"Actor: Martin Delany"

• Housesitter | DVD | (14/04/2003) from £9.43   |  Saving you £0.56 (5.94%)   |  RRP £9.99

  A slick, smart vehicle for Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn, Housesitter offers an acceptably daffy premise and enough inventive business to sustain it through to the, not unexpected, happy ending. Architect Martin builds a dream home for his childhood sweetheart (Dana Delaney) only to be rejected when he proposes marriage. After a one-night stand, Hawn--a daffy waitress with a gift for making up improbable but convincing lies--moves into Martin's house and tells his parents (Donald Moffatt, Julie Harris) and the whole community that she is his surprise new wife. When he sees how this impresses Delaney, Martin goes along with the charade, encouraging wilder and wilder fictions and doing his best to join in so that he can rush through to a divorce and move on to the woman he has always wanted. Hawn has to recruit a couple of winos to pose as her parents and impress Martin's boss into giving him a promotion, but we glimpse her real misery at his eventual intention to toss her out of the make-believe world she has created because her own real background is so grim. Its sit-com hi-jinx are manic enough not to be strangled by an inevitable dip in to sentiment towards the end, and Hawn, who always has to work hard, is better matched against the apparently effortless Martin than in their subsequent pairing in Out-of-Towners. Martin, often wasted in comparatively straight roles, has a few wild and crazy scenes as Hawn prompts him into joining her improvised fantasies. Director Frank Oz, a frequent Martin collaborator (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Little Shop of Horrors, Bowfinger), is the model of a proper, competent, professional craftsman when he sets out to put a comedy together--but the film misses streaks of lunacy or cruelty that might have made it funnier and more affecting. On the DVD: The disc offers a pristine widescreen non-anamorphic transfer, letterboxed to 1.85:1. There are no extra features to speak of, just text-based production notes, cast and director bios, plus a trailer and an assortment of language and subtitle options. --Kim Newman

• Mrs Brown's Boys - Series 2 | Blu Ray | (08/10/2012) from £10.78   |  Saving you £14.21 (131.82%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The nation's mother of comedy returns for a second, more outrageous & hilarious, series. TV's funniest and proudest mother, Agnes Brown, is back with the second series of her hit BBC comedy show. Mrs Brown, the loveable Dublin matriarch, continues her quest to meddle and interfere in the lives of her long suffering 6 children, with even more shocking and hilarious consequences.The nation's most endearing mother hen promises to be a little bit ruder, a little bit cruder and even more fun in this second series.Thought you'd seen Mrs Brown at her most outrageous in series one? Well you ain't seen nothing yet!!

• Housesitter/Bird On A Wire | DVD | (26/02/2007) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-7.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Housesitter (Dir. Frank Oz 1992): Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn star in this hilarious romantic comedy about the consequences of ""stretching"" the truth. When architect Newton Davis' girlfriend Becky (Dana Delany) turns down his marriage proposal his newly-built dream house suddenly becomes nothing more than an empty monument to her rejection. That is until a chance encounter with Gwen (Hawn) turns his life upside-down. Intrigued by Newton's story Gwen visits the house and decides to move in on her own. Resourceful and creative Gwen is soon fixing up the house and charming Newton's family and neighbors - all the while passing herself off as his new wife! Gwen even befriends Becky who begins to see a Newton she never knew existed. Horrified at the deception yet unable to stop it Newton finds himself playing along with her preposterous stories her attempts at reconciling differences within his family and her campaign for his promotion at work. Finally he convinces Gwen to fabricate their ""divorce"" so he can still get married to Becky - until he has a change of heart. It's a delightful warmhearted and intelligent comedy from director Frank Oz. Bird On A Wire (Dir. John Badham 1990): Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn star in this action-packed comedy directed by John Badham about two old flames who meet by accident and are plunged into a cross-country run for their lives.

• Sergeant Bilko / Housesitter / Roxanne | DVD | (06/09/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Sgt. Bilko: Sgt. Bilko is back and up to his old tricks. The arrival of Major Thorn threatens to put a stop to the casino under-the-table deals and Bilko's other illicit businesses... Housesitter: When architect Newton Davis' girlfriend Becky (Dana Delany) turns down his marriage proposal his newly-built dream house suddenly becomes nothing more than an empty monument to her rejection. That is until a chance encounter with Gwen (Hawn) turns his life upside-down. Intrigued by Newton's story Gwen visits the house and decides to move in on her own. Resourceful and creative Gwen is soon fixing up the house and charming Newton's family and neighbors - all the while passing herself off as his new wife! Gwen even befriends Becky who begins to see a Newton she never knew existed. Horrified at the deception yet unable to stop it Newton finds himself playing along with her preposterous stories her attempts at reconciling differences within his family and her campaign for his promotion at work. Finally he convinces Gwen to fabricate their 'divorce' so he can still get married to Becky - until he has a change of heart... Roxanne: Small town fire chief CD Bales (Steve Martin) falls madly in love with the new girl in town a gorgeous astronomer (Daryl Hannah). But there's an enormous problem - CD has an amazingly big nose and is convinced that such a beauty could never love a man with such a gargantuan appendage. Roxanne proves him right when she falls for Chris a hunky and good looking fireman. The mayhem continues when CD agrees to ghost-write Chris's love letters in which he pours out his own secret feelings. In this charming modersnisation of the Cyrano de Bergerac story will CD's nose (and Chris's body) come between him and true love?

• Housesitter | DVD | (25/06/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A slick, smart vehicle for Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn, Housesitter offers an acceptably daffy premise and enough inventive business to sustain it through to the, not unexpected, happy ending. Architect Martin builds a dream home for his childhood sweetheart (Dana Delaney) only to be rejected when he proposes marriage. After a one-night stand, Hawn--a daffy waitress with a gift for making up improbable but convincing lies--moves into Martin's house and tells his parents (Donald Moffatt, Julie Harris) and the whole community that she is his surprise new wife. When he sees how this impresses Delaney, Martin goes along with the charade, encouraging wilder and wilder fictions and doing his best to join in so that he can rush through to a divorce and move on to the woman he has always wanted. Hawn has to recruit a couple of winos to pose as her parents and impress Martin's boss into giving him a promotion, but we glimpse her real misery at his eventual intention to toss her out of the make-believe world she has created because her own real background is so grim. Its sit-com hi-jinx are manic enough not to be strangled by an inevitable dip in to sentiment towards the end, and Hawn, who always has to work hard, is better matched against the apparently effortless Martin than in their subsequent pairing in Out-of-Towners. Martin, often wasted in comparatively straight roles, has a few wild and crazy scenes as Hawn prompts him into joining her improvised fantasies. Director Frank Oz, a frequent Martin collaborator (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Little Shop of Horrors, Bowfinger), is the model of a proper, competent, professional craftsman when he sets out to put a comedy together--but the film misses streaks of lunacy or cruelty that might have made it funnier and more affecting. On the DVD: The disc offers a pristine widescreen non-anamorphic transfer, letterboxed to 1.85:1. There are no extra features to speak of, just text-based production notes, cast and director bios, plus a trailer and an assortment of language and subtitle options. --Kim Newman