"Actor: Tony Pantages"

• Stakeout | DVD | (20/05/2002) from £5.38   |  Saving you £9.61 (178.62%)   |  RRP £14.99

  A comedy thriller with a silken thread of romance, 1987’s Stakeout stars Richard Dreyfuss and Emilio Estevez as a pair of undercover cops assigned to watch the apartment of the former girlfriend (Madeleine Stowe) of a violent escaped convict. Complications ensue when Dreyfuss’ cop poses as a telephone inspector to get in and bug the girlfriend’s phone and they strike up a relationship. Initially coming on a bit like a cross between Hitchcock's Rear Window and Porky's, Stakeout ends up falling between the two stools of mirth and suspense. Some half-amusing business involving a series of practical jokes between the cop duo and their relief partners doesn’t add materially to the film. Emilio Estevez’s sidekick role is under-developed and he brings to this none of the loose cannon mania he would later bring to Young Guns. Dreyfuss isn’t entirely convincing as a tough, seasoned cop and Aidan Quinn as the villain comes across as a poor man’s James Woods. Yet for all these flaws, director John Badham just about manages to cobble together a watchable caper. On the DVD: Stakeout on disc has no extras of any kind, not even a trailer. The feature is presented in widescreen 1.85:1 format with Dolby digital 5.1 sound. The dubbing briefly goes awry near the end. --David Stubbs

• Short Time | DVD | (31/01/2000) from £5.69   |  Saving you £1.30 (18.60%)   |  RRP £6.99

  Short Time is an action comedy centring on Burt Simpson (Coleman) a burnt out cop divorced and depressed. His sole joy is his son Dougie whom he hopes to send to Harvard. But Burt's existence is thrown into turmoil when he is informed he has only a ""short time"" to live just one week before retirement. On discovering that his insurance policy will only pay out - and Dougie will only be able to afford to go to college - if he dies in the line of fire Burt must turn into a wild vigilan