"Actor: Pat Patrick"

• The Roger Corman Horror Collection | DVD | (03/02/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Siren DVD's three-disc Roger Corman Collection contains The Little Shop of Horrors and The Terror, which Corman directed, as well as Dementia 13, which he produced. Though he has a reputation as one of the craftiest businessmen in Hollywood, Corman was too cheapskate in the 1960s to bother copyrighting a bunch of his films and so the same titles have been showing up on video and now DVD from many different distributors. All these films were thrown together in odd circumstances to take advantage of leftover sets, contracted performers or tied-up production funds. Little Shop of Horrors (a disguised remake of A Bucket of Blood) was famously made over a three-day weekend "because it was raining and we couldn't play tennis". The Terror exists because Boris Karloff owed a few days' work after completing The Raven and castle sets were still standing. Dementia 13 was written and directed by a young Francis Coppola in Ireland to take advantage of a European trip made for Corman's The Young Racers. All the films are interesting, in themselves and as footnotes to distinguished filmographies. Little Shop of Horrors has a lasting cult reputation for its blackly comic tale of codependency between a skid-row botanist (Jonathan Haze, relying a bit too much on a Jerry Lewis impersonation) and a blood-drinking, flesh-hungry mutant plant voiced by screenwriter Chuck Griffith ("feed meeee!"), with a creepy cameo from a young Jack Nicholson as a masochist who loves to visit the dentist. The Terror, which has Nicholson as the bewildered lead, is a wilfully incomprehensible Gothic picture made up on the spot by Corman and a handful of other directors (including Coppola and Monte Hellman), climaxing with Karloff's bogus baron and a decaying spectre woman swept away by a flood in the dungeons. Dementia 13, a saga of axe murders and mad sculptors, is brisk grand guignol with a lot of creepy imagery to do with drowned children and family rituals. On the DVD: The Roger Corman Collection limply claims the films are "digitally mastered" (note, not "remastered") as they are simply copies of low-quality video onto disc. Because these titles are public domain no one seems willing to take any care with transfers, and all three films are in terrible state. The Terror, the only colour film, looks especially atrocious (Vistascope cropped to full-frame) but the black-and-white films also suffer all manner of damage. The packaging is classy, but it's a shame more work wasn't done on the films themselves.--Kim Newman

• Raving Maniacs | DVD | (23/10/2006) from £35.69   |  Saving you £-19.70 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Ravers at the biggest rave in Providence Rhode Island perpetuate their evening by taking a new drug to hit the streets. The reckless youths in their quest for euphoria don't take a second thought to what they are taking indeed no one has ever seen these type of drugs before. But soon it becomes apparent that not all is well and unbeknown to them they are becoming embroiled in an alien plot...

• 3 Ninjas Knuckle Up | DVD | (06/07/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Rocky Colt and Tum Tum find themselves in action again as they get drawn into a struggle between an American Indian tribe and a ruthless businessman who is dumping toxic waste on their land.

• Sun Ra and His Solar Arkestra - the Magic Sun | DVD | (07/03/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £8.99

  A film by Phill Niblock featuring Sun Ra & His Solar Arkestra. Composer photographer and filmmaker Phill Niblock's classic of experimental underground filmmaking with a sensational soundtrack by pianist Sun Ra and the members of his Solar Arkestra! Shot in the mid '60s when the Arkestra was based in New York this film was produced using a unique negative process andultra-tight close-ups on the moving hands and mouths of the musicians. The result is a virtually abstract music film mastered from a new print in all its incredibly sharp black & white glory.

• Con Express | DVD | (05/01/2004) from £12.98   |  Saving you £-2.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  A beautiful Soviet agent and a US Customs agent investigate the sale of nerve gas. A hijacked train becomes their final battle ground.

• Starship Troopers | UMD | (05/12/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £18.99

• Black Beauty | DVD | (01/09/2003) from £14.25   |  Saving you £-8.26 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  It would be easy to pass by this movie, based on Anna Sewell's famous novel Black Beauty, on the assumption that it's dated and twee. Well, perhaps it is a little, but the sheer quality of the whole enterprise places it in the front rank of children's cinema classics. Screenwriter Wolf Mankowitz's ability to harness both literary and popular techniques in the same work (also true of his written fiction) remains unsurpassed in this captivating tale of Beauty's eventful life, from being raised as a foal by the devoted Joe (Lester), then passing through the hands of various owners before being purchased by, supposedly, Miss Sewell herself, to be once more cared for by a now-adult Joe who is in her employ. Along the way, Beauty passes through the hands of gypsies, a circus owner, a family of aristocrats and is even ridden into war, with each episode being expertly cast (Mower is in particularly fine form as a mad, bad and dangerous army officer) and produced to the highest cinematic standards--even the exterior lighting is perfect. Absolutely recommended. The 4:3 DVD is a transfer of exceptionally high quality and includes the cinema trailer, an image gallery of stills and collector-enthusing promotional ephemera (presented in a thumb-saving slideshow format) and, rather incongruously, a trailer for Help! I'm a Fish!--Roger Thomas

• Dementia 13 | DVD | (15/08/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  'Dementia 13' will delight all fans who thrive on classics such as 'Night Of The Living Dead' and 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' with the plot revolves around a seemingly benign member of a family who is the mad axe-murderer and is steadily picking off the rest of the relations... 'Dementia 13' is guaranteed to make you double lock all your doors at night!

• The Mel Gibson DVD Legacy | DVD | (09/12/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £61.99

  Includes the following 8 great films: Lethal Weapon Lethal Weapon 2 Mad Max Maverick Payback Tequila Sunrise What Women Want Conspiracy Theory

• Zero Tolerance | DVD | (02/04/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

  A vengeful FBI agent wages a one-man war against The White Hand a powerful drug cartel that has kidnapped his family in this exciting action thriller.

