"Actor: Gwen Williams"

• Alice | DVD | (11/02/2002) from £7.45   |  Saving you £8.54 (114.63%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Critics greeted Woody Allen's 1990 opus Alice with sighs of resignation. Here was yet another of Allen's bemused heroines-at-a-crossroads/crisis, falling prey to all kinds of temptation and fantasy and emerging at the other end a more complete, fulfilled or at least self-aware human being. But, though it's a minor work by his highest standards, it has weathered rather well. This is a softer exploration of territory Allen had previously covered rather more intensely and seriously in Another Woman (1988). It's often very funny and ultimately affirms one of Allen's most persistent themes: however confused you think you are, the answer probably lies somewhere inside you rather than in anybody else. As Alice, Mia Farrow gives one of her most versatile and unmannered performances, revealing a real gift for comedy. However bitter the breakdown of her long personal relationship with Allen, there is no doubt that he took her to new professional heights in their cinematic collaborations. At the start, Alice is little more than a well-heeled housewife and mother, a lady who lunches with bitchy friends. Her dissatisfaction with her marriage (to patronising rich guy William Hurt) leads her into the path of Chinese herbalist Dr Yang, whose potions set her off on a series of experiences which include the affair she has been considering, becoming invisible (cue some great gags, especially one involving a New York cab) and a brief flirtation with opium (here Allen's trademark soundtrack of old standards includes the evocative "Limehouse Blues"). There's also some great dialogue. "He's very deep," says Farrow of her putative lover (Joe Mantegna). "Yeah, and very deep is where he wants to put it", cracks back her visiting muse (a glittering cameo from Bernadette Peters). On the DVD: Presented in widescreen (1.85:1) format with a Dolby Digital stereo soundtrack, Alice on DVD replicates the hallmark intimacy of Allen's films in the cinema with good picture and lush sound quality (the importance of his romantic, referential musical choices should never be underestimated). There are no extras, apart from the original theatrical trailer. --Piers Ford

• Hoppity Goes To Town | DVD | (01/10/2007) from £13.95   |  Saving you £-3.96 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The classic animated full length feature by the legendary cartoon creators Max and Dave Fleischer. Hoppity a young grasshopper suddenly discovers that the weed patch in which he and his insect friends live in is being threatened by the foreclosure of the property on which it is located. Hoppity and his friends thus plan a campaign to raise the money needed to save their imperiled home.

• Malevolent | DVD | (29/04/2002) from £11.25   |  Saving you £4.74 (42.13%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Jack Lucas ( Lou Diamond Phillips) a renowned Californian homicide detective is a respected local hero. His reputation has been elevated by his bravery in a covert operation to trap the Red Dragons. Whilst finding fame in the media Jack is emotionally scarred by the loss of his partner. Jack undergoes investigation by Joe Dexter the Internal Affairs psyhologist who is preparing a final report on him. Whilst drinking in his regular bar one night a young man Ollie (Edoardo Ballerini) offers to buy Jack a drink to compensate for almost driving into him outside. Unknown to him the drink is drugged and when jack comes to in the bathroom his gun shirt pocket and bloodied handkerchief are missing - as is Ollie. Confused Jack follows his only leads to trace Ollie leading him to an exotic dancer Jessica (Kari Wuhrer) whom Ollie claimed to have been married too. Jessica only knows Ollie as a stranger who was obsessed by her. But then Dexter is murdered. Jack becomes prime suspect and Jessica is in danger. Jacks time as hero is running out as he is forced to the mercy of set up. Will he be able to prove his innocence and discover why this stranger has such a vengeful plan?

• The Sherlock Holmes Catalogue - The Master Blackmailer | DVD | (28/04/2003) from £6.46   |  Saving you £3.53 (54.64%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The Master Blackmailer is a two-hour 1991 Granada TV adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's story The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton, which for the most part sticks close to the details of the original. Holmes (Jeremy Brett) takes on the reputed king of all blackmailers, Milverton (Robert Hardy), who has made a fortune extorting money from the famous and the blue-blooded and who routinely ruins others' lives when not pleased. Unable to talk Milverton into turning over letters belonging to Lady Eva Brackenwell, Holmes decides to steal them, going undercover as a plumber and even romancing Milverton's housemaid, Agatha (Sophie Thompson), to gain better access in the house. (The ethical Watson, played by Edward Hardwicke, is upset to hear of Holmes's deception of an innocent woman.) The story builds to a surprisingly violent finale, but the real hook is Brett's performance as the disguised detective and the startling suggestion that Holmes's close contact with Agatha truly moved the bachelor sleuth. --Tom Keogh