"Actor: Fabiano Udenio"

• Austin Powers - International Man Of Mystery / Austin Powers - The Spy Who Shagged Me / Austin Powers - Goldmember | DVD | (07/11/2005) from £29.99   |  Saving you £-5.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  If you don't think Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997) is one of the funniest movies of the 1990s, maybe you should be packed into a cryogenic time chamber and sent back to the decade whence you came. Perhaps it was the 1960s - the shagadelic decade when London hipster Austin Powers scored with gorgeous chicks as a fashion photographer by day, crime-fighting international man of mystery by night. Yeah, baby, yeah! But when Powers's arch nemesis, Dr. Evil, puts himself into a deepfreeze and travels via time machine to the late 1990s, Powers must follow him and foil Evil's nefarious scheme of global domination. Mike Myers plays dual roles as Powers and Dr. Evil, with Elizabeth Hurley as his present-day sidekick and karate-kicking paramour. A hilarious spoof of '60s spy movies, this colourful comedy actually gets funnier with successive viewings, making it a perfect home video for gloomy days and randy nights. Oh, behave! "I put the grrr in swinger, baby!" a deliciously randy Powers coos near the beginning of The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999), and if the imagination of Austin creator Mike Myers seems to have sagged a bit, his energy surely hasn't. This friendly, go-for-broke sequel finds our man Austin heading back to the '60s to keep perennial nemesis Dr. Evil (Myers again) from blowing up the world - and, more importantly, to get back his mojo, that man-juice that turns Austin into irresistible catnip for women, especially American spygirl Felicity Shagwell (a pretty but vacant Heather Graham). The plot may be irreverent and illogical, the jokes may be bad, and the scenes may run on too long, but it's all delivered sunnily and with tongue firmly in cheek. Myers teams Dr. Evil with a diminutive clone, Mini-Me (Verne J. Troyer), then pulls a hat trick by playing a third character, the obese and disgusting Scottish assassin Fat Bastard. Despite symptoms of sequelitis, Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002) is must-see lunacy for devoted fans of the shagadelic franchise. Unfortunately, the law of diminishing returns is in full effect: for every big-name cameo and raunchy double-entendre, there's an equal share of redundant shtick, juvenile scatology, and pop-cultural spoofery. All is forgiven when the hilarity level is consistently high, and Mike Myers -returning here as randy Brit spy Austin, his nemesis Dr. Evil, the bloated Scottish henchman Fat Bastard, and new Dutch disco-villain Goldmember - thrives by favouring comedic chaos over coherent plotting. Once they've tossed Austin into the disco fever of 1975 (where he's sent to rescue his father, gamely played by Michael Caine), Myers and director Jay Roach seem vaguely adrift with old and new characters, including Verne Troyer's Mini-Me and pop star Beyoncé Knowles as Pam Grier-ish blaxpo-babe Foxxy Cleopatra. A bit tired, perhaps, but Powers hasn't lost his mojo.

• Bride Of Re-Animator | DVD | (03/07/2017) from £10.59   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Brian Yuzna's Bride of Re-Animator (1990) was one of the last hurrahs for special-effects-based horror films before CGI extended the ease with which the impossible could be put on screen. Like its predecessor, Re-Animator, Bride is very loosely based on HP Lovecraft's stories of Herbert West, a scientist with a taste for investigation that knows no boundaries, especially not those of good taste. He and his agonisingly liberal sidekick Cain have discovered an improvement on their original serum--now they can not only bring the dead back to life but also assemble them from parts first. Jeffrey Combs gives a wonderfully dour performance as West, not even cracking a smile when a creature he has concocted from fingers and an eye-ball is running around the room unseen by a pestering detective. This is the sort of film that constantly escalates its macabre elements--the surviving villain of the first film has been left as simply an animated head, but that does not stop him pursuing his revenge on West, nor finding ways of using West's new techniques along the way. It all makes for cheerfully gruesome fun. On the DVD: Bride of Re-Animator is presented in an anamorphic widescreen visual aspect ratio of 1.85:1, and its Dolby 2.0 does what little can be done with the muddy soundtrack, but is rather better with the jauntily creepy score. The only special features on this Tartan issue are the trailer, the director's production notes and a reel of trailers for other Tartan horror movies. --Roz Kaveney

• Dude, Where's My Car? / Austin Powers - International Man Of Mystery | DVD | (25/07/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Dude Where's My Car? (Dir. Danny Leiner 2000): Jesse (Ashton Kutcher) and Chester (Seann William Scott) got really wasted last night. The fridge is packed with pudding their girlfriends - ""The Twins"" - are ticked off and somehow Jesse's car has disappeared. So the hapless stoners set out to find the car which happens to have their girlfriends' anniversary presents in it. But they soon discover that losing the car isn't half the story. High school hottie Christie (Kristy Sw

• There's Something About Mary / Rat Race / Austin Powers / Nine Months / Dude, Where's My Car? | DVD | (16/08/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £39.99

  There's Something About Mary Still suffering from a High School crush on Mary (Cameron Diaz) the nerdy angst-driven Ted (Ben Stiller) tracks her down thirteen years later with the help of a sleazy private investigator (Matt Dillon) who also falls for her. Unfortunately both men discover that virtually every man who sets his eyes on the dazzling Mary finds himself head over heels in love and determined to win her hand. Rat Race Donald Sinclair owns the biggest snazzi