"Actor: Colin Gilder"

• Lars Von Trier's E-Trilogy - Element Of Crime / Epidemic / Europa | DVD | (22/08/2005) from £15.19   |  Saving you £24.80 (163.27%)   |  RRP £39.99

  Lars Von Trier is considered one of world cinema's great auteurs. His reputation has been built upon controversial and experimental films such as The Idiots Dancer In The Dark and Dogville that often divide audiences. However he found his own unique voice with three early projects which have come to be known as the E-Trilogy: Element of Crime Epidemic and Europa - all dramas concerned with the nature of identity. Element Of Crime (1984

• Hornblower - The Examination For Lieutenant | DVD | (03/02/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Based freely on the classic novels by CS Forester, Hornblower is a series of TV films following the progress of a young officer through the ranks of the British navy during the Napoleonic Wars. The series greatest asset is the handsome and charismatic Ioan Gruffudd in the lead role, surely a major star in the making. For television films the production values are very good, though as Titanic, Waterworld and The Perfect Storm demonstrated, filming an aquatic adventure is a very expensive business, and it is clear that the Hornblower dramas simply make the best of comparatively small budgets. No more faithful to Forester's books than the 1951 Gregory Peck classic Captain Horatio Hornblower, the real inspiration seems to have come from the success of Sharpe, starring Sean Bean, which likewise featured a British hero in the Napoleonic Wars. Nevertheless, while rather more easy going than the real British navy of the time, the Hornblower saga delivers an entertaining adventure, greatly enhanced by the presence of such guest stars as Denis Lawson, Cheri Lunghi, Ronald Pickup and Anthony Sher. Firmly settled on HMS Indefatigable and mentored by Captain Pellew (an excellent Robert Lindsay), "The Examination for Lieutenant" finds Spain entering the war in an adventure involving both the Black Death and a lethal fireship.--Gary S Dalkin

• Hornblower - The Frogs And The Lobsters | DVD | (03/02/2003) from £7.97   |  Saving you £5.01 (100.60%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Based freely on the classic novels by C.S. Forester, Hornblower is a series of TV films following the progress of a young officer through the ranks of the British navy during the Napoleonic Wars. The series greatest asset is the handsome and charismatic Ioan Gruffudd in the lead role, surely a major star in the making. For television films the production values are very good, though as Titanic, Waterworld and The Perfect Storm demonstrated, filming an aquatic adventure is a very expensive business, and it is clear that the Hornblower dramas simply make the best of comparatively small budgets. No more faithful to Forester's books than the 1951 Gregory Peck classic Captain Horatio Hornblower, the real inspiration seems to have come from the success of Sharpe, starring Sean Bean, which likewise featured a British hero in the Napoleonic Wars. Nevertheless, while rather more easy going than the real British navy of the time, the Hornblower saga delivers an entertaining adventure, greatly enhanced by the presence of such guest stars as Denis Lawson, Cheri Lunghi, Ronald Pickup and Anthony Sher. "The Frogs and the Lobsters" provides a tough, complex and surprisingly violent drama concerning an attempt to mount a royalist counter-offensive against Revolutionary France.--Gary S Dalkin