"Actor: John Zorn"

• What Planet Are You From ? | DVD | (15/01/2001) from £6.73   |  Saving you £13.26 (197.03%)   |  RRP £19.99

  What Planet Are You From? stars Garry Shandling whose hilarious TV series The Larry Sanders Show offered him a great vehicle to show his comic performance abilities; you could scarcely tell the difference between his smile and his grimace--he always looked as if Hollywood was giving him a bad case of gas. However in this shockingly unfunny film, which Shandling co-wrote, one can only imagine that the other writers severely diluted Shandling's original intentions--the wince, his only expression, seems real. Worse, you'll share his dismay. Shandling stars as an alien from a sterile race of clones who is sent to Earth to procreate with an Earth woman--exactly why this is necessary is left fuzzy. Ostensibly, given the title, this should lead to a raucous satire of dating mores. Instead, our space invader quickly takes up with a recovering alcoholic played by Annette Bening, and we chart their stridently bumpy but predictable relationship. Greg Kinnear co-stars as a slimy co-worker; Linda Fiorentino plays Kinnear's man-eating wife; John Goodman portrays an FAA official who's onto Shandling's secret; and Ben Kingsley appears as the humourless leader of the alien planet. The single recurring joke involves the alien's genitalia and its propensity, when excited, to buzz loudly, which it does at least 10 or 15 times--afterit ceases to be remotely amusing. Shandling plays his character as so stunningly obtuse that whenever he manages a genuinely clever line it practically seems out of character; the rest of the talented cast flounders, similarly lost. Director Mike Nichols has staged painfully awkward scenes with Elan in the (distant) past--think The Graduate or Carnal Knowledge--but What Planet Are You From? simply sits there, flailing desperately, seemingly aware of its own crushing tedium. Large chunks of the film appear to have been left on the editing room floor; it's hard to imagine material even more comically futile than what appears onscreen. --David Kronke, Amazon.com

• Zuflucht in Shanghai - the Port of Last Resort (John Zorn) | DVD | (29/04/2016) from £22.25   |  Saving you £0.74 (3.33%)   |  RRP £22.99

  In the years 1938-41 nearly 20 000 European Jewish refugees fled to Shanghai China where most would spend almost a decade in exile. The emigration to Shanghai was for most refugees a last resort to find a safe haven at a time when borders around the world were closed to the desperate Jews of Europe.The little-known story of the Jewish refugees in Shanghai is presented through the recollections of four former refugees - Fred Fields Ernest Heppner Illo Heppner and Siegmar Simon - and through a collage of evocative archival materials: personal and published writings by refugees relief reports and secret documents illustrated with rare home movies photographs newsreels and propaganda films.This remarkable archival material reveals a lost world - when Shanghai was the Far East's most illustrious city. Extraordinary images of refugees and uncommon views of Chinese life create a compelling vantage point for understanding and experiencing this story of survival.

• Sabbath in Paradise - Created By Claudia Heuermann | DVD | (26/02/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99