"Actor: Jim Landis"

• Sleepwalkers | DVD | (09/10/2003) from £7.19   |  Saving you £-1.20 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Stephen King's Sleepwalkers is about a half-human, half-cat race of shape shifters called, for no apparent reason, sleepwalkers. Hunky Charles Brady (Brian Krause) and his incestuous mother (Alice Krige) are sleepwalkers, and they've come to the small town of Travis, Indiana, where they've somehow acquired a nice house and false identities. They need virgin souls to survive and have fixated on local beauty Tanya (Madchen Amick from Twin Peaks). That's about it for the story--from then on it's a series of chase scenes full of badly done gore. King must have been sleepwalking himself when he wrote this screenplay: the dialogue is terrible, the characters are cardboard, and the plotting is clumsy. Combine that with mediocre acting, thoughtless direction, slapdash editing, and cheesy special effects, and you have Sleepwalkers. Amick comes off reasonably well and there are cameos by King, Clive Barker, and horror directors John Landis (An American Werewolf in London), Joe Dante (Gremlins), and Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre). But really, if you're interested in were-cats, see the original Cat People, starring Simone Simon; it's both sexier and scarier. --Bret Fetzer, Amazon.com

• The Lawnmower Man | DVD | (08/05/2000) from £11.99   |  Saving you £1.00 (8.34%)   |  RRP £12.99

  In 1992, The Lawnmower Man was hailed as a CGI (Computer Generated Image) breakthrough. It's fascinating to consider the effects in a historical context, knowing it came just a year after T2: Judgment Day and was followed by Jurassic Park a year later. Written and directed by Bill Leonard, this was intended to showcase how realistic digital likenesses and landscapes had become. Little did they know that Toy Story was already in pre-production! The story hangs on the concept that a scientist gain (Pierce Brosnan) is drafted in to utilise the technology for governmental. As with all top-secret government projects in the movies, it all goes horribly wrong. Forced to progress from a chimp to a human subject, Brosnan secretly recruits local backwards boy and lawnmower pusher Jobe (Jeff Fahey). The increases in intelligence are alarming. He learns Latin in two hours, becomes an object of sexual desire (all it takes is cowboy boots apparently), and then develops telepathic and telekinetic abilities. Some very overt religious analogy is in evidence. Jobe's beatings by a priest give way to an eventual crucifixion on the spinning wheel that allows him to enter Virtual Reality. Will he be resurrected for a sequel? Such questions were what Stephen King took extreme exception to when his name was placed before the title. A lawsuit took care of that. What the film ought to be remembered and appreciated for though are the visuals, which undoubtedly advanced the arcade and home computer game industry. --Paul Tonks

• Stephen King's Sleepwalkers | DVD | (23/10/2000) from £22.98   |  Saving you £-16.99 (-283.60%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Stephen King's Sleepwalkers is about a half-human, half-cat race of shape shifters called, for no apparent reason, sleepwalkers. Hunky Charles Brady (Brian Krause) and his incestuous mother (Alice Krige) are sleepwalkers, and they've come to the small town of Travis, Indiana, where they've somehow acquired a nice house and false identities. They need virgin souls to survive and have fixated on local beauty Tanya (Madchen Amick from Twin Peaks). That's about it for the story--from then on it's a series of chase scenes full of badly done gore. King must have been sleepwalking himself when he wrote this screenplay: the dialogue is terrible, the characters are cardboard, and the plotting is clumsy. Combine that with mediocre acting, thoughtless direction, slapdash editing, and cheesy special effects, and you have Sleepwalkers. Amick comes off reasonably well and there are cameos by King, Clive Barker, and horror directors John Landis (An American Werewolf in London), Joe Dante (Gremlins), and Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre). But really, if you're interested in were-cats, see the original Cat People, starring Simone Simon; it's both sexier and scarier. --Bret Fetzer, Amazon.com