• Zombinator | DVD | (27/01/2014) from £20.23   |  Saving you £-5.24 (-35.00%)   |  RRP £14.99

  When a mad mercenary is tracked and caught developing a serum that is responsible for driving a small town into a terrifying Zombie fuelled nightmare, there s only one person who can help The Zombinator! The former soldier turned Zombie Killer can pack a punch, and is the only person that stands any chance against these flesh eating monsters. Let the action commence.

• Scanner Cop II: The Showdown | Blu Ray | (26/04/2022) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Minority Report (Special Edition) | DVD | (08/02/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Set in a future where killers are arrested before they commit murder, Tom Cruise stars as a detective accused of a murder that hasn't happened yet who must move quickly to solve the murder and prove his innocence.

• Meet The Robinsons/Chicken Little | DVD | (10/09/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Meet The Robinsons:Lewis is an orphan who dreams of finding the family he's never known. That journey takes an unexpected turn and leads him into a world where anything is possible THE FUTURE. There he meets an incredible assortment of characters and a family beyond his wildest imagination The Robinsons who help lead him on an amazing and hilarious adventure with heartfelt results. Chicken Little: The all-animal town of Oakey Oaks's most infamous resident Chicke

• Glory Days | DVD | (27/08/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  A modern-day rodeo cowboy travels from town to town taking on anyone who will compete. But one day he is crushed by a horse and unable to compete anymore. Hitting rock bottom he is saved by the intervention of J.T. Jones (Pleasence) who offers him hope for the future...

• Replacement Killers | UMD | (08/05/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

• Game Box 1.0 | DVD | (22/05/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99

  The video game that plays you... Charlie Nash is an expert at testing video games. His life has become unbearable since the tragic shooting of his girlfriend Kate by a crooked cop and he spends his days buried in his work. Charlie's life takes on new meaning when he is sent a mysterious package containing a new video game which immerses him in an incredible 3D gaming world. However it soon becomes apparent that getting back to real life isn't as easy as simply quitting the ga

• Ultimax Force | DVD | (03/02/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Missing in action and presumed dead Captain Dave Morgan turns up alive in a Vietnamese prisoner of war camp. He has been able to send word out - but help better come quickly before the sadistic Colonel Minh who runs the hellish internment stockade succeeds in breaking Morgan's body and spirit. Getting into Vietnam through the back door is easy enough with the help of gunrunning soldiers of fortune but trying to ferret out the phantom POW camps rescuing half dead prisoners and getting them out of 'Nam seems a pipe dream. No one has ever escaped from Colonel Minh's hell hole and lived to tell the tale. That's the kind of challenge that Chris Burton and his boys look forward to. The Ultimate Maximum. Armed with their Ninja skills forged on them by Sensei Hiroshi; thirty-sixth direct descendant of the Iga-Ninja Chris Burton Bill Norton and Mike Dobson form what mercenaries dub 'The Ultimax Force' - what Colonel Minh will call the 'curse of the devils'. Fate has destined this final confrontation between Burton and Minh and there is no stopping now the one-on-one that began years ago in the jungles of 'Nam is now about to resume. Try as he might to prevent it by moving camp and sending out his elite blocking forces against the rescue party Minh realises that his time is running out and that the unfinished duel between him and Burton will have to be brought to an end - death to the loser....

• Desert Heat | DVD | (20/03/2000) from £10.87   |  Saving you £-4.88 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Versatility, thy name is Van Damme! So Arnold cries in End of Days? Hah! In this relentless revenge actioner, Jean-Claude not only cries, but has a drunk scene, suffers suicidal despair, does a little slapstick, and still manages to flash his ubiquitous butt. Which, of course, is what his legion of fans want to see him kick plenty of (other people's butts, that is; not his own). Van Damme may no longer generate any box-office heat (like 1998's Legionnaire, this bypassed cinemas to go straight to video), but he at least gives his fans what they want. Originally titled Coyote Moon, Desert Heat recalls that guilty pleasure Road House, as Eddie Lomax (Van Damme) comes to the rescue of a gallery of colourful characters terrorised by slobbering, drug-dealing bikers and rednecks in a dilapidated desert town. And this time, it's personal. As one denizen ominously observes, "There's trouble on the hoof and it's coming this way" for the three ill-fated bullies who beat up and shot Eddie and left him for dead. Despite its desert setting, Heat is an oasis for great character actors who pick up Van Damme's considerable slack. They include Danny Trejo (Con Air) as Eddie's Native American friend Johnny Sixtoes, Pat Morita (The Karate Kid), Larry Drake (Darkman), Vincent Schiavelli (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ghost), Bill Erwin (Candy Stripe Nurses), and luscious Jaime Preslly as Dottie the waitress. The director is credited as Danny Mulroon, a pseudonym for John Avildsen, the Academy Award-winning director of Rocky. His career, too, seems to be on the ropes, but he keeps punching with some welcome eccentric touches. At one point Johnny gives the recuperating Eddie a foot massage (didn't he see Pulp Fiction?). And the script offers such goodies as a lovelorn bus driver (Tom's brother, Jim Hanks) inviting Dottie to see Yojimbo, and one biker's plea for mercy from a local tough: "Jessie, we were in high school together. I signed your yearbook". --Donald Liebenson, Amazon.com

• Free Willy 3 | DVD | (02/06/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Now 16 Jesse has taken a job on an orca research ship to encounter his old friend threatened by illegal whalers hoping to make money from turning the whale into sushi...