"Director: Jim Jacobs"

• Boys On Film 20: Heaven Can Wait | Blu Ray | (06/04/2020) from £17.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Bursting onto the scene, wide-eyed and keen, your first time with the boys was Hard Love. For a second you were In Too Deep - you dallied with the American Boy, travelling the Pacific Rim with Bad Romance on your tail. Now out of your teens, your Heroes behind you, the future is yours. Heaven Can Wait. Come celebrate 20 years of Boys on Film with the finest of gay short cinema for your eyes only. On the cusp of adulthood, the world's longest running short film series is only getting started. Featuring over two hours of the best short films from around the world including; - Sleepover - Just Me - Mine - Don t Blame Jack - Foreign Lovers - Mankind - Isha - RUOK - The World In Your Window

• AKA Cassius Clay | DVD | (18/05/2002) from £6.22   |  Saving you £9.77 (157.07%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Made in 1970, just as he was reaching the end of a three-year exile from boxing, AKA Cassius Clay is a documentary about Muhammad Ali's life and career. Produced by Jim Jacobs and Bill Cayton--who would go on to manage Mike Tyson--it includes reams of Jacobs' vast collection of fight footage, some of it familiar, some quite rare, such as flickery images of his earliest bouts. The film intersperses an account of Ali's career with good natured, if combative, sections to camera featuring Ali and future Tyson trainer Cus D'Amato, who plays devil's advocate, arguing with the ex-champ that he would never have beaten Joe Louis in his heyday, or (more dubiously) his own protégé Floyd Patterson. Watching footage of his 1967 bout against Cleveland Williams here, it's hard to believe any champion before or since could have beaten Ali at his height. Ali's familiar story is competently related here (though narrator Richard Kiley has the mildly disconcerting air of a Bond villain): his 1960 Olympic triumph; his defeat of Sonny Liston who was expected to annihilate the young 22-year-old blowhard in 1964; his conversion to the Nation of Islam; and the plainly vindictive decision on the part of the authorities to revise his draft status and call him up for service in Vietnam. Ali refused and faced the possibility of a five-year jail sentence as well as being stripped of his title. The principle pleasure of AKA Cassius Clay is watching Ali in full verbal flow. His maniacal teasing of Liston was a psychological knockout blow. "The man's too ugly to be the world champ. The world champ should be pretty, like me!" On the DVD: extras comprise scene selections and the original trailer. The reproduction is visually adequate, with the sepia tones of the fight footage holding up well; but the dubbing in places is poor. --David Stubbs

• Raging Bull/AKA Cassius Clay | DVD | (16/04/2007) from £12.13   |  Saving you £-3.14 (N/A%)   |  RRP £8.99

  Raging Bull (Dir. Martin Scorsese 1980): Raging Bull is arguably the finest work from the Scorsese and De Niro partnership. De Niro gives an amazing portrayal of a man whose animal side lurks just beneath the surface ever ready to erupt. Vivid and unremitting in its uncompromising brutality and honesty the fight sequences are famed for their realism. Violent throughout this film is a testament to Scorsese's and De Niro skills creating a thoroughly absorbing film about such an unlikable character. Renowned for throwing himself into the roles of the character De Niro went on a diet to gain fifty pounds during the production for the role of the faded star. Muhammad Ali aka Cassius Clay (Dir. Jim Jacoobs 1970): A fascinating look at the life and incredible achievements of one of the most courageous outspoken and charismatic figures of boxing Muhammad Ali. AKA: Cassius Clay charts the voyage of a man who grabbed Olympic gold at the age of 18 captured the World Heavyweight title at 21 and ultimately came to power as one of the most forceful leaders of the American civil rights movement.