"Actor: Lisa"

• The Doll Squad | DVD | (23/07/2001) from £8.47   |  Saving you £-5.48 (-183.30%)   |  RRP £2.99

  Both director-entrepreneur Ted V Mikels and the packaging of The Doll Squad claim that the TV show Charlie's Angels was ripped off from this cheapo action film. In truth both concepts owe a lot to Emma Peel, Pussy Galore's Flying Circus or the femme armies that crop up in Our Man Flint and other 60s spy efforts. Despite its (horrible) lounge score and eye-straining selection of flared, midriff-baring 70s outfits, Mikels' opus is basically a late-trailing Bond knock-off shot without a stunt budget. Extortionist baddie Eamon O'Reilly (the usually classier Michael Ansara) wants to blackmail the US into handing over secrets and giving into a load of terrorist demands by spreading a bubonic plague manufactured by twin (or clone) mad scientists. "Big Bertha", a computer, suggests that the best way to nail O'Reilly is to send out "the Doll Squad", a cadre of female agents led by Sabrina (Francine York), who can take advantage of his weakness for women (and occasional impotence). The first two choices, a Q-type scientist and a martial artist, are killed by O'Reilly's goons, though Sabrina sees off her would-be assassin with a cigarette lighter/flamethrower that scars his face (and only mildly perturbs the people in the next booth at the bar), so she rounds up a new gang of hairspray-addicted fashion victims: a librarian (Sherri Vernon), a stripper (Tura Satana) and a swimmer (Leigh Christian), later hauling in a squealy and useless undercover girl who is easily kidnapped by O'Reilly to lead them into a trap. We're supposed to believe most of the action takes place in a Dr No-like island retreat but it looks a lot like scrubby California desert and the director's ranch-style "castle". Aside from some fab gear (matching jumpsuits with bust-accenting white lines) the girls have little to do but run around shooting inept stuntmen. On the DVD: For a marginal title, The Doll Squad offers some pleasing extras: a lurid trailer that's probably a more fun watch than the film ("Sabrina's code-prefex is OO-38-24-35!"); a gallery of publicity materials and stills; an exhaustive Mikels filmography; and an odd 1993 interview with the director. The film itself looks as good as it ever will--it's muddily photographed with low-tech effects (the flamethrower flames are just scratched on the emulsion) but at least the colours are vivid and the print is in great condition. --Kim Newman

• Bloodsport 4 | DVD | (10/02/2000) from £15.97   |  Saving you £-5.98 (-59.90%)   |  RRP £9.99

• Andromeda - Season 1 - Vol. 4 | DVD | (26/08/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  No sci-fi show can be without a trial episode accusing someone of past crimes. "Forced Perspective" sees Dylan accused of a 300-year-old war atrocity and having to argue the case from very peculiar perspectives. This episode feels like filler, but the viewer ought to pick up on two important aspects of the show happening on the periphery. What's going on between Tyr and Beka? Even more importantly, what's going on with Trance? An interesting reversal of roles is presented to Dylan when an organised group of machines offer for him to join their Consensus of Parts. Neither is fully willing to join the other however, and so "The Sum of Its Parts" turns out to be less than either hoped for. This episode was another cowritten by a noted science fiction author, and Steven Barnes injects some welcome introspection into the proceeding story arc. "Fear and Loathing in the Milky Way" is experienced by all following the return of the Eureka Maru's original commissioning lowlife, Gerentex ("Under the Night"). Trance's deft sleight of hand helps at the casino tables, while Harper's wisecracking front finally slips to reveal a man capable of action in a tight spot. We also learn exactly how Beka practices Valentineology. At long last we learn Rev's full name (Reverend Behemiel) and get a fuller explanation of his Wayist belief. "The Devil Take the Hindmost" reveals Jesus to be one of the revered Saints too. This was actually one of the first plot lines considered for the show, but caught up with its own internal story arcs, Rev's character has had to wait until now for a proper spotlight. --Paul Tonks

• Late Bloomers | DVD | (06/11/2006) from £19.75   |  Saving you £0.24 (1.22%)   |  RRP £19.99

  At a suburban Texas high school Dinah (Connie Nelson) a geometry teacher who coaches the girls' basketball team and Carly (Dee Hennigan) a principal's assistant who is also the wife of an algebra teacher kiss during a basketball lesson and find themselves embarking on an affair. When word gets out they find themselves in the middle of a scandal that rocks the foundations of their pious community. Winner of the 1996 Sundance Film Festival.

