"Actor: Richard C. Sarafian"

• Bound | DVD | (25/08/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Destined for cult status, this provocative thriller offers a grab bag of genres (gangster movie, comedy, sexy romance, crime caper) and tops it all off with steamy passion between lesbian ex-con Corky (Gina Gershon) and a not-so-ditzy gun moll named Violet (Jennifer Tilly), who meets Corky and immediately tires of her mobster boyfriend (Joe Pantoliano). Desperate to break away from the Mob's influence and live happily ever after, the daring dames hatch a plot to steal $2 million of Mafia money. Their scheme runs into a series of escalating complications, until their very survival depends on split-second timing and criminal ingenuity. Simultaneously violent, funny and suspenseful, Boundis sure to test your tolerance for bloodshed but the film is crafted with such undeniable skill that several critics(including Roger Ebert) placed it on their top-10 lists for 1996. --Jeff Shannon

• Don Juan De Marco | DVD | (17/12/2001) from £6.20   |  Saving you £6.79 (109.52%)   |  RRP £12.99

  You might not get a thrill from the sight of Faye Dunaway and Marlon Brando throwing popcorn into each other's mouths, but that didn't stop this movie from gaining a new lease on life thanks to cable television and home video. It's a quirky romantic comedy about a mental patient (Johnny Depp) who claims to be Don Juan, the world's greatest lover, and he gets quite a few women to believe it's true. Brando plays the psychiatrist who tries to analyze his patient's apparent delusion, and Dunaway plays Brando's wife, who wants to inject some Don Juan-ish romance into their marital routine. Walking a fine line between precious comedy, wistful drama, and delicate fantasy, the movie gets a big dose of charm from its esteemed cast, with Depp delivering dialogue that would have sounded ludicrous from a lesser actor. Don Juan DeMarco may not be a great movie, but it is guaranteed to put you in an amorous mood. --Jeff Shannon

• Blue Streak | DVD | (26/06/2000) from £4.90   |  Saving you £1.09 (22.24%)   |  RRP £5.99

  If Eddie Murphy's comic tone turns on a dime, Martin Lawrence can perhaps be described as sauntering around the dime, looking around to see if anyone else has seen it, then picking the dime up, pocketing it, and casually walking off. He lazily indicates his humour, as if it's too much trouble to actually make the joke--and that distance is what makes him funny. At his best, Lawrence describes a kind of comic space and wanders around in it, claiming it for himself the way a dog might mark his territory, suggesting that what you think is funny doesn't matter to him; he just happens to be where the jokes are, and if you aren't laughing, that's your problem. In Blue Streak, Lawrence plays a jewel thief who plants a stolen diamond in the ventilation duct of a building under construction. When he's released from prison a few years later, he discovers that the building is now a Los Angeles police station. His solution: he impersonates a detective. Of course, everyone believes his disguise. Not only that, using his inside knowledge, he solves several crimes and earns the general admiration of the force. It's a standard fish-out-of-water setup and the plot doesn't take any chances with the formula, but Lawrence wears his role like a loose suit and does a little low-key boogie whenever he can, drawing you into the absurdity with a cock of his head and a roll of his eyes. --Bret Fetzer, Amazon.com

• Bugsy | DVD | (09/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Bugsy represents an almost miraculous combination of director, writer and star on a project that represents a career highlight for everyone involved. It's one of the best American gangster movies ever made--as good in its own way as any of the Godfather films--and it's impossible to imagine anyone better than Beatty in the movie's flashy title role. As notorious mobster and Las Vegas visionary "Bugsy" Siegel, Beatty is perfectly cast as a man whose dreams are greater than his ability to realise them--or at least, greater than his ability to stay alive while making those dreams come true. With a glamorous Hollywood mistress (Annette Bening) who shares Bugsy's dream while pursuing her own upwardly mobile agenda, Bugsy seems oblivious to threats when he begins to spend too much of the mob's money on the creation of the Flamingo casino. Meyer Lansky (Ben Kingsley) and Mickey Cohen (Harvey Keitel) will support Bugsy's wild ambition to a point, after which all bets are off, and Bugsy's life hangs in the balance. From the obvious chemistry of Beatty and Bening (who met and later married off-screen) to the sumptuous reproduction of 1940s Hollywood, every detail in this movie feels impeccably right. Beatty is simply mesmerising as the man who invented Las Vegas but never saw it thrive, moving from infectious idealism to brutal violence in the blink of an eye. Director Barry Levinson is also in peak form here, guiding the stylish story with a subtle balance of admiration and horror; we can catch Bugsy's Vegas fever and root for the gangster's success, but we know he'll get what he deserves. We might wish that Bugsy had lived to see his dream turn into a booming oasis, but the movie doesn't suggest that we should shed any tears. --Jeff Shannon

