"Actor: Kenn Hicks"

• Sebastiane | DVD | (18/06/2001) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-0.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The first and only film shot entirely in subtitled Latin, Sebastiane is Derek Jarman's first work as a director (though he shared the job with the less well-known Paul Humfress) and is a strange combination of gay nudie movie, pocket-sized Ancient Roman epic and meditation upon the image of Saint Sebastian. It opens with the Lindsay Kemp dance troupe romping around with huge fake phalluses to represent the Ken Russell-style decadence of the court of the Emperor Diocletian in AD 303, then decamps to Tuscany as Diocletian's favourite guard Sebastian (Leonardo Treviglio) is demoted to ordinary soldier and dispatched to a backwater barracks because the Emperor (Robert Medley) suspects him of being a covert Christian. The bulk of the film consists of athletic youths in minimal thongs romping around the countryside, soaking themselves down between bouts of manly horseplay or sylvan frolic. It all comes to a bad end as the lecherous but guilt-ridden commanding officer Severus (Barney James) fails to cop off with Sebastian and instead visits floggings and tortures upon his naked torso, finally ordering his men to riddle the future saint with arrows, thus securing him a place in cultural history. The public schoolboy cleverness of scripting dialogue in Latin--a popular soldier's insult is represented by the Greek "Oedipus"--works surprisingly well, with the cast reeling off profane Roman dialogue as if it were passionate Italian declarations rather than marbled classical sentences. The film suffers from the not-uncommon failing that the best-looking actor is given the largest role but delivers the weakest performance: Treviglio's Sebastian is a handsome cipher, far less interesting than the rest of the troubled, bullying, awkward or horny soldiers in the platoon. Peter Hinwood, famous for the title role in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, can be glimpsed in the palace orgy. The countryside looks as good as the cast, and Brian Eno delivers an evocative, ambient-style score. --Kim Newman

• Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit | DVD | (24/03/2003) from £24.82   |  Saving you £-4.83 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Jeanette Winterson's semi-autobiographical novel Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit transfers wonderfully to the screen in this BBC adaptation (with a screenplay by Winterson). Jess is the adopted daughter of evangelical Christians living in the northwest of England in the 1960s. Her mother wants Jess to be a missionary, but when she falls in love with Melanie, Jess begins to realise that there is more to life than church. When Jess' mother begins to suspect the girls of "unnatural passions" she tries to destroy their relationship with the help of Pastor Finch (Kenneth Cranham) and his congregation. But their efforts--including a terrifying attempt at exorcism--only push Jess further away. Jess eventually understands that the only way to survive is to escape, and she sets her sights on a place at Oxford. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit is both a broad comedy and a moving coming-of-age story. Charlotte Coleman is perfect as the teenage Jess, attempting to reconcile her religious devotion and her adolescent passion, but the film belongs to Geraldine McEwan as Jess' mother. McEwan obviously relishes Winterson's script, and she creates a character both monstrous, ridiculous and surprisingly sympathetic. It's a difficult role to carry off, but McEwan succeeds. Her performance is the high-point of this award-winning, provocative film. --Simon Leake, Amazon.com

• U.S. Seals | DVD | (11/09/2006) from £8.20   |  Saving you £-2.22 (N/A%)   |  RRP £2.99

  When death stalks the high seas...There's only one combat force for the job... Modern-day pirates have taken to the seas crippling the world shipping trade and making the ocean a very dangerous place to be. The U.S. president has no choice but to call on the immediate intervention of the world's most lethal daring combat force: the Navy SEALs. From an oil rig in the icy North Atlantic to the luxurious playground of the French Riviera the SEALs engage the pirates at every turn leading to the fiery climax at the pirate's base in remote Kazahkstan. What stars as an important mission for the SEALs becomes a personal grudge match and finally a life-and-death struggle for control of the seas. In the tradition of Under Siege and Delta Force U.S. Seals is searing white-hot high-caliber action you'll watch again and again.

• Hardrock Academy Performance Vocals | DVD | (17/01/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99