• Wim Wenders - Story Of His Early Years | DVD | (27/10/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Drawing parallels between his early films and his personal biography this documentary traces Wim Wenders' own history focussing on the director's life prior to his leaving Germany for the USA after his international breakthrough with The American Friend (1976/77). In intimate conversations Wim Wenders talks about his sheltered upbringing in post-war Germany. The film follows him on a journey into the past that takes him to Paris where he lived as a young painter and made his decision to become a filmmaker. He recounts his experiences successes and failures as a film student on the way to becoming a director. He also conveys the attitudes and the euphoric mood among the first intake of students at Munich's newly founded film school. Apart from Wenders himself some of his most important fellow-travellers also have their say including Peter Handke Robby M''ller R''diger Vogler Bruno Ganz and Lisa Kreuzer. As they remember they discuss some of the fundamental recurring themes of Wenders' films such as the search for identity friendship and communication.

• Tick Tock Lullaby | DVD | (07/07/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  A wry comedy feature about whether to have a baby or not. Sasha a cartoonist can't decide whether she wants a baby with girlfriend Maya. She invents two straight scenarios - because she presumes they have it easier. She's wrong the three stories start to collide and mistakes happen.

• Andromeda - Season 3 - Vol. 2 | DVD | (03/05/2004) from £4.09   |  Saving you £17.16 (606.36%)   |  RRP £19.99

  C.06 - Slipfighter The Dogs Of War When it becomes clear that the planet Marduk has developed a weapon which can destory stars the ANDROMEDA goes to stop them but vital to the mission is a Tyr who's lost faith in his his abilities... C.07 - The Leper's Kiss Dylan discovers he has only 72 hours to prevent the assassination of a freind and sets off with Tyr and Beka on a chase for the efficient killer. But who or where is 'The Leper'. And can he be found in time? C.08 - For Whom The Bell Tolls After a routine mission Dylan discovers that something has got aboard his ship causing disruptions power failures and even ghostly aparitions - can the ANDROMEDA ascendant really be haunted? C.09 - And Your Heart Will Fly Away When Tyr disappears and the ANDROMEDA comes under attack from a shape-changing force Dylan and friends try to link the two events discovering the story of a lost love and revenge... C.10 - The Unconquerable Man Setting things to rights may be a noble intention but the reality can be somewhat different. Dylan's old colleague Gaheris Rhade is getting a second chance at restoring order to the universe - but at what cost?

• 101 Dalmatians Platinum Edition - Deluxe Book Pack | DVD | (03/03/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  101 Dalmatians is back in this special Deluxe Book pack! Relive this classic animated tale about Pongo Perdita and their family of Dalmatians! When Pongo and Perdita a pair of adorable Dalmatians play Cupid for their human pets wedding bells soon ring! In a short time the dogs become the proud parents of 15 winsome puppies but their happiness is short-lived. The wicked Cruella De Vil wants to buy the all puppies - to make a coat! When her dastardly offer is turned down she orders her bumbling henchmen Horace and Jasper to abscond with the puppies as well as every other Dalmatian puppy in London. Pongo and Perdita must rally a network of animals across England with the 'twilight bark' to help find Cruella's secret hideaway and rescue 99 precious puppies.

• Gremloids | DVD | (19/08/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £1.99

  Not long ago in a galaxy too close for comfort the rebel alliance intercepted some secret transmissions from imperial leader Lord Buckethead. Buckethead and his alien cohorts mistakenly traced the transmissions to the planet Earth where they found a peculiar and frustrating new resistance at work. Now the fate of mankind is in the hands of a pest control expert a geriatric superhero and a speech impedimented alien with a coal-scuttle for a head in this outrageous comedy in the tradition of 'Spaceballs'!

