"Actor: Paul Bartel"

• The Usual Suspects -- Two-Disc Special Edition | DVD | (29/04/2002) from £4.96   |  Saving you £18.03 (363.51%)   |  RRP £22.99

  Bryan Singer's film noir The Usual Suspects casts a mesmerising spell, with the plot luring the viewer into ever-deeper and darker places. According to director, Singer, the premise for the film evolved from a magazine article. What does the phrase "usual suspects" actually mean, who are they and what happens when you probe their identity? Here, they are five expert criminals and a crippled con man in a line-up. The story, told via flashbacks, interrogation scenes and explosive sequences of a heist gone wrong, is a labyrinth of sub-plots and red herrings. Kevin Spacey won a best supporting actor Oscar for his intriguing, blank-eyed turn as the crippled "Verbal" Kint. But Gabriel Byrne, Kevin Pollak, Stephen Baldwin and Benicio del Toro are equally fascinating as the mismatched misfits, creating hinterlands for their characters in a single gesture. Chazz Palminteri as the special agent is our main ally in solving the puzzle, but it's really a case of the blind leading the blind. Pete Postlethwaite's bizarre accent, as the sinister legal agent Kobayashi, adds its own layer of mystery to a film that earns cult status entirely on its own merits. On the DVD: this is a dazzling two-disc set which will both please Usual Suspects aficionados and entice the uninitiated. The film itself is presented in widescreen format. The Dolby Digital surround sound quality throbs with tension so that you sense the dialogue and John Ottman's excellent, suspenseful music with your nerve endings rather than just experiencing them aurally. The original cinematic experience comes forcefully into your living room. Numerous extras include a fascinating director/screenwriter commentary (if you haven't seen the film yet, make sure this is turned off or it will wreck the suspense) and endless featurettes, each adding a layer of understanding to the film through observations from the actors, director and writer. A package that sucks you in, blows you out in pieces and still has you coming back for more, this is what special edition DVDs are all about. --Piers Ford

• Das Boot: Season 3 | DVD | (15/08/2022) from £12.78   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  The third series follows the tense struggles of a young U-boat crew as they engage in the Battle of the Atlantic whilst being hunted down by an obsessed Royal Navy Commander in a thrilling game of cat-and-mouse. They are sent on a dangerous mission to the Southern Hemisphere under the command of Robert Ehrenberg (Franz Dinda) who finds redemption and the family bonds he thought he'd lost forever. The drama takes us to Northern Germany's Kiel, the major naval base of the German Reich for the first time, with each historically based strand leading to an epic series finale.

• Eating Raoul (1995) | Blu Ray | (21/10/2019) from £17.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  A sleeper hit of the early 1980s, Eating Raoul is a bawdy, gleefully amoral tale of conspicuous consumption. Warhol superstar Mary Woronov and cult legend Paul Bartel (who also directed) portray a prudish married couple feeling put upon by the swingers who live in their apartment building; one night, by accident, they discover a way to simultaneously realize their dream of opening a little restaurant and rid themselves of the perverts down the hall. A mix of hilarious, anything-goes slapstick and biting satire of me-generation self-indulgence, Eating Raoul marks the end of the sexual revolution with a thwack. Special Edition Features: New, restored digital transfer, supervised by director of photography Gary Thieltges, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition Audio commentary featuring screenwriter Richard Blackburn, art director Robert Schulenberg, and editor Alan Toomayan The Secret Cinema (1968) and Naughty Nurse (1969), two short films by director Paul Bartel Cooking Up Raoul, a new documentary about the making of the film, featuring interviews with stars Mary Woronov, Robert Beltran, and Edie McClurg Gag reel of outtakes from the film Archival interview with Bartel and Woronov Trailer Plus: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic David Ehrenstein

• Piranha | DVD | (21/10/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  As a producer, Roger Corman has always loved to make low-budget rip-offs of hit movies, and Piranha is his typically cheeky take on Jaws--and, as so often with Corman, in many ways it's funnier and more entertaining than the original. Directed with gusto by schlock-horror specialist Joe Dante and sharply scripted by John Sayles, it replaces one huge underwater toothy monster with dozens of little ones and ups the body count by a factor of 10 or so. Two hapless teenagers, hiking in a remote mountain region, stumble on a secret US military research lab. They don't last long, but their intrusion leads to the release into the local river system of a huge shoal of super-intelligent piranha, originally specially bred for use in Vietnam. Downstream from the virulent little munchers lie a kiddies' holiday camp and a tacky new waterfront theme park. Lunch time, fellas! Sayles, with his staunch left-wing credentials, slips in some mordant political satire at the expense of the military-industrial complex, and authority figures of any kind come off pretty badly, but the satire never gets in the way of the gleeful black humour. The two leads, Bradford Dillman and Heather Menzies, are fairly pallid, but there are ripe cameos from such cult horror-movie icons as Kevin McCarthy, Dick Miller and Barbara Steele. Pino Donaggio's score impudently borrows aspects of John Williams' famous Jaws theme while never quite infringing copyright. The movie was successful enough to spawn a much-inferior sequel, Piranha II: The Spawning (1982), which marked the inauspicious directing debut of one James Cameron. On the DVD: Piranha on disc comes with just the theatrical trailer as an extra. The transfer is a respectable job, reproducing the original's full-screen ratio. --Philip Kemp

