"Actor: Sid Newman"

• Silent Movie | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The film Silent Movie is director Mel Brooks's comic tribute to the golden days of the silent screen. A movie within a movie 'Silent Movie' stars Brooks as Mel Funn a filmmaker who has seen better days for one thing he's just come out of a bout with the bottle. When his best friends (Marty Feldman and Dom DeLuise) rescue him from despair and convince him to make another attempt at moviemaking Mel comes up with an idea a silent picture. Alas this is the 1970s and in

• The Larry Sanders Show | DVD | (19/06/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  In The Larry Sanders Show Garry Shandling is Larry Sanders, host of a fictitious chat show. But the real The Larry Sanders Show (1992-98), was alongside Sienfeld, one of the great cult successes of 1990's American TV. Nominally a sitcom, the naturalistic acting, uncensored strong language and absence of canned laughter lend the show a distinctive pseudo-documentary feel, as every week some of the top names in US entertainment appear as themselves. The viewer can't help but wonder just how much these celebrities are for real, and how much they are having us on when, for example, Billy Crystal seems so mercenary about using the episode "The Talk Show" to plug his movie, Mr Saturday Night. Other guests on the seven episodes of this DVD include Dana Carvey ("The Guest Host"), Alex Baldwin ("The List"), Robin Williams ("Montana"), Henry Winkler ("Hank's Sex Tape"), Courtney Cox ("Larry's Big Idea") and Brett Butler ("I Was a Teenage Lesbian"--a bonus episode exclusive to DVD). Clever and caustic, rather than laugh-out-loud funny, this release offers good value at 167 minutes, though the only DVD extra is a trailer. The picture on the first five episodes is soft and grainy. That matters improve considerably for the last two episodes suggests this is because of poor original tapes rather than a bad transfer. --Gary S. Dalkin