• Space Fury | DVD | (08/03/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £2.99

  Two American astronauts are involved in a collision with a Russian space station. One of them is more than he appears; a terrorist with plans to sabotage the mission...

• The Soldier | DVD | (07/02/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Soviet spies disguised as Middle Eastern terrorists hold the entire world hostage by threatening to annihilate a large portion of the planet's oil supply. With no-one else to turn to the US government enlists its best intelligence officer simply known as 'The Soldier'...

• Ghoul School | DVD | (20/06/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Two drug dealers are infected with a vampiric virus by female angels united to declare war on humanity and reclaim Earth which they believe is rightly their own. In an interesting twist it is the realm of the underworld which must come to the rescue in the form of demons who are perfectly satisfied to have the three worlds co-exist as they are...

• Friends, Series 7 - Episodes 13-16 | DVD | (27/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Lots happened behind the scenes between seasons and early on in the seventh year of the hit comedy, leaving audiences speculating that this might be the last. Perry became seriously ill again, and returned looking more emaciated than ever. Cox regained weight, but despite finishing Scream 3 happily, things were already rocky with David Arquette. Much was made in the press about Aniston marrying Brad Pitt, of course, but the real news (allaying fans' fears) was NBC's expensive renewal of the cast for two years at $750,000 per episode each (more than six times their previous increase). On-screen, at least there was Chandler and Monica's engagement lasting the whole year, despite predictable ups and downs (eg: "T.O.W. The Truth About London" revealing that Monica fancied Joey). By the time we finally get to "T.O.W. Chandler's Dad" (Kathleen Turner), it seems inevitable that the two-part finale will be an insane mess--but with a happy-ish ending. Sure enough, "T.O.W. Chandler and Monica's Wedding" features Gary Oldman joining in the chaos as Chandler repeatedly goes missing. Other star-turns in the year were Seinfeld's Jason Alexander as a suicidal Office Manager, Susan Sarandon as soap queen bitch Jessica Lockhart, Denise Richards as one of Ross and Monica's endless number of cousins and Winona Ryder as a surprise old friend, prompting "T.O.W. Rachel's Big Kiss". But perhaps the most telling instalment of this weirdly atmospheric year was "T.O.W. They All Turn Thirty". It suggested that maybe the Friends are all getting too old to carry on living their frivolous lives the same way after all. Paul Tonks

• Andromeda - Season 1 - Vol. 5 | DVD | (09/09/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Things never go well when the Andromeda Ascendant takes on passengers. When Dylan agrees to transport the bride of an arranged wedding, "The Honey Offering" is tastes bad from the outset. Kimberly Huie gives a memorable acid-tongued performance as the lady in question. The real clue that things were doomed ought to have been Tyr's reservations over the two rival Nietzschean prides genuinely wanting to heal their breach. "Star-Crossed" is the Series One episode that caused more gossip than any other. Stargate regular Michael Shanks guest stars, falls in love with Rommie on screen (and with Lexa Doig off screen), and then suddenly quits SG-1. There's certainly a spark between them in the show to support the gossip. The secondary cause for talk was its broadcast rescheduling in sympathy with the events of September 11 since it opens with a terrorist attack. As sci-fi show producers realise, they have an ongoing franchise on their hands, one of the contemporary issues to inevitably crop up is drug addiction. Here it's Beka who loses control of her addiction to a substance called Flash, and all she can see is that "It Makes a Lovely Light". Behind this surface narrative is a continued search for Dylan's long-lost home. The point ultimately becomes that he'd rather safeguard his crew than his memories. Criticised in some places for its extreme violence, the season finale "Its Hour Come 'Round at Last" will stay with you one way or another. Maybe for the sight of an alternate Rommie turning uncharacteristically nasty on every one and seriously kicking butt. Or maybe the mind-blowing Magog Worldship, made up of 20 planets and their sun. Or maybe just the seemingly impossible scenario each major character is faced with as the show ends. --Paul Tonks

