"Actor: James Murdock"

• The Andromeda Strain | DVD | (06/06/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Directed with clinical precision by Academy Award winner Robert Wise this compelling account of the Earth's first biological crisis is perhaps the most chillingly realistic science fiction thriller ever made. After an errant satellite crashes to earth near a remote New Mexico village the recovery team discovers that almost everyone in the town are victims of a horrible death with the mysterious exception of an infant and an old homeless man. The survivors are brought to a state-of-the-art laboratory descending five stories beneath the ground where the puzzled scientists race against time to determine the nature of the deadly microbe before it wreaks worldwide havoc. A trailblazer in the areas of special effects and inventive sets The Andromeda Strain is based on Michael Crichton's best-selling novel that created national paranoia for its topical relevance to the first moon landing.

• In The Heat Of The Night | DVD | (03/02/2003) from £6.48   |  Saving you £9.51 (146.76%)   |  RRP £15.99

  This 1967 film took home lots of Oscars for its fascinating drama about a Philadelphia detective (Sidney Poitier) who assists a redneck Southern sheriff (Rod Steiger) in solving a murder. A study in racism that ebbs a bit through the collective and shared need between a black man and a white man who don't want to be working together, In the Heat of the Night continues to strike a chord today. Steiger is a mass of snarling danger, Poitier a bundle of nerves covered in class. Norman Jewison (Moonstruck) directs with a keen feeling for the cultural and social atmosphere of the setting. --Tom Keogh

• Rawhide: The Complete Series | DVD | (11/08/2020) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• The Andromeda Strain | Blu Ray | (20/02/2017) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  When virtually all of the residents of Piedmont, New Mexico, are found dead after the return to Earth of a space satellite, the head of the US Air Force's Project Scoop declares an emergency. Many years prior to this incident, a group of eminent scientists led by Dr. Jeremy Stone (Arthur Hill) advocated for the construction of a secure laboratory facility that would serve as a base in the event an alien biological life form was returned to Earth from a space mission. Stone and his team - Drs. Dutton, Leavitt and Hall (David Wayne, Kate Reid, and (James Olson, respectively)- go to the facility, known as Wildfire, and try to first isolate the life form while determining why two people from Piedmont (an old wino and a six-month-old baby) survived. The scientists methodically study the alien life form unaware that it has already mutated and presents a far greater danger in the lab, which is equipped with a nuclear self-destruct device should it manage to escape.

• Casper's Haunted Christmas | DVD | (30/10/2000) from £5.38   |  Saving you £-1.39 (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

  In Casper's Haunted Christmas, a direct-to-video animated film, the haunted world of spooks meets the happy spirit of Christmas--a faulty premise to begin with. The plot gets even more absurd when Kibosh, supreme ruler of all ghosts, declares that Casper's "scare quota" is way down. To avoid serious repercussions, Casper must scare at least one person before Christmas Day, or he will be banished to the dark side. Talk about a merry holiday tale! To force the fear factor, Kibosh catapults Casper and the Ghostly Trio to Chrismassachusetts, where they must find an unsuspecting victim to scare. Kindhearted Casper doesn't have the nerve to scare anyone, so the Ghostly Trio secretly hires Casper's loo k-alike cousin, Spooky, to do the job. There's no doubt the wide-eyed little ghost is endearing, but his heyday may have ended with his series in Harvey Comics. There are some redeeming moments of humour, such as when Spooky mistakenly calls himself "Casper, the Frenzied Ghost", and country singer Randy Travis does his best to add his musical charms to the score, but overall, Scrooge would be more welcome under the mistletoe than these bunch of ghouls. Teens may discover a few laughs (if the video can keep their attention), but mildly scary scenes, thematic elements and irreverent language suggest parental guidance for the younger set. (Ages 5 and older.) --Lynn Gibson, Amazon.com

• Rawhide: The Complete First Season | Blu Ray | (31/03/2023) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Star Trek 5 : The Final Frontier - Special Edition (2 discs) | DVD | (22/12/2003) from £10.79   |  Saving you £17.19 (220.38%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Almost universally derided on its first release as the worst of the Star Trek movies to date, The Final Frontier might just have been the victim of bad press. Following in the wake of the massively successful fourth instalment The Voyage Home didn't help matters (notoriously, even-numbered entries are better), nor did having novice director and shameless egomaniac William Shatner at the helm. But if the story, conceived and cowritten by Shatner, teeters dangerously on the verge of being corny, it redeems itself with enough thought-provoking scenes in the best tradition of the series, and a surprisingly original finale. Granted there are a few too many yawning plot holes along the way, and the general tone is over-earnest (despite some painfully slapstick comedy moments), but the interaction of the central trio (Kirk, Spock and McCoy) is often funny and genuinely insightful; while Laurence Luckinbill is a charismatic adversary as the renegade Vulcan Sybok. The rest of the cast scarcely get a look in, and the special effects betray serious budgetary restrictions, but with a standout score from Jerry Goldsmith and a meaty philosophical premise to play around with, Star Trek V looks a lot more substantial in retrospect. Certainly it's no worse than either Generations or Insurrection, the next "odd-numbered" entries in the series. --Mark Walker

• Cramp Twins: Mr Winkle's Money | DVD | (17/02/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Wayne and Lucien Cramp - the most unlikely twins there have ever been ! 10 years old Wayne and Lucien can't agree on anything. Wayne is big and bossy while Lucien is small and shy. They argue over everything and agree on nothing. Not a day goes by when they both don't dream of how easy life would be without the other. In school at home and at play their rivalry is never ending. Some think the battle has gone on so long that it probably started in the womb! If you're brave eno