"Actor: David Yip"

• Entrapment | DVD | (04/10/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Robert (Mac) MacDougal (Sean Connery) has an untarnished reputation as the world's greatest art thief.

• View to a Kill | DVD | (03/11/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A View to a Kill, Roger Moore's last outing as James Bond, is evidence enough that it was time to pass the torch to another actor. Beset by crummy action (an out-of-control fire engine?) and featuring a fading Moore still trying to prop up his mannered idea of style, A View to a Kill is largely interesting for Christopher Walken's quirky performance as a sort-of super-villain who wants to take out California's Silicon Valley. Grace Jones has a spookily interesting presence as a lethal associate of Walken's (and who, in the best Bond tradition, has sex with 007 before trying to kill him later), and Patrick Macnee (Steed!) has a warm if brief bit. Even directed by John Glen, who brought some crackle to the Moore years in the Bond franchise, this is a very slight effort. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com On the DVD: For Roger Moore's final Bond outing the production crew faced the usual quota of difficulties and disasters, the "making-of" documentary reveals: from base jumpers off the Eiffel tower whose antics threatened to jeopardise fragile relations with the Parisian authorities, to Ridley Scott thoughtlessly burning down the 007 at Pinewood right before production was due to start. Patrick MacNee, who has a supporting role in the movie, hands over narrative duties on this one to Rosemary Ford. The commentary is one of those less-than-satisfying montages of comments from various members of cast and crew. Also included is Duran Duran's "A View to a Kill" video (sounding hopelessly dated now), the usual trailers and a brief deleted scene of comic relief inside a Parisian police station. The second documentary concerns the music of Bond--always a crucial ingredient--although it manages the neat diplomatic trick of interviewing both Monty Norman and John Barry without giving the least hint of any controversy about the famous James Bond theme. --Mark Walker

• James Bond - A View to A Kill (Ultimate Edition 2 Disc Set) | DVD | (17/07/2006) from £11.04   |  Saving you £8.94 (111.06%)   |  RRP £16.99

  Agent 007 (Roger Moore in his final outing as James Bond) races against time to stop a power-mad industrialist (Christopher Walken) who plots to kill millions in order to corner the world's microchip supply. From the Eiffel Tower to the top of the Golden Gate Bridge James Bond can't be stopped.

• Quatermass - Chapters 1 To 4 / The Conclusion | DVD | (07/04/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  John Mills stars as the eponymous Professor in 1979s Quatermass, the fourth, final and best of the celebrated television science fiction serials. The Professors early adventures were 1950s TV productions, all made into cult Hammer films, including the excellent Quatermass and the Pit (1967). Here Quatermass, now an elderly scientist searching for his missing grand-daughter, finds himself facing a new alien nightmare in a convincingly bleak near-future Britain of urban decay, social collapse and unchecked violence. Written by Nigel Kneale, as were all the Quatermass stories, this was an intelligent extrapolation of 1970s industrial-strife-ridden Britain, a continuation of the apocalyptic British SF tradition of John Wyndham (The Day of the Triffids was serialised by the BBC two years later). Thanks to a generous budget sufficient to allow for an international theatrical version, the production values are impressively large-scale, and the naturalistic performances from a cast including Simon MacCorkindale, Barbara Kellerman and Brenda Fricker add greatly to the sense of reality. Best of all, John Mills brings tremendous class to an adventure which remains a rare example of serious, ideas-based adult TV SF. Director Piers Haggard (Pennies from Heaven) packs considerable tension and not a few scares into Kneales epic canvas. On the DVD: Quatermass is presented on three DVDs with two 50-minute episodes and perfunctory production notes on each of the first two discs. The 4:3 picture is good for a 1970s TV series, though there is some minor print damage. Sound is adequate two-channel mono. Disc 3 offers the 101-minute international theatrical version, called The Quatermass Conclusion. This version contains some slightly stronger, 15-rated material, and different credits. The disc also features an oddly presented but interesting 18-minute interview with Nigel Kneale which is centred on the original three Quatermass BBC serials. A 16-page booklet is informative and the packaging is among the most attractive to grace a DVD set thus far. --Gary S Dalkin

