"Actor: Heather Cameron"

• Studio 54 | DVD | (24/06/2002) from £14.98   |  Saving you £0.01 (0.07%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Studio 54 is no Saturday Night Fever--more like Sunday Morning Hangover. This portrait of the legendary Manhattan disco and its colourful cofounder, Steve Rubell, plays like the outtakes of a much more interesting film—where are the sex, the drugs, the classic disco music? (It shouldn't surprise viewers that Miramax and writer-director Mark Christopher had a falling-out over the final cut of the film; Miramax prevailed.) Considering that the essence of Studio 54 was about the rich and beautiful, it seems a bit unwise to focus on the poor and only somewhat beautiful, namely Shane (Ryan Phillippe), a Jersey boy who gets taken in by the razzle-dazzle of the disco era. Crossing the river, Shane finds another, more exciting life at Studio 54 as a shirtless bartender, and soon finds himself partying with the crème de la crème--and smitten with comely soap star Julie (Neve Campbell). The permutations of the story are familiar, but too many elements are missing. Most of Phillippe's performance seems to have ended up on the cutting-room floor (although his chiselled torso gets maximum exposure), Campbell's role is basically a glorified cameo and Breckin Meyer and Salma Hayek, as Phillippe's only true pals, are wasted. The one true gem of the film, though, is Mike Myers' take on the late Steve Rubell, an inspired high-wire performance that balances humour and tragedy without ever giving in to camp or pathos--his drunken proposition of Philippe is a minor treasure. The soundtrack does feature some unknown chestnuts and a few new remixes, including an inspired disco version of--believe it or not--Gordon Lightfoot's "If You Could Read My Mind". --Mark Englehart

• Too Good To Be True | DVD | (21/05/2007) from £9.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  A divorced womans ex-husband becomes obsessed with her when she moves in with a new man...

• Micawber | DVD | (12/05/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Micawber was ITV's big weapon in the Christmas 2001 television ratings war. With its gritty recreation of Dickensian London and David Jason--a name guaranteed to attract viewers regardless of the programme--in the title role it certainly had all the hallmarks of blockbusting television drama. Jason is certainly a fine Micawber, wringing every ounce of pathos and relentless optimism from one of Dickens' most well loved characters. And he is ably abetted by Annabelle Apsion as his put-upon wife who stands by him through thick and thin and who "never will desert him". The trouble is that if you're going to lift a familiar fictional character out of his original context and give him a whole new life and set of adventures, they really have to match or improve on the original. And Micawber has already been through so much during the course of David Copperfield that stretching him across four episodes and a plot which can only really offer a series of variations on the original theme doesn't give much room for development or dramatic impact. In the writer's corner, Jason's long-term collaborator John Sullivan (creator of Only Fools and Horses) makes a valiant attempt to generate some authentic Dickensian atmosphere. Touches of authentic Victoriana abound in the backstage theatre scenes, a dancing bear, the pawn shop and the highly imaginative flashbacks to the source of Micawber's straightened state. The script tends to combine gritty costume drama with modern comedy in an occasionally uneasy mixture; sometimes we see the ghosts of Del Boy or Pa Larkin rather than Dickens' hapless, pathetic but great-hearted victim of circumstance. But fans of Jason won't complain and there's enough soul in the story to make it compelling. --Piers Ford