"Actor: Rick Irwin"

• The Flintstones | DVD | (13/12/1999) from £8.48   |  Saving you £1.51 (17.81%)   |  RRP £9.99

  This pleasant, lightweight live-action version of the popular cartoon is about as good as you might expect. The kids should love the broad humour and the Henson Studios creatures but like The Addams Family movies, the look and the cast are the best things going for it. Considering that the nature of the material is so sparse, the thinly plotted story works better than other TV-to-movie fare. Our fabulous Stone Age man is promoted per a calculated move by a scheming exec (Kyle MacLachlan, whose casting ensured at least one cute guy). As a comedy, the humour is one-note and flat for anyone older than 12. The special-effects creatures look wondrous, though not as seamless as in other movies, such as in Roger Rabbit. The most joyous moments come during the full-scale re-creations of the famous credits. The Flintstones provided a major launching pad for Halle Berry as a vamping secretary. --Doug Thomas

• The Flintstones/the Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas | DVD | (05/06/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The Flintstones: After an aptitude test mix-up Fred Flintstone (John Goodman) trades his job as Slate & Company Bronto-crane operator for a vice presidency. But there's trouble brewing in Bedrock: An evil executive (Kyle MacLachlan) and his sinister secretary (Halle Berry) are now plotting to use Fred as the fall guy in an embezzlement scheme! (Dir. Brian Levant 1994) The Flintstones Viva Rock Vegas: Best pals Fred (Mark Addy) and Barney (Stephen Baldwin) down tools at Bedrock Mining Company to woo Wilma (Kristen Johnston) and Betty (Jane Krakowski) during a long vacation in Rock Vegas. All goes well until Fred's gambling addiction gets the better of him and he is framed for stealing Wilma's prized pearl necklace by love rival Chip Rockerfeller (Thomas Gibson) who oozes malice out of every prehistoric pore. Meanwhile Wilma's high fallutin mother Pearl (Joan Collins taking over from Elizabeth Taylor) thinks that Fred is too downmarket for her daughter and does everything within her power to push Wilma and Chip together... (Dir. Brian Levant 2000)

• Cactus Flower | DVD | (22/04/2002) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-0.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Sparkling comedy about the strange relationship of a bachelor dentist (Matthau) with his nutty mistress (Oscar-winning Hawn) and his rather stoic receptionist (Bergman)...

• Dead Hate The Living | DVD | (05/09/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  The Dead Hate the Living is a love letter to the nightmarish scenarios and visual freakouts of Italian horror pictures, although it also echoes with such American genre classics as Phantasm, The Evil Dead, and Scream. What could be better than a bunch of Italian horror buffs making their own zombie flick in a spooky abandoned hospital? Being attacked by the real thing, of course. The hapless crew discover a creepy black altar (complete with its own decorative corpse) and incorporate it into their film. When their scripted ceremony opens a portal from another dimension and unleashes an army of rampaging zombies, the hallways become flooded in red and blue and green pools of light for no good reason other than it looks cool. The hospital is suddenly adrift in an alternative reality because... well, just because. Writer-director Dave Parker never tries to explain the madness (a zombie's exclamation, "Hate the living! Love the dead!" is as much motive as we're offered), choosing instead simply to plunge viewers into the inspired mayhem. What makes it all work is a love of the genre, a cast of energetic, likable performers, cool zombie makeup, and a sure, stylish hand. Horror movie mavens will pick up on oodles of clever references (a bumper sticker that reads "Fulci lives"; a zombie king commanding, "Make them die... slowly"), but these are merely asides in an accomplished, clever, and remarkably entertaining indie horror riff. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com

• Sherlock Holmes - The Woman In Green / The Many Faces Of Sherlock Holmes | DVD | (25/09/2006) from £6.79   |  Saving you £-0.80 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  In 'The Woman in Green' Holmes and Watson must solve the greatest crime wave since Jack the Ripper. Based on the Conan Doyle short stories 'Adventures of the Empty House' and 'The Final Problem' this film marks the last screen appearance of Professor Moriarty in the Basil Rathbone series. A sequence of strange murders baffles the police. Holmes is called onto the scene and discovers the existence of a blackmail ring that uses a female hypnotist to further their skulduggery.