• Break | DVD | (31/08/2020) from £6.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Break is a 'rags to riches', feel good story. The film follows the exploits of Spencer Pryde (Sam Gittins), a gifted, inner-city kid, wasting his talents on petty crime. After witnessing the brutal murder of his pal Denis and finding himself in debt to a drug dealing thug named Ginger, it seems Spencer's life is spiraling out of control, until one day, a chance encounter with a Chinese stranger and former eight-ball pool champion named Vincent Quiang (David Yip) presents him with an opportunity to turn his life around. But in order to make a new life for himself, Spencer will first need to break away from peer pressure of his friends, his environment and all the negative influences of his current life.

• Undefeatable | DVD | (23/06/2003) from £12.14   |  Saving you £-4.16 (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  Out of the ring into the fire...in a fight to the finish! All action martial arts film in which a woman is hell-bent on getting revenge on the man who attacked and raped her sister....

• The Chinese Detectives - Series 1 And 2 - Complete | DVD | (14/04/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £39.99

  The series was influenced by the internationally successful Charlie Chan detective films of the 1930s and '40s but in line with industry attitudes of the time that particular Chinese detective was invariably played by a white actor in 'yellow-face'. The BBC's update of the archetype cast the British-born Chinese actor David Yip as Detective Sergeant John Ho. Instead of the barely intelligable English typically spoken by Chinese actors in British drama Yip's accent has a strong Cockney influence. Ho fits the pattern of the maverick detective prepared to use unorthodox methods to solve his cases which emerged in series like Z Cars (BBC 1962-78) and further developed in The Sweeney.

• The Professionals - Series 4 | DVD | (13/02/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £39.99

  The complete fourth series of this much loved classic crime TV show featuring 14 episodes uncut and digitally remastered! Episodes include: 'The Acorn Syndrome' 'Wild' 'Need to Know' 'Takeaway' 'Blackout' 'Blood Sports' 'Slush Fund' 'The Gun' 'Hijack' 'Mixed Doubles' 'Weekend in the Country' 'Kickback' and 'It's Only a Beautiful Picture'.

• The Professionals - Season 4 | DVD | (26/12/2002) from £22.76   |  Saving you £17.23 (75.70%)   |  RRP £39.99

  More episodes from the cult television series starring Lewis Collins Martin Shaw and Gordon Jackson. Episodes include: 'The Acorn Syndrome' 'Wild' 'Need to Know' 'Takeaway' 'Blackout' 'Blood Sports' 'Slush Fund' 'The Gun' 'Hijack' 'Mixed Doubles' 'Weekend in the Country' 'Kickback' and 'It's Only a Beautiful Picture'.

• Future Sport | DVD | (25/10/1999) from £7.66   |  Saving you £1.32 (28.27%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Shades of Rollerball! Director Ernest Dickerson and executive producer Wesley Snipes ponder the sport of the future and come up with... "Futuresport", a combination of handball, ice hockey, and skateboard hot-dogging begun as an inner-city alternative to gang warfare and transformed into a glitzy media sensation. Dean Cain stars as the reigning Futuresport hero, a cocky glory hound who counts his cash and "popularity index" ratings with a smug grin until his narcissism costs him the championship game. As a ruthless terrorist group pushes the world to the brink of war, the suddenly altruistic Cain hatches a plan to bring Futuresport back to its roots. With the help of reporter (and former flame) Vanessa Williams and the game's creator (a rastah-inflected Snipes, who gives himself the film's best role), Cain proposes a winner-take-all game to settle the territorial dispute. Beefy former TV "Superman" Cain makes a better reformed hero than a snotty superstar and looks great in the game scenes, but Snipes steals the film with his funky turn as the inner-city guru with more on his mind than the game. Dickerson gives this TV film a handsome look and even injects a little grit into the otherwise bland screenplay, but apart from the zippy game scenes (which Dickerson films with an electrified energy), it's a familiar and rather flat bit of science fiction hokum. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com