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• 24: Series 1 | DVD | (14/10/2002) from £14.93   |  Saving you £35.06 (234.83%)   |  RRP £49.99

  Such a simple idea--yet so fiendishly complex in the execution. 24, as surely everyone knows by now, is a thriller that takes place over 24 hours, midnight to midnight, in 24 one-hour episodes (well, 45-minute episodes if you extract the ad breaks). Everything to take place in real time--on-screen and off-screen time the same--which means no flash-backs, no flash-forwards, no nice handy time-dissolves. Every strand of the plot has to be dovetailed and interlocked to make sure that things happen just when they should, in the right amount of time. Not that easy. Creator Robert Cochran and his team of writers and directors have done a pretty impressive job in putting the jigsaw together and keeping the tension ratcheted up high, as Federal Agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) hares around LA trying to stall an assassination attempt on a black Presidential candidate and rescue his wife and daughter from the clutches of the Balkan baddies. Twists, turns, revelations and cliffhangers are tossed at us with satisfying regularity. It’s not perfect: we get some hokey plot devices (instant amnesia, anybody?) and the final twist, once you start thinking back, makes no sense whatsoever. There are altogether too many huggy family moments ("I love you, Dad." "I love you, son"); and as for überbaddie Dennis Hopper’s "Serbian" accent… Even so, this is undeniably mould-breaking TV. Sutherland, rescuing his career from the doldrums in one heroic leap, fully deserves his Golden Globe. Sets and locations are artfully deployed--we gain a real sense of LA’s splayed-out geography--and Sean Callery’s score is a powerful, brooding presence. Like Murder One and The Sopranos, 24 is one of those series future TV thrillers will have to measure themselves against. On the DVDs: 24 is released in a six-disc box set. On discs 1- 5 there are no extras, but disc 6 includes the "alternative" ending and a preview of Series 2, presented by an urbane Kiefer Sutherland, that tells us precisely nothing. The transfer, in 16x9 widescreen and 2.0 Dolby Digital sound, does the high production values of the original every justice.--Philip Kemp

• TROPICALIA | DVD | (08/07/2013) from £11.59   |  Saving you £6.40 (55.22%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Tropicália or Tropicalism is one of Brazil’s most significant cultural movements. Born in the late 1960s by a collective of like-minded souls it used music and visual arts as a voice to confront the cultural and political establishment. And now the scene and its key players are explored in Marcelo Machado’s fascinating new film Tropicália. This vibrant feature documentary explores this iconic and era-changing time in Brazil’s history with material lovingly gleaned from the archives stunning images and the testimony of the group’s protagonists including Caetano Veloso Gilberto Gil Tom Zé Arnaldo and Sérgio Dias from the band Os Mutantes whose controversial thoughts music and behaviour resulted in prison and exile for its leaders. Then of course there is the music the “Tropicalistas” created pop songs mixing traditional Brazilian folk and the north hemisphere’s rock which created a sound never heard before and which has since inspired and influenced many high profile musicians including David Byrne Damon Albarn and Beck. Director Marcelo Machado grew up listening to the music and was inspired to document this influential important scene in Tropicália which comes to UK cinemas on 5 July 2013 followed by a DVD release on 7 July 2013 from Mr Bongo Films. Tropicália tells the story of the cultural movement with the same name that was born in the late 1960s in Brazil. Headed by the musicians Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil the Tropicalist movement made a big impact in the popular music scene and had a huge intense presence in Brazilian television press and radio.

• TROPICALIA | Blu Ray | (08/07/2013) from £8.67   |  Saving you £9.32 (107.50%)   |  RRP £17.99

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• The Last Patrol | DVD | (27/11/2000) from £5.71   |  Saving you £3.27 (120.22%)   |  RRP £5.99

  California - or rather what's left of it after a massive earthquake has spilt the state from the mainland and changed the face of America forever. The 'Golden State' has gone and the old way of life is over a new order has begun. From out of this ghostly island state rides a group of high speed nomads defenders of an old world saviours of the new and determined to survive. They are Army Captain Nick Preston (Dolph Lundgren) Airforce Captain Sarah McBride and Marine Sergent Lucky Simcoe. Three branches of the military three different philosophies one mission: to restore order in the aftermath of the great earthquake.