"Actor: Damian de Montemas"

• Warrior King | DVD | (30/10/2006) from £5.95   |  Saving you £14.04 (235.97%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Tony Jaa returns in this action-packed adventure which sees him heading to Australia to rescue his two beloved elephants.

• The Secret Life of Us : Series 1, Part 1 | DVD | (27/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  The Secret Life of Us follows eight twentysomethings sharing three apartments in a Melbourne residential block, and may well be Channel 4's best-kept secret. Buried in a mid-week late-night slot the show has nevertheless developed a cult following as an antipodean answer to This Life, though one mercifully free of amateurish shaky photography. This is actually a good-looking soap spiced with post-watershed language, sex, nudity and a refreshing dose of humour--think Sex and the City meets Coupling, or Dawson's Creek goes to The Book Group. The show takes a while to get going, introducing too many characters too quickly in disorientating fashion, but becomes engrossing entertainment filled with realistically young, aimless and confused, if not very likeable characters. Central to the show is Alex (Claudia Karvan, soon to become much more famous in Star Wars: Episode III) giving a strong performance as an emotional insecure doctor who sets things rolling by having a fling with her best friend's boyfriend. Samuel Johnson meanwhile is the highly sexed struggling novelist whose work in progress, the titular Secret Life of Us offers commentary on the ever more tangled web of romance, deception and friendship. It's Australian drama for those who have outgrown Melbourne's Neighbours. On the DVD: The Secret Life of Us comes to DVD in an anamorphically enhanced 16:9 transfer which looks fine, showing just a little graininess in the darker scenes. The sound is Dolby Prologic and is more than adequate given the small-scale, intimate nature of the production. There are optional subtitles. --Gary S Dalkin

• Blame | DVD | (14/05/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Seeking justice and revenge, five friends violently attack a man in his remote country house. Their plan: the perfect murder. Confident that their victim's death by his own hand will not be questioned, they overdose him on sleeping pills, but it all goes horribly wrong when their attempt fails and their victim fights for his life.In the aftermath, questions are raised about the true nature of the events leading up to the botched attack. As lies and secrets are revealed, the dynamic of the once-tight group shifts as the friends begin to question each other's motives. As they move closer to the truth, the weight of their quest for justice drives them to a place of no return.

• Tony Jaa Box Set (Warrior King, Ong Bak) | DVD | (30/10/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Ong-Bak (2003): No stunt doubles no computer images no strings attached! When the head of a statue sacred to a village is stolen a dutiful but endearingly naive young martial artist is charged to go to the big city and finds himself taking on the underworld to retrieve it... Having drawn incredible comparisons to Bruce Lee and an early Jackie Chan Thai sensation Tony Jaa bursts onto the scene! Amazingly athletic not to mention charismatic Tony Jaa refuses to countenance the use of props (yes that's real glass barbed wire and metal spikes!) wire enhancement and faked blows. What full contact you see is most definitely what you get! Added to this is a gleefully choreographed chase on the highways of Bangkok involving a fleet of tuk-tuk vehicles (the three-wheeled taxi iconic to Thailand) knowing location photography (visitors to the capital will recognise Khao San Road and the exterior of top nightclub hangout Suzy's Pub) and most of all an affecting story of one man's struggle to uphold village traditions against Western modernisation. Warrior King (2005): The Ong-Bak team take martial arts on film to a whole new level! Two years in the making the second most expensive film in Thai history and with several seriously battered and bruised stuntmen into the bargain Warrior King once again is the perfect showcase for the talents of Tony Jaa. The life of young martial arts master Kham (Tony Jaa) is turned upside down when an international mafia syndicate based in Australia capture his two prize elephants and smuggle them to Sydney. Distraught that the animals reared as a symbol of his devotion to the King of Thailand and due to be presented to the monarch Kham is prompted to venture into a foreign land for the very first time. Rescuing the animals is no mean feat. Despite the assistance of Sergeant Mark (Petchtai Wongkamlao) a Thai police officer based in Australia and Pla (Bongkoj Khongmalai) a Thai girl sold into modern day slavery Kham faces an incredible challenge. The ruthless gang is headed by Madame Rose (Xing Jing) whose deadly henchmen include a Vietnamese thief (Johnny Nguyen) and the hulking 7' tall behemoth TK (Nathan Jones)... If you think you know what to expect from the Ong-Bak triumvirate of director Prachya Pinkaew star Tony Jaa and stunt co-ordinator Panna Rittikrai then think again! Plot necessarily takes a back-seat to this delirious example of extreme Muay Thai cinema the highlight of which must include a 4 minute(!) unbroken fight sequence in which Kham battles his way through the four floors of the Tom Yum Goong restaurant. No cuts no faked blows no letup in the action!