• The Crossing Guard | DVD | (08/04/2002) from £10.43   |  Saving you £4.56 (43.72%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Sean Penn wrote and directed The Crossing Guard, a character-driven drama about a divorced couple (Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston) whose relationship never recovered following the death of their daughter at the hands of a drunk driver (David Morse). When the latter's character, a deeply regretful and changed man, gets out of jail, Nicholson, as the vengeful dad, decides to go after him. As a director, Penn is not so good with fluid storytelling and camera clichés, but he is amazing as an actor's director. The onscreen re-teaming of former real-life lovers Nicholson and Huston is more than just a voyeuristic exercise: Penn ingeniously uses the duo's palpable friction to bring a horrifying reality to the pain of a dead relationship. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com

• Blue Streak / I Spy / National Security | DVD | (17/05/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Blue Streak: Jewel thief Miles Logan (Martin Lawrence) finds the only way he can recover a diamond he stole two years prior is to impersonate a detective who along with his rookie partner ends up using his wits to solve crimes... I Spy: A super-powerful experimental spy plane is stolen by an evil arms dealer and is about to be handed over to an international terrorist. The U.S. Government drafts an egotistical boxing star (Murphy) to join a suave special agent (Wilson) on a dangerous top secret mission to get the plane back. Armed with the latest high-tech gadgets and a whole lot of attitude this ultimate odd couple might be able to save the world; if they can just get along! National Security: In this hilarious action-packed comedy Martin Lawrence stars as cocky L.A.P.D. cadet Earl Montgomery who would probably be a great cop if he weren't such a show-off. Earl's rebellious attitude gets him thrown out of the police academy and he has to settle for a job as a lowly security guard with 'National Security'. After a run-in with an uptight police officer Hank Rafferty (Steve Zahn) Earl accuses him of harassment. Hank loses his badge is thrown into jail and eventually winds up working for National Security as well. Earl's overzealous behavior leads to a sophisticated smuggling operation led by Nash (Eric Roberts) and a possible police cover-up. Now everyone wants Earl and Hank dead - though they just may kill each other first!

• Bugsy | DVD | (01/10/1999) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Bugsy represents an almost miraculous combination of director, writer and star on a project that represents a career highlight for everyone involved. It's one of the best American gangster movies ever made--as good in its own way as any of the Godfather films--and it's impossible to imagine anyone better than Beatty in the movie's flashy title role. As notorious mobster and Las Vegas visionary "Bugsy" Siegel, Beatty is perfectly cast as a man whose dreams are greater than his ability to realise them--or at least, greater than his ability to stay alive while making those dreams come true. With a glamorous Hollywood mistress (Annette Bening) who shares Bugsy's dream while pursuing her own upwardly mobile agenda, Bugsy seems oblivious to threats when he begins to spend too much of the mob's money on the creation of the Flamingo casino. Meyer Lansky (Ben Kingsley) and Mickey Cohen (Harvey Keitel) will support Bugsy's wild ambition to a point, after which all bets are off, and Bugsy's life hangs in the balance. From the obvious chemistry of Beatty and Bening (who met and later married off-screen) to the sumptuous reproduction of 1940s Hollywood, every detail in this movie feels impeccably right. Beatty is simply mesmerising as the man who invented Las Vegas but never saw it thrive, moving from infectious idealism to brutal violence in the blink of an eye. Director Barry Levinson is also in peak form here, guiding the stylish story with a subtle balance of admiration and horror; we can catch Bugsy's Vegas fever and root for the gangster's success, but we know he'll get what he deserves. We might wish that Bugsy had lived to see his dream turn into a booming oasis, but the movie doesn't suggest that we should shed any tears. --Jeff Shannon

• Miami Hustle | DVD | (17/01/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

  No matter under what guise sexy Marsha Thomas uses in a situation she always manages to combine beauty and charm to get her way. Faced with having to pay off her brother's debt she'll work any scheme to settle the payment.