"Actor: Alfred Hoffman"

• The Tripods - Series 1 | DVD | (19/03/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  In 1984 and 1985, The Tripods was the show that the BBC used to fill its traditional Saturday teatime Doctor Who slot. Adapted from the first two books in John Christopher's "Tripods" trilogy, the show frustratingly failed to deliver the final story that winds everything up. This release collects the first series of 13 episodes, which covers the first book (The White Mountains). In 2089, the human race lives a peaceful, agrarian existence in post-technological communities under the rule of the Tripods, vast alien machines that look like the Martians from War of the Worlds. In a small English village, teenage cousins Will (John Shackley) and Henry (Will Baker) are troubled as they near the age at which they will be "capped", fitted by the local Tripod with a metallic hairnet which will turn them into docile, uncreative, happy servants of the invaders. A wily vagrant tells the boys that far to the south, a community of uncapped freemen resists the Tripods, and they set off on a 13-episode journey that takes them to the coast, across the English Channel and down through France, with stop-offs in the impressive ruins of Paris, at a medieval-style chateau and on a vineyard in the Jura. Along the way, the lads fall in with "Bean Pole" (Ceri Seel), a gangling, bespectacled French rebel who is fascinated with the lost arts of machine-making, but at each of their stopovers there are temptations, mostly in the forms of appealing French girls, to settle down and become happy conformists, but in the end they do join up with the rebels, ready for a mission to the city of the Tripods that comes in Series Two. With production values significantly higher than Doctor Who at that time, the show conserves its effects and makes them count, with the Tripods only rarely intervening directly. Watched at a sitting, it seems padded and the three lead actors are variable, but taken in single-episode chunks it works quite well, with a subtly unsettling depiction of a backward world where everyone seems happy but actually isn't and actual villainy comes as a relief amidst the overwhelming niceness. The English and French locations are very well used, and the production design and costuming (lots of hats to cover the "caps") is imaginative without being panto-like. --Kim Newman

• Finding Neverland / Chocolat | DVD | (03/10/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  An amazing double-bill for lovers of all-things Depp! Finding Neverland (Dir. Marc Foster 2004): Unlock your imagination... Finding Neverland is a tale of magic and fantasy inspired by the life of Peter Pan author James Barrie. Set in London 1904 the film is a fictional account of Barrie's creative struggle to bring Peter Pan to life from his first inspiration up until the play's premiere - a night that will change not only Barrie's own life but the

• Dudley Do-Right | DVD | (12/03/2001) from £21.38   |  Saving you £-1.39 (-7.00%)   |  RRP £19.99

  In this awkward live-action version of the classic cartoon Dudley Do-Right, the considerable charm Brendan Fraser displayed in George of the Jungle and The Mummy is much needed. The first half of the movie lays out the basic elements of the cartoon (none-too-bright Canadian Mountie battles melodramatic villain Snidely Whiplash with pluck and dumb luck) with little wit or imagination, but lots of pratfalls and broad gags. But about halfway into it, when Whiplash has taken over the town of Semi-Happy Falls and become its leading citizen, the movie takes a curious turn: since Whiplash has become, to all appearances, a good guy, Dudley decides the only way to fight him is to turn into a bad guy. Next thing you know, Dudley is decked out in black leather and cruising around on a motorbike while Whiplash fumes impotently. Fans who are familiar with the original US TV series Bullwinkle from which Dudley originated may decry this departure, but it gives the movie a much-needed burst of energy and the opportunity for some entertainingly surreal images--like Whiplash up to his neck in a mud bath with cucumber slices on his eyes, consulting with his henchmen about dealing with that unpredictable Do-Right. The film also features Alfred Molina, Sarah Jessica Parker and Monty Python's Eric Idle. --Bret Fetzer, Amazon.com