"Actor: Jane Hallaren"

• My Girl | DVD | (10/05/2004) from £12.97   |  Saving you £-3.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  A doomed Macaulay Culkin becomes the object of affection for a little girl (Anna Chlumsky), estranged from her widowed father (Dan Aykroyd). This somewhat daring premise has various emotional buffers to keep young viewers from going into shock from Culkin's demise, but My Girl is also not shut off from real feelings. And while the story remains safely predictable, at the end of the day it is still a bittersweet experience. Culkin's performance is okay in that somewhat mannered way of his post-Home Alone career, but Anna Chlumsky is unusually sophisticated in her understanding of her character and situation. Aykroyd and Jamie Lee Curtis are perfectly stable as the kids' single parents. This is directed by Howard Zieff (Private Benjamin). --Tom Keogh

• Body Heat | DVD | (25/09/1998) from £18.99   |  Saving you £-5.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  While scoring high-profile credits as a screenwriter (including The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi and Raiders of the Lost Ark), Lawrence Kasdan made his directorial debut with this steamy, contemporary film noir in the tradition of Double Indemnity and other classics from the 1940s. In one of his most memorable roles, William Hurt plays a Florida lawyer unwittingly drawn into a web of deceit spun by Kathleen Turner (in her screen debut) as a married socialite who plots to kill off her husband with Hurt's assistance. Kasdan's dialogue is a hoot (sometimes it borders on satire) and the sultry atmosphere is a perfect complement to the perspiration-soaked chemistry between Hurt and Turner, whose love scenes caused quite a stir when the film was released in 1981. John Barry's score sets the provocative mood and both Ted Danson and Mickey Rourke are splendid in memorable supporting roles. --Jeff Shannon

• John Sayles Collection | DVD | (23/04/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Lianna: The visionary writer-director behind such films as Passion Fish Lone Star and Sunshine State Oscar nominee John Sayles has been at the forefront of independant cinema for more than twenty years. In this moving and compassionate film Sayles presents a sympathetic realistic portrait of Lianna a young wife and mother who leaves her husband for another woman and embarks on a turbulent journey of self-discovery. Lianna must face the anger and confusion of her husband as well as the raised eyebrows of her community. But when her new lover also rejects her she faces the most difficult task of all: She must learn to love herself. The Return Of The Secaucus Seven: In this his directoria debut John Sayles looks at seven friends who reunite ten years after their radical college days for a dramatic poignant and revelatory weekend. Return of the Secaucus 7 inspired the later hit film The Big Chill and heralded the arrival of a brilliant new force in independant cinema. The Brother From Another Planet: In this offbeat fantasy tale Sayles takes a look through the eyes of a black extraterrestrial (Joe Morton) who crash-lands on Earth - in Harlem - and is taken in by the regulars of a local bar. The alien changes everyone he meets on his journey through the streets of Urban America. But can his message of brotherly love resonate with the intergalactic bounty hunters trying to track him down?

• My Girl / My Girl 2 | DVD | (15/04/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £22.99

  Doubling My Girl with its sequel makes sense since they tell a two-part tale. In the first film, 11-year-old Vada Sultenfuss (astounding newcomer Anna Chlumsky) lives with her widowed father, a distracted tuba-playing mortician (Dan Aykroyd). Rather understandably Vada is confused and disturbed about the nature of death. In her narration to camera we learn what it feels like to be a girl growing up in Pennsylvania in the early 1970s, as her father become involved with make-up artist Jamie Lee Curtis. Macaulay Culkin (in a performance reminding us that once there was a good child actor behind the name) is the best friend who assists her rite of passage. Jumping forwards two years into the sequel, My Girl 2, Culkin is replaced by Austin O'Brien. Now 13 and with a baby on the way in the Aykroyd /Jamie Lee Curtis home, Vada's growing-up continues further afield. She investigates the life of her mother in an attempt to understand her own. Los Angeles becomes the backdrop as she deals with the inevitable problems of puberty. Ultimately this is the story of a teenager's grounding in the ways of the world told simply and with charm. On the DVD: My Girl/My Girl 2 on disc sadly has no extras beyond a trailer for each film. It's also a shame the 1.85:1 transfer remains grainy for both. At least the three-channel surround picks out the period songs nicely. --Paul Tonks