"Actor: Michael Chandler"

• The Lord of the Rings (Animated Version) | DVD | (26/11/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated adaptation of The Lord of the Rings is a bold, colourful, ambitious failure. Severely truncated, this two-hour version tackles only about half the story, climaxing with the battle of Helm's Deep and leaving poor Frodo and Sam still stuck on the borders of Mordor with Gollum. Allegedly, the director ran out of money and was unable to complete the project. As far as the film does go, however, it is a generally successful attempt at rendering Tolkien's landscapes of the imagination. Bakshi's animation uses a blend of conventional drawing and rotoscoped (traced) animated movements from live-action footage. The latter is at least in part a money-saving device, but it does succeed in lending some depth and a sense of otherworldly menace to the Black Riders and hordes of Orcs: Frodo's encounter at the ford of Rivendell, for example, is one of the movie's best scenes thanks to this mixture of animation techniques. Backdrops are detailed and well-conceived, and all the main characters are strongly drawn. Among a good cast, John Hurt (Aragorn) and C3PO himself, Anthony Daniels (Legolas), provide sterling voice characterisation, while Peter Woodthorpe gives what is surely the definitive Gollum (he revived his portrayal a couple of years later for BBC Radio's exhaustive 13-hour dramatisation). The film's other outstanding virtue is avant-garde composer Leonard Rosenman's magnificent score in which chaotic musical fragments gradually coalesce to produce the triumphant march theme that closes the picture. None of which makes up for the incompleteness of the movie, nor the severe abridging of the story actually filmed. Add to that some oddities--such as intermittently referring to Saruman as "Aruman"--and the final verdict must be that this is a brave yet ultimately unsatisfying work, noteworthy as the first attempt at transferring Tolkien to the big screen but one whose virtues are overshadowed by incompleteness. --Mark Walker

• And Starring Pancho Villa As Himself | DVD | (08/02/2004) from £5.61   |  Saving you £8.38 (149.38%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Antonio Banderas delivers a powerful performance as the title character of this incredible true story of how Mexican Revolutionary Pancho Villa allowed a Hollywood crew to film him in battle altering the course of film and military history in the process...

• Mulholland Falls | DVD | (22/03/2004) from £9.84   |  Saving you £-0.86 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Mulholland Falls tells the story of four no-nonsense cops nicknamed the ""Hat Squad"" who formed an elite unit of the Los Angeles Police Department in the early 1950's. Both feared and revered they made their own rules to enforce the law but when a routine murder investigation case involves one of their own it forces the ""Hats"" into a confrontation with a power greater than organised crime: one that could bring down the squad itself...

• The Dangerous Lives Of Altar Boys | DVD | (28/06/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  After being caught drawing an obscene comic book a group of Catholic school friends plan a prank to make them local legends...

• Casper - A Spirited Beginning / Casper Meets Wendy | DVD | (09/09/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  A Spirited Beginning Casper gets caught up in adventure at Ghost Central Station... Casper Meets Wendy An evil warlord discovers that a witch called Wendy is more powerful then he so he sends his minions to capture her and send her to a magical abyss but he doesn't count on the intervention of Casper...

• Death Factory | DVD | (23/06/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  This dark and decrepit factory was once used to make deadly experimental chemicals. One of the workers contracted a grim virus and the company denied responsibility. The ill worker quit her job once she started to physically mutate. As the time went by she returned to the factory a half-human creature driven mad and craving human blood to survive. In an orgy of bloodshed she maliciously slaughtered all of her co-workers. The vile creature disappeared and the factory was shut down.

• Phantasm III - Lord Of The Dead | DVD | (05/09/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Thirteen years after the original nightmare began Mike and Reggie reunite with the spirit of Mike's dead brother and are pursued by The Tall Man through warped dimensions of space and time. Who Will reign supreme? Prepared to be scared witless as the fine line between the living and the dead snaps with a vengeance!

