"Actor: Miguel Alejandro"

• The Last Valley | DVD | (02/04/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  James Clavell's The Last Valley is a heartfelt film of paradise found and lost in the midst of the bloody Thirty Years War, a senseless religious conflict long since degenerated into a rabble of looters preying on peasants. It's also a triumph of passion over style. Michael Caine stars as the Captain, a happily tolerant leader whose army of mercenaries--a mix of Protestants and Catholics--murders, pillages and rapes side by side for whichever faction is paying more at the time. Omar Sharif is Vogel, a lone refugee whose flight from the marauding band leads them all to a beautiful village in the mountains. The Captain and Vogel make an unlikely pair: the shrewd mercenary with the dream of peace, and the philosopher-peasant hanging on to his own life in the face of certain death--and their alliance to preserve this Eden and her people stands in contrast to the soldiers who soon become splintered by greed, lust and religious zealotry. Clavell isn't exactly subtle, but his sense of irony is biting: one Christian soldier is ready to lead a mob in righteous battle after a perceived blaspheme, and in the next scene attacks and rapes an innocent Christian maiden he's sworn to protect. The film falters in clumsy battle scenes and awkward dramatic staging, but Caine's complex characterisation of the guarded Captain and Sharif's haunted performance keep the story alive, and the beautiful photography fixes the film like a jewel into its setting. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com

• Kiltro | DVD | (05/05/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A fast-paced martial arts movie from South America 'Kiltro' is a real action epic starring legendary stuntman Marko Zaror as Zamir a two-fisted street fighter who is in love with the beautiful Kim (Caterina Jadresic) whom he once saved from a brutal assault. When Kim's father who runs a local Tae Kwon Do school is confronted by a villain from his past Zamir vows to protect his beloved and her father - but first he must travel to a remote desert for spiritual and physical training by an aged fight master a violent gangster out to avenge the killing of his mother.