"Actor: Yorgo Voyagis"

• The Last Valley | DVD | (02/04/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  James Clavell's The Last Valley is a heartfelt film of paradise found and lost in the midst of the bloody Thirty Years War, a senseless religious conflict long since degenerated into a rabble of looters preying on peasants. It's also a triumph of passion over style. Michael Caine stars as the Captain, a happily tolerant leader whose army of mercenaries--a mix of Protestants and Catholics--murders, pillages and rapes side by side for whichever faction is paying more at the time. Omar Sharif is Vogel, a lone refugee whose flight from the marauding band leads them all to a beautiful village in the mountains. The Captain and Vogel make an unlikely pair: the shrewd mercenary with the dream of peace, and the philosopher-peasant hanging on to his own life in the face of certain death--and their alliance to preserve this Eden and her people stands in contrast to the soldiers who soon become splintered by greed, lust and religious zealotry. Clavell isn't exactly subtle, but his sense of irony is biting: one Christian soldier is ready to lead a mob in righteous battle after a perceived blaspheme, and in the next scene attacks and rapes an innocent Christian maiden he's sworn to protect. The film falters in clumsy battle scenes and awkward dramatic staging, but Caine's complex characterisation of the guarded Captain and Sharif's haunted performance keep the story alive, and the beautiful photography fixes the film like a jewel into its setting. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com

• The Washing Machine (Limited Metal Tin Edition) | DVD | (25/08/2014) from £11.99   |  Saving you £10.00 (100.10%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Exclusive Shameless limited metal tin edition specially design by top British artist graham Humphreys. With his epoch-making Cannibal Holocaust director Ruggero Deodato single-handedly invented the found-footage film genre (later imitated by Blair Witch et al). With The Washing Machine Deodato reboots the Giallo genre stretching its boundaries into this utterly extreme surreal erotic thriller. Originally called Mortal Vortex this long-lost Giallo is now revived in this Exclusive Shameless Limited Metal Tin Edition. By the time Police Inspector Stacev arrived at the eerie Budapest flat of three beguiling sisters to investigate one of the girls' claim to have found a butchered body in their washing machine the corpse had disappeared. Piqued as much by the potential foul play as by the mischievous saucy sisters our detective becomes entangled in their web of sexual obsession and deadly treachery: Each sister spins a different versions of events - including warped stories of cannibalism (what else!) - Whilst seducing the non-too-reluctant officer! Deodato cycles through truly inventive stylish and very hot sex scenes... until an arresting climax! Will it all come out in the wash?

• Swept Away | DVD | (12/05/2003) from £6.97   |  Saving you £2.01 (50.50%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Madonna gives her most believable performance in Swept Away as Amber, a rich woman on a sea cruise who expects the world to obey her every whim. When she and a high-spirited crew member (Adriano Giannini) are marooned on a small deserted island the feud that sprang up between them on the ship becomes an all-out war then changes into lustful desire as Amber finds that losing status opens up a new side of her personality. Some people will want to see Swept Away for the simple pleasure of seeing Madonna being slapped; more demanding filmgoers will, sadly, be left wanting. Though the movie purports to be a satirical examination of capitalism (as was the original 1974 version), its vague discussion of money and power adds up to very little. The love story is surprisingly sincere, making Swept Away a standard romantic potboiler with gorgeous tropical backdrops. --Bret Fetzer

• The Bourne Identity | DVD | (02/09/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Not to be confused with the 2002 Matt Damon big-screen version, this adaptation of The Bourne Identity is a 1988 two-part TV miniseries based on the Robert Ludlum paperback bestseller. "How can I find out who I am if I've been turned into another person?", cries amnesiac Richard Chamberlain, fished out of the sea by drunken doc Denholm Elliott, who patches him up and discovers a Swiss bank account number sewn into his thigh. Coming to believe that he is Jason Bourne, international assassin, our hero is sought after by the CIA, several European police forces and the gang of an evil terrorist. He hooks up with unlikely economist Jaclyn Smith to get to the bottom of the mystery, stay alive and face the big baddie. Stretched over three hours, this has room for a lot of the complex plot dropped from the big-screen movie, but it also means that the thrills are often interrupted by soap opera scenes. Chamberlain is perhaps too aptly cast as a man without an identity, but Smith matches him for lack of expression without any excuse given in the script. Aside from Donald Moffatt and Shane Rimmer in the CIA, the supporting cast mostly consists of distinguished Brits delivering value-for-money ham, mostly with cod-French accents, especially Anthony Quayle as a DeGaulle-style General, Jacqueline Pearce as a dress-designing spy and Peter Vaughan as a heavy Swiss banker. On the DVD: The Bourne Identity, though made for TV, is presented in widescreen, which sometimes chops off the tops of actors' heads like breakfast eggs but mostly looks fine. There are optional English subtitles. --Kim Newman

• Swept Away | DVD | (31/01/2005) from £7.05   |  Saving you £5.94 (84.26%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Raffaella has got everything she wants - a rich husband exotic holidays and people to do her bidding. On holiday aboard a private yacht in the Mediterranean with a group of friends and bored of lounging around playing cards she demands that deckhand Gennarino takes her to a nearby island to go swimming. When the motor on the boat dies the two end up stranded and drifting finally coming to rest on a desolate beach. Stuck on a deserted island and now having to rely on Gennarino for

• Nosferatu in Venice (aka Prince of the Night) | Blu Ray | (30/03/2021) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A