"Actor: Curtis Taylor"

• The Meg | Blu Ray | (10/12/2018) from £16.45   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Sci-Fi Action Thriller. In the film, a deep-sea submersible-part of an international undersea observation program-has been attacked by a massive creature, previously thought to be extinct, and now lies disabled at the bottom of the deepest trench in the Pacific...with its crew trapped inside. With time running out, expert deep sea rescue diver Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham) is recruited by a visionary Chinese oceanographer (Winston Chao), against the wishes of his daughter Suyin (Li Bingbing), to save the crew-and the ocean itself-from this unstoppable threat: a pre-historic 75-foot-long shark known as the Megalodon. What no one could have imagined is that, years before, Taylor had encountered this same terrifying creature. Now, teamed with Suyin, he must confront his fears and risk his own life to save everyone trapped below...bringing him face to face once more with the greatest and largest predator of all time.

• The Meg | Blu Ray | (10/12/2018) from £11.95   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Sci-Fi Action Thriller. In the film, a deep-sea submersible-part of an international undersea observation program-has been attacked by a massive creature, previously thought to be extinct, and now lies disabled at the bottom of the deepest trench in the Pacific...with its crew trapped inside. With time running out, expert deep sea rescue diver Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham) is recruited by a visionary Chinese oceanographer (Winston Chao), against the wishes of his daughter Suyin (Li Bingbing), to save the crew-and the ocean itself-from this unstoppable threat: a pre-historic 75-foot-long shark known as the Megalodon. What no one could have imagined is that, years before, Taylor had encountered this same terrifying creature. Now, teamed with Suyin, he must confront his fears and risk his own life to save everyone trapped below...bringing him face to face once more with the greatest and largest predator of all time.

• Robocop 3 | DVD | (24/01/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Early on in Robocop 3, an action figure of our metal hero on the nightstand in a little girl's room informs us that he's now become a children's toy. The image is right on the money; despite following up two of the most violent, hilarious sci-fi/action films ever made, Robocop 3 is strictly for the kiddies. It's not just that the gore has been toned down considerably to make for a PG-13 rating; also excised is the straight-faced portrait of a world run by corporate fascism. When evil corporation OCP, and its even more evil Japanese parent company, plan to raze a Detroit neighbourhood to put up the shining new Delta City, the residents (including the aforementioned adolescent, who conveniently happens to be a computer expert) gang up to fight back, just like the angry neighbours in Death Wish V. Robocop (played this time out by Robert John Burke, Peter Weller having wisely passed) could be a hindrance to the companies' plans, so a ninja android is sent in to deal with him. Even all this could have been enjoyable, in a campy sort of way, but nothing pays off as either comedy or action--tellingly, the two big showdowns with the ninja start exhilaratingly (Robocop's clunky movements hilariously counterpoised by the android's acrobatic leaps), only to end just when they're getting good. Director Fred Dekker has some nice stylistic touches scattered about, but not nearly enough to save the film. One high note, though: the animated "Johnny Rehab" spot may be the funniest ad in the whole series. --Bruce Reid, Amazon.com

• Gunsmoke: The Complete Series | DVD | (05/05/2020) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Once Upon A Texas Train | DVD | (01/09/2001) from £31.03   |  Saving you £-29.04 (-1,459.30%)   |  RRP £1.99

  20 years after Captain Hayes puts outlaw John Henry behind bars he is released and holds up a bank. Hayes takes up the chase once more...

• George Washington | DVD | (22/04/2002) from £32.37   |  Saving you £-12.38 (-61.90%)   |  RRP £19.99

  For a first feature from a 24-year-old director, George Washington is an amazingly assured piece of work. The title’s misleading: this is no biopic of America’s first President, but a poetic, richly atmospheric rhapsody set in a rundown industrial town in the American South. Given this backdrop, and a predominantly black cast, you might expect an angry study of social deprivation and racial tension, but Green has no such agenda. Instead, he derives a shimmering, heat-hazed beauty from his images of rusting machinery, junkyards and derelict buildings, and if the overall tone is tinged with sadness, it’s mainly from a sense of universal human loss. The action, such as it is, moves at its own slow Southern pace, following a group of youngsters, black and white, over a few high-summer days. Things do happen--a couple decide to elope, one boy’s saved from drowning, another gets killed--but they’re presented in an oblique, understated fashion that owes nothing to conventional Hollywood notions of narrative. With one exception, the cast are all non-professionals, mainly youngsters who director-writer David Gordon Green found in and around the town where the film was made, Winston-Salem in North Carolina. Shooting in a semi-improvised fashion, Green draws from his young cast remarkably spontaneous performances and dialogue (often their own) full of unselfconscious poetry. Drawing on a wide range of influences--among other things he cites Sesame Street, documentaries and such 70s classics as Deliverance, Walkabout and especially Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven--Green has fashioned a film that’s fresh, tender and utterly individual. And it looks just gorgeous: belying the tiny budget, Tim Orr’s widescreen photography lavishes mellow softness on images of dereliction and small-town decay. Never has dead-end poverty been made to look so attractive. On the DVD: George Washington comes on a disc generously loaded with extras. Besides the obvious theatrical trailer we get two of Green’s early short films, Physical Pinball and Pleasant Grove (both clearly dry runs for the main feature), an 18-minute featurette about the film’s reception at the Berlin Film Fest and a deleted scene of a community meeting. This scene, the short Pleasant Grove and the movie itself also offer a director’s commentary--or rather a director’s dialogue, as Green shares the honours with one of his lead actors, Paul Schneider. Their laconic, unpretentious comments enhance the whole experience enormously. The film has been transferred in its full scope ratio (2.35:1) and looks great. --Philip Kemp

• Running Time (Special Edition) | Blu Ray | (16/03/2021) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A