"Actor: Ben Blakeman"

• Savage Garden - Superstars And Cannonballs: Live On Tour In Australia | DVD | (13/12/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Savage Garden, Australia's hottest export of recent years, are captured here in all their live glory as they hit their hometown of Brisbane in a triumphant sell-out homecoming gig. There is a fair amount of behind-the-scenes footage which serves to back up the roles that the two members of the band have adopted: singer Darren is the outgoing excitable one, attracted like a moth to a flame by the trappings of celebrity, whereas guitarist Daniel is the private and shy one, preferring to stay out of the limelight and just write songs. But with millions of records sold all around the world, sell-out tours, hysterical fans and a string of chart-topping singles, this unlikely pairing proves the old adage that opposites attract. All the hits are here--"To the Moon and Back", "Affirmation", "Truly, Madly Deeply", "The Animal Song" and others--but after a while the visuals do become very samey: with only two of them to look at, and one of them tending to stray away from the spotlight at every available opportunity, the poor cameramen don't have many options. The backdrop to the concert is a huge wall of multi-coloured blocks of lights, apparently based on memories of a trip to Blackpool (but without the rain, chip wrappers and drunken brawls, sadly). It's all very polished, and just a little bit sterile as it fails to recreate the atmosphere of the live experience. However, for those who were there it's a great lasting reminder. The DVD menu allows the viewer to choose multiple camera angles on a select number of tracks. --Helen Marquis

• House Of Games | DVD | (02/02/2004) from £9.43   |  Saving you £3.56 (37.75%)   |  RRP £12.99

  David Mamet's 1987 directorial debut House of Games is mesmerising study of control and seduction between two kinds of detached observers: a gambler who is also a con artist and a psychotherapist who is also an emerging pop-psych guru in the book market. The latter (played by Lindsay Crouse) meets the former (Joe Mantegna) when one of her clients is driven to despair from his debts to the card shark. Mantegna's character agrees to drop the IOUs in exchange for Crouse's attention at the seedy House of Games in Seattle, a mecca for conmen to talk shop and hustle unsuspecting customers. The shrink gets so caught up in the arcane rules and world view of her guide over subsequent days that she observes--with no false rapture--various stings in progress inside and outside the club. Mamet's story finally becomes a fascinating study of two people protecting and extending their respective cosmologies the way rival predators fight for the same piece of turf. The psychological challenge is compelling; so is the stylised dialogue, with its pattern of pauses and hiccups and humming meter. Mostly shooting at night, Mamet also gave Seattle a different look from previous filmmakers, turning its familiar puddles into concentrations of liquid neon and poisonous noir. --Tom Keogh