"Actor: Hank Harrison"

• Orange County | DVD | (07/07/2003) from £3.49   |  Saving you £12.50 (358.17%)   |  RRP £15.99

  A guidance counselor mistakenly sends out the wrong transcripts to Stanford University under the name of an over-achieving high schooler.

• Stargate SG-1: Season 1 | DVD | (21/10/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £49.99

  Like the very best of SF TV, Stargate SG-1 began very simply. Of course it had the benefit of a movie preceding it--in which the alternate universe, its rules and its characters were largely established--so this premiere season was therefore able to concentrate on good storytelling. In 1997 not every new show was obsessed with securing a syndication-guaranteed franchise (same goes for Buffy debuting the same year), instead one-off episodes were the way of things, exploring interesting scenarios and conundrums. Naturally there were allusions to the feature film, but most were subtle and inspired. For example, a trip to retrieve the trapped professor who'd worked on the Gate decades ago was an unusual way of tying up loose ends. Some groundwork was laid for continuation should the show be renewed into an ongoing series. Knowing that these elements were pure wishful thinking at the time makes the tapestry of System Lords and the interlinks with our history and mythology all the more enjoyable in revisiting the show from its beginnings. With Richard Dean Anderson, leading the team in a far more charismatic and empathetic way than Kurt Russell in the movie, the series also benefited from some spot-on casting that instantly won audiences over. Special effects and use of studio sets may be less dazzling in these initial shows, but its solid grounding in old-fashioned SF won for the show a loyal audience. --Paul Tonks

• Kurt And Courtney | DVD | (24/03/2003) from £12.96   |  Saving you £3.03 (18.90%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Kurt & Courtney, despite the title, is not really a film about the late Nirvana singer and his wife. Rather, in the gonzo style familiar from other Broomfield productions (Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam, Biggie & Tupac), it's a film about making a film about the late Nirvana singer and his wife. The approach is initially engaging, as Broomfield's self-conscious haplessness is a refreshing change from the infallible omniscience that documentary presenters usually seek to project. But by the end it's difficult to avoid the conclusion that Broomfield is hamming it up somewhat to distract attention from his failure to produce anything substantial. Broomfield sets out to delve into the persistent rumours that Cobain's death was not suicide, but murder possibly arranged with Love's connivance. By way of investigation, he speaks to people who claim, with wildly varying levels of plausibility, acquaintance with Cobain and Love. Some are interesting, particularly Love's arrestingly unpleasant father, who believes that his daughter killed her husband, and Kurt's charmingly guileless aunt. Too many of the rest are stoned, stupid or palpably insane, and Broomfield ends up little the wiser for speaking to any of them. Between interviews, Broomfield tries to manufacture tension with a series of heavy but never-quite-substantiated hints that Love is pulling strings to hamper his progress. The final confrontation between filmmaker and subject is one of the most colossal anti-climaxes ever caught on tape. --Andrew Mueller

• School Of Rock / Orange County / Without A Paddle | DVD | (03/10/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £23.99

  School Of Rock (Dir. Richard Linklater 2003): Fired from his band rock guitarist and vocalist Dewey Finn takes a job as a 4th grade substitute teacher at an uptight private school where his free livin' lifestyle attitude music and antics soon influences the students to explore other sides of themselves the school doesn't encourage. Finn's real goal in taking the job is to recruit a 9-year-old guitar prodigy Zack to become the lead guitarist in a band that would be able to

• Orange County | DVD | (02/06/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Jack Black Pack - School Of Rock / Orange County | DVD | (12/07/2004) from £6.34   |  Saving you £23.64 (705.67%)   |  RRP £26.99

  While it invites charges of Hollywood nepotism, Orange County overcomes that stigma with a delightful cast of newcomers and veterans alike. It's no better or worse than many teen comedies, but director Jake Kasdan (son of director Lawrence Kasdan) astutely combines teen-flick staples (stoner gags, raucous parties) with a biting undercurrent of southern California absurdity. This comedic texture helps Colin Hanks (son of Tom) and Schuyler Fisk (daughter of Sissy Spacek) to prove their big-screen promise. They play (respectively) an Orange County teen and aspiring writer named Shaun who yearns for admission to Stanford, and his sensible girlfriend who knows just how to nurture his dreams. Much of the comedy arises from the foibles of Shaun's dysfunctional family (played to perfection by Jack Black, Catherine O'Hara and John Lithgow), while unbilled cameos by Ben Stiller and Kevin Kline add zest to a movie that tries to be different, and mostly succeeds. --Jeff Shannon

• Stargate S.G -1: Season 4 (Vol. 19) | DVD | (28/01/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  The 1994 movie Stargate was originally intended as the start of a franchise, but creators Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin were distracted celebrating their Independence Day. Episodic TV treatment was the natural next step. In the roles of Colonel Jack O'Neill and Dr Daniel Jackson respectively are Richard Dean Anderson and Michael Shanks. They're joined by Captain Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping) and guilt-stricken former alien baddie Teal'c (Christopher Judge) to form the teacher's-pet primary unit SG-1. With a seemingly endless network of Stargates found to exist on planets all across the known universe, their mission is to make first contact with as many friendly races as possible. Chasing their heels at almost every turn are the "overlord" Goa'uld--the ancient Egyptian Gods who are none too chummy after the events of the original film. There's something of The Time Tunnel to the show's premise, but Stargate has held its own with stories that put the science fiction back into TV sci-fi. On the DVD: Episodes: Double Jeopardy and Exodus. In "Double Jeopardy", SG-1 experiences a bogus journey when they're reunited with their robot doppelgangers (from "Tin Man"). Some welcome resolution is given to their separate story line, since they'd basically been left to fend for themselves. The split-screen effects are excellent allowing the actors to interact with themselves. This was the directorial debut of Michael Shanks (Dr Jackson). The big Season Four finale had a lot of continuity to pull together before allowing our heroes their "Exodus". Sam gets to spend more time with her Tokra father than has been possible while everything disintegrates around them. While Teal'c goes out of his way to avenge the death of an old lover (how many wives has he had?), the unveiling of Earth's most recently acquired piece of technology seems to turn the tide of battle against the Goa'uld. And then all is lost. Including them.--Paul Tonks

• Kurt Cobain -Kurt & Courtney | DVD | (07/09/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £7.99

  Kurt and Courtney è un film crudo e disturbante su cause e circostanze del suicidio della rockstar avvenuto nel 1994. Il plot riguarda in particolare la teoria della cospirazione in base alla quale Kurt Cobain sarebbe stato ucciso. Scioccante anche se priva di reale peso la testimonianza del rocker balordo El Duce che racconta di aver ricevuto un'offerta di 50,000$ da parte di Courtney Love per sistemare Cobain. Il film affronta questa tematica con realismo e cinismo al tempo stesso, con uno stile investigativo molto interessante. Vincitore del Sierra Award 1998 per il miglior documentario.

• Orange County | Blu Ray | (26/04/2022) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A