"Actor: Mary Randle"

• Hollow Man | DVD | (26/03/2001) from £5.13   |  Saving you £14.86 (289.67%)   |  RRP £19.99

  In Paul Verhoeven's appropriately shallow Hollow Man, Kevin Bacon plays a bad-boy egotistical scientist who heads up a double-secret government team experimenting with turning life-forms invisible. How do we know he's a bad boy? Because he (a) wears a leather overcoat, (b) compares himself to God, (c) drives a sports car and (d) spies on his comely next-door neighbour while eating Twinkies. Sadly, this is the most character development anyone gets in this undernourished action/sci-fi thriller, which boasts some phenomenal, seamless and Oscar-worthy computer effects and some amazingly ridiculous plot twists. After experimenting rather ruthlessly on a menagerie of lab animals, Bacon finally cracks the code that will turn the invisible gorillas, dogs and so on back into their visible forms, and promptly volunteers as a human guinea pig. Sure enough he is rendered invisible, organ by organ, vein by vein, and then proceeds to spy on his female co-workers in the bathroom and molest his comely next-door neighbour. Soon, Bacon is thoroughly psychotic, and it's up to Elisabeth Shue (Bacon's co-worker and ex-girlfriend) and hunky Josh Brolin (her current snuggle bunny) to defeat the invisible man, who's picking off the science team one by one. You'd think this would be a prime opportunity for copious amounts of cheesy sex and aggressive violence--which Verhoeven served up so well and so exuberantly in Starship Troopers and Basic Instinct--but if anything, the director seems to tone down the proceedings, and really, who wants a muted Paul Verhoeven movie? --Mark Englehart, Amazon.com On the DVD: In the audio commentary with director Paul Verhoeven and star Kevin Bacon, Hollow Man scriptwriter Andrew Marlowe reveals that the story had been in development for some nine years before it got made, and that he had worked on it for "a number of years". An amazing revelation, given that the main attraction of this DVD is surely the cutting-edge special effects and the fascinating behind-the-scenes deconstruction of them. The DVD viewer cannot help but wonder how anyone could have spent years on a script that looks like it was cobbled together over a weekend as an excuse to play around with some really neat CGI effects. The various documentary features on the disc break down all the key FX scenes in exhaustive detail, showing the creative blend of live action and CGI and all the painstaking methods by which it was achieved. Director Verhoeven is appropriately profiled as "Hollywood's Mad Scientist" in the "Anatomy of a Thriller" featurette (in the commentary he makes a comparison with Hitchcock's Rear Window that only serves to underline the gulf between his ambitious vision and its execution). Elsewhere, legendary composer Jerry Goldsmith provides a commentary to his music, which gives hope to fans that he will now do the same for some of his better scores. There are deleted scenes, trailers, storyboards and a really neat menu interface to round off an enjoyable DVD package. Anamorphic picture and sound quality are impeccable. --Mark Walker

• The Lakes 2 | DVD | (06/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The original series of the The Lakes brought writer Jimmy McGovern and actor John Simm a great deal of critical praise in 1997. Following a particularly dry period for British TV drama, the show's realistic characterisations and their painfully honest decisions hit audiences hard. Simm is a twentysomething trapped in a life of compulsive gambling, theft and being on the dole in Liverpool. On a whim he heads north to the Lake District. He expects to find the countryside quietude where his hidden poetical leanings might find a home, but instead gets caught up in a community like any other. Lies, temptation and tragedy beset every household just as much as the big city. In the second series, far longer than the first, an exploration of Danny's tortured soul might have been the obvious continuation to the story; instead an almost Hitchcockian murder scenario occupies far more screen time. But by stretching things out, this second series does not have the same self-contained impact of the original. Additional writers only served to drag out Danny's boy-to-man journey. Ultimately, lessons are learned, including the realistic conclusion that life is without a poetical status quo. Despite the tail-off in overall quality, you'd be hard pressed to identify a better British drama in the years since. --Paul Tonks

