"Actor: Peter Carver"

• Walkabout | DVD | (03/11/2008) from £24.34   |  Saving you £-14.35 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Very few films achieve subliminal greatness with cross-cultural impact, but Walkabout is one of those films--a visual tone poem that functions more as an allegory than a conventionally plotted adventure. Considered a cult favourite for years, Nicolas Roeg's 1971 film centres upon two British children who are rescued in the Australian outback by a young aborigine. Through exquisite cinematography and a story of subtle human complexity, the film continues to resonate on many thematic and artistic levels. Just as Roeg intended, it is a cautionary morality tale in which the limitations and restrictions of civilisation become painfully clear when the two children (played by Jenny Agutter and Roeg's young son, Lucien John) cannot survive without the aborigine's assistance. They become primitives themselves, if only temporarily, while the young aborigine proves ultimately and tragically unable to join the "family" of civilisation. With its story of two worlds colliding, Walkabout now seems like a film for the ages, hypnotic and open to several compelling levels of interpretation. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

• Safe | DVD | (27/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A typically bored affluent Californian housewife's world of domestic oblivion careers off its axis when she develops a mystery illness that puts her at odds with every aspect of the world around her - cars dry cleaners hair perms and even the new couch! Gradually she develops nosebleeds vomiting and breathing problems and finally collapses. In a desperate search for what is 'safe' she opts for virtual isolation in a porcelain igloo in the Texas desert where the inhabitants drag round oxygen cylinders and the therapists act like evangelical preachers. Injected with horror comic touches and psychological suspense Safe is a visionary tale of the future. Has Carol brought her sickness upon herself or is she made vulnerable by a world that is more dangerous than we or she understands?

• Safe | DVD | (14/02/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  A typically bored affluent Californian housewife's world of domestic oblivion careers off its axis when she develops a mystery illness that puts her at odds with every aspect of the world around her - cars dry cleaners hair perms and even the new couch! Gradually she develops nosebleeds vomiting and breathing problems and finally collapses. In a desperate search for what is 'safe' she opts for virtual isolation in a porcelain igloo in the Texas desert where the inhabitants drag round oxygen cylinders and the therapists act like evangelical preachers. Injected with horror comic touches and psychological suspense Safe is a visionary tale of the future. Has Carol brought her sickness upon herself or is she made vulnerable by a world that is more dangerous than we or she understands?

• National Geographic - Beyond The Movie - The Lord Of The Rings | DVD | (11/03/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The connection between National Geographic and The Lord of the Rings may seem tentative, but the illuminating TV special Beyond the Movie proves otherwise. While incorporating cast and crew interviews and film clips from director Peter Jackson's 2001 blockbuster The Fellowship of the Ring, this hour-long documentary transcends timely opportunism to explore the myriad inspirations for JRR Tolkien's Middle-Earth fantasy classic, beginning with the influence of Tolkien's idyllic childhood in rural England, which served as the model for his threatened Hobbit paradise. Equally fascinating are the influences of Tolkien's experience in World War I and the "evil" of industrial development on his work, and more directly those of Anglo-Saxon poetry (notably Beowulf) and the mythology of the Finnish Kalevala, which formed the basis of Tolkien's elvish culture. The author's passion for nature conservancy and cultural preservation are what ultimately serve the National Geographic agenda, but eloquent testimonials by archaeologists, anthropologists, and filmmakers make this a most agreeable hour of justified propaganda. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com