"Actor: Willard Pugh"

• The Color Purple | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £4.99   |  Saving you £9.00 (180.36%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Steven Spielberg, proving he's one of the few modern filmmakers who has the visual fluency to be capable of making a great silent film, took a melodramatic, DW Griffith-inspired approach to filming Alice Walker's novel. His tactics made the film controversial, but also a popular hit. You can argue with the appropriateness of Spielberg's decision, but his astonishing facility with images is undeniable--from the exhilarating and eye-popping opening shots of children playing in paradisiacal purple fields to the way he conveys the brutality of a rape by showing hanging leather belts banging against the head of the shaking bed. In a way it's a shame that Whoopi Goldberg, a stage monologist who made her screen debut in this movie, went on to become so famous, because it was, in part, her unfamiliarity that made her understated performance as Celie so effective. (This may be the first and last time that the adjective understated can be applied to Goldberg.) Nominated for 11 Academy Awards, including best picture and actress (supporting players Oprah Winfrey and Margaret Avery were also nominated), it was quite a scandal--and a crushing blow to Spielberg--when The Color Purple won none. --Jim Emerson

• Robocop Trilogy | DVD | (04/02/2002) from £39.99   |  Saving you £-7.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £32.99

  Paul Verhoeven was almost unknown in Hollywood prior to the release of RoboCop in 1987. But after this ultra-violent yet strangely subversive and satirical sci-fi picture became a huge hit his reputation for extravagant and excessive, yet superbly well-crafted filmmaking was assured. Controversial as ever, Verhoeven saw the blue-collar cop (Peter Weller) who is transformed into an invincible cyborg as "an American Jesus with a gun", and so the film dabbles with death and resurrection imagery as well as mercilessly satirising Reagan-era America. No targets escape Verhoeven's unflinching camera eye, from yuppie excess and corporate backstabbing to rampant consumerism and vacuous media personalities. As with his later sci-fi satire Starship Troopers the extremely bloody violence resolutely remains on the same level as a Tom and Jerry cartoon. The inevitable sequel, competently directed by Irvin Kershner, thankfully continues to mine the dark vein of anti-consumerist satire while being reflexively aware that it is itself a shining example of that which it is lampooning. Sadly the third instalment in the series, now without Peter Weller in the title role, is exactly the kind of dumbed-down production-line flick that the corporate suits of OCP might have dreamed up at a marketing meeting. Its only virtue is a decent music score from regular Verhoeven collaborator Basil Poledouris, whose splendid march theme returned from the original score. On the DVD: Packaged in a fold-out slipcase these three discs make a very collectable set. All are presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic prints, although only the first movie has any extra material worth mentioning. Here the Director's Cut option allows the viewer to see Paul Verhoeven's more explicitly violent versions of Murphy's "assassination", ED-209's bloody malfunction and the shootout finale. These extended sequences are handily signposted in the scene selection menu, and the filming of them can be seen in a sequence of Director's Cut footage. Deleted scenes include "Topless Pizza" ("I'll buy that for a dollar!") and there are two contemporary "making of" featurettes plus a good, new half-hour retrospective. Both the latter and the director's commentary make abundantly clear the Reagan-era satire and are chock full of quotable lines from Verhoeven--"I wanted to show Satan killing Jesus"--and his producer--"Fascism for liberals". Stop-motion animator Phil Tippett gives a commentary on the storyboard-to-film comparisons, and there are the usual trailers and photos. Showing just how much the sequels are rated in comparison, the second and third discs have nothing but theatrical trailers and their sound is just Dolby 2.0 whereas the original movie has been remastered into Dolby 5.1.--Mark Walker

• Tornado Warning | DVD | (27/08/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Extraterrestrials utilise 'electrical tornadoes' in a plan to invade Earth.

• The Color Purple (Special Edition) | DVD | (21/07/2003) from £17.54   |  Saving you £-2.29 (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Steven Spielberg took a melodramatic DW Griffith-inspired approach to filming Alice Walker's novel The Color Purple. His tactics made the film controversial, but also a popular hit. You can argue with the appropriateness of Spielberg's decision, but his astonishing facility with images is undeniable--from the exhilarating and eye-popping opening shots of children playing in paradisiacal purple fields to the way he conveys the brutality of a rape by showing hanging leather belts banging against the head of the shaking bed. In a way it's a shame that Whoopi Goldberg, a stage monologist who made her screen debut in this movie, went on to become so famous, because it was, in part, her unfamiliarity that made her understated performance as Celie so effective. (This may be the first and last time that the adjective "understated" can be applied to Goldberg.) Nominated for 11 Academy Awards, including best picture and actress (supporting players Oprah Winfrey and Margaret Avery were also nominated), it was quite a scandal--and a crushing blow to Spielberg--when The Color Purple won none. --Jim Emerson, Amazon.comOn the DVD: The Color Purple makes a sumptuous transfer to DVD in this special edition. The lush and vibrant cinematography is well served by the widescreen format; Quincy Jones's warmly enveloping score, shot through with jazz age references, is superbly enhanced by surround sound. The extras are ideal companions to the main picture, detailing the passage of Alice Walker's novel from book to screen. Walker herself recalls the anxieties of the process, while director Spielberg and various cast members remember many poignant moments during and after filming, reminding us with a jolt that this beautifully made, hugely popular and inspirational film didn't win a single Academy Award. --Piers Ford

• Tornado Warning | Blu Ray | (27/08/2012) from £4.94   |  Saving you £10.05 (203.44%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Extraterrestrials utilise 'electrical tornadoes' in a plan to invade Earth.

• Progeny | DVD | (29/07/2003) from £9.73   |  Saving you £-6.74 (-225.40%)   |  RRP £2.99

  OK, brace yourself--this could get messy. Craig Burton (Arnold Vosloo, the eponymous vengeful goon in The Mummy) stars here as a dedicated, overworked hospital doctor whose sterling abilities in the emergency room are sadly unparalleled in the bedroom given that he still can't father a child with his spouse Sherry (Jillian McWhirter). Until, that is, he finds himself undergoing a dizzying--and inordinately lengthy--out-of-body experience in the middle of the night. Subsequently troubled by grotesque paranormal visions, Craig is distressed to discover Sherry is pregnant. Convinced his unborn child is, in fact, the product of his wife's abduction by aliens, he's not a happy man. In his fevered state, he first dispatches Sherry to alarming gynaecologist David Weatherly (Wilford Brimley), before visiting both shrink Susan Lamarche (Lindsay Crouse) and alien abduction expert Bert Clavell (Brad Dourif). And from here on in, it gets really dumb. Adorned with the kind of icky, low-rent effects and weird fixation with medical procedure that anyone acquainted with the work of director Brian Yuzna (Society) and scriptwriter Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator) will no doubt already be familiar with, Progeny is a boon for the connoisseur of straight-to-tape nonsense. Just check out that cast-can't you hear the deep, gravelly voice on the trailer now ("Together at last--Crouse. Brimley. Dourif. Vosloo!")? Obviously, anyone after plausible moments of human drama is in entirely the wrong place and, yes, both the direction and performances are erratic to put it politely (Vosloo appears in a state of near-catatonia throughout), but, in its own, stomach-turning, sub-Rosemary's Baby kind of way, Progeny is a prime example of sci-fi/horror nonsense at its best (and most nonsensical). --Danny Leigh