• Rock 'N' Roll High School | DVD | (01/09/2003) from £14.24   |  Saving you £-6.25 (N/A%)   |  RRP £7.99

  Vince Lombardi High School keeps losing principals to nervous breakdowns because of the students' love of rock 'n' roll and their disregard of education. The putative leader of the students is Riff Randell who loves the music of the Ramones. A new principal the rock music hating Miss Evelyn Togar is brought in and promises to put an end to the music craze. When Miss Togar and a group of parents attempt to burn a pile of rock records the students take over the high school joined by the Ramones who are made honourary students. When the police are summoned and demand that the students evacuate the building they do so which leads to an explosive finale.

• Amazing Stories: The Complete Series | DVD | (15/01/2021) from £39.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Eating Raoul | DVD | (19/03/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  You'd think a black comedy about murder, tackiness, and sexual perversion would quickly become dated, but Eating Raoul (1982) feels surprisingly fresh and delightful. When Mary Bland (Mary Woronov) gets assaulted by one of the repulsive swingers from the neighbouring apartment, her husband Paul (Paul Bartel) rescues her with a swift blow from a frying pan--only to discover a substantial wad of cash in the swinger's wallet. A lure-and-kill scheme follows, which nicely fills their nest egg until a slippery thief named Raoul (Robert Beltran of Star Trek: Voyager, making his film debut) stumbles onto the truth and insists on getting a share. When Raoul starts demanding a share of Mary as well, Paul has to take drastic steps. The key to Eating Raoul isn't the sensational content, but the blithe, matter-of-fact attitude Bartel and Woronov take to it; their sly underplaying makes the movie sparkle with wicked wit. --Bret Fetzer

• Chopping Mall | DVD | (27/09/2004) from £8.08   |  Saving you £-2.09 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Teenagers working at the local mall sneak in supplies and wait until the mall locks up for an intimate party night. The mall has a sophisticated robot security system that goes into attack mode after a malfunction and kills the human security guards. Now the teens must run for their lives and try to find a way out of the mall using the materials they find within it...

• The Giants | DVD | (12/11/2012) from £7.39   |  Saving you £8.60 (116.37%)   |  RRP £15.99

  When two brothers are left home alone for the summer they take to the surrounding countryside with a friend to discover a brave new world of adventure. Through the scrapes scratches and moments of elation they encounter they will discover that growing up is not all it's cracked up to be in this charming witty and subversive tale of the trials of youth.

• Blue Manhattan | DVD | (03/09/2001) from £7.46   |  Saving you £-4.47 (N/A%)   |  RRP £2.99

  One of the most radical films of its time. Brian De Palma takes a preverse look at what goes on behind closed doors in post-Vietnam New York City.

• Chopping Mall | DVD | (14/07/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Three high-tech robots designed to provide security at a shopping mall go berserk after receiving an electric shock during a thunder storm. They terrorize a group of teenagers who are trapped in the mall until dawn...

• Devil's Child | DVD | (12/04/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  A woman's mother makes a last-minute deal with the Devil to save her daughter's life not realizing that her daughter's life is her stake. The daughter lives but with no chance of children. 20 years later she mysteriously becomes pregnant after meeting a dashing stranger. Yet people are dying around her...

• Skeletons | DVD | (29/07/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £2.99

  When Pulitzer Prize winning writer Peter Crane (Ron Silver) moves to the picture-perfect town of Saugatuck New England he anticipates an idyllic lifestyle for him and his family. But appearances can be deceptive. Things begin to change for the Cranes when a strange woman shows up and asks Peter to help her son Chris who has been charged with murder. Intrigued Peter begins to investigate and as he does so the town's usually friendly citizens turn icy and hostile towards him and his family. A burning scarecrow is hung from a tree outside their home. Their car windows are smashed and then in satanic style doused with animal blood. The local police mysteriously turn a blind eye to it all...

• Hard Time - The Premonition | DVD | (26/06/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Burt Reynolds returns as Logan McQueen the hardest and most fearless cop in Florida. At the end of 'Hard Time' Logan had loyally offered to take the fall on behalf of his partner Duffy (Durning) a move which has now esconsed him behind bars with the very criminals he helped put there! When a series of terrifying attacks is begun with meticulously macabre efficiency Logan is back out on the case but finds he may need the help of a duplicitous convict to help him crack the case...

• Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills | DVD | (19/07/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Scenes From The Class Struggle In Beverly Hills