• ESPN 30 for 30 Unmatched | DVD | (17/10/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The first time Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova stepped onto a tennis court together, the world scarcely noticed. Only a few hundred spectators saw the pert 18-year-old beat the scrappy 16-year-old Czech in 1973, but theirs was a rivalry that would enter sporting legend: no two athletes have met in as many matches or world championships, in any sport, as Evert and Navratilova. Seemingly polar opposites in terms of their upbringing, lifestyles and personal relationships, the Florida-born all-American Evert and the Czech-born Navratilova met a total of 80 times on the court, and between them claimed the end-of-season world number one ranking for 12 consecutive years. Their rivalry endured, and perhaps even created, the huge transformation of the women's game during the 1970s and 1980s, but perhaps most surprisingly led to a lifelong friendship between two titans of their sport.Close friends to this day, the two women now look back on their fierce rivalry and the changing face of tennis over the past 40 years.

• Friends - Series 8 - Episodes 5-8 | DVD | (18/03/2002) from £6.39   |  Saving you £0.60 (8.60%)   |  RRP £6.99

  In the second volume of Friends Series 8, the next stage of Rachel's pregnancy is coping with everyone else's reactions and expectations. Immediately in "The One with Rachel's Date" we learn that Ross can't distinguish between father and friend. While their relationship grows ever more complicated, Phoebe just can't sit still as she moves from an infatuation with a sous-chef to her twin sister's fiancé (guest star Sean Penn). "The One with the Halloween Party" is when they meet, making for typically daft fun with the gang in costume: Monica is Catwoman, Phoebe is Supergirl, Chandler is The Velveteen Rabbit, Ross is Spudnik and Joey is Chandler! Penn's cameo continues into "The One with the Stain": while Rachel prays for an old lady to kick the bucket so she can get her apartment, Monica is concerned about the Maid she arranged. But that's nothing compared to her concerns over "The One with the Stripper" that she inadvertently arranges for Chandler! Highlights of this volume include meeting Rachel's explosive father, seeing her hand out cheques instead of candy at Halloween and learning why Chandler should be called Muriel instead of Toby. --Paul Tonks

• James Brown Live From The House Of Blues | DVD | (11/09/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

• Callan - Series 1 - Part 1 Of 3 - Episodes 1 - 3 | DVD | (03/09/2001) from £6.98   |  Saving you £9.01 (129.08%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Introduced in "A Magnum for Schneider", the hour-long 1967 Armchair Theatre episode of Callan written by James Mitchell about a disillusioned British secret agent of the same name (starring Edward Woodward), went on to offer four popular (if downbeat) series, a spin-off movie remaking the original story and a some-years-later wrap-up play "Wet Job". Remembered for its very distinctive opening titles, with a swinging broken-light bulb and a memorable theme tune, the series adopted a Deighton-LeCarré approach to the grim, treacherous, grubby business of Cold War espionage and made a TV star of the intense Woodward as the sweaty, sometimes conscience-stricken, sometimes robotic Callan. Even in the 21st century this still seems as strong, its complex stories and impressive performances outweighing a low-budget mix of video and film in the production that makes it seem less "professional" than other shows of the time. A great deal of the series opener is devoted to bringing on new regulars. Theres a fresh Mr Hunter who, like Number Two on The Prisoner--with which Callan shares series editor George Markstein--was a title not a name, so several actors held the position over the course of the show. Theres also the trendily mulleted thug Cross (Patrick Mower), who would go spectacularly off the rails in the next series and a half. In a dramatic device that has long since fallen out of fashion in television, Callan episodes tend to wind up by leaving the audience to work out all the connections of the plot while Callan himself sits gloomily and ponders the wretchedness of his squalid world. --Kim Newman

• The Irresponsible Captain Tylor TV Series | Blu Ray | (05/10/2021) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Ejecta | DVD | (19/01/2015) from £18.88   |  Saving you £-3.89 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Starring Julian Richings (Man of Steel Cube) EJECTA is the story of one night on earth that changed everything we know about the universe. On the eve of a historic solar storm two men are forced to survive a terrifying life form that's hunting them. In the aftermath of their close encounter an anonymous militia group will stop at nothing to unearth the truth behind what happened that night and prove to the world that we were never alone in the universe.