• The Lakes | DVD | (06/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The Lakes brought writer Jimmy McGovern and actor John Simm a great deal of critical praise in 1997. Following a particularly dry period for British TV drama, the show's realistic characterisations and their painfully honest decisions hit audiences hard. Simm is a twentysomething trapped in a life of compulsive gambling, theft and being on the dole in Liverpool. On a whim he heads north to the Lake District. He expects to find the countryside quietude where his hidden poetical leanings might find a home, but instead gets caught up in a community like any other. Lies, temptation and tragedy beset every household just as much as the big city. The focus of Series 1 is Danny's relationship with Emma (Emma Cunniffe) and the consequences of having a child. As time races by, his link to the Lakes becomes an exercise in torment when the eyes of blame fall easily upon him after the accidental deaths of four schoolgirls. Stoking the flames of a series of secondary explosions in waiting are a pair of affairs, one adulterous, the other complicated by religion. On the DVD: The Lakes Series 1 comes with two separate commentary tracks for the very first episode. In interviews, John Simm fondly recalls how cold the lake water was and director David Blair recalls putting him in it. It's a shame the two weren't recorded together. It's also a shame that's all there is in this package. Even a few cast biographies would have been welcome. Picture is 4:3 and stereo sound is as you'd expect from 1990s UK TV. --Paul Tonks

• Hollow Man / Hollow Man 2 | DVD | (11/09/2006) from £21.58   |  Saving you £-1.59 (-8.00%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Hollow Man: What would you do if you were invisible? How far would you go? After years of experimentation Dr. Sebastian Caine (Bacon) a brilliant but arrogant and egotistical scientist working for the defense department has successfully transformed mammals to an invisible state and brought them back to their original physical form. Determined to achieve the ultimate breakthrough Caine instructs his team to move on to Phase III: human experimentation. Using himself as the first subject the invisible Caine finds himself free to do the unthinkable. But Caine's experiment takes an unexpected turn when his team can't bring him back. As the days pass he grows more and more out of control doomed to a future without flesh as the Hollow Man. (Dir. Peter Verhoeven 2000) Hollow Man 2: There's more to terror than meets the eye... Christian Slater stars in the action-packed sequel to the box office hit Hollow Man as a volunteer soldier/assassin who goes mad after he turns invisible. A driven Seattle detective Frank Turner and the molecular biologist Maggie Dalton he's been assigned to protect find themselves on the run from an undetectable soldier gone rogue. He will destroy everything in his path in order to find the serum to save his life and punish the unscrupulous scientists and agents of the government responsible for this creation.... (Dir. Claudio Fah 2006)

• Grand Canyon | DVD | (06/05/2002) from £17.99   |  Saving you £-5.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A captivating story about midlife issues 'Grand Canyon' centres on the comings and goings of six characters and the unexpected miracles that occur in their lives. Affluent lawyer Mack (Kevin Kline) breaks down in the wrong neighbourhood and is threatened by a street gang. When tow-truck driver Simon (Danny Glover) arrives in the nick of time and defuses the situation Mack is so grateful he considers how he could improve Simon's life. Mack is married to Claire (Mary McDonnell) wh

• Midsomer Murders - Things That Go Bump In The Night | DVD | (03/04/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99

  In the Fletcher's Cross Village Hall Rosetta Price is seated with her eyes closed watched by an eager audience. She is the medium of the Spirit of Friendship group and issues a warning of impending sorrow for someone that evening. Shortly afterwards the body of renowned skinflint and local funeral director Patrick Pennyman is discovered by his wife. Is this a coincidental case of suicide? To unravel the mystery Barnaby and Scott must delve into the mystical goings on at the spiritua

• Hollow Man | DVD | (22/10/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  At a top secret military lab, a group of brilliant young scientists have just unlocked the secret of invisibility.

• Hollow Man | UMD | (01/09/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

• Hollow Man --Superbit | DVD | (14/10/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  What would you do if you were invisible? How far would you go? After years of experimentation Dr. Sebastian Caine (Bacon) a brilliant but arrogant and egotistical scientist working for the defense department has successfully transformed mammals to an invisible state and brought them back to their original physical form. Determined to achieve the ultimate breakthrough Caine instructs his team to move on to Phase III: human experimentation. Using himself as the first subject th