• Spice World - the Movie | DVD | (01/10/1999) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  One of the reasons that the Spice Girls remain so much fun is that in the great British tradition, they don't take themselves too seriously. Like The Beatles before them, the girls are more than happy to take pot-shots at their own manufactured image, something that Spiceworld: The Movie revels in. It doesn't hurt, of course, that plenty of others are along for the ride: Richard E. Grant chews scenery as the road manager; Meat Loaf is the kindly, ever-reliable bus driver; Elvis Costello (!) makes a tongue-in-cheek cameo; and Roger Moore is... well, bizarre. The plot, as such, is merely a convenience, somehow tying together the girls' first-ever live concert, a pregnant friend, a documentary film crew, a non-Spice love story, and something or other about a tabloid photographer. But that's not the point--what matters here is a surprisingly deft touch by director Bob Spiers and a script that refuses to take anything too seriously; the result is a gentle self-parody that knows just how far to take the joke. --Randy Silver

• The Lord of the Rings -- Limited Edition Box Set | DVD | (26/11/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated adaptation of The Lord of the Rings is a bold, colourful, ambitious failure. Severely truncated, this two-hour version tackles only about half the story, climaxing with the battle of Helm's Deep and leaving poor Frodo and Sam still stuck on the borders of Mordor with Gollum. Allegedly, the director ran out of money and was unable to complete the project. As far as the film does go, however, it is a generally successful attempt at rendering Tolkien's landscapes of the imagination. Bakshi's animation uses a blend of conventional drawing and rotoscoped (traced) animated movements from live-action footage. The latter is at least in part a money-saving device, but it does succeed in lending some depth and a sense of otherworldly menace to the Black Riders and hordes of Orcs: Frodo's encounter at the ford of Rivendell, for example, is one of the film's best scenes thanks to this mixture of animation techniques. Backdrops are detailed and well conceived, and all the main characters are strongly drawn. Among a good cast, John Hurt (Aragorn) and C3PO himself, Anthony Daniels (Legolas), provide sterling voice characterisation, while Peter Woodthorpe gives what is surely the definitive Gollum (he revived his portrayal a couple of years later for BBC Radio's exhaustive 13-hour dramatisation). The film's other outstanding virtue is avant-garde composer Leonard Rosenman's magnificent score in which chaotic musical fragments gradually coalesce to produce the triumphant march theme that closes the picture. None of which makes up for the incompleteness of the movie, nor the severe abridging of the story actually filmed. Add to that some oddities--such as intermittently referring to Saruman as "Aruman"--and the final verdict must be that this is a brave yet ultimately unsatisfying work, noteworthy as the first attempt at transferring Tolkien to the big screen but one whose virtues are overshadowed by incompleteness. --Mark Walker

• Phantasm III | DVD | (31/10/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Thirteen years after the original nightmare began Mike and Reggie reunite with the spirit of Mike's dead brother and are pursued by The Tall Man through warped dimensions of space and time. Who will reign supreme? Prepare to be scared witless as the fine line between the living and the dead snaps with a vengeance!

• Spirit Hunters | DVD | (01/04/2013) from £9.43   |  Saving you £3.56 (27.40%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A cinematographer and soundman Morgan and Cricket head to a remote Idaho ranch to film the pilot episode of Spirit Seekers a new reality TV show about ghost hunters. When the host dies during filming the production shuts down. Unbeknownst to the cast and crew the show's director planned the host's death to boost ratings. Dr. Randolf Fairfax (Doug Jones) fears the bloodshed has awoken supernatural spirits that are now hellbent on their own revenge! The crew must try to survive dodging bullets ghosts and scheming television producers (played by Star Trek's Robert Picardo and Michael Dorn) as they race to find out what is really going on at the end of the road.

• Don't Look In The Basement | DVD | (29/11/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £7.99

  In an experimental hospital for the criminally insane the 'pioneering' director continues to introduce unorthadox methods despite the protestors of an anxious community. In awe of his experiments he allows the inmates to act out their wild and brutal fantasies... slowly but surely the nurse and her patients descend into a dark abyss of sex and death. Who can survive the carnage... where should they look for help? One things for sure... dont look in the basement!