with colour, action and gaggery after the manner of the then-hip Batman TV show while focusing on screaming outfits that remain among the darnedest things you ever saw. Aside from a reprise of "I Got You, Babe", the score is a little light on the slim canon of S&C hits; the songs included are "It's the Little Things", "Good Times", "Trust Me", "Don't Talk to Strangers", "I'm Gonna Love You" and "Just a Name". The DVD extras include a few sketchy bios and a jump-to-a-song feature. --Kim Newman